weaning my very allergic baby-help

[Saacsmum]

My son is 20 wks old and is currently fully breast fed but has 1/2 teaspoon of pear with acicdophilus in every second day. He has a serious dairy allergy, reacts to traces through my breast milk, also has allergic reaction to soy and has reducing sugars in his faeces which means he isnt producing enough lactase to break down lactose in my milk. We tried him with formula but he flat out refused to have anything to do with it (brand was Neocate) We are looking at starting solids at 6 months, is there a guide for how we should do this and in what order for very allergic children, paed has not been much help has just said avoid main allergins as long as possible and take things slowly. Advice welcome

[bobbybob]

Hi, I'll post later, you are up very late are you not in the UK?

[Saacsmum]

We are in NZ, it is 4.22pm here.

[bobbybob]

You don't see Dr Ford by any chance do you? I am also in NZ (Christchurch) and the mention of probiotics and the quantity just sounds like him. Also the whole lactase thing and the prescribing of Neocate.

[Saacsmum]

Yes we do see Dr Ford and we are still under a paed at the hospital also.

[bobbybob]

I found that the probiotics every other day did nothing. At this age I was giving Bob them twice a day (a small amount). I refused to give solids and so we bought the ones you get at health food shops and mixed with water or EBM and he drank them.

Sorry I will get back to your orginal question later. Baby crying.

[bobbybob]

Okay back now:

Pears, kumera, rice good first foods. Very unlikely to be allergic to these. Lamb is good first meat for same reason.

No milk (obviously for you, but just in case anyone else is reading) for first year.

No wheat for first year. Bob is living proof that babies can eat baby rice for 6 months for breakfast. Make it with water, EBM or neocate and some pear.

No tomato, citrus, kiwi fruit, pineapple at all for at least first year and then introduce in a processed form - ie cooked tomatoes. Introduce fresh in the summer following 2nd birthday.

No eggs until at least 2. No fish until 3, and no peanuts until 5.

Be careful with potatoes as they are in same family as tomatoes (but as they are obviously cooked most people will be okay with these)

Also be careful with banana and avocado, common first baby foods that can cause reactions in sensitive types.

Bob was also fine with Silver Beet (swiss chard). He practically lived off 5 things for his first year of life.

Dr Ford isn't known for his incredible support of breastfeeding, even though there was no reason at all that I shouldn't rely on breastmilk totally he still tried to get me to stop (there is a thread on it somewhere).

He used to sell some incredible probiotics, but the manufacturers stopped making them. I miss them terribly and don't find the $65 ones as good as the $40 stuff from the health food shop given more regularly.

Try to make the neocate into stuff (or use expressed EBM like I did). I made rice pudding a lot (don't need sugar, but processed white sugar is unlikely to cause a reaction).

We should have a Christchurch meet up in winter, another MNetter is moving here.

Have you joined Allergy New Zealand. They have preschool meeting and that is where I have learnt everything. It's like the distillation of every $200 doctor or dietician visit ever. The mums are all brilliant.

[SamN]

Just a little to add to bobbybob's great post:

You can make porridge from millet and/or quinoa too, if you feel like relieving the rice boredom. They are unlikely to cause reactions but if they do it will be easy to avoid them in future. They are both good (complete) sources of protein. I got the idea from one of Pidge's posts although it's also mentioned in my book about food allergies and intolerances.

There's a fairly good book by Susannah Olivier which includes stuff about careful weaning although she still says you can start at 4 months (even in the updated version which I bought very recently).

It annoys me that the medical professionals still try to persuade bf mums to use formula, when all it does imho is confuse the issue. I've recently been recommended Nutramingen for my 30 week old with reflux - despite the research showing that breastmilk causes far less severe reflux symptoms than formula.

anyway, hope the weaning goes well. Ds2 is still on baby rice but...drumroll...we're planning to introduce carrot tomorrow!

[Saacsmum]

Hi, thanks to all who have given advice, especially bobbybob. We have joined Allergy NZ and have found the magazines and the articles we sent away for great however have not come across any weaning info so far. We have found Dr Ford both good and bad. IT was fantastic to find someone who listened and thought they knew what was going on and we thought that he had all the answers so were really disappointed when Zantac and then Omeprazole didn't work, haven't found him very supportive outside the 125 dollar consultations when things aren't working they way we would hope and have found there is a bit of a territory war between the hospital and private paeds, Isaac is under hospital paed for bowel related issues and Ford for allergies and reflux. It was actually the other paed who suggested the lactase issue and tested his faeces, also did tests for caeliacs disease, whereas Ford only suggested eliminations from my diet followed by challenges as well as the medications. Both paeds said soy was unlikely as an issue but three eliminations and challenges have now indicated that it is an issue. Would love to do a meet up at some stage as am finding the mum job a real challenge and the plunket group in my area has not yet started up. What brand of probiotics do you use and where do you get it as I agree the 65 dollar one just isn't doing much.

[bobbybob]

Where in Christchurch are you? I'm in Burwood. Our Plunket rooms are very strong - I'm on committee, and the playgroup etc. are very good at dealing with allergies (comparative to other places anyway). Bob has a latex allergy and they banned balloons for instance. You would be very welcome if it's not too far for you.

Dr Ford completely disregarded Bob's latex allergy, didn't test or anything - just said it was odd. I don't think that he can cope if things don't go according to his plan. He is excellent with Bob though, and had some good suggestions. I just buy the baby probiotics from the health food shops. There is one in Riccarton (Huckleberry Farm?)that sells Reuteri in a powdered form, which I would recommend you start with, and then move on to the normal one. I like the fact they dissolve in water. I use twice the dose it says on the packet having worked up to it.

[Saacsmum]

HI, We are in Riccarton, very close to the family centre which has been a sanity saver, plunket in general has been great but there is no mothers group in the area at the mo, plunket nurse said one should be starting soon. I hope so. I don't drive so Burwood is a bit far. We are building a house out in Rolleston so will be moving there when it is finished so am hoping there are mothers groups etc out there. I would agree that Dr Ford is excellent with babies and we have found him warm and friendly but just not the guru with all the answers we thought he was at first, have discovered own instinct bares out most times.

[bobbybob]

I think you will find Rolleston a lot more community orientated and I would be surprised if there wasn't a mother's group that you like out there.

At least you are handy for the Huckleberry Farm place, which is the best place to get lots of interesting allergy free treats for yourself whilst you pick up the pro-biotics.

The more people I meet that go to Dr Ford and get exactly the same treatment (for massively different conditions) the more I think I wouldn't go again if I didn't have medical insurance.

[Saacsmum]

I have had a bit of an explore around huckleberries, it is great to see what a range there is available catering for allergies but the prices!

[Pidge]

Saacsmum - my dd didn't have any particular allergy problems, but I was relatively careful with weaning because I have eczema, asthma, nut allergies. I found Suzanne Olivier's book "What should I feed my baby" very good for talking about which foods are likely to cause reactions, and also for some recipe ideas that avoid things like wheat and dairy. Whereas other weaning books generally are full of dishes laden with wheat and cheese. The only area in which I was more cautious than Olivier was with nuts - because of my history.

As SamN says - she has ideas for using grains like millet and quinoa, which are good alternatives for making up porridges (my dd still likes quinoa and banana porridge at age 2!).

Good luck.

[Saacsmum]

Can you get quinoa in NZ if so what is it and where from?

[bobbybob]

Quinoa is available at Woolworths.

Yes the prices are shocking, but think what you are saving by not eating all the processed food that contains allergens. Everyone needs treats. You eat less of the expensive stuff because it's not got lots of fillers in.

You can however eat some normal stuff. Have you seen www.mfd.co.nz?

[Saacsmum]

Yes, have found it to be a great site and have founnd the range of things I can eat to be much better than I feared, biggest prob is calcium and protein but having lots and lots of beans, egumes etc and taking suppliments. Isaac will be raised a meateater so hopefully wont have too much trouble with a balanced diet.

[bobbybob]

Another thought, you have applied for a got a Child disability allowance haven't you? It's not means tested, is a flat rate and can help buy some of that expensive food!

[Saacsmum]

Yes thankfully my plunket nurse put us on to that, btw thanks bobbybob you have been a real support with good info and knowledge.

[ruty]

as you know Saacsmum my ds diagnosed with allergic colitis here in uk. he's tolerating solids well and still hates neocate. i too am cross we don' t get more bfeeding support. just wondering, has your ds had his infant jabs yet, and if so, did it make things worse? we haven't had them yet on advice of one gastro paed, but they want us to do them now.

[Saacsmum]

We agonised over the immunisations. In the end we decided that if he got exposed to one of the nasties like whooping cough that it may well kill him and as he had spent so much time on the childrens ward he might have been exposed. So we decided to go ahead but with caution. In NZ several of the vaccines are clumped together, we asked specifically for ours to be split, it meant that he has had more injections than other children but allowed time between injections to monitor reactions and allow his body to cope with the vaccine. So far so good though I do think that his excema flares up when he has a jab especially on the leg he gets the jab in. Solids are going well for us too so far, we are following the guide for introducing solids to children with allergies. Our paed also suggested introducing rice milk reasonably early, he said that once the solids were established and he was having a balanced diet then the rice milk could complement with calcium and other minerals to support me with reducing bf which at that stage was still two hourly. Over the last few days I have noticed that he is more interested in solids and less interested in bf and we have been able to stretch to three hourly and longer and night which has been wonderful. I have started adding rice milk to his solids but he is not that keen on it straight.

[ruty]

i'm trying to get jabs split over here. is he having a calcium or mineral supplement? I worry mine isn't getting enough calcium, having so little formula or breastmilk.

[Saacsmum]

calcium is one of the reasons I was keen to introduce the ricemilk. my ds does still bf regularly so he is getting some that way as well. have discovered homemade creamed rice with ricemilk and a little pear is a real hit with him, he will eat bucketloads of it if I let him, the ricemilk has a few other vitamins etc in it but other than that and the primadophilus he doesnt have any supplements.

[ruty]

might try the rice milk! Good luck with it all. i just chucked my tins of neocate in the bin-fed up with stressing him out.