Allergies and tears.

[@llli*starieyed14]

I am literally in tears and at wits end. Please help if you can! My oldest son, who is 3 now, had a dairy allergy when I was nursing him. I had to cut out all dairy (including ingredients and what not). He grew out of it by the time he was nine months....I thought that it was "hard." I nursed him until he was 13 months.

Well now I have my little 6 month old...so when he started having symptoms of
allergy at about a month old I knew exactly what to look for. So we took him in,
got it confirmed that there was blood in his stool (even though I couldn't see it)...
so I cut out dairy again. Nothing got better. I had no idea what to do, and all the
sites on infant food allergies say to cut out dairy, soy, wheat, corn, eggs and
peanuts. Well that pretty much left me with chicken and vegetables for a diet.
About a month ago I introduced wheat back in, and he started reacting again. He wasn't fussy during the day at all, but he was pooing a lot more. Like two times a
day instead of once every few days. But his sleeping (which has never been good
EVER... a "good night" is only waking up 2 or 3 times) got much worse. We couldn't get more than 45 mins of sleep at a time. I took him in to the doctor again to
check, and sure enough there was blood again.

So I cried. I really enjoyed my sandwiches that I ate that week. But then I was doing research and found that sometimes the vaccines have soy in them, and he had just got a round of vaccines a week or so before they tested his diaper. So now I'm wondering, could it have been the soy from the vaccine that caused the blood in the stool?

I don't know what the heck he is allergic to. Yes I could "test it out" by introducing things....but say I introduce wheat...and then he reacts....and then i have to wait a month...then soy...then wait a month....it seems like there are so many foods to test and in the meantime months are passing and my kid is getting big and I am BARELY keeping up enough milk for him now. My body is really struggling because I can't hardly eat a thing and so it's really hard for me to make milk and in return that is making for some really crappy nursing sessions (he doesn't "comfort nurse"...if there is no milk coming out right away he gets very upset and pulls off over and over until I FINALLY have a let down)...and my nipples are sore and he seems hungry all the time. And he wakes up all the time crying from hunger.

I am feeling so depressed lately because I am HUNGRY...and TIRED.... and I can't eat anything. I just want a taco. I am seriously considering going to the expensive sensitive formula. I am the biggest breastfeeding advocate EVER....so I cringe when I say it....but what else am I supposed to do? He's hungry, I'm hungry, neither of us are sleeping. And since my diet is SO limited, is he even getting the vitamins his little body needs from my milk? I have no idea. I heard of getting allergy tests done to see for sure what all he is allergic to...is that a good idea? Please help!

OR..should I just eat the wheat anyways even if he is allergic to it? He didn't sleep well but for the first time in months I had enough milk to make both of us happy. Ugh.

[@llli*mommal]

Mama, I hate hearing about moms being forced onto terribly restrictive diets.

Aside from bloody poops and frequent night-wakings, is there anything in your baby's behavior or growth that is really concerning you? Because if that's it, then I say screw it: have a sandwich. Night-waking is totally normal and usually unrelated to mom's diet- it could be a growth spurt, it could be teething, it could be developmental, etc. And bloody poops are freaky, but they're not really a big health concern. I mean, a kid can have bloody poops and still grow and develop just fine. Not every kid, obviously- there are certainly kids whose allergies are so severe that they really cannot thrive on breastmilk if mom is eating a lot of allergenic foods. But I think there are just as many, if not more, who will experience some intestinal irritation but still do well on breastmilk alone. And that has to be better for those kids, overall, than formula, even the fancy hypoallergenic ones.

I'm truly not trying to make light of this. There is a terrific mom on this forum who had to switch to hypoallergenic formula because of her child's severe allergies- but his symptoms were far, far more than just some bloody poops and night-waking.

Regardless of what you do, please don't feel like your restricted diet is causing you to produce deficient milk. Your body is smart: it will take from your reserves in order to produce nutritious milk for your child.

[@llli*lidarln]

Mama, I hate hearing about moms being forced onto terribly restrictive diets.

Aside from bloody poops and frequent night-wakings, is there anything in your baby's behavior or growth that is really concerning you? Because if that's it, then I say screw it: have a sandwich. Night-waking is totally normal and usually unrelated to mom's diet- it could be a growth spurt, it could be teething, it could be developmental, etc. And bloody poops are freaky, but they're not really a big health concern. I mean, a kid can have bloody poops and still grow and develop just fine. Not every kid, obviously- there are certainly kids whose allergies are so severe that they really cannot thrive on breastmilk if mom is eating a lot of allergenic foods. But I think there are just as many, if not more, who will experience some intestinal irritation but still do well on breastmilk alone. And that has to be better for those kids, overall, than formula, even the fancy hypoallergenic ones.

I'm truly not trying to make light of this. There is a terrific mom on this forum who had to switch to hypoallergenic formula because of her child's severe allergies- but his symptoms were far, far more than just some bloody poops and night-waking.

Regardless of what you do, please don't feel like your restricted diet is causing you to produce deficient milk. Your body is smart: it will take from your reserves in order to produce nutritious milk for your child.

with ALL of this.... and I have no idea how early they can test a child but If you are truly concerned about an allergy then I highly recommend making an appt with an allergy specialist.

[@llli*still.here]

with ALL of this.... and I have no idea how early they can test a child but If you are truly concerned about an allergy then I highly recommend making an appt with an allergy specialist.

They can test as early as they want, though the younger the child the less accurate the test results can be. That's why most docs recommend an elimination diet first if you think there is an allergy. Then they'll use the testing to narrow it down or confirm your suspicions.

But in your case I'm wondering if any of that is really necessary. What were the symptoms that initially made you bring him in to be checked? If all you have are fussiness, irregular poops and bloody stools where you couldn't even see the blood...honestly I'd just back off the elimination diet altogether and see what happens.

[@llli*starieyed14]

Thanks for the support ladies, it makes me feel better. I had a sandwich today because I was starving, and chicken and rice wasn't cutting it. I'm praying it goes better than it did last month. His initial symptoms when he was about 5 weeks old was basically that he wouldn't sleep ever and when he was awake (unless I had him wrapped in my moby ridiculously tight) he would SCREAM as if he was lit on fire. not just "oh he was fussy"....it was VERY enthusiastic screaming. For hours. And as much as I wish he did, he won't comfort nurse...he never has. I initially cut out just dairy because that's all I did with my first son, but it made zero difference so I ended up just taking out everything. Now it's just dairy, soy, and wheat. And when I introduced wheat is when he started sleeping even worse, and threw up once. But like I said he had just gotten his vaccines a week before so I don't know if that was from the soy in them or if it could have been the egg in the mayo....I just don't know.

[@llli*mommal]

That screaming phase must have been awful. It sounds a lot like colic. But I also wonder if you ever had, or still have, symptoms of oversupply or forceful letdown? Those things would match well with baby's dislike of comfort nursing, as well as the bloody poops and general misery.

[@llli*starieyed14]

I know I definitley have forceful let downs at first. With both my kids they couldn't handle it until about 6 weeks old, it was horrible. If I layed on my back it would shoot out like a fountain (sorry if tmi) so I had to nurse like on my back with them on top of me or laying on my side. Then it settles down at about 8 weeks and now I think it's fine. My oldest was definately a comfort nurser which I thought was a pain, haha. Now this one won't comfort nurse which can also be a pain.

So for so good with the sandwich yesterday. I guess we shall see. Prayers would be wonderful!!

[@llli*mommal]

Prayers? You got 'em.

One thing that happens a lot with bloody poop babies is that moms go on extremely restrictive diets when the real problem is/was milk oversupply. Excessive lactose intake from oversupply can cause a lot of intestinal irritation which can result in bloody poops and a lot of misery on the baby's part (gas, screaming, dislike of comfort nursing, forceful spit-ups, green poops and diaper rash). I have to wonder if maybe this elimination diet you've been on has been attacking your LO's issue from the wrong angle...?

[@llli*lidarose]

Corn tortillas. Even the gluten intolerant can eat them. I hope things improve.