Help! Any allergic babies out there?

[hobnob57]

I'm reaching the end of my tether! DD (BF) has been colicky from birth and was diagnosed with silent reflux at 5mths due to oesophageal blood appearing in her nappies. Since birth, she's had difficulty passing wind and is almost permanently bloated. I've been dairy-free since 2 mths and gluten-free since 5 mths. The diary helped a bit, the gluten helped a lot (no more explosive diarrhoea that smelled of vinegar, no more stuffy nose, and AT LAST a full nights' sleep!). I really thought the gluten had cracked it.

However, since going on holiday at the beginning of July (7mths), the bloating and audible reflux started again, as did the sleepless nights. I took her to the GP at the beginning of August (8mths) and got some Gaviscon, but it hasn't helped the bloating, which has got worse and worse, as has the reflux.

Anyone got any suggestions or nuggets of advice as to what this could be?!!!!!!!!!

I am really at my wits' end. She won't BF because she is so annoyed with her belly. In fact in the past 24 hrs she's been so annoyed that she just gives me a pitying look and then bites me. She won't take Nutramigen or Neocate but will maybe manage 2oz of Pepti during the day from a cup. She just chews bottles. I BF morning and evening. This week I've reverted to waking her at 10 for a feed as this is the time that she'll take the most. She hardly fed this morning and I expressed afterwards and got only 2oz. I'm really worried about her milk intake.

Could be lactose intolerance. Ds2 is 7 weeks old and was diagnosed with it 3 weeks ago. Did you know there is lactose in breast milk ? Neither did I till I saw the specialist. Anyway, I gave up breastfeeding ( made me sad but as the paed said I had to give up for very valid reasons) and moved to Neocate and saw a massive difference. No more bloated belly, no more eggy/sulphur farts. You prob dont want to give up B/F but just those 2 feeds might be causing all the problems. How about expressing your milk off for 48hrs and just use formula to see if it makes a difference ?( made a huge difference to my LO) If it makes no difference then you can resume BF. DS1 had chronic reflux and gaviscon helped a bit but it wont help bloating from lactose intolerance.
I was very sad to give up B?F but on exclusive Neocate I have a new baby who is happy and calm and sleeps well rather than a baby writhing in agony 24/7.

thanks for the advice mousemole. I tried using Coleif drops once (lactase breaks down lactose in EBM) but they gave her nasty diarrhoea. Might try them again. May I ask how you managed to get a diagnosis so early? When I speak to health professionals I just seem to get nowhere fast. In fact circles is more accurate.

I thought about lactose, but today she didn't get breast milk after her half-hearted feed at 6am, and she was inflated like a balloon at 6pm, screaming in pain until 8:30 when she was too tired to bite me and fed again to sleep. Would the symptoms last that long?

Babies are such a puzzle......

Is she having any solids? Ds has dairy and soya allergy and had severe reflux. The paediatric gastroenterologist was very focussed on the introduction of solids to monitor for allergies. Basically he made us introduce new foods one at a time and for three consecutive days in order to br able to identify any problems.

hi hobnob
The specialist told me the Colief drops aren't that effective...so dont expect miracles. i got a quick diagnosis as just knew something wasn't right with up. Luckily have a great ( young, female with 2 small children) GP. Just go to your doctor and be REALLY pushy till they refer you.
Whilst waiting to see a specialist I would definitely try going for longer on formula and no breast ( 48hrs at least). The lactose hangs around inside their systems so you would see increasing benefit over time. I know its a hassle to do but worth it in the long run if it helps identify the problem. the symptoms you describe sounds like a sever allergic reaction whcih is prob to Lactose. The specialist said to me that it would take 4 weeeks to see the full benefit of Neocate as the lactose comes out of the system and she was right. Saw an immediate benefit but even more improvement over last few weeks. Good luck and keep us posted.

Ib, she's a dustbin as far as solids are concerned. I have pretty much stuck to a narrow-ish range of fruit and veg with chicken, cod, plaice and mince. I know that orange starts her refluxing again. Melon is a hit straight out of the fridge for sore gums!

Mousemole, we saw the HV today who had spoken to a GP and it turns out her ranitidine dose was woefully low so we've to up that and see what happens over the next week. If it continues, the GP will refer us again.

I'd love to try the 48hrs formula thing but I know she won't take hardly anything and will probably be up again in the night looking for a BF. I'll have to work it round a weekend when dh doesn't have a ridiculously early tee off time for his ridiculous golf habit....

When you say mince, do you mean beef? Because the pge told me in order to get the full benefit of dairy-free I had to cut out beef as well, since some of the proteins that are the allergen are there too. Do you eat beef?

There's better drugs than ranitidine they can give you if the reflux is bad as well, so if she doesn't improve do push for a referral.

I hope she gets better soon.

Ib, I had no idea about the beef! I've been feeding her beef casserole the past 2 days and she's been screaming! I had put it down to a bit of constipation.... Hmmm. Not sure I can live without my spag bol on top of everything else though!

hi Hobnob,
So sorry to hear all you've been through - well done on getting so far though. My DS is nearly 1 now and we went through a similar thing to you. Only with his reflux, he was sick after every feed, so nothing was getting through. At 3 months, consultant said I had to supplement bf with bottle to put weight on. I had already tried cutting out dairy (there are strong links with this and reflux) and I don't eat wheat, but didn't seem to help. Eventually at 4.5 months I went totally to bottle for 3 days (while expressing) and the difference was so dramatic, I had to take the decision to formula feed instead with nutramigen, so you have done so much better than me (re. sleeping, it still took a couple of months for him to get big enough to sleep through night without feed).

So, re. your diet - you say you can't live without spaghetti bolognese, I assume you are eating gluten-free spaghetti, if you are cutting out gluten? There are some great ranges in all supermarkets. You might also want to check out which ones don't have egg or soya in either, as these are strong allergens - I think the rice pasta is best option. I found that I ate a lot of turkey, fruit, veg, rice, sweet potatoes, dates (excellent for a sweet kick), when I was cutting out allergens.

Re. her milk - have you tried giving nutramigen from a cup instead of a bottle to see if this helps? I was lucky in that DS went fairly easily to bottle, but he was probably starving!! Also, I used Tommee Tippee bottles, which apparently are good for going between breast and bottle. But, DS has glugged water from cup from fairly young - when started weaning, so maybe this is worth a shot for you?

Re. her food - my DS has been fed an entirely dairy, gluten and wheat free diet so far until we have started introducing v. recently some of these - tried wheat a while back and it didn't seem great, in that he started to wet through at night again, but tried egg this weekend with no bad effects, so it can get better. DS has flourished on fruit, veg (all sorts, but sweet potato big favourite), cod and sweet potato (Annabel Karmel recipe), beef casserole using gluten free flour (although sounds like you might need to avoid this), chicken pieces (really shredded small), porridge, banana - he started really slowly on weaning, due to reflux I think and we pureed longer than for some babies, but now he loves nothing better than to eat things he can pick up in his hands.

Anyway, hope that some of this helps and good luck with it, I know it can be so tough. We have had no joy with GP agreeing to intolerance testing (apparently there's no point until he's 5 !), but hope you fare better.

Thanks JingleBelle. It's good to know you're not alone!

DD has got better at milk feeding now, but is having bouts of nasty (noisy, not pukey) reflux and constipation at the moment. It's so hard to isolate what sets her off. I think the current culprits might be orange (from the cod & sweet potato recipe) and either tomato or plaice.

I think I'll stick to my spag bol with rice pasta. DD's post-beef casserole screaming episode was constipation I think - 4 dirty nappies the next day!

She's taking formula better from the childminder Mon-Wed (from her cup, even the TT bottles are a waste of time with her now!) during the day. I'll try her with her cup one of these nights to see if I can get a night off!

Things are a bit better than they were when I first posted, so that's good. However her bloaty belly is still a mystery.... GP said to up her ranitidine but I can't think how that'll help. Worth a try though. Even if the Ranitidine doesn't help, the alcohol content in it will knock her out!

Hi Hobnob, You sound very cheery with it all I must say. Not sure I was that patient as I found it all so frustrating (always careful to be patient with DS mind, just not with GP, etc)!!
I think tomatoes can be quite allergenic too - completely know which book you're following for recipes! Another good recipe I've found is the beef casserole one with sweet potato - I used gluten free flour for coating the beef and just used water instead of stock and he just wolfs it down with no ill effect. I'll be totally honest and say that he's now nearly 1 and so far the food stuffs he's eaten are: porridge (now at stage of mixing Oatibix in and even a few cornflakes ), banana, pear, peach, (I found he seemed to get more sickly after apple so will reintroduce that again at a later stage), sweet potato, swede, carrot, potato, courgette, brocoli (wouldn't eat butternut squash, so gave up on that), cod (with orange in), plaice, tomato, beef, green beans, chicken (wouldn't eat pureed, but loves it torn into tiny strips), rice cakes and in more recent months Organix carrot sticks (look like wotsits, but totally natural and no gluten/milk, etc), tried lamb this weekend and grapes (pulls funny face, but loves them) and that's really it! He is thriving and does not struggle with dirty nappies or reflux (although does bring up bits of milk now and then, usually when he's quite active after a bottle in morning). So, it is fine to have a limited diet and introduce things very, very slowly. I usually cook in bulk and freeze so I can just get portions (few ice cubes) out of freezer each night for the following day, which is quite easy to do when you're following such a repetitive diet !

We're going to try toast again this Friday (so we, not childminder, get reaction if there is one) and depending on how that goes, will try dairy the following weekend, while maintaining a food diary, so we can really see if any effect.
Anyway, good luck with your weaning and glad to hear DD is taking milk from cup. Every baby is different, so I can only share my experience in case it helps.

P.S. Like your theory on the ranitidine! Are you prescribed domperidone as well? We had both and had to give, then wait 20 mins to feed - that was the worst bit. I have heard that domperidone taken by a breastfeeding Mum can help your milk supply too - am sure I heard that on Mumsnet, but if you want to double-check, just post on it, but depends if that's still an issue for you.