EBF baby with suspected allergies - do I switch to specialized formula?

[Rowan85]

Going out of my mind trying to work out what allergies my EBF nearly 6 months old baby has. Symptoms are 7 weeks of severe diarrhoea - green nappies with plenty of mucus. Several visits to GP and after them agreeing this isn't a virus or a bacterial infection, it was suggested that I exclude dairy from my diet. 3 weeks of strictly no dairy and I've seen little improvement - or some improvement and then the green diarrhoea ramps up again i.e my baby has had 5 dirty nappies in the past 12 hours. I suspect there could be more than one allergy at play. Due to have a discussion with a dietitian from Allergy UK in another 2 weeks. Feeding baby can be very difficult as she seems to be in pain so I don't tend to leave the house unless it's straight after a successful feed. I'm also driving myself crazy questionning everything I eat. Tears are now a daily occurrence. Has anyone had a similar experience? I don't know whether to try switching to a special formula in the hope that her symptoms clear up until I can speak to a dietitian (of course I understand that would be the end of my breastfeeding journey) or whether to be patient and stick it out even though I feel that I'm making her ill every time I feed her!

Honestly if it was just dairy you would be seeing improvement by now. You should see improvement in days. You need to also exclude soya as it is so similar to dairy that something like 60% of babies cross react.

after that I’d consider what else to try. I had similar and had unknown egg and nut allergies that didn’t become apparent until weaning

also keep in mind that green often means oversupply and intake of air. It isn’t always allergy

As at weaning age, you can give the foods and check for reactions. Keep a food diary. If they tolerate in their diet, they'll tolerate it in your milk.

They may dislike special formula as it can taste weird.

Thank you. It's good to know it should have improved within days. I suspect those same allergens that you've mentioned as I frequently eat eggs, tree nuts, peanut butter and tofu. Baby is ready to start weaning but I think I should wait until I've had the dietitian appointment as I'm quite nervous about it now.

I had the same thought about oversupply (after reading about foremilk and hind milk) but I'm now confident it isn't this as I've tried expressing straight after a feed a number of times and there's rarely milk left.

My baby has allergies and is now 2 and we still EBF.

He didn't have digestives issues, rather hives and reactions on his skin so was a slightly different situation.
I cut out allergens from my diet when he was 3 months old. I'm very glad I did as it meant we could continue BFing.

If you want to continue BFing, I would cut out the main allergens and then trial introducing them directly to his through food. We found more things he was allergic to once we started weaning. This was later confirmed via blood and skin prick tests when he was 15 months old (it took us a year to get the appointment after referral via multiple A&E admissions).

Just double checking, Not on any medication that could be causing it? We had a brief stint of the baby on omeprazole and while it stopped the reflux and spit up the green diarrhoea it caused was horrendous!

As a first step definitely cut out the tofu (it’s soya) and anything else made from soya. It very might well be dairy and soya and everything else is fine.

I would stop bfing at 6 months given the circumstances, as feeding is also difficult.

Advice is actually to wean early if allergies suspected. I know it's really anxiety provoking (been there!) but it must be done.

DS has several serious allergies but we introduced peanut butter from 5 months and he's not allergic to peanuts (he is to several tree nuts).

We started weaning DD at 4.5 months on advice of allergist and she has no allergies.

Totally anecdotal of course, but there's a growing body of research that delaying weaning causes more harm than good

We had issues with allergies, some digestive, some hives. My baby would frequently seem in pain, it was horrible and cutting diary didn't alleviate it. Then one day I was eating carbonara and he touched it, then his face and hives sprung up immediately. So I ditched eggs and we had allergy testing done. He was allergic to diary, eggs, soya, celery, nuts and tomatoes. So I cut those all out and breastfed until he was ready to wean.

We went through this. It was the worst time imaginable, hardly gaining weight, I thought of nothing else and nearly lost my mind. I gave up so so many foods and by chance I tried Kendamil formula which doesn’t contain fish oil - I had been giving up so much food and eating more fish in response, just making things worse. Then while weaning he would get hives and be sick with oily fish.

Once I took the pressure off trying to breast feed everything changed and we were both a million times happier. You can only do what’s right for you though.

If it is allergies and you switch to formula, it can end up being difficult to find a formula that is safe for the given allergies. Not all are straightforward. Formula is simpler to check ingredients, but as long as you are breastfeeding, you have more options. You can always adjust your diet, but you can’t manufacture formula that doesn’t exist.

if it were me, I would probably try doing something like a low fodmap diet while you wait for your next appointment. It’s not too restrictive and people follow the diet to reduce digestive issues so you may hit upon whatever is upsetting your child’s system. Also cut out the soy because it is a common allergen.

If you do decide to go to formula, I would think about pumping just to keep your options open.

Have you had a chat to a breastfeeding counselor? I'd want to rule out lactose overload.

https://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/resources/lactose-overload

I'd also have a look at using positions to improve the comfort for both of you feeding. Koala hold can be good.

Have little milk to pump post feed wouldn't be something that would indicate over supply. I have had over supply with three babies and have barely been able to pump at all.

Seeing the dietician is a good idea. And waiting to wean til you see them is a good plan. Keep as detailed as you can food symptoms diary before you go to help with an accurate picture

My CMPA baby reacted to soy and eggs too. I had to remove ALL dairy (don't even put ghee in a curry for example or fry something in butter), and all soy including all takeaways (as restaurants use soy in cooking). Only homemade food from scratch so I could be sure there was no contamination. He was a different baby within 2 weeks.

When weaning, we confirmed a very severe allergy to both dairy and eggs. A teaspoon of yogurt sent us to hospital.

Dairy free formula tastes shit. So good luck trying to introduce that, most older babies won't take it and frankly the ingredients are terrible. I wouldn't feed that to a baby IF I had a choice to breastfeed.

The easiest thing would be for you to just remove soy and dairy from your diet. Breastmilk will help your little one's digestive system recovery too.

We have successfully reintroduced dairy at 13 months so there really is light at the end of the tunnel but we had to be very very strict with no dairy in the 6 months prior to make sure his gut was healed and healthy.