Food allergies are more common than many realize! The top 7 food allergens are dairy, egg, soy, wheat, citrus, nuts and shellfish. However, while most food allergies end up being one of the top seven it is possible to react to other foods, particularly proteins. It can be difficult to ascertain what food might be bothering your breastfed infant, particularly if dairy is one of the allergens because it can take up to six weeks before it is undetectable in breastmilk.

Often when there are food allergy symptoms the elimination of dairy, egg, soy and wheat will hit on the food allergen and improvements will be seen within the first week. Dairy is by far the most common food allergy but also the hardest to eliminate because of the time it takes to completely leave the system. However, it does begin to lower and will continue to drop as it is scrupulously kept out of the diet. Be careful to keep an eye out for all processed foods that all too commonly have casein, whey or other hidden dairy in them.

If eliminating the top 4, or top 7 food allergens does not help you with indentification of the culprit, I would suggest that you consider and elimination diet that will help you reduce the variables and approach it from the other direction. While it takes commitment, it is a much easier way to get clear answers to what is causing the symptoms.

The elimination diet I recommend takes you back initially to only fruits and vegetables minus anything that is very acidic….so no citrus or tomatoes. There is rarely a reaction to veggies and fruits that aren't acidic. A few days of this diet will help you see if the diarrhea or visible blood in stools stops and green BM is turned more "normal" color.

The next thing I add is beans for protein. I recommend one kind of bean at a time. I would not use legumes, soybeans or garbanzo beans, because sometimes children that are allergic to peanuts will react to other legumes or garbanzo beans and soy is in the top 10 food allergens. There are still a lot of options with pintos, black beans, black-eyed peas, lima beans, navy beans, etc. This will let you see if your baby can handle the protein in beans and get some protein back into your diet. The first grain I would add after this is rice. Sometimes it can be an allergen, but usually it is not.

While you are doing this elimination diet keep track of what you are eating and the correlating state of baby's symptoms. You will get to where you can recognize immediately a reaction that you see 4 – 6 hrs after you eat something and have nursed. Space the introduction of any food item out by 4-5 days.

I know it's hard to think about a diet that does not include meat, but temporarily I would suggest it. Some babies that are allergic to dairy are also allergic to beef. Some that are allergic to eggs are also allergic to chicken. In all my years of working with Dr. Jay I have seen one infant that reacted severely to chicken. That experience taught me to suspect anything that is a protein.

You will need to really expand your thinking about veggie options. Make soups, stir fry veggies, salads…when you get to rice experiment with ones you have never tried before and flavoring them with different veggies diced and cooked with the rice.

Following this elimination diet you will begin to identify what the allergens are within a couple of weeks. The most encouraging thing to see is a couple of days after you begin veggies and fruits only seeing your baby's system begin to calm down. Most situations begin to improve in the first 2-7 days, though some can take 1-3 weeks. Now it does take patience because their intestines and lining of the stomach are irritated from tolerating things they are reacting to, but it will calm down with a little time.

I would recommend you go to the library and pick up "Is This Your Child?" by Dr. Doris Rapp. This is an eye-opening book regarding children's allergies. It's a thick read, but even taking a look at sections of it will help you understand that food allergies can cause digestion difficulties, skin reactions and even behavioral changes.

Another area for you to consider is using a position that will help slow the flow of your milk. The cradle hold puts the baby's head below the breast and if letdown is fast it can cause baby to gulp and take in air. Using the clutch/football hold to get baby's head above the breast level may help her calm down for nursings. Have you located your local La Leche group for some knowledgeable breastfeeding support?

Fast fwd to 10 weeks, we have moved states and I no longer am seeing a LC but went to Family practice dr who didn’t seem phased by my complaints of this milk blister (white spot on my left breast) and lumps and pain. What I did do was nurse no matter how excruciatingly painful it was, did warm compresses and took ibuprofen. The lumps seem to have dissapeared but the blister is still there although now not raised, I don’t have any red streaking on my breast but I have constant sharp pangs of pain and my nipples feel like they are burning. I bought GSE and just tried tonight applying them to see if its even thrush that I’m battling. My right breast doesn’t seem to be affected at all. I have also been taking probiotics for the past 3 weeks. I really don’t understand what is going on and I am just in pain when I nurse and it makes me feel terrible that the dr told me to only worry about mastitis or anything if I have a fever or have red streaking.

In regards to my daughter…
went in at 6 weeks because of all the symptoms which pedi described as reflux (even though we said she rarely spits up) and prescribed her Zantac. We did one day of dosing and after research on my own, and my instinct, I did not feel comfortable giving this to her. She has been pretty much the same ever since she was born with bouts of inconsolable crying, back arching phases during nursing, arching when she’s crying while we hold her, she sleeps on either of our chests at night, and she is able to nurse whenever she wants as I feel like maybe I can soothe her. The only remedies I give are the Homeopathic ColicCalm, which seems to work but I feel worried giving it to her so much even though it is homeopathic (dairy, gluten, allergen free) and hylands colic, and recently teething since we thought maybe thats what is happening (but realized lactose based and have now stopped). She sleeps very restlessly and is constantly waking herself up and will randomly wake up screaming. She has all sorts of gurgling going on and sometimes when she nurses I will feel some bubble go down and moments later she unlatches and is upset.
Also, my letdown always seems to affect her, and she always pulls off or bites down hard which hurts me. She commonly chokes when she first nurses. I have tried nursing uphill and always nurse one side every session only. I’m confused with if that is also part of all these issues.
We keep her upright after feedings, I babywear her all day and hold her to soothe her, and give warm baths and infant massage to see if this helps with her fussiness, gassiness, unhappiness! But it just seems to distract her.
Her bowel movements have been ok, but recently in the past 2 weeks green, and this morning diarrhea (watery green stool) and then changed to yellow mucuousy.
What also concerns me is that I am allergic to dairy and have been completely dairy free for the past 3 years – No Lactose or Casein, I read every label and cook most of my foods without eating any/much processed foods. I am now thinking I should cut out eggs, wheat, nuts (pb) – is almond milk something to also cut out since I’ve been drinking that since I cut out soymilk. I’m exhausted as to what could be causing my daughter to be so unhappy and in so much ‘writhing’ pain. From my instinct, she is a happy baby that is in pain, as I see glimmers of her smiling and happy and content. I don’t know how to fix this issue with my breast pain and her pain. I go through day to day thinking I can get through another day nursing and also worry about the next inconsolable crying session.. the past 2 days she has been nursing less than usual but I keep trying ways to keep her around and she will usually nurse at night which makes me feel better… she is hardly happy nursing because of her pain and i know she wants to be… i have looked at the roof of her moiuth and some parts of her gums have a yellowness to it.. that isn’t thrush is it?

also, a naturopath I went to see recommended giving her probiotics, by opening a capsule and dipping a finger… I wonder if she has reacted to this negatively. I keep going thru what it could be all these weeks but frankly this has been going on for what feels like forever!

I’m sorry this is so long – I am not sure what to do at this point! I am dairy free and exclusively breastfeeding, i can’t understand what is happening. Any reccommendations would be so great. Thanks!

Diflucan dosing for thrush is listed in an article by Dr. Jack Newman:
http://www.breastfeedingonline.com/20pdf.pdf

Thank you in advance.

Thanks!

http://www.nutriteam.com/index2.html
http://www.positivehealth.com/article-abstract.ph…

Is it safe to take an oral form of GSE while breastfeeding? Thanks