desperate for perspective

[supa]

hey there~

i'm getting pretty frustrated. i've been on a TED for a couple (few?) weeks and i have to admit i've done it somewhat unscientifically. for instance, i'll break down and have some chard one day and potato chips another.

my baby is only one month old. she seems to have some (big) problems with gas and she also poops about 15-20 times a day. she also has skid marks every single time we check her diaper (we are EC-ing and she is in cloth prefolds) so her bum is quite leaky. the poop is sometimes foamy, almost always very, very liquid (almost translucent with curds), or more a normal consistency, but a little on the green side.

she was having very difficult nights until i started to change up my diet. now she seems to have an easier time at night, but still seems uncomfortable at other times of the day.

i also have an oversupply and forceful letdown which could be causing all these "symptoms". today she has been extremely cranky--way more so than usual--when she is awake.

i just feel very confused. are these just "normal" newborn issues or is she reacting to food i'm eating? my DS didn't have this kind of discomfort, so i'm a little perplexed. though he ended up having a lot of food sensitivities (which he has since outgrown), so maybe i'm just overly focused on that being a possibility.

i just hate seeing her so uncomfortable and especially when i am feeling ridiculously deprived food-wise. plus, being a vegetarian i have no protein source right now, which feels terribly unsatisfying. i have broken down and eaten an egg twice and it *seemed* like she reacted to that, but i really don't feel like anything is clear.

also, i went off wheat and dairy during my pregnancy, because those had been the biggest of DS's issues, so i've been off those for about three months.

what started me in this direction in the first place was that she seemed to have a really hard time when i ate garbanzo beans or peanut butter (which i don't normally eat anyway) and broccoli. she spat up, too, with the first two. and she was up for large portions of the night crying in pain. now she continues to fart and burp.

i am eating rice, potatoes, zucchini, carrots, spinach, oats, olive oil, pears, apples, raisins/grapes, maple syrup, rutabaga, millet. i can't think of what else. and then, of course, i've had the occasional other thing like chard, egg, potato chips (with safflower/sunflower oil which may be an issue for her), etc.

i guess what i'm asking is if i am turning normal newborn stuff into a "problem" and that i should just let go of trying to find an answer in my diet and add more food in and see how it goes (i'd definitely stay off wheat and dairy and maybe corn and a few other things that can be rough. also, unfortunately for me, broccoli, my favorite veg). i mean, she's got an immature gut. maybe nothing i do will make her more comfortable, maybe she just needs to get older.

thoughts? i think i'm driving myself a little crazy.

[kjbrown92]

20 poops a day doesn't sound normal to me. If you are going to do a TED, then you REALLY have to do it, not have some potato chips one day and egg another, etc. You have to really do it for the 2 weeks (though 1 week will normally tell you. I mean, if you're going to deprive yourself, just do it, and know there's a light at the end of the tunnel (you can start adding back foods one at a time after that). Personally, I'd take the white potato out since all the nightshades are pretty allergenic. Sub sweet potato (baked with some maple syrup, or baked "fries" with olive oil. Also, rutebaga is in the mustard family (with broccoli and cabbage) so it is a gas-producing one, so you may want to take that out too.

quinoa is protein for you
any reason you're not having rice?
are you using sea salt? (iodized salt has corn in it)
what oil are you using?
any seasonings?

are you taking a good non-allergenic supplement?
And if your DS had food intolerances, then it is more likely that your other children will have them, and your gut sort of knows. Has she been checked for other gut issues though?

[coleslaw]

Oversupply can definitely cause this. I know, I've been there. What my LC told me to do is to drink sage tea 4x/day, which will decrease your supply so that your baby will get to the hindmilk faster. Right now she is only getting the foremilk, none of the hindmilk, so she is only getting a sugary-type of milk. The hindmilk provides the fat to settle her stomach, which she isn't getting right now. Sage tea worked for me. It took about a couple of weeks to get the milk to a point where he could handle it. I worried about overdoing it, but my LC assured me that if I have an oversupply, then even if I went to far, it would take only a day or two to get back to where ds would need to be.

My explanation may not be spot on scientifically, but I hope you get the idea. I bought the sage tea on amazon. In fact, I have a ton. If you need any, maybe we could arrange something. Just let me know.

[supa]

thanks for your responses.

kathy~i am eating rice and olive oil and sea salt. i am also eating oregano and black pepper. i haven't had rutabaga in a while, but it didn't seem to affect her. bummer about the potatoes. i feel like a lot of what i'm eating is on the sweet side so i do not find the thought of sweet potato very appealing. i may try quinoa tonight. part of what is making this particularly difficult for me is that i was nauseated for the full 9 months of the pregnancy and was really looking forward to eating again once she arrived and now here i am w/ this insanely limited diet. i had the potato chips when we ended up being out until 8:30 and there was nothing else for me to eat and it was unexpected, etc. etc.

my DS was sensitive to quite a few things and i had no problem with that kind of limitation (no wheat, dairy, corn, garbanzos, tomatoes, citrus, chocolate, soy) because i knew what it was and i had a lot of proteins and variety i could eat. also, he started outgrowing his sensitivities one by one and by 2.25 could eat everything without any reactions. but this is really hard for me, even though i know i should just do it all the way and get it over with. i didn't to a TED with DS. i just eliminated things one by one and he got better and better. and, for what it's worth, neither DH or i have any (known) food sensitivities or allergies and i didn't feel any different eliminating all those foods than i had while eating them.

i have to say, that even though i haven't done a full on two weeks of the TED, i have eliminated a huge number of foods and i really don't feel like it is helping DD as much as i was hoping it would. i do think that foods may be part of the picture, but i am beginning to think that the oversupply and forceful let-down may be having more of an effect on her than i realized (we're talking spurting milk!).

oddly, though she had a really rotten morning and then some, this afternoon she has seemed fine and has even seemed to be pooping quite a bit less (though still above average, i'm sure).

coleslaw--it's good to hear someone else with this experience. block nursing ended up helping with my first baby, though it took a while, i guess. what's odd is that DD seems to favor the side that really fountains. dunno why. i will keep in mind the sage tea.

i just feel so bad for my little DD, not to mention the sleep deprivation ; ).

thanks again! i'm still confused, but it all helps all the same!

[karin95]

Since you say you have oversupply and OAL, if I were you, I'd address those problems before delving into a TED. Lactose overload can cause most of the problems you're talking about.

Have you tried block feeding? Check out Kellymom.com about oversupply and OAL and stuff. Give those suggestions a try and see how your daugther reacts. If she's still having major issues, then get into a TED.

If you have a history of allergies in the family, then there's no harm in eliminating a few things - milk, soy, nuts - and see if that also helps. Having been on a TED since July 2007 (and introducing foods slowly since September), I woudln't recommend jumping into it unless it's your final resort! It SUCKS. and you can't cheat, because then you're back at square one.

also, if your daughter continues to have problems, I'd suggest getting an allergy test (blood test) done when she's a bit older. That gives you something to go on. Cuz if she has a wheat allergy, then eating rice from the bulk bins that's probably cross-contaminated, may still give her a reaction. KWIM? (For instance, we eat only Lundberg packaged rice, because they only process rice.)