Does anyone have BFing LO with food alergies?

[BunnyN]

Our little girl has had some big problems with green poo and poor wieght gain. I decided it could be food alergies and have gone on a very restricted diet. Saw dramatic impovements in a week. I'm on my second week now and am adding foods back in. I'm waiting for a while to add the ikely culprits like milk and soy but we already suspect bannanas might be a problem. I'm new to all this and still working it out so would love to hear from other mums who have had simmilar problems.

 

[Hellylou]

Have you seen a doc? Are you sure it's a reaction to your diet? I would seek medical advice about the green poo and poor weight gain, because there could be other causes. If you modify your diet you could affect your milk supply too.

 

[BunnyN]

As I say the improvement is obvious. Her poo has never been normal, mucus, green, foamy and specks of blood. After a week of the diet she has mustard colored poo with almost no mucus and she is a much happier baby and already gaining weight better. I was a bit worried about milk supply but I figured as the only alternative I'd been offered for poor weight gain was to supliment with formula that it was worth to try diet first and I could always stop the diet if it became a problem. I ate only rice (with olive oil and salt) for a week and supply is fine. I haven't spoken to a doc about food allergies yet, I will but I'm not sure how much help they will be. The best way for them to know is by trying an ellimination diet and seeing if there is improvement anyway. I realize eating rice is not a long term solution but I am working on building back up to a balanced diet. To be honest its a mayjor relief because the next step was testing for cystic fibrosis and it's looking like we wont need to now.

 

[BunnyN]

No one else dealing with allergies in their LO?

 

[Maxy1]

Why do you suspect an allergy to bananas? I BF DS who is gluten and cow's milk intolerant. I am intolerant to both too, and have been for years. I found when I first was BFing, we also couldn't handle fructose. It gave both DS and me terrible tummy cramps and wind. We grew out of that at some stage between 3 and 12 months. Yay - I missed fruit juice in the morning!!

Make sure you keep up your water intake to help with your milk supply. Maybe look up the FODMAP diet to guide you on your elimination diet. I am not that much help with advice as DS didn't have any symptoms until we started solids. So it was pretty obvious to me what to take out of his diet.

Just do what is best for you and baby. If you are worried about your own nutrition remember to take a prenatal/breastfeeding multivitamin.

 

[BunnyN]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure about bannanas but I've been adding food to my diet one at a time. Since I started the diet she has turned into a happy gurgling baby and poo had turned normal. The day I started eating bannanas she was gassy and miserable and the next day the specks of blood were back in her poo. Its not enough to prove anything, after just one day, but its enough for me to avoid bannanas for a while and will test them again in the future. For now I want to concentrate on building up her weight a bit before I try the foods that are most likely to be the problem.

 

[CupcakeBaby]

Blood in poo sound like CMPI.

Are you still having dairy? Even anything with a tiny trace in is too much for my DD.

 

[BunnyN]

No, no dairy for over two weeks now. I literally just ate rice for the first week. The result was amazing though, well worth it. Now I'm adding things back one at a time. I haven't tried dairy again yet, I'm leaving that one to test a bit later but I suspect there are several foods that cause a problem, not just dairy.

 

[phoenix333]

I had the green poop and never did work out the cause. That was untill LO started eating solids and is clearly allergic to eggs. That's when I remembered that I was so excited to be able to eat runny eggs again I went a bit mad on them after having DD........Suddenly the green poop makes sense all of a sudden x

 

[JessPape]

If she is 10 week old (going by your signature) the green poo could actually be that she is emptying your breast, and block feeding may be in order, to help her empty a breast before going to the next one. Green poo in newborns is common, I don't think we stopped having random green poos until sometime around 4-6 months.

Can be caused from to much fore milk and not enough hind milk.

 

[JessPape]

Does anyone in your OH and your family have CF? for her to have it, someone in your family would need to have it, as you both need to be a gene carrier which is actually quite, rare. (it does happen, but most people have an idea they may be a carrier).

It could be a food allergy, and if it is, an not a milk issue, than your going the right route with an elimination diet.

 

[BunnyN]

Does anyone in your OH and your family have CF? for her to have it, someone in your family would need to have it, as you both need to be a gene carrier which is actually quite, rare. (it does happen, but most people have an idea they may be a carrier).

It could be a food allergy, and if it is, an not a milk issue, than your going the right route with an elimination diet.

No one that I know of in the family has CF, my dad was adopted though.

 

[BunnyN]

If she is 10 week old (going by your signature) the green poo could actually be that she is emptying your breast, and block feeding may be in order, to help her empty a breast before going to the next one. Green poo in newborns is common, I don't think we stopped having random green poos until sometime around 4-6 months.

Can be caused from to much fore milk and not enough hind milk.

I tried block feeding early on, it made no difference, except to make me lopsided, lol. I never really got engorged or fast letdown either, milk came in quite slowly. It is more than an occasional green poo, she never had a normal looking poo until a week after I started the diet. They started off mucusy and foamy then turned green and got specks of blood. Eventually they looked like cottage cheese in pools of green mucus and water with specks of blood. Now they are still a littly runny and have some mucus but finally look like mustard, yellow and smooth, and there is no blood or green color (except when I ate bananas).

 

[BunnyN]

..

 

[summer rain]

Sounds like my middle son. Years later we figured out soya was the major culprit but I don't think it was the only thing causing him a problem because I barely had soya. In his case it appeared that whatever he wasn't tolerating had a knock on effect of causing him to be temporarily lactose intolerant-but it just wasn't easing off as I kept inadvertently eating whatever was causing him issues. In the end out of desperation as the constant green stools were making him completely dehydrated and not only did he stop gaining weight he lost 8oz in a week, I switched to a low lactose, partially digested formula which was in effect just modified powdered milk with vitamins added, no fish oils, soya or any of the newly added in rubbish, that fixed things right away though long term it caused him to be sensitive to dairy which he wasn't to begin with. At the age of 3 he started reacting badly to soya as well, and that made us realise that was probably the major problem to start with. I wish I would have got to the bottom of it but health professionals were just not being supportive or helpful and there was no BF support at all in that area at that time xx

 

[summer rain]

Just one more thought have you tried giving probiotics? You would have to find a vegan one so you can be sure it isn't dairy derived somewhere down the line. Alas in our case giving probiotics didn't work but in other cases I know of with these horrendous constant green stools it has righted everything, and in some cases the mum has been able to reintroduce everything back into her diet as it was more a case of things being out of whack than a specific intolerance. Maybe worth a try? Xx

 

[CupcakeBaby]

Well it sounds as if your rice week has been amazingly beneficial (well done you for sticking that out!)

I guess each day you'll just have to try something new and slowly create a "safe/unsafe" list.

What a lucky baby having a mummy who is so willing to BF they you'll go as far as you have.

 

[BunnyN]

Just one more thought have you tried giving probiotics? You would have to find a vegan one so you can be sure it isn't dairy derived somewhere down the line. Alas in our case giving probiotics didn't work but in other cases I know of with these horrendous constant green stools it has righted everything, and in some cases the mum has been able to reintroduce everything back into her diet as it was more a case of things being out of whack than a specific intolerance. Maybe worth a try? Xx

Thanks for the tip, probiotics might be worth a try.

Our little girl lost weight too. It was only a couple of oz in a week but it was enought to get me really worried and is what prompted me to try the diet.

 

[BunnyN]

Well it sounds as if your rice week has been amazingly beneficial (well done you for sticking that out!)

I guess each day you'll just have to try something new and slowly create a "safe/unsafe" list.

What a lucky baby having a mummy who is so willing to BF they you'll go as far as you have.

Thanks for that, I appreciate your knd words. I cringe a bit to tell people about our problems and doing the diet because I know it just sounds like I'm an over the top worried first time mum with crazy ideas but we do seem to be getting results.

 

[Rickles]

Hiya

Summer Rain is the main expert round here!! So she has great advice.

But yes - I bf Maddie through Cow's Milk Protein Intolerance (CMPI) and also Wheat allergy. In fact we're still going because she won't drink her special formula.

What can I say - it gets easier. Bananas are linked to a latex allergy so that's worth being mindful of. I lost a lot of weight - at one point 10lbs below pre pregnancy weight which was really worrying as I didn't have it to spare. I saw a nutritionist who helped me with some foods I could eat to try and get the right fats into me! So lots of Guacamole (can't eat Avo on it's own), Hummus, cooking everything in Olive Oil, having jelly sweets on hand for desperate moments!

I was crap at it - but keep a food diary and and see your doctor and a dietician. You might consider supplements depending on how good your diet is. My nails got very brittle so I decided to take them.

At the end of the day it's totally possible to keep BFing a baby with allergies as long as you don't mind a restricted diet yourself. Personally I wish I had tried the formula sooner with Maddie as by the time we offered it at 9 months she was never going to touch it But that is a very personal choice and I would say BF gets really easy once you get to 8/9 months hence why I kept going! xx