Newly discovered CMPA in EBF baby... HELP

[stephd50]

Hi, our super settled happy baby has been really unsettled and suffering since Friday last week.

Last Monday I restarted slimming world to shift a bit of baby weight... if you've done before, lots of low fat yog/quark/ cheese etc included and when bf, you get lots of healthy extras, so have been chomping on cheese left, right and centre.

Friday morning at about 5am, baby woke Screaming, very unusual for her and spent whole day the same way... refluxy/colicky/ crying/ pale/ snuffly. Spoke to doctors and prescribed lactulose for constipation (she hadn't been for a week so we thought the same), but she woke on Saturday ok again (had not eaten much in Friday inc dairy as was stressed about baby). Sunday morning was ok, and I went back to quark/fruit etc for breakfast and she is now even worse again!

Her eczema has gotten worse (on arms and tummy) and her eyes were even swollen... doc said v likely CMPA and if I want to carry on feeding (I do!) eliminate dairy asap.

I wasn't dairy free before but consuming a lot less... mainly in processed foods like biscuits/ chocolate etc.

My question is..., when will she improve again? She literally was so unsettled all night, and every time she wakes today she is in agony! I haven't had dairy or soy for 24 hrs now... tell me she will improve soon 🙏🙏🙏?

Any tips welcome from other breastfeeding CMPA mamas?!

I should say she is 12 weeks old and this has come out of nowhere...

How old is she?

A breastfed baby not on solids can go for 2 weeks without a poo. There's no waste in breastmilk so they can and do use it all.

With my two I found they'd not poo at all during a growth spurt and then do a mega poo once it was gone.

This would all coincide with her being unsettled and fussy.

As for the CMPA, my son has it. He was fine with my milk but I am also dairy free. He didn't put on weight though so we gave formula bottles too. He'd puke his guts up after formula and had eczema on his tummy.

If you're eliminating dairy you need to do it for a good few weeks to see any difference

Bam there you go - growth spurt. Will make them very fussy and grumpy.

Give it a couple of weeks and if it hasn’t improved then it’s probably nothing to do with dairy. CMPA is massively over diagnosed in this country BTW. It’s very normal for young babies to react to different foods because their gut isn’t fully developed.

To be absolutely sure you also need to eliminate soya because it has an almost identical protein structure to cows milk.

My sons CMPA also started showing around the same age, I cut out dairy and saw results really quickly. He’s nearly 6 months now, I can now eat a little bit of dairy and he’s ok with it in breast milk. See if your GP will refer you to a dietician. I’ve been advised to mostly keep off dairy until he’s 9 months and then they’ll put him on a milk ladder to see if he will tolerate it.

My youngest had a milk, soya and egg allergy. Egg goes with the soya and milk allergies so might be work cutting that out too. You should start to see an improvement in a few days but it can take upto 6 weeks to fully leave their systems.

Bread is tricky if avoiding soya but if you go to aldi a lot of their own brand bread is safe. Oatly products are good and work well for cooking with, I didn't want to be cooking twice so for meal times I'd do everything allergen free. Also stork is good so you can do mash but use stork and Oatly milk instead of butter and milk. Oatly also do a creme fraiche substitute that is good for cooking with. Borbon biscuits are also free of milk and soya. If you're trying to loose weight between the bfing and changing your diet the weight will fall off you. Just read the ingredients on everything, soya is in all sorts you wouldn't expect it to be in ie stock cubes etc. Again I found a lot of aldi own brand stuff was better for this.

Just to give you hope, my daughter is now 5 and grew out of her allergies around the age of 3, once she started to tolerate small amounts of allergens she very quickly went all the way up the food ladders and Bow is allergy free. Although annoyingly even though she is no longer allergic to egg she won't entertain eating eggs but she does in things like cake etc. Eggs are such a good quick tea for busy evenings so I wish she'd eat them!

Thanks all... ! I will do anything to ease little one's discomfort. I should say this is baby number 3, so understand fussiness etc is all par for the course... this is different. She's just woken a bit happier and when I fed her, first time her face hasn't gone red and blotchy! Fingers crossed we're through the worst of it. Will explore all of your tips (especially the bourbons!)

Hobnobs are safe too. I never found a nice cheese alternative so just gave up on cheese (which I love!) and instead coop do a lovely seeded sourdough that's OK so I'd have that with a pate they do that's OK too as a savoury treat with a glass of wine ☺️