This sounds like an allergy doesn't it? Sleep deprived, need help!

[OhWhatAPalaver]

Dd2 is 17 weeks, breastfed, and has had reflux for quite a while. Sometimes it is worse than others, yesterday and last night was horrendous after having had a relatively placid few days, which makes me think it must be down to an allergy. She has always been snuffly, she has dry skin and mild eczema (seems to be getting worse) and her poo - dear oh lord the poo - it's so smelly and mucusy!! All the time, even when she's not bringing up milk everywhere. Rather explosive too. She also has terrible farts. She seems to have started itching/rubbing her eyes a lot lately as well. She's also very drooly.
Thankfully she seems to be gaining weight fine. Taking her to be weighed again today to make sure.
I'm just thinking whether it's possible to get her allergy tested this young or shall I just try removing things from diet until we figure it out? We have tried gavisgon for reflux, helped slightly but it just gave her awful trapped wind so we stopped using it. When I went back to gp he bypassed ranitidine and gave us omeprazole, which I thought quite odd. He said it was easier to take?? I'm a bit wary of giving her medicine when it's most probably something I'm eating causing it. I may go back and ask for ranitidine first as it seems the less strong of the two. What do people think? Am I being daft? Should I just started meds??
Should I get a referral to a paed or dietician? Can they even do allergy testing this young? Sorry for the millions of questions, we're desperate to stop her being in so much pain. Any advice greatly appreciated.

[fluffikins]

To me it does. If I were you I'd cut dairy and soya out of your diet asap. There are two forms of allergy, one shows with a skin prick test but one doesn't so it's likely that any allergy clinic would require you to restrict your diet anyway (assuming you'd want to continue breastfeeding).

Cut them for 6 weeks, then do a challenge by drinking a big glass of milk. If symptoms return with the challenge you'll have your answer. It can take up to 6 weeks to see a difference but people often notice it improving far sooner (but stick with it for the full 6 weeks if you don't).

There's a fab Facebook group (cmpa for breastfeeders) where you can get tons of info.

[OhWhatAPalaver]

Thanks that's really helpful :) I'll have a look at the fb group in a bit.
I don't actually drink cow's milk anyway but do eat all other dairy. Always thought cow's milk was grim! Now I've an excuse :)

[fluffikins]

It's in everything so be warned! And cmpa babies are often allergic to soya which reduces your replacements but the Facebook group can recommend lots of nice stuff so you don't feel too deprived

[OhWhatAPalaver]

Thanks :) the gp has recommended we go dairy free so I'll cut soya too. Will be difficult but hopefully we'll see results after a week or so!

[Crazyhorse123]

Hi my baby was hospitalised for 6 days at 3 weeks and given a battery of unnecessary tests for what was finally diagnosed as milk protein intolerance. I cut out milk and soya and her distended tummy went back to normal. We have since noticed issues with eggs and possibly wheat. Under dietician managed to get into soya and did try milk ladder but reacted. A lot of them get better after one but even if not lots of milk substitutes. Check ingredients carefully and remember lacto free products are still dairy that's another intolerance! Had skin prick mine intolerant not allergic.

[OhWhatAPalaver]

Our dd ended up in hospital too, it was after the second rotavirus vaccine. It made her already dodgy tummy incredibly painful. She was in so much pain they thought she had an intersussepted bowel! Thankfully it wasn't that and after much trauma we were told she was 'very gassy'. Nothing was ever followed up though so here we still are trying to figure it out.

[MrsSam]

Sounds very much like DD2, she struggled so much breast feeding we ended up switching to the bottle after 4 months which was hard as I had managed to bf five others before her. We had some limited luck with formula initially but it was short lived. She was dairy free for a while which helped but didn't fix everything.She was diagnosed with dairy and soya allergy when she was about a year old. The hardest thing to manage was the soya as it seems to be in everything! We use almond milk in place of milk in most things and flora pure in place of butter. Shopping was hard at first but now it's second nature, good luck!

[OhWhatAPalaver]

What formula did you end up using mrssam? Or did you switch back to bfing?
Hopefully it'll be second nature to us soon too!