If you BF through food allergies, I need a pep talk pls.

Mira06 · October 2011

First off I am bound and determined to continue breastfeeding my DS. I just need a bit of a pep talk, as I am getting frustrated. I have had to cut out milk, soy and nuts. I also have had to eliminate anything acidic (tomatoes, tomato bases, coffee, chocolate).

I guess I am just throwing myself a pity party right now. And I need to hear from other moms who had it worse and that they managed ok. (I realize a lot of LOs have much worse issues then my guy).

Thanks.

GE · October 2011

No advice but just wanted to let you know I am in the same place right now - although we are just starting with dairy and then today soy. I'm literally in tears over the thought of having to quit bfeeding.

g_belle · October 2011

Go ahead and throw the pity party- elmination diets aren't easy.

I'm dairy and egg free right now. With my first son- I stopped BF-ing at 10 months because we finally had a dx and I knew i could make him feel better immediately if I stopped. So I did. And this time I'm determined not to let food allergies "win" (although my supply issues might- but that's another post).

On the bad days I tell myself that for me- this diet is temporary. For my kids- this could be their diet forever. And I need to learn how to feed/cook for/accomodate my own kids.

TanyaKM · October 2011

No advice, just wanted to tell you that I am going through the same thing. I only started a few days ago cutting out the diary and soy, and now I'm thinking maybe I should throw in wheat too. Gah. It's very frustrating to be constantly second-guessing everything you're eating. But, I think years from now we'll look back and be glad we stuck with it!

amy21tom · October 2011

You can do it!

I took milk, soy, eggs, peanuts/tree nuts, wheat, fish/shellfish, corn and beef out of my diet (this started when DS was 3 weeks and I took the last thing (wheat) out early Sept). Even with all of these restrictions DS still had bleeding and I had to start him on Elecare just 2 weeks ago. He is almost fully weaned but we are still nursing in the middle of the night and early morning. I would give anything to keep BFing. I cried the whole way home on the day we learned we had to switch, and I still cry once in a while because it's a very hard change to make.

Just enjoy the fact that you are still BFing and hopefully that will not change for you! Look at it as a chance for you to eat really healthy (real, whole foods and not processed junk). Pretty soon it will become natural to you and you won't even miss it (Although I do feel for you on the coffee and chocolate!!). Also, if you ever want snack type foods Enjoy Life has trail mixes, cereals and cookies that are all Top 8 free!

g_belle · October 2011

amy21tom:

You can do it!

I took milk, soy, eggs, peanuts/tree nuts, wheat, fish/shellfish, corn and beef out of my diet (this started when DS was 3 weeks and I took the last thing (wheat) out early Sept). Even with all of these restrictions DS still had bleeding and I had to start him on Elecare just 2 weeks ago. He is almost fully weaned but we are still nursing in the middle of the night and early morning. I would give anything to keep BFing. I cried the whole way home on the day we learned we had to switch, and I still cry once in a while because it's a very hard change to make.

Just enjoy the fact that you are still BFing and hopefully that will not change for you! Look at it as a chance for you to eat really healthy (real, whole foods and not processed junk). Pretty soon it will become natural to you and you won't even miss it (Although I do feel for you on the coffee and chocolate!!). Also, if you ever want snack type foods Enjoy Life has trail mixes, cereals and cookies that are all Top 8 free!

Enjoy life has safe chocolate I eat the chocolate chips when I need my chocolate fix. And there's an "AHHHlaska" brand of chocolate syrup that you can mix with coconut milk for hot chocolate.

funchicken · October 2011

I cut out the top 8, citrus, tomatoes, legumes, coffee, all meat (except organic chicken and turkey), cinnamon, and pepper. I'm soooo careful about what I eat, and I really don't trust anyone else to prepare food for me. I did a full elimination diet when my DD was a month old, and it took about 2 months for me to figure out all of the things that bothered her, but I'm glad I stuck with it. The first month was so hard, but it got easier, and now here I am at month 8.

I love nursing, but I'm not sure if I could do this if I were working. It's very time-consuming having to prepare one meal for myself and something else for my husband and 3 year old every day. And I REALLY miss coffee Stick out tongue

You can definitely do it if you really want to. Good luck, mama!!

Sweet face 82 · October 2011

I have found coconut milk and coconut yogurt. Also, teavana has a LOT of tea with no caffeine and their white tea may have less acid. I have to avoid dairy and eggs which I found hard at first. Good luck and don't give up!!! I"m still breastfeeding my LO too!

TPOX · October 2011

I can commiserate. I started with dairy/soy around 4 months, then around... 5? months I went on a total elim diet. Had turkey, rice, potatoes, zucchini and pears for 2 weeks. Then started slowly testing things. I also ended up cutting out nuts, tree nuts, eggs, chicken, corn, avocado, banana, peas (and don't eat beef or pork anyway) until 10 months when my supply dropped enough taht the e-diet wasn't worth it. It was ridiculously tough, but I'm super cheap and didn't want to pay for formula, and really enjoyed the weight loss that came with it. Wink Hello, skinny pants I haven't seen in years!

I hope it gets easier for you!!

HazelBee22 · October 2011

I'm not in your exact shoes (obviously LO isn't even born yet, lol) but I do have allergies and know how tough and frustrating it can be to avoid! The really tough things are the non-top 8s like avocado (including oils), and even top 8 allergens aren't the easiest to spot in pre-packaged foods.

I can only imagine that it is extra tough because you have had to quit everything cold turkey - but you are doing it for a fantastic reason. I hope that your LO will outgrow some (or all!) of the allergies, but in the very worst case scenario you will have lots of first hand experience with finding safe foods and preparing meals.

rdhmama79 · October 2011

You can do it! It gets easier as time goes on and you learn how to eat according to your new diet. We are dairy/soy/egg free, and up until a month ago we were peanut/tree nut free as well. We were also wheat and beef free for a while.

Just remember that you are doing what's best for your baby, and that it's only temporary. I love my nursing time with DS too much to make the switch to formula. We have no plans to stop nursing any time soon.

magdusia · October 2011

You can do it! it's hard but at the end you will feel like you have done so much just for the sake of his BM.. It really does get easier and i felt like i learned so much about making foods. It actually prepares you for when he starts eating more solids.

katxattack · October 2011

I gave Nutramigen a shot earlier this week. No thanks... I'll stick to BFing for now. This sucks... I have already been dairy free for 7 weeks. I got a little lax on the soy, as my LO doesn't seem reactive. She will have blood streaked poo if I look at dairy.

I had no idea my older half siblings were very much intolerant to dairy as infants. I found that out Tuesday night. Sounds like my sister was actually a 'failure to thrive' kind of infant.Now, my Ped is finally taking this seriously. Really? Before it was just kind of a "well, take dairy out of your diet..." now its "TAKE DAIRY AND SOY OUT OF YOUR DIET". Hmm.

TulipsAndChampagne · October 2011

You can do it! (and if you can't that is okay too) I eliminated milk/dairy, eggs, all nuts, caffeine for 13 months. That was my staple diet. I have a bladder disorder, so I limit acidic foods too. It was hard as heck and I pumped exclusively. But at 14 months, when I finally weaned, I was so proud of myself and found that I do not even want things like eggs or caffeine anymore. Hang in there. You almost go through withdrawls during the elimination, then things seem to get easier after that.

webMistress0609 · October 2011

I nursed Ari for 22 months on a really restricted diet. He had 21 allergies/sensitivities at the worst point. We're down to 17 now. I had to cut out all the top 8 + corn, potatoes, beef, chicken, etc. etc. I did 3 TEDs too. The TEDs were the worst, but we got to baseline real quick so we added foods back in after 5 days or so.

Honestly I don't regret it for a minute & I'm actually glad I stuck with BFing. We were this close to switching to Elecare or Neocate, but I cried about weaning more than I cried about giving up foods, so we stuck with the thing I cried about less. We basically had to go to a ultra healthy, almost entirely organic vegan diet since the only meat Ari can tolerate is turkey and pork. Pork grosses me out (I'm Jewish, not really practicing but I grew up not eating pork and shellfish), so turkey is it. Anyway, DH is an amazing cook & ended up finding all of these Indian & Mediterranean dishes that were so good. DH lost weight & got his cholesterol down, I figured out that I have issues with dairy & gluten, & we all feel amazing. If Ari outgrew all his allergies tomorrow, I would still stick to pretty much the diet we have now. The only thing I've added back is potatoes. I would like to add back more beans, but since we all eat the same stuff we just haven't & won't really have a chance to until Ari outgrows some more allergies. He can only tolerate a few legumes.

Anyway, this is an entirely too long response, but hang in there. As a pp said, it's really hard @ first, but it does get easier.

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