Desperate for answers! Please help!

[blondie91582]

My son is 5 1/2 months old & is EBF. He has reflux & suspected food intolerances. I've been eliminating dairy since for a few months, then eggs, then they added soy. After removing all those, he started having some blood in his poop (never happened before, they tested for it about a month before & it came back neg), so they had me eliminate wheat & nuts. He seemed a lot better after that & had perfect bf baby poops. After a couple weeks, he started having little bits of blood again, but not often. We did the poop test cards & they all came back positive for blood, even without it being visible. So now they want me to put off starting him on solids & try putting him on hypoallergenic formula to see if that clears it up. I really don't want to stop bf him. I've asked if we can do an IgG blood test to see if he's intolerant to something else I'm eating (especially since he's had issues when I eat things like cantaloupe & strawberries), but they said he's too young for that. I'm wondering if it could be something other than a food intolerance as well?

Has anyone else had experience with something like this? Or had a food intolerance test done on your baby? I'm desperate here! I want what's best for him, but I feel like this is wrong. Thanks!

[ENMS]

lots of (((HUGS))).

my DS is now 9 months old and reacted to something in my milk as well that I was never able to identify. I ended up putting him on hypoallergenic formula (elemental formula actually Nutramigen AA) but in my case it was an easy decision since BF had been difficult since the beginning and at that point, I was pumping and feeding him EBM. I totally understand that you do not want to stop BF him.

I know that there are some severe exclusion diets that can be done and that some BW's have done it in the past - I can't remember who but I am sure they will pop on and give you some advice on what else you could exclude from your diet.

Does your DS take any meds?

What kind of doctor have you seen? Allergist, GI? I have to say I do not disagree with delaying solids for a little bit. Until you can know more about what he is reacting to, adding solids in the mix may make it worse. You won't be able to tell if the blood is from his diet or yours. I'd definitely try to resolve the issue before adding something new. And don't worry they can thrive on milk only until 1 yr old. My DS is 9 months old, has been only on formula except for the occasionnal food trial until very lately (we now finally have one safe food - pears yay!) and he is 85th percentile for both height and weight.

Have allergy tests come back negative? There are some tests for intolerances but they're not as 'scientific'. They may help you identify what the problem is.

[blondie91582]

Thanks

I agree with waiting on the solids too. I just want him to be happy & healthy. He's on prevacid & zantac. We just had both of his doses checked. They keep telling me that he should be able to come off of the zantac, but any time we try, it doesn't go well.

We have mostly been seeing a GI, but I feel like she & I have very different personal opinions (I try to be as natural as possible, she's going in later this month for her scheduled C section). I asked her what my options were & she said formula is the ONLY option we have. So... I'm going to see his allergist today. He had IgE tests done for the main allergens, but the all came back neg & then we were told that he was too young for them to be valid anyway. If things don't go well with the allergist, I'm planning on taking him to a naturopath next

[ENMS]

Re: the meds, do you give them at least 4h apart? And give prevacid on an empty stomach 30 minutes before feeding?

I disagree that formula is the only option you have. BUT, going on a severe elimination diet is not easy for you either.

If no one comes in with advice re: elimination diets I have found this group for you - might help to figure out what next to eliminate.

http://community.babycenter.com/groups/a6328975/allergy_elimination_diets

Is the only symptoms blood in poop? any vomiting?

FWIW, being desperate lately I have started to try some things that are more 'alternative'. I went to a naturopath working with the NAET technique (you can try googling NAET and see if there are some specialists in your area - it is mostly chiros that do it). This works for both intolerances and allergies.  I have heard some moms that had significant improvement in their LO after doing this.  I've also (and this is where I've seen the most improvement) seen a chiro trained in applied kinesiology and she has been amazing. In the past I have also done osteopathy treatments but have not seen any improvement for my DS.

I have heard a mom doing electro-dermal testing for intolerances but have not tried it myself.

Does he spit up a lot? Do you see spit up long after his feeds?

For Prevacid are you using the solutabs or the compound? The solutab contains a trace of lactose and some very sensitive LO's (like my DS) react to it. My DS is awful on prevacid but much better on Nexium.

Also where in the world are you?

(((HUGS))) I really feel for you.  It WILL get better though, I promise. I never thought it possible but my DS is loads better lately and we're even trying to wean him off his Nexium right now.  Still having some issues with solids, but one step at a time he will get there

[blondie91582]

I always give prevacid (solutabs) on an empty stomach, but had never been told to give the meds 4 hours apart (they just said not immediately after), so I have been giving him the zantac about 3 hours later in the morning & the evening shouldn't matter since he only takes prevacid once a day. I'll try giving it later & see if that helps. I also didn't know the tabs have lactose in them. I'll have to ask about that. Maybe since he's on both, he could stop taking the prevacid? They always suggest keeping it & dropping the zantac though.

Yes, that's the only symptom. He had really bad reflux when he was younger, but didn't spit up much then either. Now he rarely spits up, but he still does that gurgling & then swallow thing (like something is trying to come up) pretty much anytime he rolls over too fast or goes from horizontal to vertical. His reflux seems much better. Sometimes when he spits up it's 3 hours or so after he ate. Actually, he's been breathing oddly sometimes when he sleeps. When he was born, they said he had slight laryngomalacia because he made a little "hup" sound frequently. Then as he got older, it was only when he was sleeping & eventually completely gone. I just noticed a few nights ago that he's started making funny noises in his sleep & baby snoring a little. That might just be because we've both been a little congested lately.

We live in the US in Arizona.

I just got back from an appointment with his allergist, who thinks it's milk allergy colitis. She said she thinks it's fine to keep breast feeding him as long as he continues to eat, gain weight & be happy. She said that they don't do the IgG testing, but that I could pay for it myself with a naturopath, so I guess we'll do that. She also said she thinks it's fine to start solids as long as I do it very slowly & start with rice cereal & then root vegetables.

I'm also going to see a different GI specialist as soon as she has an opening. I have been seeing the nurse practitioner most of the time since the dr. is so busy & in demand. Hopefully she'll have some more experience with this sort of thing. I also happen to know she's a big advocate for bf, so that might make a difference too

[ENMS]

I think if you give the zantac 3h after the prevacid it should be fine. I guess the general idea is to separate them as much as possible.

the lactose is really a trace and not suppose to bother most MPI babies. I think it's rare that LO's react to it, but some do.

as for stopping the prevacid and keeping the zantac... zantac works for some LO's but most of those I've seen on these boards need a PPI like Prevacid once they're older than 4 months to control their reflux. so stopping the prevacid may make it worse   prevacid is supposed to be much better than zantac apparently.

can you tell me more about igg testing? I'm interested to know what it is.

I hope the GI gets an opening soon.

[blondie91582]

All of the doctors we've seen seem to think the prevacid is better too, I just thought that if it was bothering him, we could just use the zantac. His reflux has been so much better that I hope we don't have to stop giving him either.

From what I understand IgG testing is like the IgE allergy testing, except it's for intolerances, rather than allergies. It looks for antibodies that your body makes to combat certain foods that it deems foreign. It's not completely accepted by medical professionals though. They all said they never refer them & that most insurances won't cover them. Apparently, it can only show intolerances if the person has been exposed to the food before (at least a month earlier, to give the body time to make the antibodies). I've been told you can have false positives, but not false negatives. I made an appointment for him on Monday & they said it'll take about 10 days to get the results back. Then, we'll get a follow up for them to explain it to me. I'll let you know how it goes

[ENMS]

If you think his reflux is well controlled, I think there's nothing wrong with trying just the zantac. In my personal experience, I often doubt myself but in the end my gut feeling is pretty much always right. Probably the same for most mommies.

Also are you giving him probiotics? These can really help their digestive system because PPI's remove acid but then the intestinal flora can be affected.

Thanks for the info on IgG testing, I had never heard of it. We're seeing the GI for the first time on Tuesday I'm going to ask him about it.

I'm hoping you can get some answers from it.

Keep me posted and hang in there