When did you first notice an allergic reaction in your EBF baby?

[Mommiska]

Hi - I'm exclusively breastfeeding my almost 4 month old, and we are currently dealing with lots of baby eczema (mostly dry/bumpy skin, but patches of it will occasionally get really raw and sore - mostly on her cheeks).

I'm pretty sure she is reacting to dairy, chocolate (poor me!) and citrus fruits, so I've cut them out of my diet. Her skin is already better, although not competely so - I guess I may need to try to figure out what else might need to be eliminated.

My question, though - it took until she was about 3 months old for the dry skin to really flare up. It wasn't bad up until then. And nothing (that I can think of) changed at that time - I've always eaten roughly the same kinds of things.

Is this normal? That a baby doesn't seem to be sensitive to things for a few months and then all of a sudden starts really reacting? It just seems a bit strange to me.

Of course, I am new to all of this, so what do I know? If anyone knows of any good articles/etc about this and could point me in the right direction, I'd really appreciate that also!

Thanks!

[thepeach80]

AJ was about 8 wks, but I don't think it was me, it was the formula we had to use to supplement. The DR brushed me off of course and he didn't get 'fixed' till almost 13 mos.

I went dairy free at Evan's birth, but at 6 wks he started getting 'baby acne' that I soon realized was eczema instead and at 8 wks I cut out soy and it went away. He then started reacting to the most food at about 10 mos!

[wednesday]

I've read several times that it takes 6-8 weeks, but I'm sure it's variable. My son was classic--he went from being a fairly happy and content baby his first 6 weeks, to being miserable and fussing quite a lot of the time, and having periodic reflux. I tried going no-dairy for a week, but I didn't know about hidden dairy and I didn't know it could take longer than that to see improvement. So I stopped avoiding dairy and DS continued to be a pretty uncomfortable baby . When he was around 14 months and we started giving him whole cows' milk to drink, THAT was when it became obvious pretty quickly that he couldn't tolerate it. I feel terrible about it still.

[Mommiska]

Oh, Wednesday - poor you and poor baby! Try not to feel too badly about it - I know lots of moms with breastfed babies with eczema who are told by doctors not to bother with elimination diets/etc...you did the best you could for your little guy...

Thanks to both of you for your replies...I guess that makes sense that it takes awhile for an allergen to build up in the baby's system/for the baby to react.

Such a shame, though...poor little babies with their broken out skin. And it's hard not to feel to blame, when it is something you are eating that is causing it.

I've been dairy free for a week now - it is hard, and those last few baby pounds are definitely going to drop right off! Any suggestions on fun snacks/etc to eat? Whenever I go into my kitchen these days to get some food (that isn't a piece of fruit - I love fruit, but it just doesn't fill you up, you know?) I just end up walking out again without anything, because everything seems to have either dairy or chocolate in it (sigh)...

[wendy1221]

Get rid of everything you can't eat in your kitchen for now. Other than like milk and cheese and whatever else your dh can't live without. LOL! Now that I'm more used to it, I have snacks all over the place I can't eat. Mostly b/c of wheat and dairy. Man, those are the hard ones! I noticed Liam's dairy allergy when he was ony a few hours old. Or I should say my sister did, but she was 100% right on w/ the milk and eggs then soy! LOL! I figured out the rest on my own and most of them weren't apparant until he was over 6 weeks old, which is more normal, I guess. My nephew was also obviously allergic to dairy before my sister even left the hospital w/ him (and she was only there for 12 hours or so! See what I mean about her being the expert? lol. He's 2. Her 4 yo is anaphylactic to milk and eggs.)

Make yourself some filling whole grain muffins or something. Someone psted a recipe recently for muffins made almost entirely of nut butter. I need to make those. They will be easy to grab and filling.

I've been drinking a lot of smoothies the past week (like one a day.) It's quick and easy and I can carry them around w/ me easily. I put in a banana, some rice or oat milk, frozen berries of some kind (Cascadian Farms berries were on sale here a few weeks ago. lol) and a big scoop of nut or sunflower seed butter. YUM! Sometimes I also add kale, which is surprisingly good in smoothies. lol

If you are sure the baby is ok w/ soy, you have MANY more options. I am allergic to milk and eggs myself and tofu was my friend before this baby. It has very little taste so add whatever flavor you like and it becomes quite tasty.

[wendy1221]

By the way, do you know what the top allergens are? Milk, soy. and eggs are the most common and the other very common ones are peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish and wheat. Corn also seems to be quite common, ime, but it's not one of the top 8.

[ShellyK]

My daughter was allergic from day 1 in retrospect, but it took us 18 months to figure out. Long story. Her main symptom is extreme fussiness and screaming and not sleeping and she never had much eczema, but she was that way from the day she was born and it cleared up miraculously when we eliminated the right foods.

[mtm]

I noticed my little dude's reactions at 6 months but in hindsight he'd been having GI issues for a while before we clued in. We're dealing with dairy as well, maybe others too as eliminating dairy hasn't entirely cleared it up. I keep screwing up my diet though, took me a while to realize no butter and the names dairy hides under. I've bought a few vegan snacks while out and about, they seem great.

[Mommiska]

Hey - thanks for the replies and advice about snacks! It's hard, isn't it? My hat is off to people who become vegan by choice!

I've been peanut and tree nut free since I got pregnant with my oldest (about 7 years ago now) - I've always been worried about those allergens (since allergies/etc run in both my family and dh's family). So at least I don't have to worry about giving those up now...I've long ago given up peanut M&Ms, although man - that was hard...

I'm allergic to shellfish myself, so I don't eat them. And I've never really eaten a lot of soy, although it hides in a lot of things, doesn't it? Still - we dont' eat too many processed things, so I doubt we get much of that...

I do think that eggs might be an issue for dd3, so I've cut those out as of last Thursday (the last time I had them, as she had flared up again the next morning).

Gluten - what do you eat if they are allergic to gluten? Being able to have toast is what is keeping me from absolutely starving at the moment. I really hope she isn't sensitive to that as well.

So far, I've been off the dairy, chocolate and citrus for just over a week and I'm seeing a huge difference, although she isn't totally clear. I guess I need to give it at least another couple of weeks until I know that all dairy/etc will be out of both of our systems?

We do smoothies here a lot - those are good. I'm looking forward to them even more now these days.

About nut butters - I've always avoided them because I avoid tree nuts in general - are they different somehow? I worry that they are a big allergen in themselves - am I wrong about that?

It's nice to be able to talk with others who are making the same dietary changes...misery loves company and all that...

[mtm]

what are in your smoothies?

[Mommiska]

Smoothies - I just put in whatever fruit happens to be over-ripe in our fruit bowl! Along with fruit juice (used to be orange, but now I'm using an apple/mango fruit juice).

The fruit is mostly grapes, pears and apples at the moment, although I've been known to stick in handfuls of different kinds of salad leaves and the odd plum (although everyone likes plums here, so people would rather just eat them).

[wendy1221]

I use the nut butters b/c it's quick easy protein. I went completely nut free for over a month before adding them back in. I was worried about peanut cross contamination, but he's been ok so far. And if you add them back in and the baby reacts, just go back to being totally nut-free, won't be that bad since you're used to it, right?

As for grabbing a quick piece of toast, I KWYM about that saving you. I had an extremely hard time when I first went gluten free, but after 2 weeks or so I got used to it. I just try to keep lots of leftovers in the fridge, especially beans and rice (usually w/ cooked greens--like spinach or kale mixed right in.)

[ShellyK]

Hey, there are a few brands of gluten-free bread available. We use one that I find in the freezer section at Whole Foods or at my local co-op. It is Food for Life brand, and I buy the brown rice variety. It's expensive, and the loaves are small, and it's a real pain to pry the slices apart from each other since they're frozen together but once toasted the consistency is *almost* like normal bread. If you put some jelly and/or nut butter on it, you could almost imagine that it's a regular slice of toast.

I think Ener-G brand makes a tapioca bread which is alos gluten-free. I bought it once for DD when we were on vacation and that was the only option at the store where we shopped. I didn't like the consistency as much, and I can't remember whether she ate it or not, but it might be worth a try if it's what you can find in your area. We are also able to find frozen bagels, and Van's brand makes gluten-free waffles that are dairy and egg free too.

I feel like a broken record posting about this book repeatedly, but my favorite multiple-allergy cookbook so far is The Food Allergy Survival Guide. It's entirely vegan, which my family is not, but she has some great ideas, and her baked goods are killer! The chocolate cake tastes like real chocolate cake...the corn bread is really good, especially when served fresh or even when toasted the next day. She's got a pizza crust recipe in there that is acceptable too.

About nuts and nut butters...our allergist wants my DD to stay away from all tree nuts, seeds and peanuts till she's four even though we don't think she has an allergy to any that we know of. She's been exposed to trace amounts of peanut butter, I'm sure, but kids with multiple allergies are prone to developing additional ones, and peanut is not one we'd like to deal with. We do "cheat" and give her hummus once or twice a week, which contains tahini (ground sesame seeds) and I figure as long as we keep it in a rotation and don't overdo it she'll be okay.

As for other snacks - we buy rice crackers and rye crackers, we love Veggie Booty which is a lot like cheese puffs, only coated with dried green vegetable powder, but tastes really good. All the other kids at her playgroup love it and the other moms have started buying it for them too. Puffins cereal is one of our favorites, and Oatios brand of cereal is wheat free, among others.

For easy special treats, we recently found cookies made by Enjoy Life foods that are safe for her. They're expensive, but taste pretty good and they're safe. She loves 'em.

I'm trying to mentally prepare myself that I may have to go on an elimination diet if this new baby starts to show symptoms like my DD's when she's born. I hate to admit it, but I've been enjoying more of the treats that I love partly because I'm afraid I won't be able to have them for a long time if this new babe is allergic too.

I just bought some more allergy cookbooks to look through, but many/most of the ones that claim to have recipes for multiple food allergies don't cover all the allergies we have in the same recipes - so they'll have a wheat-free recipe that uses dairy or soy, then a dairy-free recipe that uses eggs or wheat...very frustrating!

[RedAnt]

Hi! I'm going through similar stuff with my 9 month old dd. She is EBF with no interest in eating solid foods. She has had random symptoms that point to allergies since she was 2 weeks old. She has had some skin problems, but more often digestive issues...green poo, gas, diaper rash. I cut out all dairy early on, but I've been sporadic about cutting out other things. Now I'm finally doing a thorough elimination diet to get to the bottom of this, and it sucks! I am eating plenty of safe foods, but I am always hungry.

So...I feel your pain. Thanks to those offering suggestions/advice.

[Mommiska]

Hi RedAnt - welcome to the world of elimination diets! (not the funnest place to be, but if needs must...).

I can totally relate to walking around feeling hungry all of the time. I'm starving at the moment, but I've already had 4-5 pieces of fruit tonight, and I just can't face more toast, so I think I'm going to go to bed soon and see what I can find to eat tomorrow!

ShelleyK - thanks of the recipe book recommendation. I have some Amazon vouchers leftover from Christmas, so I just might go and buy myself a copy...I really, REALLY need to make something 'fun' for myself to eat.

Especially since we are having dh's mum, dad and sister over tomorrow for MIL and SIL's joint birthday, and everyone (except me) is having a 'chocolate fountain' with fruit (well, I guess I'll be eating fruit, but it's just not the same when everyone else's fruit is covered in dark chocolate, you know?).

I was wondering - is anyone else interested in starting a 'support group' thread for those of us on elimination diets? I've only been dairy free for around 2 weeks, but I'm afraid I'm already becoming a bit of a bore about it to other people. I thought it might help if we could all come to a single thread to moan to others who understood...

What do you think?

[ShellyK]

Mommiska, do you want me to dig around and suggest a dairy-free chocolate frosting recipe for you? I'm thinking something along the lines of rice milk, powder sugar and cocoa powder - I know I've made it for Julie for her cakes and it's turned out quite edible. You could dip your fruit in that and it would be yummy-licious! Actually, you should be able to find a recipe like that in any standard recipe book, and just substitute your non-milk of choice for the milk in the recipe. If it calls for a bit of butter, you can sub non-dairy shortening, lard, or coconut oil.

[Mommiska]

nak...

Thanks, Shelly - but I'm not eating chocolate either, as dd3 seems to react to that as well... I did find some raspberry sauce & I am going to use that...

[ShellyK]

oops. Sorry about that. I kind of thought about that after I posted, but I'm glad to hear you found something else to substitute! I was thinking last night about making a list of all our favorite allergen-free recipes to post on my website so I could link to it when these conversations come up. I know I would love to read other people's menus! It's so hard when there are multiple allergies involved! But I finished polishing my birth plan instead.

[MovingMomma]

DD had mucousy stools & intermittent vomiting from very early, but I don't remember exactly when they started. She developed blood in her stool around 3 months, which is when I realized there was something wrong & figured out her dairy allergy. Soy took me longer to figure out, though in retrospect it should have been an easy one.

It makes sense to me that it could take a bit for allergy symptoms to present. Baby may not be allergic when born & first becomes sensitized, then symptoms begin appearing, then they worsen as the allergen builds up in the body.

And yes, soy hides in a lot of things! We never ate much processed food either, but DD reacts to soy oil (which many sources claim is safe) which is in everything. It is very difficult to find a commercial bread that is completely soy free. Even harder to find one that is soy AND milk free! Tortillas, chips, crackers, you name it...most have soy. Also breakfast cereals: tocopherols (also listed as "vitamin E") are derived from soy.

As for snacks, in addition to the great ideas others have mentioned, dips can be wonderfully satisfying: guacamole, hummus, white bean dip...

[KathinJapan]

When DD was about 6 weeks old she had some blood in her diaper. I thought it was an anal fissure and gave her a glycerine supposatory (sp). Then she got all rashy/spotty. When we took her to the 2 month check up (standard in Japan where we live) and the ped. immediatly said it was food allergies. That was over 2 years ago. She is still BFing and the elim. diet is hard. Now I just avoid her FAs, plus peanuts and treenuts. We do eat some seeds, sesame and sunflower, but not in great quantities.

My trouble is that so many allergy replacement foods contain her avoids. ie. she is allergic to rice and soy which are in lots of things. Also dairy and eggs. I am unsure about strawberries, she gets red around the mouth after she eats them, but that seems to be it. I still limit them. She loves them, and it is hard sometimes, she just grabs and stuffs in her mouth. Most of her reactions have been gastro intestinal, not rashy. Her EAs caused most of the rashes.

Hang in there mommas.
I ate a lot of oatmeal, still do in fact. Sorry are oats GF? I also like quinoa and milled cooked up like rice. Great with grilled or stir fried veggies. Lamb stew or other hearty soups are good to have on hand, freeze well and quick to heat up. For my incredible sweet tooth I eat a lot of dried fruit.
HTH<
Kathryn