Very snotty five week old, could she be allergic to dairy in my breast milk??

[sizeofahouse]

My dd has had a cold since being four days old, she doesn't seem to be getting any better. I have cut out dairy from my diet, (cows) and she seems less colicky but am drinking goats milk and she is still incredibly stuffed up. Could it be connected or is it just a horrible cold. Just want her to know that life doesn't always go with a stuffed up nose and feeling unwell. Feel miserable for her. Anyone have any experience of this - is it worth going onto soya for a couple of weeks, Iknow I need the calcium. I have a dairy intolerance which makes me snotty - help!

Hi - I have a DS now 11 months and still breastfed. I don't have experience of allergies in DS, but I just wanted to say that I have been taking calcium supplements (Solgar) since pregnant. I don't like drinking too much milk, just on my cereal and in coffee which isn't enough. You can get your calcium from other sources of food too, such as from fish, etc. It doesn't have to be milk.

Could you cut out ALL dairy for a couple of weeks just to see whether it makes a change to baby ? There are lots of dairy substitutes in most supermarkets, so it's worth a shot ?

Sizeofahouse

Agree with ricecake - why not try Calcium enriched soya milk for a month and see how she is?

Soya is pretty allergenic so calcium enriched rice milk is the safest choice if you want to try dairy free. We use calcium supplements because its hard to get enough calcium on a dairy free diet. If you like fish with bones that's an excellent calcium source and the fish oil is supposed to help babies sleep better . White bread isn't bad and broccoli is also quite good.

How long has she been snuffling because they can get one cold after another?

My ds reacted to both dairy and to soy through my breastmilk. If you want to try elimination then you need to label scan extensively and ensure that all derivatives of these foods are also not included in your diet such as casien, whey, lactose, milk solids, tvp, soy lecithin, some vegetable oils etc. You need to be extremely vigilant and do elimination for at least 10 days before you are completely free of the offending substances, take a diary of babies symptoms during this time to see if these are the offending foods, goats milk has very similar protein structure to cows so it is possible that she will react to this also if she is an allergic child so as tutt says rice milk and suppliments and bony fish are the best alternatives for you. You could also try elivating the end of babies cot to help her nasal passages to drain and to lie her in a bathroom full of steam to help clear her system. Hope some of this helps.

Sizeofahouse - My dd was so snotty for weeks after birth. I was told it's very common for new babies to be snotty and it's really just their way of getting rid of all the mucus built up in the womb and nothing to do with allergies. Could it possibly be that simple an explanation?

Dd's nose cleared up and 10 wks..... then she got a real cold!! Poor wee lamb. She's fine now and not allergic to anything dairy.... yet. She's nearly 10mths.

My son sneezed enormous ropes of snot. At age 4 I took him off wheat and dairy as advised by naturopath, and it cleared up overnight. Tried re-introducing them one at a time but his intolerance turned out to be with both. Quite by chance, I joined him on new diet and my asthma (fairly severe since aged 14) has completely disappeared. I'm now drug free for the first time in 20 years! Shame the doctors couldn't have worked this out. They'd have saved so much money and misery. I'm delighted though to be able to breath.

Thanks everyone, I'm putting it all on hold because I've got thrush and had to eliminate all sorts of food, trying to cut out dairy too was one step too far - I realised I was crawling along today and completely knackered after chewing on rice cakes for lunch. So I'm going to get shot of the thrush first which took about five months with ds1, and then see if dd is still suffering with cold. She's still very stuffy, tried everything but it could be just as you say Toothache, that its from the birth. I had a section as well so don't know if its connected. I'm having a bad day because my scars hurting, I think I've got an infection and that means more antibiotics which means more thrush, breastfeeding is no fun and my darling ds has it too, o will this ever end, I feel like shit!!

Sizeofahouse - Babies born by c-section tend have more mucus as it isn't squeeeeeeeeeeeeezed out them at birth. So it very well may be that.

Hope your thrush clears up soon.

Thanks Toothache, yeah my ds was mucusy as well after first section, but only for a day or so.Tat if you're still out there, what exactly are fishes with bones?? Is that salmon, oily fish -don't all fish have bones, or am I moron. Dd today
after me having dairy did a projectile vomit that was scary, seemed more uncomfortable all night so now am thinking about soya milk, so vile, ah well. But aren't new born babies wonderful, my dd ssmiled at me today and cooed, she is just so beautiful then my darling toddler slapped her round the chops, poor baby.

sizeofahouse - sympathies all round, esp. the thrush. I didn't realise we had it until one day DS (about 5 months at the time) refused to breastfeed and would scream everytime he saw my breast As a first time mum I was petrified, didn't have a clue what he had. I self-diagnosed in the end by reading things on the internet re. symptoms, etc, and worked it out that he must have a sore throat because of thrush (there was no evidence of thrush in his mouth which is what made it more difficult to tell). Plus my GP is crap. I had to tell her what I thought DS had so she could prescribe something ! I had shooting pains in my breasts about a week later and then I was sure we had thrush.

By the way what are you using for the thrush ? The GP gave me Nystan which I discovered (again reading on the net) is full of sugar (to make it more tasty to baby) which can make the problem worse as the thrush bacteria thrive on sugar. If you are using Nystan, I highly recommend you switch to Daktarin oral gel which one particular clinical study has shown to be more effective than Nystan and can get rid of thrush in 1 - 2 weeks. I am positive that it was the Daktarin that worked for us. I used it for several weeks after he seemed to be getting better because it was the only way to ensure that the thrush had gone. Treatment should continue a couple of weeks after symptoms have dissapperaed. I also used Canestan cream on my nipples. It is crucial to treat yourself and the baby simultaneously.

Also Milton sterilising solution kills the thrush bacteria. Again I didn't know this at the time, so baby may have got thrush because I was sterilising the breast pump parts with a steamer rather than Milton. Steam does not kill the thrush bateria. The other thing that does kill it is at least 30 minutes of boiling. But this can ruin breast pump parts, so again Milton is best. Sorry if I sound like an advert for various products (they don't pay me unfortunately) !!!! Just letting you know what worked for me.

Good luck with the thrush and the allergy. Breastfeeding can be a challenge, but it's worth every minute of it !

Sorry, forgot to add that when I had thrush I cut out dairy (had soya milk instead) and all yeast for a couple of weeks. I agree it's horrid, but then so was yeast free bread - yuk ! I also reduced my sugar intake (that was the hardest part) including sweetners. To get rid of thrush you need to stop eating dairy. Thrush thrives on dairy.

It's all extremely difficult and the substitutes disgusting, but again worth it. Thrush can go on and on unless you suffocate it.

I think tatt means fish with soft bones that you can eat rather than ones with harder bones that you remove so things like tuna are good.

Yep - fish with bones that you eat like whitebait.

Good luck.

Are you taking probiotics along with your antibiotics? I'm not sure if they are useful for thrush, but they would be handy for your dd, and your own stomach.

Thanks for all this, just got to the computer after mad days. I am doing acidolphillus and have cut out dairy, dd still got it in her mouth and thanks ricecake we have moved on to dactarin, the nystatin didn't seem to work and she kept vomming it up as well. Dd still very snotty so don't think if is dairy, I've been off three days and nothing much has changed - maybe it is just a cold but I wish she could get rid of it. Feeling bit better, decided not to take the antibiotics and the infection I think has cleared up - so that was good. Now just got to sort this poor snotty girl out - ricecake, did you have any trouble washing off dactarin cream - I'm using that on nipples for the thrush, I keep washing it off but dd keeps pulling a face when she latches on, it may just be her sore mouth. Hope we are clear soon!