Allergies and sleep

[glorious]

My 1 year old is IGe allergic to egg, sesame, pine nuts and plum. She is also a truly awful sleeper and nothing I do seems to help (not up for CC but have tried gradual retreat and gentle night weaning, plus co sleeping).

She's breastfed and reacts with hives if I feed her milk after eating say an omlette but not say a slice of cake. But could she be in discomfort from proteins in my milk even when I can't see anything?

Clutching at straws and think I'll try excluding those foods but I'd be interested in others' experiences.

[glorious]

IgE rather

[MistyB]

My allergic child was / is a terrible sleeper but got much better when I got his allergies under control.

I would definetly exclude the foods she is allergic to as in my experience my DS definetly reacted, I can remember my DS sticking his fingers down his throat and gagging after I had eaten peanuts which I subsequently found out he was allergic to.

I also found boosting his immune system with probiotics, vitamin a, d and fatty acids helped.

And, I see an immunologist who believes that all people with allergies should exclude grains and dairy and that along with heavy metal detoxing will dramatically improve health and reduce allergies. 9 months in DS is more robust and sleeps better. It's not the only thing we do but I do think it helps.

[eragon]

an immunologist wouldnt recommend removing grains and milk from every allergic person. unless they were allergic to them.

I have no idea what heavy metal detoxing is, never heard of it.

anyway, infants who have allergies/ intolerance often are poor sleepers.
sleep patterns emerge as infant grows, and learning to sleep is part of that process. Having been in pain, that disturbs sleep. whats the longest period of time baby has slept. My son was 9 months when he actually slept for 5 hrs for the first time. He was 12 months before he slept longer than that and only more frequently when he was 2yrs.
My son also has all the environmental allergies, it might be worth consideration. certainly if your baby snores and has eczema it might be worth a test for dust mite allergy.

good luck.

[Superworm]

DS is allergic to dairy and soy and has been a terrible, terrible sleeper.

For the first year of his life I completely underestimated how sensitive he was and ate soy lectithins and food that 'may contain traces of..'or 'made in factory that also handles..'

Since cutting them out completely (still BFing) he sleeps much, much better. I found this research on allergies and sleep that was useful.

[glorious]

Ok it sounds like it could well be having an impact then. She generally wakes hourly to two hourly though she has twice slept for 6. She's also recently begun to have long periods awake at night.

I will definitely cut out all her allergens from my diet then and look at environmental factors. She does sometimes snore and I used to suffer from dust mites myself so it's a possibility.

Thank you all, it's been very helpful to hear your experiences.

[ThePiritonPosse]

My DD was an awful sleeper, and her sleeping massively improved after we finished breastfeeding. I can't be sure that it was linked to my diet but looking back I'm pretty sure it would have been.