Pediatrician's Asked to Wean 5 month Old Son Due to Allergies

[sbk]

Hi,

I'm new to this group. My son will be 5 months old this week. He has a lot of eczema and has a bad diaper rash for quite some time now. After being given antibiotics for a skin infection in January, he had diarhea and since then passes light green stools a lot.
We had his blood tested, he is allergic to wheat, milk, rice, lentils, soy. Not to cod (fish) and eggs.
I was trying the elimination diet and it had been a little over 2 weeks.But the pediatrician was concerned when she saw my son’s diaper rash and suggested I give him Nutramigen for 2 weeks but keep pumping just in case I can nurse him later.
But she pretty much said I will have to give up breast feeding him.

I am extremely distraught and depressed. No one understands my predicament.

I wanted a second opinion about discontinuing nursing. Is it possible to nurse him only during night time and give him formula during the day?
How long does an elimination diet need to start working?
I’m a vegetarian, since he’s allergic to everything I eat, what do I eat?

Anyone with a similar experience?

Help!

[1cheshirecat]

If he is allergic to milk and soy I would think his allergies would be worse if you weaned since formula is usually made from cow's milk or soy. I would carry on breastfeeding.

I'm not an expert on elimination diets but I believe you have to stick at it for a couple of weeks before you see a change.

[LianeV]

You should definitely seek a second opinion! No doubt about it. You son's allergies could be a lot worse if you hadn't been nursing him thus far. There is a potential for them to become worse if you stop now. Find a doctor who is better informed, or at least has more experience with nursing moms/babies. Meanwhile, try going to www.thebirthden.com/Newman.html and look for a link on the left side of the page where you can actually email Dr. Jack Newman for advice. He's in Canada, but is one of the world's foremost experts on breastfeeding. He won't steer you wrong. There's also a lot of articles and videos on the site you might find helpful. There's even one entitled, "How to Know a Health Professional is not Supportive of Breastfeeding."
I think sometimes the doctor needs to create a "control" situation (I'm using control as in science experiment) in order to figure out what is causing a certain condition. For him, your nursing may feel like a wild card of sorts and if nursing was the root of the problem, quitting would be the quickest means to an end -- in his mind. However, many feel the benefits of nursing outweigh the probability of nursing being the problem.
What I'm trying to say is that the odds that your milk (or something in it) is the culprit is pretty low. The odds that replacing breast milk with formula will cause more troubles is pretty high.

[madelsmama]

I'm going to send your posts to a couple of moms here have severe food allergies. Both moms have endured 2yrs. and 5+ years nursing while on an elimination diet. You don't have to give up breastfeeding, but will need to stay on a strict diet. It takes at least 2 weeks for the proteins to be eliminated from your milk, minimum.

Hang in there!

[hotlama]

He has survived your milk for 5 months. I think that giving it up might actually amake it worse. Listen to LianeV and madelsmama. THey have good advice.

[Psyche]

I'm pretty sure Nutramagin is soy or dairy based. IF (and a big IF) you decide to go to formula, you should really consider neocate, which is awfully expensive and by perscription only.

That said, I nursed my food allergic son for quite some time. We avoided the following in our diets due to allergy or high risk of allergy: dairy, egg, soy, pea, melon, peanut, tree nut, strawberry, tomato, shellfish, and something else I'm forgetting. It stinks and its rough, but it can be safely done.

I'll add that just b/c a test says he isn't allergic to something, doesn't mean he isn't allergic to it. DS tested very, very low to soy on the blood test and negative on the skin test. Yet, he reacts to soy and even soy lecthin (which is generally considered safe for soy allergics). Another mom here, her DD is anapylactic to egg and dairy and tests negative to them on the tests. Testing isn't fool proof but is a good starting point.

It is possible to nurse at night and formula feed during the day, but its kind of pointless. If you're nursing some of the time, you might as well nurse all of the time.

The diaper rash could be just due to his loose stools. Have you been dosing him with a dairy free probiotic twice a day (a few hours after the antibiotic) to recolonize his digestive tract? Vinegar baths are great at relieving diaper rash too, FWIW. It could also a yeast overgrowth. Lotramin or GSE (diluted) will clear that up and probiotics will help too.

As to what to eat, you can still eat beans and veggies and fruit. Would you consider adding fish or poultry to your diet for the time being if the beans, veggies, and fruit don't work out? Also, I use Vance's Dari Free for my cooking (its potato based and cooks well into savory and sweet dishes). Since you cannot do soy or dairy or rice milk, it might be a great alternative for you. I would avoid treenuts and peanuts, but since you are already on a limited diet, it may be difficult to avoid tree nuts (definitely avoid peanuts though).

Ener-G makes a great bread (reportedly) that is potato based. There are all sorts of flour you can get at health food stores to make instead of wheat bread. Ezekial bread *may* be safe.

It takes about 2-3 weeks for the elimination diet to show improvement. It sounds to me like there are several different issues going on. I'm not an MD and obviously am not qualified to diagnose your kid over the internet, but I personally would treat the rash as different from the food allergies.

As to the eczema, frequent warm baths without ANY soap EVER and lotioning up with Eucerin, Aquaphor or Olive oil after the bath is great. Cotton only clothing, no fleece blankets. Don't let him get too hot, keep the skin cool. Use a free and clear detergent in the wash and no fabric softener or dryer sheets.

So there is a ton of information. I hope its helpful. Let me know if you need more help or have questions. Its a lot to process but it CAN be done :) And welcome :)

[_Gypsy_]

Hi, I've nursed two kids with food allergies and have been on elimination diets for 7 solid years now.

What have you eliminated for two weeks? is there any improvement?

I think you can continue nursing if you want to, are dedicated to an elimination diet and are willing to try some new things.

Elimination diets are the gold standard for allergy diagnosis, testing is only good for monitoring known allergens, there are a lot of false negatives and false positives -- what matters with allergy testing is changes in results from year to year. He may or may not be allergic to what he showed positive for, and he may or may not be allergic to any other food.

I don't normally visit this forum, I may forget this thread is here, so if I don't post back within a day or so of you replying please PM me!

[_Gypsy_]

Eczema http://www.allergicchild.com/infant_eczema.htm

[mfirst]

I would definitely find a second opinion before moving to the nutramigin route. I was given the same advice after my son (now 2 1/2, then 5 months) showed sensitivity to milk and soy. I followed the doctor's orders that he was "allergic" to my breastmilk and began giving him nutramigin. Not only is the hypoallergenic formula really expensive, but it did not cure his eczema as the doctor swore it would. After 3 months of formula, Nolan was still dealing with horrible eczema and then had the added bonus of being constantly ill. I cannot say for sure the formula caused a breakdown in his immunity, but the number of ear infections/sinus infections and general colds did vastly increase.