[RoadWorkAhead]

So I've noticed our ranks around here are swelling it seems and thought maybe it was time for our own thread to share tips and tricks and successes and failures and all the fun that comes from nursing a food intolerant/food allergic child. Anyone care to join me?

:

I'll start. As the siggie says, I'm Kerri. I'm breastfeeding an 8 month old food allergic and intolerant child. We have a host of non-IgE mediated food allergies as well as even more food intolerances. We're currently off diet after thinking we'd be weaning but are prepping food today and tomorrow to go back Monday for the longterm. I live on crookneck squash, turkey, pears, olive oil, sea salt, and pure cane sugar.

Ohm, and my one vice coffeee. We've been at this for the better part of 6 months.

Next?

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[ainh]

I'm not on a total elimination diet (TED), but I've been on a strict elimination diet since February, which means that I've gone over six months without eating eggs, dairy, nuts and seeds. I've eaten only limited amounts of soy and I've cut out a lot of things that DS reacted to mildly in his diet or mine (peas, green beans, banana, avocado, melon, etc).

For me it was a jump. One day we're dealing with moderate eczema, the next we're at the allergist and find out he's allergic to eggs, dairy, soy, wheat, etc. Three days after that DS has an anaphylactic reaction to tahini and I realize that things are really serious.

I think the first month was hardest because I was so stressed out (knowing that his allergies were definitely life threatening), plus I didn't have any resources and I didn't have large quantities of safe foods around the house. I lost about 15 pounds that first month. I put wheat back in my diet (DS *only* gets hives when he eats it directly and it doesn't seem to come through the breastmilk too much for him) and I gained back 10 of those pounds over the next five months of EDing.

(For those of you that are on POFAK, I'm "juliag" over there

)

 

[timneh_mom]

I haven't been through this myself but several of my friends have. They pretty much got used to doing it. It's not easy!! But their babies really would react to certain foods so they kept at it.

One friend in particular said she felt she was having a hard time getting enough fat in her diet, since she had to cut out dairy and nuts. So, she eats a lot of avocado and olive oil... that doesn't seem to bother the baby. Another friend had to do it (and she was an EPer too...) because her son had TONS of food allergies.

It's a hard road Mamas!!

 

[RoadWorkAhead]

Ainh- I switched children for my name at POFAK so I'm KylersMom there since she's my FA kid. =) I've definitely seen you there as well.

 

[Margot Adler]

we have eliminated dairy, peanuts, soy, caffeine (chocolate was hard! as was green tea), tomatoes, and all artificial flavors/sweeteners/colors. it has been hard to keep weight on, but both ds and i FEEL much better.
thanks for the post!

 

[tashantx]

just getting started here thanks to you! partially I had my suspicions about fa but sometimes someone else has to ''say it'' for it to make sense

: we are off of dairy and soy at the moment and gut healing! yeast fighting too! I see the scd or candida diet in my near future! hopefully not but I'll do hat it takes ! thank god for mdc

!! llli.org has some good recipes under the allergies and the breastfeeding family section! also very helpful!

 

[RoadWorkAhead]

Yeah, I'm hoping we'll be scheduled for endoscopy right after the holidays so that I can eat whatever LOL But if not, its going to be interesting LOL

 

[zion]

i had to eliminate diary and soy because ds was so gassy and irritable. he seems much better but i can't seem to find the cause of the slimey mucousy poop!! i have posted about this here and googled the heck out of it and have found nothing. what els causes this. one site said to call the doctor if your baby has mucousy poop and another said it's normal. i'm confused!!! any thoughts?

 

[tashantx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zion i had to eliminate diary and soy because ds was so gassy and irritable. he seems much better but i can't seem to find the cause of the slimey mucousy poop!! i have posted about this here and googled the heck out of it and have found nothing. what els causes this. one site said to call the doctor if your baby has mucousy poop and another said it's normal. i'm confused!!! any thoughts?

I know it's a pita my quest for answers on the snot poo is what originally led me here talking to many allergy moms and the poo didn't get better till the gut was all healed up my theory on that in a sense ........ but I've also rread that mucus poop can be a sign of yeast die off .... not sure about it! it is confusing are you using probiotics?

 

[zion]

I give DS probiotics. I took them myself for a little white after i was on antibiotics for mastitis in july. Would there be any other signs of yeast? I haven't noticed anything different. I wonder why they make it sound so serious..."call your doctor right away..." I have an appointment with the ped on wed. We'll see what he says then.

 

[tashantx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zion I give DS probiotics. I took them myself for a little white after i was on antibiotics for mastitis in july. Would there be any other signs of yeast? I haven't noticed anything different. I wonder why they make it sound so serious..."call your doctor right away..." I have an appointment with the ped on wed. We'll see what he says then.

well I'm glad you are looking into it they say it can be an infection or a virus so..... my EX-ped was not helpful in this area I think his words were ''some b/f babies just have these types of bowel movements''

: hmmmm..... anyway I'm beginning to notice slight improvement..... wheres the knock on wood smiley?

other signs would be thrush or a yeasty diaper rash or for you a vaginal yeast infection itchy nipples pain or burning in the breast.....

 

[mtn.mama]

I'm working an elimination diet to figure out what's making my baby sick. And its working! Eczema and rash fading away.... no more pink in the dipes.... my zen baby is returning! I'm starting to plug foods back into my diet- I got soy back! Who's using probiotics on their infant? I found an egg-free brownie recipe on the net and traded the wheat flour for brown rice flour... it really saved the day

 

[RoadWorkAhead]

I was giving DD some probiotics, but got lazy

I just added quinoa to our diet, and discovered I hate the stuff. OH, and sucanat...Gonna have to go back to regular sugar of some sort

But I've got osme good recipes for quinoa flour so maybe that will help!

Zion: have you tried going top 8 free for a while? Its a pitb, but might help you get rid of the mucous. Then add back in and see what happns (though apparently, nursing moms aren't supposed to consume treenuts/peanuts and many avoid shellfish). I'd also keep a food diary. If its constant, then its probably something regularly in your diet, not constant, probably less regular in your diet. It might give you a starting point.

 

[green_momma2007]

I'm two months pregnant with my second child. I believe my firstborn was allergic to cow's milk, though I did not know it at the time. He did not have diarrhea or anything serious, just very mild breakouts on his cheeks and back of arms, which he still has till today. He did have colic the first few months. I'm thinking that with this baby I will try to cut out cow's milk. I'm gonna try drinking goat milk, and using regular cheese sparingly. anybody had any success with something similar???

 

[sambelina]

OMG!! Can I join this thread? I have some questions from you experienced moms.

My DD has had eczema like several of your little ones. She also had snotty green poos, sometimes with blood. We've been on a TED (the Dr. Sears one) since the 14th of Sept. I have noticed improvement in her eczema except it gets worse in the car seat. Saturday (the 29th) I did stray from the diet some. I ate Bison and asparagus. No allergens though. She was crazy stressed out though on the way home. A car ride that's normally 1 hr or so took almost 3 hrs. She screamed the whole time. (I let her out fed her and everything she just wouldn't stop.) Anyway the next day, back came the bloody poos. ALL DAY! Then Monday she had a green poo with a handful of snot. What do you all think? Stress? Or, did I mess it up with the food? I really don't think it's that, but maybe. I really want to go out with my dh this weekend on our first date since LO. I'm afraid to cheat. WWYD? Do you all give your LO's the dissolvable lactobaccilus? I thought about trying that. HELP!? Sorry, I'm just so confused right now and I don't know where to start. I'm so glad you all made a thread for this.
Sam

 

[Cheri5678]

I had to eliminate all dairy and peanuts. It took a few tries and many more restrictions to figure it out, but it made a huge difference. I also found an article in a medical journal that suggests taking a B vitamin while nursing to help with the eczema. It worked wonders for my son's skin. I also gave him a probiotic and on the recommendation of the P.A. added 1 tsp of flax seed oil to his diet once a day. It all fell apart though when he self-weaned at 13mos. I finally took him for allergy elimination treatments which were a god-send. I remember the day his snotty poop just STOPPED! I didn't know he could even have a solid stool! If you live w/in driving distance of the place I went I would absolutely recommend it! I don't know easy it is to find someone to do the treatments. My son and my friend's son both had pretty extreme allergies and both were completely cleared in just a few months (alright, I feel like an infomercial, sorry). I hope somthing here helps.

 

[acordio]

We are eliminating Soy and Dairy because of specs of blood in the poo. I started with dairy and it got a little better then took out soy and the amount of mucos and green poos went down big time. The amount of blood went down too. We will go several days with none then I slip up and have a small amount and they return a little but they have definately gotten better. I was told that it can be anything. I am also avoiding tomatoes and orange juice as of today because of a red bottom.

 

[tashantx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by acordio We are eliminating Soy and Dairy because of specs of blood in the poo. I started with dairy and it got a little better then took out soy and the amount of mucos and green poos went down big time. The amount of blood went down too. We will go several days with none then I slip up and have a small amount and they return a little but they have definately gotten better. I was told that it can be anything. I am also avoiding tomatoes and orange juice as of today because of a red bottom.

how long was it b4 you saw improvement

 

[prettymom]

We found our eczema culprit = dairy. I didn't even think much of dd's eczema until once when she was about four months old and we went to see the ped for an ear infection. He normal ped wasn't in, so we saw another doc I don't really care for. She told me to use steroid cream and lots of lotion, but never mentioned trying an elimination diet (she never even asked if I was BF). Fast forward a few months: I stopped eating dairy because I started the Eat to Live diet. DD's eczema totally disappeared. Now even if I have a tiny bit of milk chocolate it will reappear, and it always takes about ten days for it to totally clear up again.

 

[mtn.mama]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sambelina I have noticed improvement in her eczema except it gets worse in the car seat. A car ride that's normally 1 hr or so took almost 3 hrs. What do you all think? WWYD? Do you all give your LO's the dissolvable lactobaccilus? HELP!? Sam

Maybe she has a reaction to the carseat that was exacerbated by the long ride? I'm giving maxibabydophilus. From what I've read its important that the baby gets bifidus, not just acidophilus. Some people say b.infantis and reuteri too. I wouldn't cheat until I have a baseline clear happy baby. Good luck!
Lisa