In a past post, I talked about the bit of a rough start that we had to our baby boy’s first few weeks – we ended up in the hospital for a few days and also found out he had a heart issue. Luckily, we have not had any more complications with those issues, and the cardiologist is hopeful that the heart issue should not require intervention. Yay!
We also discovered though over the last few weeks that Devon likely has some food intolerances. {Warning – about to get graphic about baby poop}. His diapers were becoming very slimy and they tested positive for traces of blood. He also had a minor skin rash, though that could have just been some unrelated baby acne, and was super fussy for a while (though again, that could have been completely unrelated). The one thing we knew was that the blood in his stool was pretty characteristic of a food intolerance, so I knew we’d have to address it.
Cow’s milk protein intolerance is the primary suspect for food intolerance in babies. It’s funny, because when I scan the baby forums, I often see people tossing around “have you tried cutting out dairy?” for any and all symptoms – fussiness, reflux, gas, etc. In reality, a milk intolerance or allergy doesn’t occur quite as frequently as online communities would indicate. Estimates for breastfed babies are only around 1%, and for formula fed babies around 2-3%. This issue is not well-researched, though, and actual prevalence may be a bit higher (possibly 5-15% exhibiting symptoms that may be improved by elimination of certain foods/food groups).
When we found out that Devon’s diaper tested positive for blood, our pediatrician suggested cutting all dairy products. I’ve been dairy free for over 3 weeks now, and it’s been tough for me because I love dairy – cheese, milk, and yogurt are regular staples in my diet! But I can just skip purchasing these foods, and having them out of the house makes it easy to avoid. Somewhat more challenging is the number of products that include a milk-based ingredient. For example, I couldn’t find one brand of bread crumbs at the store the other day that did not contain dairy.
I also decided to cut soy at the same time, since a large number of infants with a milk intolerance are also sensitive to soy. Many individuals with soy allergies can safely eat soy oil and soy lecithin, since these do not typically contain enough soy protein to cause a reaction. I left these in for the first 2 weeks, but when some of his symptoms didn’t improve, I cut these out too. Unfortunately, once you start reading labels, you realize these two things are in pretty much every food out there (salad dressings, snacks, etc).
In the first two weeks of cutting dairy and soy, we noticed that Devon’s skin improved a lot and he has gotten way less fussy (of course, these could also just be coincidence, but I’d venture to say the food has something to do with it).
At that point, though, his diapers still weren’t looking completely normal – so (in agreement with our ped) I cut eggs, beef, and fish and have been “off” of those foods (along with continuing the dairy/soy elimination) for a week now.
We’ll wait another week to see how those eliminations fare. I’m hoping these are the last that I’ll have to do, as the next common culprits would be wheat and nuts, and then possibly corn. Since wheat and corn are so pervasive in our food system, I think I’d have a really hard time figuring out how to structure my diet with all the previous eliminations plus those additional ones.
I will say that so far, this experience has:
- Made me appreciate how tough it is for people that have food allergies – it is a pain in the butt to read labels and call manufacturers to check on the status of an ingredient.
- Got me thinking about how tough this process must be for most new moms. You’ve got a newborn, who may be fussy because he/she might have pain from irritated intestines, and you’re trying to learn how to parent – and then throw a new diet into the mix which requires doing most of your cooking from scratch to avoid milk/soy in any processed food. I feel blessed that I’m a dietitian (and that I love to cook anyway) because it’s made this process much easier to navigate – but even I feel like it’s a struggle at times.
- Really broadened my recipe base, as I’ve had to look for some new dinner options that meet all this criteria. And of course, I love to bake, so I’ve been experimenting with some new baked goods that meet these limitations (you’ll see a recipe for dairy-free egg-free chocolate chip cookies posted shortly!).
So those are my experiences so far with breastfeeding and cow’s milk protein intolerance! I really love breastfeeding and hope to narrow down the rest of his food issues so that we don’t have to give it up. {If we can’t narrow it down with eliminations – including after the future possibilities of wheat/nuts/corn – we’d likely have to switch to a specialty hydrolyzed or amino acid based formula. A total elimination diet is another option where you eliminate all foods except a few low allergenic ones for 2-3 weeks, and then add foods back in one by one – but with my food blogging, lifestyle, and training for races – I don’t think that process would be healthy or feasible for me.}
Anyway – I look forward to sharing some allergen-friendly recipe ideas on the blog in the upcoming weeks/months, and hope to keep you all posted as well on my continued journey. 🙂
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