Milk Protein?

vlahop

My twins have been breastfed for the majority of their life.  I started work about 4 weeks ago and I decided to slowly introduce formula because I plan to only pump for another 4-6 weeks at work.  They had been getting 1-2 ounces of enfamil a day for about 1.5-2 weeks.  All of the sudden Arianna had blood in her diaper... i totally freaked out.  She was not fussy and did not appear to be in any pain thankfully.  I stopped giving her any formula and there has been no more blood in her diaper.  I have frozen milk so the formula is not necessary, I was just looking to introduce it slowly.  The pedi said to stay away from formula for 2-3 weeks, and then I can try to introduce it again and see what happens.  They said it could have been a fluke?  Blood in the stool seems serious to me, I do not understand how it could have been a fluke.  I hate this guessing game though.  Trial and error will tell me if she is allergic?  Does it seem weird that no tests were run?  I would hate to see another bloody diaper.

Thank you in advance for your input! 

JoannaJes

Did she have any other symptoms besides blood in her diaper? Sometimes blood can appear in diapers for other reasons besides a milk protein intolerance.

shouldbworkin

When my kids reacted to milk, they were gassy, fussy and had mucousy poop long before they had blood in their stool.  Not sure if it presents that way for all kids, though.  Elimination is really the best thing for a milk protein intollerance, the tests can give false positives (only tested via blood, not a scratch test).

vlahop

She was really not fussy or gassy either.  Maybe it was a fluke?

I just hate to try again and have an issue.  The blood scares me because I do not really think it was a reaction to the milk.  I will never know what it was...

LadyExtravaganza

shouldbworkin:

When my kids reacted to milk, they were gassy, fussy and had mucousy poop long before they had blood in their stool.

This. There were a lot of symptoms prior to blood in the diaper. DS had a horrible rash all over his body, projectile vomiting, colic. I'm not sure if every child has symptoms as a precursor to blood in the diaper, but we certainly did. DS had it when he was on Nutramigen already because of all of the other symptoms (he's now on EleCare).

LSU628

FWIW my DD never had a bloody diaper. She had a horrible rash, screamed after feeding and would pretty much spit up whatever she did eat. She also had pretty bad allergy-type symptoms (constant runny nose, congestion, watery eyes).

FortMyersBride

We didn't make it as far as even trying formula as DS reacted horribly to the dairy protein that got through in my BM. B/f I completely eliminated it from my diet, he had eczema, bloody and mucus filled stool, and all day colic. I don't know that I would assume dairy protein intolerance after one incident esp if she was otherwise tolerating your BM while you ate dairy.

bwralc

Wow everyone had very extreme outward signs but my DD did not.  I'm going to share my story just so you have other things to look out for.

She was an awesome baby all day but had constipation issues at night and would also have problems with not being able to burp/pass gas.  She never had blood in her stool or mucus.  She peed/pooped regularly and it always looked normal. We thought she was just a high maintenance baby b/c she always wanted to be held and worn and she always liked to be upright more than other babies. 

We did not know she had a dairy protein allergy until I tried to offer her formula to supplement at 4 months and she slightly had red around her mouth.  When I called the Pedi brushed it off and said to try a different brand of formula that was broken down more. (switched from Enfamil to Good Start).  We were supplementing because DD wasn't gaining enough weight.  She seemed to take to it ok so we continued with the Good Start supplement after nursing sessions.

She continued to have weight gain problems and didn't want to eat meals.  At 8 months she got hives from yogurt.  My old Pedi recommended avoiding giving her dairy directly, however I didn't know I had to avoid dairy myself (I was still nursing) there is no allergies in my family so I was clueless.  When she still was not gaining enough weight at 10 months my then Pedi was telling me to add butter to all her food and I cried and knew something else was wrong. 

My new Pedi suspected a dairy allergy and rain a blood test.  She came back highly allergic to dairy.  In my daughters case her intestines were swollen and she always felt sick and didn't want to eat.  She also wasn't processing the calories she was in taking properly and therefore not gaining enough weight.

Since removing dairy she is thriving.  Hopefully having some of our stories you can watch out for other warning signs for your little one.

vlahop

bwralc:

Wow everyone had very extreme outward signs but my DD did not.  I'm going to share my story just so you have other things to look out for.

She was an awesome baby all day but had constipation issues at night and would also have problems with not being able to burp/pass gas.  She never had blood in her stool or mucus.  She peed/pooped regularly and it always looked normal. We thought she was just a high maintenance baby b/c she always wanted to be held and worn and she always liked to be upright more than other babies. 

We did not know she had a dairy protein allergy until I tried to offer her formula to supplement at 4 months and she slightly had red around her mouth.  When I called the Pedi brushed it off and said to try a different brand of formula that was broken down more. (switched from Enfamil to Good Start).  We were supplementing because DD wasn't gaining enough weight.  She seemed to take to it ok so we continued with the Good Start supplement after nursing sessions.

She continued to have weight gain problems and didn't want to eat meals.  At 8 months she got hives from yogurt.  My old Pedi recommended avoiding giving her dairy directly, however I didn't know I had to avoid dairy myself (I was still nursing) there is no allergies in my family so I was clueless.  When she still was not gaining enough weight at 10 months my then Pedi was telling me to add butter to all her food and I cried and knew something else was wrong. 

My new Pedi suspected a dairy allergy and rain a blood test.  She came back highly allergic to dairy.  In my daughters case her intestines were swollen and she always felt sick and didn't want to eat.  She also wasn't processing the calories she was in taking properly and therefore not gaining enough weight.

Since removing dairy she is thriving.  Hopefully having some of our stories you can watch out for other warning signs for your little one.

Thank you so much for sharing!  That is a good point a view for me to know as I continue trying to find out what is going on.