I could really use some support/advice atm. Apols for length but I just need to ramble get it all down.
DD4 is 15w, has severe reflux (on omeprazole, ranitidine & domperidone), hypermobility syndrome (HMS), had a posterior TT which was snipped twice, open nappy rash that comes and goes and has had blood in her stools since she was about a month old.
VV strong family history of atopy (all of her 3 sisters had/have eczema, 2 have asthma, 1 has allergies, DH has asthma & hayfever and I have asthma, hayfever & allergies and I'm not even going to go into ext. family.....) & 2 out of 3 def. have HMS as do I.
The blood in her stools coincided with me starting to eat wheat again (I was wheat free for DD3 until she weaned where upon I started to eat wheat again). I didn't put the two together esp. the GP said it was from gastro-enteritis caused by a cold - DD4 had clear mucous coming from her nose & green mucous-y poo - so continued eating wheat. Another GP thought DD4 was allergic to 'proteins' in my milk and to switch to lactose free formula
. After several GP appts she decided to ref. to Paeds as I wouldn't switch to the lactose free milk 
.
DD3's dietician suggested cutting out dairy (we saw her routinely while waiting for DD4's referral to come through) which I did to no great effect. We saw the Paed who said she had severe reflux after seeing her pump milk all over his room and hearing she can have stomach acid drooling out of her mouth. He suggested I cut out wheat & eggs as well as dairy - this has worked a fair bit at controlling her reflux and her nappy rash has cleared up 90% of the time. We are to go back in Feb & he will arrange testing if no improvement.
Her poo is about 60:40 green & mucous-y with blood & 'normal' yellow with white curds. Occasionally there will be a yellow poo with blood in it.
Yesterday I dropped some wheat/gluten/dairy/egg free shortbread on DD4 while she was bfing and her skin reacted where the crumbs touched he (the shortbread had soya in it). I want her tested now not in Feb (the results took 6w with DD3) but GP can't organise tests & new hospital policy says no Paeds. out-patients appts with 6w of last one so we are stuck.
I am beginning to think I will be on boiled rice and water just in case soon!
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Infant feeding
BFing a baby with ?allergies
TruthSweet · 02/01/2013 12:43
Aargh, I wrote a long post then lost it.
Sympathies - we're having allergy/intolerance issues with both DS's and that sounds very familiar. Gastric problems are really common in TT babies.
I'd suggest a consultation with Jennifer Tow who is an IBCLC who specialises in gut health & healing - including issues like tongue tie, allergies & intolerances. I believe she has coeliac disease and her children had TT. I've not had a consultation with her myself, but she has helped me with DS2 via the FB tongue tie support group and another one. She's based in France, but does consultations by Skype and phone. Her site is here.
She's doing a 'webinar' on gut health & healing for mother & baby on 13th Jan which is cheaper than a consultation - info here.
She also does holistic medicine etc, but that's not a necessary part of the gut health stuff. 
You can hear an interview with her here
It sounds as if cutting out soya is a good plan. Anything which causes a visible skin reaction is likely to be an allergen. Anything you eat regularly is more likely to cause problems. Corn can often be a problem - more likely if wheat is problematic, I think.
A restricted diet may be the way ahead - we've found that it's hard to identify improvements when removing allergens because others are still being eaten. I have to avoid dairy, egg, peanuts, hazelnuts, sesame, coconut, sunflower seeds, kiwi, bananas, melon, cucumber, squashes and tuna for DS1 and cashew nuts, dairy, oranges and tomatoes for DS2. I'm also intolerant to wheat, soya, some forms of corn and all dried fruit. We are slowly working our way towards an insanely restricted diet to help heal the gut which has really helped my IBS so far.
A food diary would be a good idea. I've found that DS2's reactions to problem foods follow about 24 hours after me eating them. Typical reactions would be increased windiness, nasty smelling poo, toothpastey orange/brownish consistency rather than yellow with curds, skid marks in nappies, sore red ring around the anus. He's 11 weeks.
Probiotics for you & her might help relieve some symptoms a bit, but won't do much without dietary changes and you have to start small and increase the dosage very gradually. I use Bio-Kult for me and BioCare Infantis for DS2.
HTH
Hi AngelDog! Sorry to hear DS2 has food allergies too 
DD4 was horrendous last night and only fell asleep for more than 20m at 4.30ish this morning. She woke up at 6.30 Which I guess would tie in with the 24hr reaction time you mention.
I have been keeping a food diary for a few days now so hoping to see some correlation sooner rather than later.
Have you had any tests run yet?
Thank you NQC.
I've done some thinking and I'm going to go on a variant of the elimination diet - rice, sweetcorn, turkey & apple. I can make enough meals out of that to not cave & eat something else 
.
I had some of that for Christmas but couldn't eat it due to the soya. :(
That sounds like a horrific night, poor thing (& poor you). Corn can sometimes be a problem (I'm intolerant to cornflakes, for example). Red meat is usually okay too.
I've not got as far as tests with DS2. I was planning to try each of the foods again to double-check but it's been difficult to find a clear spell as he's been reacting to other things & we've all had variations of thrush.
IME tests are helpful but not always great eg all 4 of DS1's allergies are sufficiently low on the blood tests that they don't strictly count as allergies, although skin prick tests & actually eating the stuff show definite reactions. Our allergist says that my reported case history is as important as test results. And non-IgE allergies aren't picked up by the tests.
I took DS1 to the GP today with a suspected viral rash and it turns out to be an allergic reaction to yet something else - now the detective work begins again. Particularly as he's had it since the weekend.
Thanks NQC & NAPL on the bloody stools front. She actually had a yellow poo with no mucous or blood in it today and she has only poo once as opposed to 5-10 green slimy bloody poos Oh the small joys of parenthood. I've not had any wheat since 21/12 and that seemed to show an improvement in under a week.
NAPL - how long where you on the exclusion diet for? Was it until the bleeding stopped or until his demeanour changed? What did you eat on the diet?
DD4 had her 3m check today and she is now 5.3kg/11lb 11oz - on the 19/12 4.92kg/10lb 12oz and is maintaining her between the 9th-25th%ile line.
The HV suggested feeding her less esp. at night and putting her in her cot instead of me holding her while she slept & feeding her 1-2 hourly (approx of course). She got the look from me and then backtracked and said 'Well I guess if you weren't feeding her so often she wouldn't be gaining so well'. So why suggest I do something that will probably bring her weight gain to a halt then?
Also I shouldn't hold/sling her so much as she doesn't need it (this is because DD4 was kicking her legs and coo-ing on the change mat on the floor) and implied I was holding her to meet my needs/for reassurance she was alright again.....Not that humans are carry mammals then?
Another gem was that you shouldn't give soya to babies under 12m which is why her skin reacted when I dropped crumbs on her Okay
Right ... because small children normally have contact reactions to soya.
Yes, and it's totally not normal to carry around a 3 month-old. Sorry to hear your HV is useless. But yay about the poo!
Too right NQC!
I also got 'complemented' on DD4's head shape and her head control. Nothing to do with all that slinging/carrying & not much time in car seats/bouncers/pushchairs of course.
I do use all of those but she'll spend maybe 1-4 hours a day max in them and the rest in my arms or DD1's arms or DH's arms
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