[aslmere]

I am breastfeeding my 2 month old, and he has food allergies.
I cannot eat dairy, soy, eggs, tomatoes, potatoes, nuts and thinking that wheat may be a problem as well
I would love to eat beans, but they make him painfully gassy.
That just about eliminates EVERYTHING I eat. I also have to stay away from gassy vegetables....onions, peppers, broccoli etc.

Suggestions and recipes would be wonderful. I have been told that a whole food vegan diet would be best, but don't know where to start.. in addition, dh has serious concerns about me getting enough nutrients to maintain milk supply and keep me healthy....right now there is no variety in my diet. Turkey, rice, carrots, apples, pears and oatmeal are about it. I am ALWAYS hungry.
I am working on a meal plan for the next two weeks... something I have neer done, so if any vegans or mommas who have had the same experience would like to share recipes or eating ideas, I would be VERY VERY grateful.

Thanks
Nina

 

[Erin Pavlina]

Let me see if I can make some recommendations.

Also, please visit this list of non-dairy products and see which satisfy your requirements.

For a dairy milk sub... try rice milk. Good for baking and such.

Fruit smoothies will give you some good nutrients. here is a list of recipes.

Is it all potatoes or just the white kind? Sweet potatoes are high in valuable vitamins.

How about salads with avocado, cucumber, carrots and a nice creamy dressing?

Also check out the vegan recipes and see if anything strikes your fancy. How about vegan cheese lasagna? Or vegan mac and cheese using spelt noodles? Yum!

 

[cathe]

I'm kind of curious who told you that a vegan diet would be best for you and baby since you can't eat most of the foods that vegans need for protein (beans, nuts, soy, wheat). I would think some animal protein - fish, eggs, poultry would be beneficial for you to get protein, iron, calcium and omega-3 fatty acids. However, if seeds are not a problem for you, ground flax, sesame, sunflower, and pumpkin seeds can be added to oatmeal, smoothies, rice, etc. to provide those important nutrients plus fat which you really need while nursing.

 

[aslmere]

Erin.. thanks for the links. I am slowly bit surely figuring out that I can still eat great! I also tried modifying a soup recipes with lentils and barley yesterday... turned out good, though dh wouldn't touch it

Cathe
It was actually some playgroup mama friends who suggested vegan stlye, but I do eat fish and turkey and chicken to get protein. I think they were just trying to help me figure out how to eat without all the dairy since it is the protein that he is allergic to and it is found in a lot of things!
I hope that with some careful planning and cooking I might be able to add a bit of beans.
Also I will try some seeds.. see if he is okay.

Thanks
Nina

 

[MamaMonica]

Nina, I am in the same boat- ds can have no dairy,gluten (wheat, barley etc), eggs, nuts, peanuts, limited soy( should have none), tomatoes or potatoes. I was basically vegan and vegetarian and it almost killed me and he was not doing well because I'd give in to the cheese just to have food and his eczema flared.

I had to make peace with the fact that genetically, we (ds and I) need to eat some animal products. My dd could get by vegan and thrive. She has done excellent on a vegan diet. She has no food sensitivities and can eat soy and everything and likes beans.

We've gone to free-range chicken and turkey and wild-caught salmon. I don't like the meat, so I get it in broths as soup bases. Eggs are an allergy but we eat them anyway in limited amounts. It is better than the cheese.

and good luck. I know how hard it is to eat with food sensitivites.

 

[aslmere]

Monica
Thanks so much for your post.
I do eat meat, turkey, chicken and salmon. I know I need protein.

I was wondering about gluten/wheat. That is something that I haven't eliminated yet.
Ds' tummy gassy colicky troubles have significantly decreased.
But his poops are still very runny and brown.
Could this be a sign that gluten/wheat is bad too... or just that he is still trying to get all the dairy out of his system. (it has only been two weeks COMPLETELY dairy free)

Thanks
Nina

 

[MamaMonica]

My ND said in 14 days, the dairy is out (that's time it takes). Wheat and or gluten is a big allergin. DS had the opposite problem from it- constipation.

I took the gluten out of our diets after I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease a few months ago and have noticed a huge improvement in ds. He is so like me that I am not giving him gluten even though he hasn't had a blood test for anitbodies- he's just a toddler and doing well gluten-free.

Do you have any relatives with CD or wheat allergies? if so, eliminating gluten might be a good idea- just to see.

My sister tested neg. for CD- no antibodies- but she does have a wheat allergy that makes her sick. There are various levels of problems with gluten.

 

[aslmere]

Monica
I have heard so many varying time frames for dairy to completely get out of his/my system. One site I read said up to 6 weeks!

I have first cousins who were allergic to EVERYTHING... for a while all they could eat was lamb and rice. They did grow out of it though.. I emailed my aunt to find out more about their allergies. I also have an uncle (same side) who is VERY allergic to dairy and because he wouldnt stay away from it he has had part of his intestines removed and has almost died. SCARY!
SO I guess that answers the wheat/gluten question.
They were highly allergic to gluten products. Because things seem better I am not sure ds is allergic.. but he certainly must have a sensitvity to it.
I guess that is one more thing off my list.
How long should I wait before I try to introduce it again... an LC told me 4 months. But I would like to hear from moms who have experienced this.

Thanks

Nina

 

[MamaMonica]

Was your uncle tested for celiac disease? Often celiac disease creates a "fake" dairy allergy becuase the gluten reaction flattens the villi ion the small instestine and the enzyme to digest dairy is produced on the tip of the villi, so it is gone if you have celiac. Once the gluten is out and intestine healed often people can go back to eating dairy.

Not saying this is the problem, but offering the info. since Celiac is often mis-diagnosed/underdiagnosed in the US- it takes an avg. of 10 years from the onset of symptoms to get a diagnosis.

 

[brandy111803]

I totally feel your pain as I am sensitive to: eggs, tomatoes, potatoes, chicken, turkey, chocolate and white sugar. Urg....

: Anyway, ds is sensitive to dairy, corn and spicy greens in my milk. I have been going to my chiro though and he has done a variety of things w/ me including acupuncture that has helped me to be able to eat eggs again and we are working on the others now. I had ds tested (muscle testing, I held ds and then chiro gave me viles of certain foods and did the muscle testing w/ me...I think it has to do w/ energy fields and he can est ds through mine so it's not invasive to either of us at all) yesterday since we are giving him more solids now and found out that he is sensitive to: dates, brewer's yeast, beer, turkey, white sugar, and a couple others I have written down somewhere else. We have never even given him ANY of these things but his body and chemistry at this point wouldn't like these things. I strongly recommend going to the following site where you can find a practitioner in your area to help you discover exactly what's bothering your little baby. No need to completely eliminate everything in your diet "just in case" it bothers your baby. Are you taking a good vitamin to help w/ the nutrients? You should still be eating about 250 calories more than you were pre-pregnancy to keep up a healthy milk supply. Good luck and here's the site.
Allergy Elmination Technique @ www.naet.com
or you could try www.morter.com for the BEST technique

You could also try the Practioners Board here and go to chiropractors and post there and see if they have some more suggestions as how to pinpoint it. It wouldn't be such a big deal if there didn't seem to be sooo many things you can't eat. It may be worth it to test for.

 

[toraji]

ITA with cathe, I think you would run the risk of becoming deficient if you were on a vegan diet with those restrictions, especially as a breastfeeding mama. (Note to the vegans, I am not trying to diss veganism at all, it is just MHO that vegans benefit from eating nuts, soy, wheat and beans for their nutrition, which this poster says she cannot have.)

I think you would probably get a lot of mileage out of this diet/cookbook:
The Garden of Eating Diet
It is free from dairy, soy, beans, and grains. They do use nuts and there is a section on eggs, but hopefully you can use seeds instead of nuts, in which case you would be able to use tahini (sesame seed butter). I do have a caveat on that though, my dd is allergic to some seeds (sesame, pumpkin) as well as some nuts (cashews, peanut) so I had to do a trial and error to see which ones she was sensitive to and which ones she could have. She does fine with sunflower seeds and almonds.

Oh and the book is not very heavy on potato recipes, and the recipes with tomato you could probably just omit them and the recipe would still turn out okay.

Good luck!

 

[ChristaN]

Have you tried Quinoa? It is a good grain source of protein & kind of looks like little sesame seeds uncooked. My girls think that it is cool b/c the little 'sprout' inside the seed pops out & makes a little circle when you cook it. It works much like rice in dishes. Brown rice & nutritional yeast might also be good additions to your diet, if you're not already eating those. Nutritional yeast has lots of vitamins & some protein; you can find it at the HFS.

Have you had food allergy tests run on your baby? It might help narrow down which foods are the most important to avoid. My older dd had some food allergies as a baby & that helped me narrow it down to green peas, lentils, almonds & eggs (which we didn't eat anyway). She has, fortunately, outgrown her allergies for the most part. Almonds still make her lips itch, so I avoid them for her.

I find this: http://www.foodyoucaneat.com/food/default.asp to be a pretty neat site. You fill out a profile with foods that you cannot eat & it will display recipes which do not include those foods.

 

[brandy111803]

I posted earlier about having myself and ds tested for food allergies by our chiro. When I was reading the article "Daniel's Success Story" in the Sept/Oct issue of Mothering I noticed that this mom did the same thing and she describes the process. It's on page 48, third column, top of the column if you are interested in reading what the process entails for an infant. Good luck,

 

[callmemama]

My ds's milk allergy (he had blood in stool and was diagnosed by ped & specialist). The tiny threads of blood continued for several months after I eliminated obvious dairy sources, but there is so much hidden dairy. I drove myself crazy on elimination diets trying to determine what else bothered him. We chose to go vegan as a result of his milk allergy, but I've said so many times I don't know how I would do it if I had to give up wheat, not to mention beans! So I guess my question is, are you sure he's allergic/sensitive to all the foods you've listed? Sorry I'm not more help. I'm going to check out the sight Christa posted - sounds interesting!

eta: BTW, ds is almost 5 now, and he and I are both thriving!

You'll get there too!

 

[logan&jordansmommy]

Brandy,
We just had that test run on ds and I am going to get it done on me shortly! I was beginning to think I was the only one to hear of it. I will have to check out mothering's article. We found out ds is allergic to beef, oats, wheat, wheat bran, dairy, bananas, dye #6, BHT and BHA (through my bm). It is not fun trying to figure out these allergies.

Nina,
It sounds like everyone gave you some great suggestions.

 

[love2all]

nak- as always--

i, due to an infant being sick- eat-\
beans, loads o brown rice, steamed winter veggies, ummmmm did i mention rice??
I am sorry to say my kids call it a rice and water diet!!! fun oh yeahhhh.
really, this i am trying to have as my diet

 

[Willowmom]

I am 14 months into the same journey... My dd is very sensitive. It can be challenging but the reward is knowing that breastfeeding as long as possible is the best thing for your child. I recommend checking out The Yeast Connection Cookbook. All of the recipes stay away from typical allergens - gluten grains, corn, eggs, dairy, etc. It gave me a good starting point as to things that I could eat. Good Luck!