start solids or wait? Mucous & some blood in stool 6mo

[mianita]

My DD is 6mo now and I was planning to start her on solids at this age. But we are fighting with mucous and blood in her stool for almost 1 month. I'm on diet for more than 20 days and excluded dairy, soy, eggs, nuts and wheat. I see some improvements- her stool is not so green, if she has some blood it is not so much as before and we have less cases, she is less gassy, sleeps better, no stomach cramps. But still she has lots of mucous and drop of blood here and there.
So what should I do with solids? Should I wait for her gut to heal, if yes how long should we wait? If start now with what food to start? We still have no idea what causes her intollerance/allergy, so how will I know that this particular food is safe? I'm really confused...
Any recomendations?
Thanks in advance!!!

[deb]

If you have access to a doctor who specializes in allergies, I would start there. You're already off the major allergens in your own diet, which is fantastic. If gluten is the issue, then going off wheat may not be enough, as other grains contain gluten as well. I'm sure the other FA mommas will be by to tell you which ones - I wonder might it be helpful to make a Sticky of gluten-containing and gluten-free grains? There's also a celiac thread up in the stickies that might be worth checking out: a friend's little girl was having blood in her stool and my friend was totally sure it was celiac and the docs kept naysaying her, but finally a biopsy confirmed it.

I'd be inclined to let her gut heal more before starting, or start with.... yes, the same question you have - I don't know that I'd know either, but if she's still not improved by 6 months I'd say her gut hasn't healed and is still being irritated by something if there's still blood.

[mianita]

Thanks a lot for advice! I was reading about celiac here but didn't know about symptoms at this early age. However I think I'm almost glutein free, but I'm not sure which grains have glutein... I eat grains not every day, and if i do I eat quinoa, buckwheat, sometimes oatmeal in the morning. I'm not sure about corn, so I don't eat it. I eat green salads, from fruits bananas, apples, pears, plums and papaya (decided to take away bananas and papaya for a while now, just in case). From vegetables I eat asparragus, broccoli, potatoes (sweet, yams), different varieties of squash. For snacks I eat hummus, sunflower seeds, in case I want something sweet- dates. I eat some of rice products and rice milk. I don't eat meat normally, sometimes orgsnic turkey or chicken breast, very rare beef fillet. I don't know what else should I take away...
GI adviced me to wean BF and start her on Elecare formula. But I really want to save BF, it is so important for me, so I'm ready for any diet... And even if I want to introduce formula to her, I have no idea how, she never had a bottle and still don't know how to use sippy cup... Well formula is my last resort to be honest.
my DD is on probiotics for several days, I ordered for myself too.
I really wish I could find a reason why she has those stomach problems.

[Buntybear]

Hi, you are really well with your diet.  It can take a couple of weeks for the foods to leave the system and then another couple for the gut to heal so the fact that you have seen improvement is great - leave it another week or so and then see how things are. I don't think there is a lot more that you can take out of your diet!

Maybe have a look at this thread as there is more info about EDs.

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=189899.0

Dose your LO have reflux?

[deb]

Two thoughts:

Here is a link to a list of grains/foods with and without gluten: http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/theglutenfreediet/a/GrainTable.htm

The other is that seeds are another allergen a lot of people don't know about; I have a friend whose DD is allergic to sesame seeds. You may want to leave out the sunflower seeds for now. Can you substitute pumpkin seeds?

[Hedgehog17]

Hi,

You really do need to see an allergy specialist - insist that you get a referral because if things have not cleared up completely then there is still something wrong.

She doesn't need solids yet, she won't digest them and there's a very good chance they'll irritate her intestines even more.

Good luck!

[abbysmomma]

Oatmeal is very often contaminated with wheat unless it gluten-free certified. Thought you might want to know!

[mianita]

Thank you so much for advices!!! I'm really desperate and want to help my baby...
I took away sunflower seeds, but have a question about other types like hemp seeds, chia seeds and goji beries - are they safe or allergens as well?
I'm glutein free for couple of days(but actually as I cut wheat at the beginning I was almost glutein free during my diet, just oatmeal could be the possible source and someimes rye bread-pumpkernikel) and yesterday my DD had awful green poop with blood again ((( I was soooo sad! I was questioning everything I ate that day and didn't find anything special... But in the morning I cleaned her nose with saline drops and of course she swallewed some. I thought that maybe this is the reason? Maybe it irritated her tummy? Any ideas?
Tomorrow we have our vaccinations scheduled, I want to postpone a rotovirus vacine as I don't want anything go to her stomach untill she feels better. Actually I blame this rotavirus vacine for causing more problems as this situation with her poop started somewhere after 2 month vaccination...
Also I'm eating some products with coconut milk and sometimes use coconut oil for cookind, don't know if it is safe.

[deb]

Coconut is generally not a common allergen, although *some* people are allergic to it, sort of like *some* people are allergic to bee stings. It's unusual but not out of the question.

Would avoid gluten entirely for a few days and see if it makes a difference.

I've not heard of a reaction to hemp or chia seeds..... I wonder though if there may be a salicylate component to the reaction? Maybe Eloys can pop in here - this is more her area of expertise.

Also, many doctors are OK with postponing or spreading out some vax; we were concerned about how many of the jabs were combo shots so opted to spread them out over a couple of weeks with time between each one. We were totally prepared to fight about it, but were happily surprised not to have to.

[mianita]

Thanks! In Sears books coconut is a list of alergic food, as well as buckwheat (which sounds quite strange to me), I'm trying to see how DD reacts when I eat them, but don't notice anything special, however probably the reaction can appear in a day por two I suppose, in this case it is too hard to understand what is causing it... I'll see a different pediatrician this week, want to have a second opinion for this situation.
DD was in pain with vacination at 2 and 4 months, and this was like bad bad stomach pain, she slept in my arms for the whole night after the shots... So this time I'll try to separate shots and rotavirus.
I'm still thinking that maybe saline drops caused this greep poop, I hope so actually, because otherwise I have no idea what is going here.

[Rachel_Momto3boys]

You're doing great!!! I'm currently BFing my 9 month old and avoiding dairy/soy/egg/tomatoes/nuts.  It took me a long time to figure out that my LO was having problems with tomatoes, but by your list it doesn't seem like you're eating that?  My doctor too told me to switch to a formula, but I refused   BFing was (and is still!) important to me so we stuck it out.  He's doing great now and hasn't had any blood or mucuous in his stools since he was five months old.... so you can do it! It's tough right now but hang in there. 
Also, oddly enough, my LO also had a reaction to pears.  I don't personally like pears so I don't eat them, it wasn't until I gave them to him directly (since he's on some solids now) that he had a reaction.  Pears are supposed to low on the allergen list.

[Hedgehog17]

I'm allergic to pears as well, so I have never given them to DS. It goes along with my hazelnut allergy apparently...

[mianita]

Ladies, thank you so much for advices and support!
So we had our 6mo check up and vacines. Our new doc was very supportive and my DD didn't receive rotavirus (doc told me that anyway she never recommends in to babies with diarreah). We had NO reaction! No awful pain! So my instinct was right about this vaccine! This was the one damaging her gut even more than any allergen...
We will have an appt with another GI, and our doc told us to hold on on solids until we solve the problem with DDs stomach.

Regarding the reaction to allergis food through breast milk, how long it takes to see the reaction after you eat something? The thing is as her poop is full of mucous, I can't understand if she has any reaction on this paticular food or no, so I'm kinda confused here. As I see all babies have reactions to different foods, even to pears and babanas, so there is actualy no safe food... I eat tomatoes and coconut products and some other veggies, but it is not every day, like once-twice per week. And I don't see any new reactions in my DD, she had mocous and still has it. Well, I want to see if there will be any improvements after I excluded all glutein.

However we decided with doctor, in case we don't see any improvements in some time we will try the Elecare, but it will be our last resort. And I agree with this approach, because I wish the best to my DD, and if my milk causing such bad reactions and we can't figure out why, then it sound reasonable to try formula.

Still hope to find this allergen, which causes us so many troubles...