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@travellingbee I think doing what you proposed is ok, but if he is still reacting to something in your milk, he's still going to react to it even if he's only getting, say, 50% breastmilk - you know? So I guess it depends how much you want to totally eliminate the reaction. Re: formula, you mean like Neocate or Elecare? Have you tried them before? They are really nasty and my son absolutely refused them and would cry hysterically when we tried to give it to him.

Also there are different varieties of a TED. You are milk/soy/egg free, right? You may also try eliminating nuts and seafood. My 8mo has severe MSPI and reflux and nuts are a big problem for us. I actually eliminated all top 8 allergens and other things I identified as problems - for us, corn and cocoa/chocolate were triggers as well.

At 3.5 months we were still having major problems so I went on a true TED - only eating sweet potatoes, pears, turkey, zucchini, and olive oil for 2 weeks. I then added low allergen foods back in one at a time. I would absolutely not recommend it and not jump to that point. I probably should have just switched to formula, I was a wreck and starving to death, but he refused formula.

Anyway, now at 8 months I am soy/dairy/nut free and corn/tomato light.

Good luck - I totally feel your pain, it is awful!

I think it might work. I was off dairy, soy, eggs, nuts, peanuts, corn, peas, and shellfish due to similar reactions to your baby's - no eczema or spitting, generally happy, gaining well, but continual mucous and occasional blood in the stool.

Once she started really eating solids, it got so much better. The only time I've seen mucous since about 7 months was when I tried giving her peas (she's 9.5 months now). I don't know if she just grew out of it, or if it's like you were saying - once breast milk wasn't 100% of her diet maybe she could handle it better? All this to say, I think it's worth a shot.

@travellingbee: I'd think there's no risk in trying and it sounds like something I would try! My son was sensitive to dairy with symptoms like your little guy (just mucusey bms) so I went dairy-light. He always had mucusey stools as a baby, but never blood so I didn't elimanate totally. He's 3.5 now and just fine - very healthy, eats diary, doesn't have lasting issues. I probably could have cut it all out, but he was happy & the low-levels of irritants didn't harm him. So your plan could definitely work.
My girl is the same age as your DS2 and I totally eliminated dairy for her after streaks of blood showed up. She still has many mucusey bms, but is happy overall, gaining, and no blood so I'm not going to martyr myself over it. I want to keep nursing and too many dietary restrictions would end it for us. Give your plan a try! He could outgrow his intolerances quickly and you'll still have a supply to go back to EBF if you want. (You could also try to put a limit on amounts of allergens; like only a certain amount of nuts each day, etc to see if that helps)

@travellingbee: Good luck! Just so you know, we travelled 2 hours to see a GI specialist and he literally spent 2 minutes looking at her and told me to start formula. It was such a waste. (And I was going to follow his advice as soon as I could get her to take a bottle but in that time she got better)

Also, our doctor was not concerned that much about the mucousy poops, as long as there were no other symptoms. She said that it can be very hard to pinpoint food allergies and she would rather have breastfeeding & mucusy poops & no othe symptoms vs. giving up breastfeeding.

She also said the same thing when the mucus poops disappeared, but baby eczema started (3-4wks later). We've determined that it was most likely a sensitivity to the soap we used, as well as the amount of scrubbing and lack of lotion.

I went through this with two of my babies and they both had the same general symptoms as your baby--bloody/mucousy poops, but otherwise thriving and gaining a lot of weight. I gave up a variety of foods, but nothing seemed to eliminate their symptoms. What me and my ped. finally decided was what a few of these other manmas have said - that breastfeeding with bad poops was better than formula. He wasn't concerned about his "health" because he was thriving. And, keep in mind that breastmilk does wonderful things in the gut. So, I thought of it kind of like it might be hurting him, but it is also helping heal him. I hope that makes sense!

@travellingbee man that is so hard. I think most of these issues are due to an immature gut. Visible blood is tough for me personally to ignore. My son had horrific vomiting and was inconsolable in addition to the blood, so it's tough for me to separate. And his poops were always so foul smelling, full of thick mucus like strings of bubble gum. But I think only a little mucus and microscopic blood and no vomiting... ehhh, probably ok.

I think different doctors have different schools of thought. In the end, you have to do what feels best for you. It's so hard!

I did your approach with my guy. It took a long time to get him to take breastmilk from a bottle and then mixing in alimentum with the breast milk. At 6.5 months he took formula bottles during the day and nursed morning and night. After 4weeks of blood free diapers I started re-introducing soy and then dairy with no problem! We continued formula (milk-based) during the day and nursing at bedtime and morning.
Solids went great for us. Just took it very slowly. His gut matured and he is doing great.

My son did not have MSPI, but he had severe reflux. We did 2 weeks straight on Nutramigen while I pumped and froze. I had already eliminated dairy, soy, nuts, crucifers, nightshades, and caffeine, but went hardcore with no decaf tea or coffee, chocolate (HUGE help), and gluten/wheat. I was mostly eating like bananas, rice, seaweed, chicken, broth, and vegan shakes with coconut oil mixed in for fat. After 2 weeks on my "clean" diet, we reintroduced breast milk 1 bottle at a time and watched to see how he reacted. We eventually got him to all breastmilk except 1 bottle of formula a day and he also was able to slowly transition to gentle, sensitive, then regular formula.

I will say that I think trying to mix BM and hypoallergenic formula worked because we did it when he was so young. It really does taste so God awful, I have no idea how he could stomach it, other than it perhaps hurt his tummy less so he didn't care. So I say if you're going to do the combo-feeding, start now!

@travellingbee We had poops like that ++ a lot more mucus. I'd definitely give the formula during the day a try, maybe it will work. Depending on how sensitive your LO is, Alimentum may or may not work. It is really gross so I'd start it now - I think the younger they are the more likely they are to take it!! You should ask ped/GI for samples to start before you shell out $$$. Our GI gave us samples of the ready to feed Alimentum (which was a huge fail for us) and also samples of Elecare and Neocate.

It sounds like you're being super careful with your diet - that was going to be my other suggestion (you've eliminated soy oil/soy lecithin also?). I am super crazy anal about it. I basically don't eat anything unless I prepared it or I watched it being prepared. I have been burned before. Would you consider eliminating maybe one other thing, like nuts (peanut and tree)? Someone else mentioned chocolate, that was also a big trigger for us (even dairy free).

It might not hurt to see a GI, but as others on here have mentioned - I think your experience depends on your GI! Our pediatric GI is super pro-BFing and takes a long time with us at each appointment and works very closely with us, so it's a godsend. (But we have other GI issues on top of the poop stuff). But I think some GIs will see you for 2 minutes and say "put him on formula," the end, which isn't really helpful.

As @brownie said, you really have to go with your mommy gut about what's working and what's not. I think also (for us) just eating a cleaner diet, less grains and processed stuff, more meat/veg, is helpful.

My son is 8 months and I'm dairy/soy/nut free, which compared to how I used to eat, feels like I can eat everything! LOL.

I have no experience with MSPI, so this may be an ignorant question, but is there any real harm from mucousy poop? Blood in poop sounds like something to try to avoid, but if it's just mucousy, sometimes, do you really have to change anything? I guess see what your doc says. But I agree that doing a formula/breastmilk combo will still get him most of the benefits of breastmilk, so that might be a good option. I also just couldn't do a TED!

My only concern would be, for my LO, as long as some irritation was still happening his gut wouldn't heal fully. So the longer that even low levels of irritants were in his system, the longer it took to fully outgrow the sensitivity.