Breastfeeding Elimination Diet Day 1

Lunch on the first day of the elimination diet.

It was with some dread that I began the elimination diet today. I don't like deprivation, but I feel compelled to find out with more certainty if Estelle has a gastrointestinal intolerance to certain foods in my diet.

This particular elimination diet is from my pediatrician at Fairmount Pediatrics. It's severe, but mercifully short and not nearly as severe as some other breastfeeding elimination diets. That's why I decided I could give it a go. (I can't wait for Day 5 when I can have wheat again.)

ELIMINATION DIET
Eat only meat, fruit, and vegetables for 2 days. If the baby is well with mom on this diet, then add back foods every 2 days in this order:
Rice, Wheat, Nuts, Soy, Egg, Dairy

I got through today and it wasn't that bad. Meat at every meal isn't my favorite, but veggies and fruit just don't hold me long, especially since I'm breastfeeding, which makes me very hungry!

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Just to give you some background on this quest, I've been under the assumption that Estelle has a sensitivity to cow's milk protein that comes through in my breastmilk. In November 2011, when Estelle was 2 months old, little mucous-y clots of blood showed up in her diaper one day. I had been feeling like something wasn't quite right for her. Her poop was runny, mucous-y, and very green -- rarely the yellow, mustardy, seedy poop, typical of breastfed babies. Half the time after her feedings, instead of contentment, she was squirming and fussing. She also had been slow to gain weight in the first six weeks or so, and there was the omnipresent runny nose. One of the pediatricians at Nemours Philadelphia recognized the blood and mucuous-y green stools, and other symptoms as a sensitivity to dairy in my diet. Bad news for me, but it was a relief to have an explanation.

So, for the last 4 months, I have been living with the belief that she has a cow's milk protein intolerance and have avoided all dairy. No milk, yogurt, cheese, butter! It's hard. It's sucks.

Is she better? This is the nagging question for me because I don't feel like we have a clear answer. She's better. Her ongoing congestion has cleared up, but only recently, months after I quit dairy. We don't see red spots of blood in her diaper but her stools are still very green. Sometimes incredibly bright green like pesto. Other times, the color of her stool looks like there could be blood in the mix -- it's just not a stand-alone clot. She still fusses occasionally after nursing.

There is no medical test for milk intolerance in babies. The doctor at Allergy and Asthma Specialists here in Philadelphia told me that allergy tests measure histamine reactions and that food intolerance involves T-cells, not histamines.

Baby's First Taste of Solid Food

Last night we gave Estelle her first taste of solid food. Sweet potatoes! She lipped a little bit off the spoon, mulled it over in her mouth, and was done.

At 6+ months of age, apparently she is overdue for starting solid foods. Our new pediatrician practically scoffed the other day when I told her we haven't yet given her anything but breastmilk: "Oh! Well it's time! Get her started on solid foods." The latest studies seem to suggest that starting babies earlier -- at 4 months -- is better for preventing allergies.

Oh no! Did I put Estelle at risk for allergies because I waited a few months to start solid foods?? Something else to worry about!

The thing is, these pediatric recommendations change all the time. When Donovan was an infant I read/heard that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended starting babies on solid foods between 4-6 months. My instinct was to start solid foods later, rather than earlier, so we gave Donovan his first food -- rice cereal mixed with breastmilk -- at six months.

Another change: The pediatrician dismissed rice cereal, the typical first food, as being nutritionally empty. "Just start giving her little bits of mashed up food from your plate, right from your finger. "