tomato/potato allergy in EBF 4 month old???

[parentsvsPIL]

Has anyone any experience of what a nightshade allergy in an exclusively breastfed 4 month old baby might look like?

Every now & then DS has had a particular kind of clear-liquid-neon-pink-orange nappy after some hours of crying and comfort feeding. It looks quite like urate crystals as seen on newborn nappies, but is very obviously poo rather than wee, based on quantity & distribution & timing (relative to massive farts).

I am beginning to suspect it correlates with me eating tomato or potato.

Anyone got any experience of this? Do I not even try to introduce these foods when weaning in a few months' time?

[dinobum]

If you join the cmpa for breastfeeding group on Facebook there are lots of mums who have various allergy issues (not just cmpa) who will be able to advise I think.

I'd speak to the gp and ask for a paediatrician referral now though as it can take months.

[ThumbWitchesAbroad]

You do realistically need to see an allergy specialist, but start with the GP. There are ways now to try and reduce the allergenic potential of certain top allergens (notably peanuts) in children who have a family history of allergy to foods. I have a friend whose children have various allergies and sensitivities to foods, including wheat, dairy, soy, peanuts (anaphylaxis), some other tree nuts (but thankfully not almonds) and probably others I can't remember. One of them also has a salicylate sensitivity, and another reacts badly to certain food colours, including annatto, a natural yellow colouring (her husband is also allergic to pineapple so that one might have been passed on). Cooking in her house must be a nightmare!
But she has seen a paediatric immunologist for the youngest 3 children, because the oldest one of those 3 is the one with the anaphylactic reaction to peanuts (her older 2 children have fewer overt food problems) - not sure if paediatric immunologists are an option in the UK (we're in Australia) but they should have someone similar.

In the meantime, do the elimination diet - remove all potato and tomato (and possibly other nightshades too) from your diet for 2 weeks, and then introduce one of them back in, see how it goes, and it it's all clear, then a week later introduce another one and so on. See which one(s) produce the reaction.

[parentsvsPIL]

Thanks for this - very useful. We have a snowflake's chance in hell of seeing a paediatric immunologist as we're in NZ, but elimination diet is now 1 week on (I am starving as wheat and peanuts were also a large part of my diet so cut those out as well as all nightshades... living on bloody ricecakes gaaahhh) and DS is so much better it's amazing. Will give it another 3 weeks then try reintroducing one thing at a time.

[parentsvsPIL]

Amazingly we got a referral to the paed allergy clinic. No idea when the appointment will be, but at least we're on the way.

Poor DS is having increasing hematochezia though since I have cut out wheat, peanuts, nightshades - have now cut out dairy too in case this is the basic problem. hoping it's not soy as well...

[PonderLand]

Is your baby pooing blood OP?

[Neolara]

My dd's hands and arms swelled alarmingly when tomato juice dripped on them. That was her first sign of weird responses to food. We kept her off raw tomatoes for about a year until she had a skin pick test and discovered she wasn't anaphylactically allergic to them. She avoids them though as they make her mouth hurt (oral allergy syndrome). This was the start of odd reactions to a number of other fruit and veg (melon - hysterically and pointing at her mouth so assume pain, pineapple - swelling where juice touched broken skin, broad beans - vomited). She also now has a diagnosed peanut allergy.

I don't remember dd having odd nappies as a baby but she was frequently covered in peculiar rashes.

Hope you find out what's triggering your son's symptoms.

[parentsvsPIL]

Ponderland yes. It's normal in cases of allergic colitis in EBF babies.

Neolara - eek, sounds scary. I have oral allergy syndrome (with anaphylaxis) so am on the lookout for this kind of thing in DS.

[parentsvsPIL]

BTW I eventually realized that the neon pink nappies are blood mixed with wee already on the nappy. They appeared pinky-orange as the poo is liquid orange with an allergic reaction. In the past week the poo has been normal but with pink areas on the edge (blood mixing with wee) and stringy bits of blood through the poo. TMI but others may find this useful. Obviously the blood is alarming but DS is well in himself and continues on the 99th centile for everything, so the GP said it's not really a concern as long as we get to the bottom of what's causing it, and fix that.

[anotherdayanothersquabble]

Look to paleo diet for high protein fat food that doesn't rely much on grains and nightshades.

Lots of raw coconut oil, olive oil and avocado to help heal and fill you both up.

Good luck with the paed appointment and remember that the tests might not be looking for the reactions you are seeing so be wary of 'all clear' results when your on / off tests shown otherwise. I wouldn't rush to reintroduce if you get an improvement. Look to heal the gut which will be badly damaged, lots of varied fatty acids and probiotics.

When DS was tiny, removing the big culprits improved things but them made reactions to other things seem more severe. Once we had identified them all, he finally got better.

[parentsvsPIL]

We're doing ok with oats, brown rice, corn, barley, millet etc. Need some carbs & roughage in the diet along with vegies and meat - our gut flora isn't the same as a caveman's! The shift to more diverse grains than Vogel's bread is definitely sensible though.

Just re gut "damage" - I don't think the general view is that the gut damage is particularly bad. Yes there's gut damage but we're talking proctocolitis, not protein-losing enteropathy. FPIAP is well-described as is prompt recovery from it.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4405595/

[parentsvsPIL]

Also - there are no tests in general use here for non-IgE mediated allergic reactions. The diagnosis is clinical. Which makes it all a bit of a guessing game when reactions and recovery are non-immediate and not all allergens have necessarily been removed... (still eating eggs and soy, & will probably cut them out soon if 2 weeks of no dairy hasn't worked to sort out the nappies)

[Sikiladhe]

Hey @ParentsvsPIL, I know it's been almost 3 years now to this post of yours. But just curious to know. Did your son grew out of allergies. My son is 4 months old and EBF. He has multiple food protein allergies. I am just on wheat and veggies diet. And still waiting for pediatrician or allergist to give is a call.