Hellobee Boards

@abbydabbydoodlebug: I've been exactly where you are. EXACTLY. Complete with situations like fresh cookies in the house, and not being able to eat them. It sucks.

However. If you LO does indeed have a dairy and soy intolerance--the only formula that will work is Neocate and Elecare and that stuff is $45/can. Doesn't come in read-to-feed, only powder, so you are looking at almost $400 a month in formula. Yup, that sucks more.

What state are you in? Some states require insurance to cover medically necessary formula, but many states don't. I live in a state that is supposed to, but my insurance company has been giving me the runaround and so far has refused to cover it (still working on it).

In the mean time, I am going on 4.5 months of this horrible elimination diet and I still HATE IT. But it does get easier. I'm not one of those selfless, "for the good of my child" people and I work full time and my idea of fun in my free time isn't whipping up cake frosting made from red bean paste and coconut milk, ya know? And I like COOKIES. Real cookies.

So this has been difficult for me. But really. It gets better. I've started a few half-assed threads where I share the foods I've found that are dairy and soy free, but I keep forgetting to finish those threads (check my history of posts I've started).

But you aren't alone, and you are allowed to vent. Let me know if you want any tips.

PS, My OB called in the thrush prescription over the phone without having to see me.

@abbydabbydoodlebug: Silva makes a good point. I know there have been other bees here (Adira comes to mind) who breastfed while eating dairy and didn't discover until their baby started solids that their LO has a dairy intolerance. So, if there aren't any other signs/symptoms other than mucousy poop and some blood in the stool, maybe it doesn't matter. I'm assuming the blood was a trace amount and not huge globs of blood or anything.

My doctor was the exact opposite of yours. From newborn days on, I noticed my LOs poops were constantly bright green, stringy, and mucousy. My mom (who had 6 kids and ran a large day care) kept commenting that she'd never seen anything like it.

My doctor said it was fine.

From the beginning, I had a lot of feeding problems with my LO-couldn't get her to latch and drink for a decent amount of time. I paid for an LC to come to my home, I went to weekly BF support groups, I took my LO to a cranial sacral therapist, I had her tongue and lip ties clipped. Nothing helped. I started pumping and supplementing basically from the beginning because she just wouldn'd drink much.

But then around 2.5 months, she started refusing the bottle as well. I would call my doctor, she would tell me it was fine, and I would continue the frustrating cycle of trying to force feed my baby. Many days, she would only take in 12 oz, even though I was trying every hour on the hour to get her to drink. She woulnd't take the breast, wouldn't take the bottle.

Finally, at 3 months, I heard about stool sampling for blood (my ped never suggested it, go figure), so I insisted on it, and sure enough--there was blood in her stool.

At that point, my doctor told me the elimination diet was hard, and not to do it unless I really felt like I had to. Well...I was spending all day every day trying to get my baby to eat, who was quickly dropping in percentiles...so to me, it was clearly necessary.

I 100% eliminated both dairy and soy and within 3 days, my LO started eating significantly more (but only while asleep, but I was still thrilled). Over the past 4.5 months, she's slowly gotten better and better. Sometimes now she even takes a bottle while awake. Her poo still stayed pretty green a lot of time time, but it would turn a normal yellow color when I was sure I'd avoided dairy and soy 100% (no soy oil or lecithin, for example).

I think her feeding issues made her averse to solids at first, too. She wouldn't open her mouth for them until around 7 months, even though we started trying at 5 months.

Long story short: You can try continuing without the elimination diet. Or try just eliminating major forms of dairy, but not avoiding baked dairy.

If you notice your LO starting to refuse eating or having issues with weight gain, then you can always go back to the elimination diet.

@abbydabbydoodlebug: and oreas have soy lecithin. BUT, there are a lot of brands that dont. Trader Joes has some cookies with palm oil and sunflower lecithin instead of soy. Their molasses ginger cookies--their cinnamon rolls are also dairy and soy free (in the refrigerated case).

You can always make your own cookies. That's one of the easiest things to make at home with no dairy or soy. Just substitute canola oil, almond milk, and the Earth Balance soy free in place of all the dairy and soy items. AND trader joes has chocolate chips that are totally dairy free (but have soy lecithin) if you find our your LO can tolerate lecithin.

Soy oil and soy lecithin are tolerated by a lot of MSPI babies, so you can try adding those back in first (after eliminating everything for 2 weeks) and see if you notice a difference.

@abbydabbydoodlebug: I know how you feel. My LO was not only MSPI but also intolerant to wheat, eggs, nuts and shellfish. The diet was unbearably restrictive. But there is no better motivation to stick with it than knowing that it's working!! In our case we never did fully get rid of the mucus, but the diet stopped the blood, the gas pains, and the reflux she had. And best of all she outgrew almost everything around 9-10 months. (She's 15 months now and the only thing I can't give her is straight eggs because it makes her puke). Despite all the challenges she was EBF until she was a year. Feel free to wall me if you have questions or need support!

My little guy is almost 3 (1 month away) and was a terrible MSPI baby. He is also the baby who is more reactive to soy than dairy so every time we added soy he went nuts.

I recommend adding first soy oil because most babies are intolerant to the protein which isn't in soy oil. That should help with thing immensely. Also check out
http://glutenfreepassport.com/allergy-gluten-free-restaurants/fast-food-chains-allergy-charts/ It links to websites with allergy menus and can be very helpful when wanting to eat out. That certainly helps.

There is nothing wrong with formula feeding, but as a previous poster said, if it is that bad, you will need medical food (neocate) which is highly expensive.

Personally for me, I couldn't control much BUT I could control my diet. So that is the ONLY way I made it through. It sucks royally and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

@sarah.clarisse: yes! Once we started solids it changed. Basically the hypothesis was that either she had a mild intolerance with no significant symptoms, or that my breast milk has a laxative quality (I guess the mucous can be from things moving too fast). She's 10 months now and very healthy, and hasn't had any reactions to any foods (and we have tried everything, including dairy and soy and egg).
Lactation consultants have a different perspective than MDs, and I kind of think MSPI is "in" right now. Our doc tested for blood, monitored her weight,but ultimately just told me to stop worrying and enjoy my cheese. A true mspi would be in pain and not gaining weight (I think).

Hang in there. The elimination diet is tough, but it will get easier. That's great that your LO has been gaining weight. At 18 weeks I have taken out dairy, soy, eggs, and gluten. It's a pain, but I also have DS1 who has a dairy, egg, and peanut allergy. We still had occasional blood in his stool until recently. I'm pretty sure nuts were the culprit, and I'm getting rid of that as well. There are a lot of yummy foods out there. Remember happy mama, happy baby.

@sarah.clarisse: thats a good point too- my daughter was never a drooler- ever. So we think she swallowed a lot of it!