Egg & Dairy intolerant BF 7 1/2mnth - Dietician just told me to intro Meat!

[Isobellasmum]

Any advice please? My LO is 7 1/2 months old - we wanted to go with BLW, but she wasn't eating anything, so we went to purees - again, didn't eat any of it for the first few weeks, but as of about 3 weeks ago we're having some good days... We've so far discovered egg and dairy intolerance and skin reaction to tomato. HV (don't get me started) came round to offer "advice" and referred us to peads Dietician who phoned tonight and told me to get cracking with meat... She's only just accepting the purees and given half the chance would swop them for a BF anyway. She's happy, alert and although she's dropped in the centicle chart thing seems inproportion to us..... Should I really be forcing meat and 2 veg into her? I'm getting terrified by all this vitamin and iron stuff and the "window" threats...

you can puree meat too. My baby (7 months) got on very well with the chicken casserole I made at the weekend - just blitzed it with the hand blender. I don't think they want to force food on your dd but rather widen your choices a bit on what you're feeding her. I think offering a variety and relaxing about it is far more important than quantity consumed at this point. Don't stress about it though - her b/f is her main food source and will be for some time. My dd1 was about 9 months old before she had 3 meals a day (worried the hv a bit as well)

how are you at expressing? Possible to use ebm to add to food to make it easier to puree. -also good for making things like fish pie etc.

Thanks for that. I was amazed to be told to "cut down" on BFs. Will have to get cooking again - just cooked up 4 trays worth of fruit and veg bits - Annabel Karmel recipes - thought that would be ok for the next week or so. I guess it's thier way of compensating for the lack of diary, but I feel I'm going to be rushing LO

Yeah, Expressing ok, and that was how we got her from BF only to baby rice with EBM - have kinda backed off that a bit, but good idea for using for fish pie - am sure that'll make it more yummy for LO

My dd is nine months and for a few months was happy being spoon fed purees etc...then I started blw - I too had to be careful as she was prescribed soya formula at 4 months. I have kept a food diary and so far nothing has upset her.

I have not been to the HV in ages and it is because they freak me out. I know that some days dd eats more than others but her main source of nutrition at this age is milk. She always takes this so am never concerned. Don't get too caught up on the 3 meals a day thing as this will come eventually. I know it's hard but try not to stress about how much/what they eat. They only have little stomachs and so I am never that concerned. And as for HV (my HV does not have children)you can listen to what they say but it does not mean you have to follow their advice to the letter. Afterall it is your baby and you know them better than any HV...and if you think about it what happened years ago when they did not have iron supplements etc??????

I wouldn't worry too much about the tomato, Isobella. It's very common in young children to get a skin rash after eating them. Just leave it a few months, and keep trying to reintroduce.

i'm a bit about cutting down on bfs, why was that again?
and dd loved meat, deffo, from the beginning, so there's nothing wrong with it. offer it as puree and finger food, no harm in trying both.

true, desi. dd always wants to pick toms up but spits them straight out again. at a year she started having a rash even with cooked toms and then it stopped again after a couple of months. i asked about it, seems very, very common esp raw.

Cool - so should stop stressing about the tomoatos. I guess with the meat I just thought we should let her get the hang of fruit and veg before pushing it at her, but will give it a shot - although am not going to make Lamb Mousakka for first taste.... HV got a bit carried away there I thing..
Think the reason for reducing the BFs was to make LO hungrier for "proper" food. In reality what it means is crying unhappy baby facing food she doesn't want and stressed out me!

I would think very carefully before disregarding the advice of a paediatrition

you do not have to reduce bfs at all. the iron in bm is the most bio available source of iron you dd can get at the moment. kellymom has a page on it but i should be putting dd in the bath right now.

milk should be her main source of nutrition till one y.o.

yes, i would go ahead and intro meat in tiny amts, maybe 'dilute' it in mash potato as i can't see any need for her to have much meat at the moment.

here i am giving advice when i came looking for some. my dd now 2.5 yo has just been diagnosed with the same 2 things and maybe more as the message ran out on the phone before the paed finished.

plus she is mildly anaemic. she refuses so many foods and i think it is down to these issues.

in no way plan to disregard - all taken on board, just freaked me out. Calming down a bit now.

Thanks Kiskidee - Reassuring words about the BM. Hope your DD's allergies settle. Am going to buy some soya tomorrow and see how we get on with that - at least there are loads of alternatives out there these days.

My DS is also milk and dairy intolerant.

We were doing BLW at the time (have since given up as he stopped eating anything) and the dietician said I could give him rolled up bits of cold meat, bits of cooked chicken etc.

We are now doing some purees and I make mince with loads of veg in it and whizz it up a bit in the blender.

How do you get past the gagging over lumps thing? LO will much bits off pear / apple / rice cracker, bread etc, but spits out all the bits she chews off! Do they eventually stop the spitting and start the eating?

It took my DS ages to get the chewing thing, but he did eventually.

You just have to keep trying.

this

this

Ours (also dairy free) had no interest in mashed-up meat but loved gnawing on bones at that age. We'd do a roast, get what we could off the bone with a knife and fork, then hand the bone to the baby. It was great for teething too!

I agree with kiskidee - breastmilk is the best source of iron and vits. Just make sure that you yourself are eating lots of iron rich foods. She'll get first pick of the nutrients so you need to make sure there's enough for you too.

Thanks for those links. Good reading. Have woken up a bit calmer about the whole thing. Am going to make sure I work on my diet as well as hers to guarentee she's getting the best from the BM and will try some meat with her on Saturday (when Dad will be around!)

good for you.

Know when we had issues with food allergies with ds - we had to go down the rice, lamba nd pear route - nothign else (well water!) for a couple of weeks - turned out he was allergic to dairy, egg, wheat and some pulses. Grew out of most of this but is still somewhat sensitive! Something about being very bland and easy to digest allowing system to recover and taking back to basics (also heard about someone havig a lot of plums although know this wold have caused more problems than it solved with ds!) hth

Just to reassure, my dd was allergic to milk and tomotoes at that age-- she had outgrown both by aged 2

Most important thing is not to get stressed about it, keep calm and relaxed

Thanks so much to everyone for all your advice. Went to baby clinic today to get LO length checked - turns out she's between 25th adn 50th centiles for both height and weight - so completely in proportion then! Time to chill about it all I think. Tried 3 meals for first time today - none got finished, but took some of all - defo not hungry enough for 3 meals.

And breath!

Ah, that's good news!