BabyWhispererForums.com
EAT => Food Allergies => Topic started by: Jenn+Ethan+Emily on September 06, 2011, 14:15:44 pm
-
I don't really understand how this allergy business works.
DD has explosive, mucousy poos. She is quite gassy and uncomfortable *some* of the time. Her Ped had me do a dairy free trial. I didn't see any real improvement. We have two good nights, one bad night, a few good ones and then more bad ones. We saw the Ped yesterday and she said cut out soy, eggs, gluten and red meat also.
What I guess I don't understand is why we have lots of good day and then some bad ones. How long after you eat the food does it cause the problems in LO?
Also, DS used to have mucousy poo which was solved simply with probiotics. Can it be something simple like that?
Does anyone find peanut butter to cause gassiness in babies?
Does it make sense for me to eat a really simple diet with just plain foods for two weeks and see if there is a change and then add foods back in to find out what the actual culprit is? Is two weeks long enough?
TIA :-*
-
{{{hugs Jenn}}}
An ED can be really overwhelming.
For us I noticed the symptoms came and went but they were definately diet related. So you can have good days and the bad days can still be caused by diet.
When you say a plain diet what were you thinking?
-
how long did you go dairy free? It can take a month to get it all out of yours and dd's system. Were you doing just obvious dairy or hidden dairy too?
-
I've been dairy free (obvious and hidden) for three weeks. The doctor said o should see an improvement in 4-5 days ???
For a simple diet, I mean nothing with additives. So like rices, plain vegetable and meats, I guess. I was thinking f doing that more to just see if this is food related or not :-\
-
when we went dairy free, I was told I could see some improvement in the crying in 2 weeks, but to expect mucousy poops for a month or so yet. It takes a really long time for the milk protein to get out of your system and then out of her system.
Are you doing soy free too? The dairy protein is very similar to the soy protein and often bubs who have trouble with one have trouble with the other.
-
Now im doing it all (soy, dairy, gluten....) but I only started that today. I guess I will keep trucking along then. I don't see a steady improvement in her symptoms at all. It comes and goes just like it did when I was eating everything.
-
I did a food diary for about 3 weeks as well to see if I spotted some connection. I didn't. Not that you wouldn't. I've been dairy/soy free since April and dd2 really started improving in early June and has gotten steadily better since then. There's loads of great support on here!!
-
Alright. I guess I will keep going. I despise this in every way :P
-
It does get better. I've been doing it for quite awhile now, and the only thing I really missed was cheese. But I just added goat cheese back in a week ago and dd2 is doing just fine :) I didn't do gluten free though, just dairy/soy. Honestly, we still get some mucousy poopy diapers, but there's no blood in her stool. She probably would have benefited from a trial of gluten free (or egg free or both...), but I wasn't. She's doing so much better now, I'm ok with the choice we made. Our pediatrician has been super supportive, so that's helped. She also recommended taking a probiotic, so I do that as well (it's tough to find a dairy free one, but I did). Good luck!
-
Okay, I need more help :( I have been dairy free for 5 weeks and soy, gluten, red meat and egg free for 2 weeks. Emily is taking probiotics and is on iron which her paed wants her to be on. Emily's poo is still incredibly mucousy and not getting any better, in fact, maybe getting worse. I notice no difference in her gassiness/fussiness since the changes in my diet. She appears to be getting a few spots on her face which look a bit like excema starting. I have emailed her paed but haven't heard back yet. What else can I do? I'm getting really frustrated!
-
It depends on amounts that you eat too... for us i couldnt even sniff dairy without causing a reaction... but as long as i only had 1 egg or 1 slice of toast (not togeath that would cause a bad day) we would have bad poo but not crying
Have you checked the probiotic for anything?
for us rice was a problem too and sals
-
jenn. About 4 weeks old dd got a terrible skin thing going on. Might just be the glands developing. How mucusy are the poops? Can you describe them? Big hugs. Will think more when i can get on the pc rather than my phone
-
Hugs Jenn xx
The skin thing we had here and wasn't related to food intolerance. It was like baby acne. It settles in about 3-4 weeks and a lot of BFing babies get it. CAn't remember the exact reason but it was to do with hormones changing in mum? The HV gave us a cream and it made it so much worse. So in the end I left it alone and it went away. It was awful looking though.
are you probiotics dairy free?
Is she very uncomfortable? can you get her settled at all? How is she sleeping? For me I would need to see huge changes to make that diet worthwhile. That being said 2 weeks free from those other things won't have them out of your system. I think with gluten it can take a month to be out of your system then a further 4 weeks to be sure its out of babies system. I think dairy is 4-6 weeks though overall.
My friends LO is allergic/intolerant to a whole host of things and she never quite got things just right with an ED. On the advice of the paed she switched to a hypoallergenic formula but didn't actually see a big difference and really missed BFing so she went back to BFing and did the best she could with the diet as at least the baby was getting all the good things from BFing that she wouldn't be getting from the formula and her LO got much better at 6 months, even better at 8 months and so on.
-
I too would check that probiotic - a lot of them have dairy in them. What about nuts? What "milk" are you drinking? some almond milk can have soy in it, and if it's a nut issue, the almond/coconut milk could also be the problem.
Have you had her stool tested for blood? Is there any concern that the crying/fussiness could be reflux from the food intolerances?
Katie's mucousy stools never cleared up completely when I went dairy/soy free. Oddly enough, they seem to have improved once starting solids (I actually suspect she's beginning to outgrow whatever other intolerances she had). But she didn't have blood in her stool anymore, and she was (still is) on meds for reflux and that addressed the pain that was causing the screaming. Our pediatrician said I could continue trying to eliminate things from my diet, or I could keep going as I was (dairy/soy free only) because Katie wasn't suffering long term damage (no blood) and her pain was managed. The GI specialist told us to quit bfing and go to amino acid based formula as Katie was allergic even to the protein in my breast milk. In the end, we decided not to stop bfing (for many of the reasons Shiv mentioned above) and she continues to get better. At 3 mos, I felt like we really began to turn the corner. We've not changed her meds in 2.5 - 3 mos, I've started eating goat cheese, and she's started solids and we've not had a reflux flare in almost 3 mos and no mucous in 3 weeks.
-
Our pediatrician said I could continue trying to eliminate things from my diet, or I could keep going as I was (dairy/soy free only) because Katie wasn't suffering long term damage (no blood) and her pain was managed.
This was what my friend thought too.
-
Her probiotic is Biogaia and as far as I can tell, it's safe.
Her poos are like big yellow puddles of mucous. There isn't any visible blood but it has never been tested.
The skin thing might just be a bit of baby acne. I will keep an eye on it. It definitely isn't bad at this point anyways.
Sometimes she gets really congested but I cannot figure out what is causing that.
I don't drink any "milk". I have used occasional coconut milk in cooking but that's it.
If you can't eat rice, what do you eat? Honestly this is getting ridiculous. (me venting my frustrations :( )The sals thing too, like I honestly have nothing to eat as it is, how can I cut more out? I feel completely overwhelmed because I have no time to research anything. I am just eating super plain basic foods and hoping for a change but getting nothing.
The reflux thing I'm not sure. I would say so. I have emailed the paed about this.
She basically eats, is okay for a bit. Plays around. Loves her tummy, starts getting sleepy, fusses a bit, I pick her up to bundle her for bed. She falls asleep within a few minutes and then the fun begins. 10 minutes later she's gruting and groaning and struggling. So I pick her up and try to get a burp put of her or something and she squirms and pushes and then screams, the. She burps and falls asleep immediately. Then ten minutes later, it all starts again. Finally after about two hours of that, she's such an OT mess tht she just screams at the top of her lungs and I don't know if she's in pain or just plain OT anymore. The thing is, sometimes she's fine. Sometimes she naps like a pro with no problems and I can't figure out what is making a good day or bad day :(
Im so frustrated and ready to switch to formula but I doubt it would help anything. Blah.
-
{{{hugs Jenn}}}}
I am so sory you are frustrated. I would absolutely be tearing my hair out at this stage if I were you. I couldn't even give dairy free a proper go so I admire you so much for what you are doing.
I wonder if reflux is at the heart of this? I just think you would have seen some progress with the ED you're doing so far if the discomfort is related purely to intolerance?
10 minutes later she's gruting and groaning and struggling. So I pick her up and try to get a burp put of her or something and she squirms and pushes and then screams, the. She burps and falls asleep immediately. Then ten minutes later, it all starts again.
This was absolutely what R was like. Out for the count and then I'd hear her grunting and then she'd wake howling and then fart and then pass out sleeping again. It was as if some of the milk started digesting in there and released more air and caused wind pains. No amount of burping before hand helped. What did help a bit was time. At she got a bit bigger and could move a bit she could pass wind in her sleep or wake up pass wind and resettle without my help. Sleeping at an incline helped too as it seemed to relieve the pressure on her tummy.
It does sound like a bit of OT here too. R slept much better on us or in carseat at this age so generally one nap was APed through the day to keep the OT at bay. Will she sleep in a sling?
-
Oh yes, she spends most of her day in the sling now. Daytime I can easily handle. It's nights time that's killing me.
Exactly what you said is how I feel! Nothing I do beforehand helps. It just needs to start digesting. So frustrating!
Since shes a preemie, it's almost certain for her to have reflux so the paed says but her symptoms didn't seem refluxy so that's why we aren't on any meds. I emailed the paed to say I'd like to do a me trial so we will see what she says.
-
So many hugs Jenn. It also sounds like silent reflux is a culprit here to me. xoxo
-
{{{{hugs Jenn}}}}
How long did the paed want you to try the ED for? It just seems like you should have seen some progress by now? KWIM?
In a way I'm hoping reflux meds really help her so you don't have to do such a strict diet. hard when you are trying to decide whether or not reflux or food intolerance would be the better cause isn't it?
R got much better at 4-5 months but am sure that feels like a lifetime away. I keep dairy to a minimum but still had it in my diet. In those early months I kept her a lot of the time in bed with me. Not for everyone I know but DH is pure useless at doing NWs so they tend to fall to me and i needed some rest.
Hope the paed gets back to you really soon xx
-
She left it totally up to me :-\ Basically she said if you can handle her being fussy, then eat whatever you want, if not, try the ED. But it feels so cruel for me to say since I want to eat food, you have to be in pain :-\
-
Was she worse when you were eating the foods?
Do you feel its pain or discomfort?
-
She is exactly the same as when I was eating the foods. She is definitely in pain and discomfort. I'm hesitant to start eating the foods again simply because I don't know what else to do and it maybe sort of feels like I am at least trying something IYSWIM? I don't know :'( I hate that she's going through this.
-
I'd DEFINITELY push for a trial of reflux meds. Have you gotten any advice from the ladies on the board there? It really sounds like reflux pain to me (which is often mistaken for gas).
-
I'm definitely going to do that! Thanks Karen.
-
I couldnt carry on with ED because all that i could of eaten was meat swede cabbage potato and pear and that was it so i had to go onto neocate
-
Oh okay! Good grief, I was seriously wondering how it would have been possible!
-
I would absolutely check into doing some reflux meds. It took us 3 mos to find a drug combo that worked for us. Especially since she's a preemie, I bet her system just isn't mature enough. The ED is probably helping, but you may not need to be as extreme as you are (especially since you're not seeing drastic improvements)
-
I'm thinking reflux meds would help.
Even though i didn't cut all dairy I did see a big difference in R when I cut out cheese/yogurt/glasses of milk (i LOVE dairy) but still had milk in tea and chocolate and hidden dairy in some things. So if it were just intolerance I do think you would have found a difference by now, even if symptoms were not away you should have seen some short of improvement.
{{{hugs}}}The ED is probably helping, but you may not need to be as extreme as you are (especially since you're not seeing drastic improvements)
This is what I'm thinking.
-
I phoned the paed and apparently she is swamped and will try and get back to me by the end of the week :-\
-
jenn...for your health and sanity, I would be starting to consider that the ED is not the answer.....big hugs for the nighttime. Our nights are pants too (maybe i should be thinking about something other than hunger????)
-
{{{{hugs Jenn}}}}
Have been thinking of you and trying to decide what I would do. My gut feeling is I would scrap the ED. Especially seeing as the paed has said it is upto you and most importantly because you haven't seen any improvement. I noticed improvement in a few days of cutting back on dairy so I do think you should have seen some improvement by now.
Sorry thats probably not much help xx
-
No I think you guys are right. I have never really believed this is a food intolerance. I did it hoping it would help but never being really sure that's what it was. I'm going to ease back into eating some things and see what happens. Still waiting to hear from the paed. I slept sitting up last night from 10-2:30 and then she slept in her bed after that feed, so not terrible. Getting her to nap this morning was a challenge as she was so uncomfy.
-
HUGS Jenn. I agree with PP - I'd ease off on the ED and instead push (hard and as quickly as possible) for a GOOD dose of reflux meds. Hope you and she can get some comfort and sleep soon. Thinking of you...
-
Ok I just heard back from the paed. She has faxed a prescription for a reflux med to the pharmacy here. I'm not sure which med yet but I will go pick it up when Ethan wakes from his nap. She also told me she thinks Emily is still suffering from what I am eating but thinks it's ridiculous to tale anything else out of my diet. She said if we can get Emily more comfy on these meds then great but if she still is having problems I will most likely need to switch to HAF :-\ She also wants me to start giving her a stool softener type thing to help take some gas pains away.
-
So it's Prevavid and 6mg twice a day. Sound good?
Probably shouldn't be on allergies thread anymore :-\
-
here's to hoping meds do help. Unfortunately, it can take 2 weeks for them to really take affect. We had to change our meds and our doses several times before we got things sorted. So don't be afraid to keep pushing if you're not seeing improvement.
We slept with Katie on our chests almost every night for the first 2.5 mos. And naps were always in the wrap on me. But once we got meds sorted and dairy out of my system, she did much, much better. Hang in there!!
super glad she started you on prevacid!! I know loads of mums who had much better luck with the ppi (like prevacid), so that's a great place to start. Sounds like a good dose as well. We started on 7.5 mg 1x a day, and moved to 7.5 mg 2x a day, but Katie is much bigger, so 6 mg 2x a day sounds like a good place to start. I really do hope it works for you!!!
-
Coming in late but I'm so glad you got reflux meds. I've totally BTDT, I swear I could have written some of your posts! Although I did see some improvement when I dropped things from my diet. All that's done, though, is to make me more nervous to bring them back even though I'm not sure if it was coincidental or not! Anyhow, I think your nights sound very, very refluxy. Don't be surprised if the PPI takes a bit to work, but I hope it will. You could try some simethicone for the gas, too, although that never helped us too much. I wouldn't even think about the HAF for a while until you give treating reflux a fair trial. :-*
-
Great to hear that she started us on a good med! I am completely clueless about everything reflux so disn't really know what to ask for. Thankfully the paed totally thought it was reflux too.
Thanks for the tips that it might take some time to work. I have been giving her simethicone for gas but it rarely does anything ::)
Why does it seem like every baby has reflux these days ??? :-\
-
ITA that it sounds like a good dose and good that she started her on Prevacid instead of Zantac/Pepcid. As others have said, give it time to work. Our doc had OK'd us to use Mylanta Cherry Supreme (half teaspoon 2 times a day) if needed in the meantime but it had to be spaced out at least two hours from the PPI. It did help for us.
As for why so many kids have reflux these days, I've heard so many different theories - from that we are now realizing what we used to say was colic is often reflux, environmental factors, factors like growth hormones in meat and milk we ingest when pregnant (same with pesticides), etc. So hard to say.
HUGS
-
I wouldnt assume theres no food issues I would bring in food slowly just to be safe...
The reason reflux is diagnosed more now like PP said is realization, my first daughter screamed 24 hours aday when i took her to the drs i was told i was over feeding my newborn baby (breast fed) and also under feeding her (in the same sentence) and it was wind and colic lol
It wasnt untill she was projectile vomiting, a friend told me it was reflux that the dr accepted it was reflux, With my second daughter i told the hv she had reflux (me and my husband have reflux and i investigated the family link so when she began posseting largly after each meal i knew iykwim) she said no its just posseting till she saw the amount then she said "yes thats reflux" so i phoned the gp got a thickner no questions asked
With alyssa its the first time (5 years after my first) ive been taken seriously or felt taken seriously with the reflux, we were refered to a peadiatrition etc so ive really seen the difference in attitude, although at 1 day old i was ignored by mws etc when i was telling them she had reflux (she was already throwing up every meal to the extent the mws laid her on her side to stop her getting it in her face again) so its not quite there but getting there
-
Okay so now I'm totally confused. Or maybe just disappointed. I don't know.
Yesterday and today I have eaten a couple things that weren't on my diet. Just gradually having something but mostly staying on the diet. No change in her tummy/reflux issues. Then tonight she had her first poop in three (?) days and it was the first "normal" newborn poop she has ever had :-\ So that makes me think the diet was doing something. So now I don't know what to do. I'm obviously not keen on going back to such a strict diet (especially after having a few bites of yummy things!) but I will do it if I have too. Should I keep trying to add something back (for my own sake) or completely keep it as it was ???
Oh, we are on day two of reflux meds if that makes a difference.
-
Well the meds "could" be already starting to help and leading to less acid, which would make for more normal BMs. Yes it "can" and often does take up to two weeks but for some people they start working much faster. I'd probably continue on as you are with the diet for now (not increasing adding back in but staying with what you did) and see what happens over the next two week and then maybe you can slowly add more things back in.
((((HUGS))))
-
Ok! Thanks Karen! I didn't have to sit up with her at all last night so maybe they are working!
-
I'd wait for a bit too. Then do a really gradual introduction of things. With the dairy we did butter for a few days then moved onto something else IYKWIM?
Really hope the meds make a difference xx
-
I know some mums who have almost immediate improvement on a ppi, so maybe the meds are working.....I'd wait on reintroducing for another 2 weeks til the meds are in her system, that way you don't have so many changes you're trying to sort through at one time.
-
HOws it going Jenn?
-
Thanks for checking in :-*
I've been meaning to update. I don't know how things are going TBH. Nothing is constant IYKWIM. So it's hard to tell if anything is working. We are 1 week into the reflux meds and somedays are great and some days are horrible. I can hear her refluxing and swallowing and then getting upset. But then she won't do that for two days but then it comes back. I have stayed on my diet because she got really gassy a few days after I had some things. But same with the reflux, it comes and goes. The only constant has been her pooped has stayed normal with no mucous. I'm completely fed up with the diet but I'm scared to add anything back again.
-
Hi, glad you have posted over in CRC now about the reflux, the lovely girls over there will be able to hold your hand through it. Also this is a great thread for support http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=209270.405. Of course, feel free to vent or ask questions over here xx
-
I just came upon this thread and would love to hear what you are doing. My niece reacts to corn-- it's a common allergen and a hidden ingredient in so many things inc formula.