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Food Allergy
Imanurse03
Hi there,
I was reading your post on Elecare, and your situation seems similar to my DD's. Our background: at 9 weeks when I went back to work, DD was given the bottle and stopped wanting to eat (everyone thought bottle aversion). Since then, her intake has been super low (8-20 oz a day, depending on the day, even as low as 3 when she is sick). She has refused all food, but in the last few days, started eating a few of those puffs (yay!). She has almost always had green, mucusy poops, until recently, when they are getting a little more peanut buttery (not sure if that is the puffs, or the fact that I am off the top 6, but some soy sneaks in there sometimes- I know, awful).
Can you tell me a little more about your situation? Or, if you could PM me, that would be great. Just still trying to gather all the info out there before I keep self diagnosing my daughter. Good thing is that we go to the Allergist next week. I have a little trepidation that she will test false negative (due to her age and stories I have heard). Anything you have in terms of your LO's eating, feeding, pooping, anything really- I would appreciate.
Thanks so much for this request, and please disregard if it makes you uncomfortable. Just seems very similar to what I am experiencing from what I have read. 
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Re: Imanurse03
Hi there! Sorry I'm just seeing your post now. I don't get on here too much but glad I saw this.
I'm sorry you are having issues with your DD. I know how frustrating it is.
DS was born at 35 weeks and was small at birth (4 lbs, 10.5 oz). He never got the nursing thing so I EP'd for the first 4 months or so of his life. He seemed to do well for the first 2.5 months of his life. He was a bit gassy but nothing horrible. At 2.5 months, he started having what I thought was reflux. He seemed to cough and sputter a lot with feeding. He also sounded hoarse at times when he cried or babbled. It also seemed like he was quite uncomfortable when he would spit up. So I mentioned this to pedi and they put him on Zantac for reflux. That seemed to improve his reflux symptoms.
Then at 4 months, he started crying and fussing during feedings. His intake dropped as well. He'd only take about a half of his normal feeding of my pumped breast milk. He also had green, mucousy stools. And frequent stools, too. He would have 4-5 bowel movements/day of the green, mucousy stools. I just knew that something was wrong. This was right around his 4 month check up. I mentioned this to pedi and happened to bring a dirty diaper with us. She said it sounded like a milk protein allergy. She tested his stool for hidden blood and it was positive. She recommended that I eliminate all dairy from my diet and that if I needed to supplement with formula, then we should use Alimentum or Nutramigen.
I was very strict about no dairy (she said I didn't have to cut out soy at that time) and we initially saw a bit of an improvement but within 2 or 3 weeks, he got to the point of flat out refusing to eat. Daycare called me one day to tell me that he was refusing bottles of pumped BM. It was so awful. I was able to get in with pedi that day and he had lost a half pound of weight in just a few weeks. And he was small to begin with, so pedi was very concerned. He also had visible blood in stool at that point in time.
She had me stop giving him all BM, had us start him on Elecare and then referred us to pedi GI. The pedi Gi recommended that I stop pumping and giving him any BM and for him to just take Elecare. He said that he will hopefully outgrow this allergy by one year old.
He has done so well on Elecare. He takes 20-25 oz/day of Elecare and also gets two servings of solids per day. He's not a big baby (weighs about 14 lbs at 7 months) and so doesn't take a huge amount of formula in a day. But pedi GI is pleased with his intake. He poops a few times a week and it's definitely the "Elecare" poop. Kind of pasty brown and yucky but it's nowhere near like the stools he had when he was having the allergy symptoms. It took almost a month to see a huge improvement but he is gaining weight and is finally on the growth chart at the 3rd percentile! I am sad about not being able to pump and give him BM but I do think this is what's best for both of us. I'm a Type 1 diabetic and so such a restricted diet would have not been good for me. And I would constantly worry about hidden allergies in the foods I eat. It can take about a month for babies to get rid of the allergens in their systems.
I look back at pictures from around the time he was diagnosed with the allergies and just prior to the diagnosis and DS even looked kind of sickly. I didn't see it at the time but I do notice a big improvement in his appearance.
We weren't referred to an allergist but I would say that if your DD is having GI-related allergy symptoms, then a pedi GI is your best bet. The pedi GI DS sees specializes in food allergies. They've been able to get us some Elecare for free, too.
Let me know if you have any questions. It def. sounds like your DD has milk and soy allergies. Good luck to you!