Is It Something I Am Eating?

If you decide you want to try formula again try Enfamil Gentlease--this should help with the gas and fussiness!

My daughter went through the same thing a few weeks ago and the doctor told me to try cutting out dairy. My daughter has a milk protein intolerance. Try cutting out dairy and see if that helps. Sometimes soy also does it so be careful of substituting soy milk for regular milk. Good luck!

I had a lot of problems with my daughter and YES it really does matter what you eat if you have a child with stomach problems. My child also had bad reflux and her reflux medicine helped alot. but she was stillhaving problems. I had to give up all milk products and that helped a lot. My sister had to give up wheat,milk soy and eggs and any thing spicy like tomato sauce. mucus in the bowl movement usually means that your child is allergic or intollerant to something you are eating. I think it takes about 8 hours for foods to show up in your breast milk and it takes 2-3 days to get things like milk proteins to get out of your breast milk and it can take a whole month of your child's digestive tract to heal. I would ask your ped to check your childs stool for traces of blood. because if there is any blood in their stool then he is most likely allergic to something probably milk. Talk with a lactation speciallist about what foods to give up first.
My daughters stomach problems seem to vanish at 9 months of age it was really weird. She was weaned at 10 months and was on Ailmentum. She even had a hard time when i introduced solids the only food she could eat at the begining was rice cereal, pears, peaches, sweet potatoes and squash. that was it for months then all of a suddend it was like her digestive track healed. She went to an allergist and wasnt allergic to anything. Now she eats and drink everything and has no problems. I would have never thought that she was going to get over this. It seemed like everthing made her sick. I thought I had a baby that would have food issues for the rest of her life but she is great now.
good luck I woud give up milk products first.
E.

I found it was my digestion. I made a tea with fennel, anise, and dill and that helped; I also took digestive enzymes and good probiotics. The big 3 for food allergies and harder to digest proteins are cow's milk, soy, and wheat. This leaves you with a lot of options; breakfast can be eggs, smoothies, and oatmeal/non-wheat warm cereals or things like apple or pear crisp made with oats and oat flour, lunches can be luscious salads or nourishing homemade soups with non cruciferous veggies, and dinner can be rice/rice pasta and non cruciferous veggies + meat- or cornbread, millet, quinoa... I found it to be almost comforting to be limited in food options as I could make a rhythm/schedule of what I ate, vary seasonings/spices and which veggies I had, and stick with very simple, plain items. Coconut milk was also a delicious way to get rich and creamy effects without cow's milk. After 4-5 months I was able to resume my normal diet but I learned from the experience what *I* digest best- it's not just our babies with sensitive tummies, but the combination of our baby's tummy and our own poor digestion (which we often don't realize until we remove common offenders). Also pay attention to frequency- too much nursing can cause problems; stick to one side and make sure your baby is actually rooting for food and not just crying for other reasons.

If you suspect a food allergy, you can find a lot of useful information about elimination diets at www.foodallergy.org and www.askdrsear.com (has an elimination diet plan that many follow). When my daughter was reacting to dairy she had similar symptoms and it took about 3 days of no dairy before her symptoms improved. They didn't disappear because of the GERD but the fussiness and stomach cramps almost disappeared. Another thing to consider: Green mucousy poops can be a sign of allergy but they can also be a sign of baby getting too much foremilk and not enough hindmilk when nursing. This happens a lot with GERDlings because they take smaller feedings. If the baby is only getting the foremilk (thin watery stuff at the beginning) it races through their body causing pain and gives green poop. You may want to express some of this beforehand so that the baby can get to the rich hind milk which won't reflux as easily AND will soothe their stomach. GERD forums such as www.pager.org and http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/breastfeedingreflux/ can be a terrific place to find info on nursing a GERDling. I've had two severe refluxers and nursed both. It was really difficult in the beginning but I ended up having wonderful extended BFing relationships with both. Hang in there. It will get easier! These forums can be a terrific source of support and information. I hope your little one is feeling better soon!

When my SIL had this issue, she had to eliminate one food every three or four days to figure it out. Turns out, her son was allergic to EVERYTHING she ate, and she had to put him on special formula.

My youngest son had issues with Acid Reflux as a young infant (he was seven weeks premature...). He'd spit up (a fair amount) anywhere from 30-60 minutes after nursing. It went away completely about three days after he started eating cereal - the cereal was heavier, and so stayed in his tummy better - even when nursing, and he's been just fine ever since (he's now 3 1/2).

Hi Caroline; I know you feel stressed about this but I went through the same issue with mydaughter when she was an infant. I spoke to a nutritionist about it and we came to the conclusion that is was all dairy that I consumed. Dairy in any fashion would upset her stomach bad.Even to the point of bleeding in her diaper area from rases she had developed. We even tried formula and she had the same reaction switched to soy formula and she stopped having symptoms. So I stopped drinking and eating anything that was dairy based.. I hope you find a solution but it does sound like lactose intolerence in your baby and it does come in different forms.

I can totally sympathize with you. It sounds like my son at that age. He was just miserable for a while, even after the time when colic usually stops. We figured out through trial and error that he had a problem digesting cow's milk from my diet (he was exclusively breastfed). What finally stopped the diarrhea and cramping, green poops and diaper rash was cutting out milk and milk products (cheese, yogurt, ice cream, creamy sauces, butter, cows milk based formula and maybe even foods cooked or baked with milk in them, depending on the severity). It takes about 1-2 weeks for milk proteins to leave your body, so you have to give it time, but if this is truly the problem, your son will change after this time. With my son it was like night and day. You still need to make sure you get your calcium so I eat my cereal with soy milk, I found sliced soy cheese to put on sandwiches and I ate soy yogurt, which is OK once you get used to it, drank calcium-fortified orange juice and make sure to take extra calcium pills with vitamin d in them too. Also make sure you are eating something with probiotics in it like the soy yogurt or even just a probiotic supplement. The probiotics pass into your breast milk and aid digestion, which may help your son. After he gets to 6 months, there is a prescription probiotic that comes in powdered form that you can mix in with cereal or in a bottle to feed the baby. It is prescribed when a baby has diarrhea or during a course of antibiotics. My doctor gave me a sample to try.
The doctor said that these problems usually clear up between 6 months and a year of age. After he gets to about 6 months you can try eating some hard cheese like Parmesan to see if it bothers him. If it does, then continue to avoid dairy. If not, you can try some softer cheese or yogurt, etc. Just go slowly and eventually you will be able to eat some dairy products. Leave ice cream and straight milk for last. My son is 9 months old now and I have slowly introduced milk products back into my diet. I am still breastfeeding and I eat everything now except straight milk. I tried feeding him a little bit of yogurt a few times in the past week or two but it made him really gassy and uncomfortable, so we still have to wait on that. It's tough to get through, but this is the only thing that made a difference with my son. I hope this helps!

I CAN relate Carolyn! My daughter also had GERD & I had so mcuh conflict and complications around the breastfeeding. I remember feeling like I was hurting her by forcing the issue of breastfeeding. A very long story short, I discontinued after 3 months and switched to forumla. I thought that would help since it's a constant (the ingredients) and many other reasons. But although I carefully weaned her, once she was completely on formula things got worse! She actually withdrew from eating almost enitrely (was down to 5ounces total in a day!) and that is when I took her to the doc and he diagnosed the GERD. I felt bad and wished I hadn't dried up b/c by far the breastmilk is still better for their digestive and other systems then formula.

I don't have any easy answers for you about how to alter your diet, hopefully other moms do. But I did want to share with you my experience and give you one "magic trick" which is Gripe Water. Docs don't believe in it but they don't condemn it either- they say it's just sugar water. But sugar water or not, it HELPS! And you are the one that has to deal with your hurting crying baby. Gripe Water is a homeopathic solution and at this point they sell it at Target, I think CVS and certainly homeopathic pharmacies. It basically helps alleviate any stomach upsets from hiccups (one drop) to pain or discomfort.

It is a "quick fix" so I still suggest you keep giving thought to your diet, but man o man is it ever helpful to have that bottle handy. Good luck, N.

PS I would also put gas drops in all of my baby's bottles, or if you're directly nursing you can give her a few drops thereafter.

Do you have a very strong milk letdown reflex? I had that problem with my first daughter and her poop was frothy green. Sometimes if your milk comes down strongly and if you have an oversupply, baby gets too much foremilk, which is high in lactose. That can make baby gassy and fussy and lead to frothy green poop. If you suspect this could be the problem, once your milk lets down, let it flow into a burp cloth until it stops spraying (or pump off an ounce or two) before you start your feed. This may help (and it's easier on you than quitting food!).

Hey, what's the matter with pasta and olive oil?!?!?!? Have you tried an allergist or a GI Dr. I'd give them a try, especially GI. Maybe the baby's allergic to your breast milk and there's some type of formula out there that he can handle. I know it's tough. My 1st was born sick and 8 yrs later, we're still battling issues. Don't stop at just those 2 types of Dr's. Go for 2nd and 3rd oppions and find specialists, not just "joe-shmoe" dr. Good luck!

I'm assuming you've tried stopping dairy. that's the one that's hard and takes 2wks+ to see an effect. You also have to read all of the boxes b/c trace amounts ar in lots of stuff. Since he's been having a hard time, I'd call your local La Leche chapter--they have tons of information. It is so hard--but, now that you're at 3mo and his GI tract is a little more developed, it might actually get easier. Let's cross our fingers.

My daughter went through GERD and dairy sensitivity. Her first three months were miserable as we tried to adjust her and my diet. The 'hidden dairy' cheat sheet i attached helps a lot. there is dairy in so many foods! as well, talk to your doctor about the GERD if you haven't already. we put our daughter on pepcid and prevacid and it worked so well. we took her off of it around 8 months and found she still needed it, so put her back on until she just turned a year and has now outgrown it. the dairy sensitivity wore off around 9 months- that's when i started to introduce cheeses and yogurts into my diet to see how she reacted, then into hers, and all was well. as for the doctors who say it doesn't matter- in my opinion that is wrong. it was an amazing turn around in my daughters health and on occassion when i accidentally or unavoidably had dairy, and then nursed, it was obvious in her reaction. lastly, whenever i supplemented, i used Alimentum. it's hypoallergenic, meaning all the dairy is broken down as much as possible so the baby doesn't have to do it. oh, one last thing, i took mega-zyme, systemic enzymes that break down dairy in the digestive system. i did that when i would eat out, just in case. dr. glassman in norwalk, ct is amazing if you need a good gastroenterologist. good luck. its a battle, but you can get there. once you do, its worth it! (websites listed below).

http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/food-sensitivity.html
http://www.kellymom.com/store/freehandouts/hidden-dairy01...
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/4/T041200.asp
google "dairy intolerance, milk sensitivity in infants, etc"

I would try to cut out all dairy products, even the whey in some breads. My son isn't allergic to milk now, but he couldn't tolerate it the first five months or so. He would get very gassy and miserable, and his reflux would get worse. When I got rid of dairy, he was fine.

It can also indicate a wheat allergy, which is pretty hard to avoid. My friend's baby showed sensitivity to dairy, eggs, and wheat. She finally ended up giving up nursing and put him on the Similac that's for allergic babies. I can't remember the name, but it's pretty expensive! Again, he had outgrown all these problems by 12 months. Now he's eating everything!

But I would start with dairy. It's easy to avoid, and it made all the difference for us!

Carolyn,
Congratulations,
Keep on Nursing!
You can change what you eat until the cows come home, but it may not affect him, positively or negatively.

Formula may only make it worse (and from what I have read, very likely!)

Take things one day at a time. One minute at a time if you have to.

The big ones to TRY are: Onions, garlic (this includes green onions), and cruciferous (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, artichoke, etc (you'll have to look up the rest, those are the ones I know).

You can't eliminate them ALL at once; you'd never find out what the problem is - if the problem is indeed food at all.

With the garlic and onion - it is HARD - it is in a LOT of prepared foods (pasta sauce, soups, even stuff you wouldn't think of!).

I had to eliminate those 3 things and my son's life was a lot less gassy. Translation - things were a LOT quieter all the way around.

Don't give up - don't give in, just try one thing at a time, and HOPE for the best. You may not eliminate it, but you might tone down the diaper changes after a bit.

Good Luck and DON'T GIVE UP! (rooting for you here, I understand a LOT!)

M.

Hi Carolyn
Probably it is something you are eating. Probably it is lactose--milk in all its various forms. Unless you have tried it for 6 weeks or so you could not tell. My info tells me that you can have symptoms of allergic reaction for 6 weeks. Now as for it going through to the babies milk. I heard from alot of people that it can't, and allergens won't affect baby, but the reality is when our little one came down with life threatening allergic reaction, the allergist looked directly into my eyes and said "it is a good thing you are not breastfeeding, you would feel as if you were killing this child because of all the things he can't eat."
He was under 6 months old at the time and we had gone through alot, including a hospitalization of over 3 weeks. With the symptom of apnea we took him to the allergist who did identify that it was allergy, could not help with feeding. Long story. Today he is a lawyer, with a new baby of his own.
I have a milk -- lactose allergy. It is common. Have you gone to the health food store and talked to anyone. The MD's tried alot of things. Health food store personel went to the counter and said try these "pearls"; they worked like a charm. I wonder if they would go through the milk and work like a charm. Since I don't know all the particulars and don't recommend you do it without permission, it however might be worth talking to someone about. They told me completely natural treatment.
God bless you and give you wisdom
K. SAHM married 38 years -- sons--coach 37, lawyer 32, twin daughters 18 who are in college after homeschooling through High School. One is going for art, the other journalism. All had allergies, all could have died, all are miracles with lives of their own now.

i would contacta lactation consultant or la leche league to see if they have ideas. i recently moved here so i don't know of people in this area, but i saw a few lactation consultants for the first 4 months after my daughter was born. it was very helpful and i felt supported.
good luck!

I had this problem too!!! Up until 4 months! I tried everything elminating things from my diet also, but nothing seemed to work. I still don't drink/eat dairy.

You could have a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance. You could be producing more foremilk than hindmilk. I discovered this when I started pumping and noticed that my milk is was more clear than opaque. I would only have a thin layer of opaque milk after I refrigerate it.

Is your child eating frequently? When they eat frequently it means that they are getting more of the low calorie foremilk, instead of the fattier hindmilk. So they need to eat more often to take in more calories.

Then I started doing stuff that I read online, mainly feeding off 1 breast for a 3 hour period. That seem to help.

It wasn't until I got back to work and started pumping when my imbalance started to normalize. I feel like drinking mother's milk tea helped. I know people drink it to produce more milk, but for me I think the tea helped with overall better lactation.

im not sure of the details but are you sure its diarrhea vs just gerd?

i mean EBF babies poop is pure liquid like diarrhea. the only difference is that EBF doesnt have that rancid horrible smell of diarrhea. of course, it smells, just not like diarrhea, kwim. thats completely normal. formula makes them have completely different poop, just dont compare the two, they look different.

heres a nice list
http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/pediatricks/poop.asp

when you say mucous, it has kinda clear stuff in it, not to be gross, but you means its like snots or something mixed with poop. if so, i also agree something with dairy, but then there could always be something else or a combo. try to eliminate things one at a time for 3 days, but start with dairy. there are other causes of mucous like a virus but it shouldnt last this duration so we assume food intolerance. but green by itself is ok.

if he has gerd, i would def contribute any signs of discomfort like stomach cramps to that and not your milk as gerd can be very painful for babies. if he has gerd im sure thats where the stomach pains are coming from.

just dont give up on breastffeding, it may not be the cause and it has so many benefits. if he has stomach issues, breastmlk is gentler than any formula. good luck, hope it gets better soon!!!

I didn't read the other responses so forgive me if I repeat. First, are you trying Mylicon infant's gas relief? My doctor said when babies have green poop it's because they have to much gas and the food is passing through the digestive system too quickly. I've heard broccoli and garlic are the big nonos when it comes to GERD. When I was nursing my first though, I found that I was so bored sitting at home that I would just sit on the couch and eat almost a whole box of Wheat Thins in a sitting. He would start screaming in the middle of his meal and have horrible, very painful sound farts. I stopped eating the Wheat Thins and that stopped right away. So it does matter at least somewhat what you eat.

You most likely have an oversupply. Look into it on Kellymom.com and talk to a La Leche leader. My first son had the same thing and I got bad advice from the pediatricians and hospital LCs because I didnt have ALL the symptoms of oversupply but that is exactly what it was. DONT give up, I did with my first because of all the reasaons you mentioned and actually thought my son was allergic to me! Couple of weeks afterwards I still had milk and re-lacated (long story) and everything was great. Dont give up if you want to BF, get help, it will make a huge difference. PS. It takes about 4-6 hours (I think!) for food you eat to make it to the baby's digestion. With my second boy (almost 9 months) I also had a huge supply (let downs every hour!) and baby never finishing a breast, rock hard all day. I saw Dr. Christina Smillie in Stratford, CT and a La Leche leader to help. Worth every bit of it!

It definitely matters what you eat and the hard part is finding out what in your diet is bothering your baby. It could be anything, but if you don't see a pattern of good and bad days, I would suggest starting by totally eliminating foods you eat everyday--probably dairy, gluten and soy (soy is an ingredient in most packaged foods) or foods you absolutely have to have. Read labels, learn alternative names these are also labeled as, check your supplements and personal care products and keep a balanced diet with a good variety of fruit, vegetables and meats/other proteins. If you do not see any improvement within 2 weeks consider something else in your diet or environment that could be causing the discomfort.

As for how long it takes for food to show up in your breastmilk, it varies from 10 minutes to 48 hours and for your system to be totally clear of contaminants it can take up to 6 weeks from your last exposure (and another 6 to clear the baby's system), so symptoms can linger on for a while, but in general there should be a visible improvement after a week or so.

Good luck and let us know how things go.

Hi Carolyn,

It sounds to me like he is having an allergic reaction. Have you called the doctor? When in doubt, that's what I do and also I look up stuff online. My best and favorite resource (besides here) is babycenter.com. You will get emails every week with info on what to expect at this point in your baby's life. when a baby is sick though, always best to call the doctor early on. Good luck!

My son had the same issues when he was younger and was super colicky. I actually went to a lactation specialist that told me one issue was oversupply so I switched to one breast per feeding. Then I also eliminated dairy and soy from my diet. Soy is in everything! I was basically living on plainly seasoned protein and veggies. Even after doing these things there really wasn't much of a difference. After 5 weeks of that, I slowly reintroduced dairy back into my diet and things remained unchanged. He cried constantly, had some very strange mucousy poops and seemed uncomfortable half of the time. It wasn't until he was 3-4 months that it started to improve and resolve itself. Another thing that I dealt with was that everyone had a different opinion about the situation which only confused me more!

Honestly I think some babies just have a hard time adjusting and no matter what you do, it's just a matter of waiting it out. I'm not saying this is the case with your son, but I just thought I'd share our experience.

I hope things get better soon!

I would highly recommend reading the book, "Eat Right for Your Baby". This book talks about food compatibility for pregnant and nursing moms. My daughter would get eczema when I ate certain foods, and this book helped me avoid that without having to stop nursing

Best of luck,

A.