Should I avoid the foods my baby is allergic to if I am breastfeeding?

[Petcat]

Yesterday my 6mo DD had an allergic reaction to eating a small amount of scrambled egg. We ended up being carted to A&E in an ambulance, it was terrifying. Fortunately she's fine now.

We were discharged with some antihistamines and a referral to see a dietician. We're already waiting to see a paediatrician after she had a less severe allergic reaction to some yoghurt last week.

I am breastfeeding and am now wondering if I should stop eating eggs since my DD had such a strong allergic reaction to them. I already avoid cow's milk and soya. I am a vegetarian and would struggle to eat properly without these protein sources. I can't seem to find any information about this online, and the staff at hospital didn't know what to advise me to do either.

I would think that's a yes to avoiding foods as it could well be passed on through your breast milk, at least that was the case with my own DDs intolerances.

Do you have a referral to a dietician ?? If not, then you need to push for that, as they are the ones who can advise for now & going forward -

my own DD wasn't allergic to egg, so I have no idea if it is a food that carries through BM, but until you know for sure, then it's probably better safe than sorry, especially if she reacted badly. I had to avoid several things for the sake of my own DDs health when BFing though, so it's more than possible egg is another allergen that passes into BM.

She could well grow out of it though, I was allergic to egg as a DC, but did grow out of it

Good luck getting that appointment quickly

I would avoid them. My son was allergic to cow's milk when I was EBF'ing - even though I cut out dairy, soya and eggs he still didn't improve fully until he went onto Neocate: turns out he is also allergic to peanut and now potentially gluten and as I was still eating peanut butter and wheat when BF'ing that might be what he carried on reacting to.

Get some decent books out of the library on nutrition while waiting for your referral - if your dietician is anything like ours then you might not get any joy from them by the time you see them!

My DD has egg allergy and reacts if I eat any significant quantity but I seem to be able to get away with cake

if you've been eating egg with no problem up until now then i wouldn't bother.

it can pass through into breastmilk, but it certainly doesn't always and i would expect that you would have seen symptoms before now if that was the case with you.

If she's that allergic to eggs, I would avoid them regardless of how you feed her, as I am assuming that you want to kiss and touch her and could transfer eggs that way.

If you haven't had a problem until now, then there is probably no need to exclude eggs from your own diet. But proceed with caution, because your dd'd recent reaction may have made her more sensitive.

Some mums find that proteins from whatever they eat do pass into breastmilk and cause reactions in children with allergies. Other mums have no problem at all.

I read (on these boards) that this might be because of damage to the mum's own digestive system - mums with even a mild food intolerance or allergy may have a 'leaky gut' that allows large protein molecules through. That seems like a plausible explanation to me, and fits with what I know about breastmilk and nutrition.

I had huge problems with my ds reacting to what I ate, but that doesn't mean that you will. I know how hard it can be to be vegetarian and avoiding eggs.

Well cooked egg (e.g. cake) is more likely to be tolerated than lightly cooked egg (e.g. scrambled egg) because heat changes the proteins. This gives you the excuse to eat cake - just a little bit and wait a couple of days to see if there is any reaction. Hopefully you'll find there isn't, given that you have been okay so far.

Good luck!

I would avoid egg for now. Both my kids reacted to allergens in my breast milk after they had been exposed to them directly in their own food, even though they hadn't before, so I suppose it is possible that your baby will start to react to egg protein in your milk now. But obv a dietician will know better.
As for how you get protein in your diet, that's a tough one!!! My daughter is allergic to dairy, soya and eggs but she does eat meat. Can you get protein supplements? I suppose otherwise it'll have to be beans, lentils and nuts and just make sure you don't feed these directly to your baby in case she is allergic to them and then you would have to cut them out too! Mind you, someone qualified may advise you the opposite...
As others have said, better speak to a dietician. There's definitely a lack of info and expertise about allergies among gps and hvs, I empathise!

My DS and DD both reacted to egg in my breast milk. Sorry, I would avoid it.

Thank you all. My instinctive feeling is to avoid egg for now, I don't want to risk my DD coming into contact with it in any way again.

We are now in the system waiting for the dietician and paeds appointments, so I will be sticking to a bland safe diet until we get seen.