digestive enzymes to treat food sensitivities

[ellenaaron]

Hi,
I was wondering if any of you have heard of breastfeeding mothers taking digestive enzyme supplements to help with their baby's food sensitivities?

I have a book called Mother Food, written by a holistic lactation consultant, and she says that digestive enzyme supplements will help prevent undigested food particles from passing into the mother's blood stream, since they help the food to be digested more completely.  Since those undigested food particles in the blood stream are what causes babies to have food sensitivities, it makes sense that reducing them would help.

Another supplement she recommends is astragalus, an herb, because it supposedly increases the IGA antibodies in the mother's intestines, which bind with any undigested food particles and prevent them from passing into the blood stream.

My baby is 4 months old now and while I've never been able to definitively pin down any specific culprit, I strongly suspect she has food sensitivities.  She spits up a lot and has consistently mucousy poops, sometimes green, and her bowel movements and mood are extremely irregular from day to day.  One day she might have 2 BMs,  while on another day she might have 6.  Some days she spits up large amounts; on other days barely at all. This leads me to believe that she is sensitive to food(s) I'm eating. 

I'm thinking about starting to take these supplements. 

Anyone have any feedback on this?

[deb]

I don't have a problem so much w/taking enzymes to help digestion, since Josie and I both do take them, but then again, I'm not nursing any more. I think I'd think twice about taking some while BFing unless I felt more knowledgeable about them, which I don't right now.

The symptoms you're describing in your DD do sound a lot to me like food sensitivity/intolerance, though. I would probably try eliminating the more common culprits, like dairy, wheat, tomatoes, and maybe nuts and/or eggs before adding something to my diet. That way you can also get a better handle on what she's sensitive TO, instead of just eliminating symptoms overall, which would give you a better idea of what to keep an eye on down the road.

Just my own thoughts..... Good luck and keep us posted?

[Cassie]

There was a study done on this. But it was a very very small study, only 4 infants.  They were given pharmaceutical grade pancreatic enzymes.. PancreaseMT.  I just printed out a copy of the abstract to give to Palmer's GI doc on Monday.  RESULTS: In infants, stool blood resolved witin a few days of therapy.  One mother required three capusles with meals/two with snacks before stool blood resolved.  No side-effects occurred due to therapy.  CONCLUSION: Maternal pancreatic enzyme therapy can be an alternative treatment for EBF infants with stool blood when dietary restriction fails.  It allows mother to continue to breastfeed and to reduce the risk of anemia.

Palmer has never had blood in his stools, but I would totally be willing to take pancreatic enzymes if it would help him tolerate things better.  I doubt she will bite, but I wanted to get her take on it.

Deb... what enzymes do you use?  Maybe the over the counter ones would help us.

[deb]

I personally take the generic ones that Whole Foods sells. Frankly, not sure if I sense much difference with them, but I'm giving them the old college try, as it were.

[Cassie]

yeah I don't think the over the counter enzymes are that useful because they have to be formulated in a way that allows them to pass through the acidic environment of the stomach before becoming active.  The pancreatis secretes enzymes into the small intestine where they begin breaking down carbohydrates and fat.  So if the enzymes are destroyed in the stomach they are useless.

I use to work with lot of Cystic Fibrosis patients and that was the main problem trying to get enzymes into babies.. hard to get them to take them correctly.

The GI was very sceptical about using pancreatic enymzes.  I didn't really push it although I would be willing to try for the sake of science.