How Do I Tell If It's A Food Intolerance?

[ceilidhf]

I'm hoping someone can offer up some advice. I have an almost 7 month old who has been on solids for about a month and a half. He did fine with rice cereal and oat cereal, and with the stage one foods (carrot, banana, apple sauce, sweet potato, etc.) About 2 weeks ago a few things happened at once - immunisations, change of formula, intorducing mixed cereal and stage 2 foods. Since then, he has developed really loose (not sure I would call it diarrhea) stools and does it about 6 times a day (as opposed to his usual twice). This has resulted in a diaper rash that simply gets worse each time he poops. He also had bright red cheeks and a rash around his mouth, gas pains at night that woke him every hour or two (gripe water helped) and was way more irritable than usual. We immediately stopped all solid food and changed back to his usual formula. Within a day, his pooping returned to normal, diaper rash cleared up after 2 days, and he was less gassy/irritable. We kept him off solids for two days and then slowly re-introduced them starting with mixed cereal and fruit purees. That was 2 days ago and we are already back to the crazy pooping and the diaper rash. To me, this is diet related since it all coincides, but my hubby thinks it may be teething (he is drooling and chomping on things so definitely has something going on there). Mu question is, how do I determine if this is an intolerance/sensitivity to food and which food is it? Do I just stop all foods again and then introduce them one by one until there is a reaction? How long should I wait between foods? What would be the most common culprit at this stage? Thanks in advance...

[Buntybear]

Hi there,

So sorry you are going through this with your little LO. It can be a hard time when introducing solids as it often co-incides with teething and a sleep regression and all these things can put you off course a bit.

TBH loose stools, rashes, red cheeks, irritability are all signs of teething. However you did the right thing by taking it back to basics and removing anything new from his diet.

What formula was he on and what did you change too? Has he ever had any symptoms that would make you think he was intolerant to milk (assuming he was on a standard formula)?

What stage 2 foods did you introduce? Anything like the usal suspects to cause problems - wheat, egg, fish etc?

[ceilidhf]

We have been using Similac Advance since birth (we did a breast feeding/formula combo). We switched to the generic store brand one and that was when the issues first started (that will teach me to cheap out on formula, eh?) The only new foods that I can think of are mixed cereal (contains wheat flour) and Rusks (also with wheat flour). Otherwise, just the regular jars of baby food. I have held off the cereal today and so far we have had nothing out of the ordinary in terms of pooping or gas. I have kept him on apple sauce today and will stick to this and try intorducing one by one....

Thanks for the response! I'll let you know how we go...