Breastfeeding a Child with Food Allergies

i have two daughters, age 4 and 2, who I breastfed exclusively until almost a year and almost 15 months due to food allergies (they too are allergic to wheat -as am I- but also to dairy, corn, food dyes and food preservatives). I was very worth the change in my diet for them and I have lots of recipes and a list of quite friendly foods for those with allergies. I have made this list and a personal recipe book to share with those who have the same struggle because it is my mission in life to help others help their children and make it a smooth non-traumatic time. If you wish to have these items, I will email them to you. 38 yr old SAHM of two allergic daughters with a wonderful husband/dad almost done with Chiropractic schooling. Y.

I also found out that my son had the same allergies your son does at 6 months. I decided to switch to the bottle instead of tring to advoid all the foods that contained any of those. It was h*** o* me but I soon adjusted and my son just fine on the bottle. But any way your son doctor may be able to tell you of some web sights that are for children with allergies mine was able to but I cant remember any of the names at the time. As your son starts baby food just make sure you really check the labels since everything is listed on packages. I hope you fine some answers. THanks K.

S.,
Hey there. First of all, good for you for making these changes so you can keep breastfeeding! I had to change my diet to exclude dairy, soy, eggs, and processed sugar and I was vegetarian! So, I started eating meat again. I found good recipes to try from elimination diet sites (Dr. Sears has one) that one would do to try to figure out a food allergy. I was really bummed about my diet changes even though I 100% believed it was the right choice and felt I needed to do it for my son. Still, I found out right before Thanksgiving....what a bummer. Anyway, I cook a lot from scratch and did even more so with food restrictions of such common ingredients. I also sought out really super tasty food to distract me from the fact that I really just wanted cheese or something else I couldn't have. I tried a lot of new things too. Depending on how serious your son's allergies are, it's worth working at finding lots of good food to eat now so that if the allergies persist, your family has had some time to work up a new cooking repertoire. My son got over all his early sensitivities and can eat anything now, but now we have new recipes also. Good luck! Feel free to PM me if you want.
S.

lol. i personally cant help much, but i want to let you know that i have a friend who HAS! ____@____.com is her email address and her name is Simie.

good luck, allergies are so frustrating!

Hi! I have a 9 month old daughter with food allergies as well. She is allergic to tree nuts and seafood, which has altered my diet as well due to breastfeeding. It has been challenging adjusting my diet, but I have been used to it. My husband also has these same allergies, so I just needed to change my diet too. It's amazing how careful you have to become at reading food labels each and every time you buy something since manufacturers are constantly adding the fact that they make something in a plant that also produces nuts.

Hi S.-
My daughter was diagnosed at 6 months with severe food allergies. At that time, it was eggs, wheat and milk. We stay away from peanuts too since her allergies are so severe. She is now 6 and very happy well adjusted. It is hard in the BEGINNING, but once it becomes a life style, it is not so bad. Also finding out this early is so worth it as it eases you into cooking for them once they are toddlers. Also, the earlier you find out; if the allergy is 1-3 in the allergy range, with total avoidance, there is a chance the allergy can lessen or they can "outgrow" the allergy. I am proud to say I breastfeed my daughter way past her first birthday as I was determine to keep going since her immune system had been fighting for so long; I wanted to give her the best I could for her immune system. So I would be happy to talk to you off post about the transition, advice or just an ear to listen. PM me through here and we can be in touch. The one thing that got me through was the belief that I was "smart" to have noticed it so early. I am also happy I had some time to play with learning to cook with a "Vegan" twist before we did all solids with her. It is the life style she grew up with and I was "READY" when it came to starting solids with her. Learning so early does place you at an advantage of many parents and you too will be an exspert soon. ((((HUGS)))).

All my children have food allergies so preparing food is challenging at our house but we have mastered it. My youngest is 2 1/2 and I found out she too had allergies at 3 months. Since then I have been milk, gluten (wheat,rye,barley and oats) and tree nut free because she is STILL nursing once or twice a day! I will admit that occasionally I get wistful that I can't have some treat my husband is eating but I have never caved. I know that eating it will make her sick and it is worth it because she still wants to nurse..although I think she is starting to wean these days which will be kind of a relief but I don't think I'll go back to eating all those foods because I feel better without them (I may have allergies too?) and someday hope to have another child and will avoid these things during pregnancy as well. My other children are 11 and 9, allergic to milk, gluten and soy and my 6 yo is allergic to milk, gluten, soy, potato, tomato, strawberry, beef, cashew, quinoa, and also cannot digest sucrose.

How did you know your child had an allergy? I am worried about my daughter and would like signs to watch for

S. - My daughter is 13 now, but at six months was diagnosed with dangerous food allergies. I nursed her until she was a year, and had to avoid peanuts, peas (very closely related to peanuts), beans (baked, kidney, etc. - also very closely related to peanuts), tomato skins, soy, red dye, bananas, kiwi and I think a few more. I have always had food allergies myself, so it was not new territory for me, but still hard. We have had to do the wheat-soy-egg-dairy free diet with her, too, and found that rice based products worked the best (rice milk, rice flour, etc.) and also used the egg free substitute powder for cooking. I highly recommend that you go to www.foodallergy.org for info and support for food allergies. They are a great resource.

K. B.

Ah yes ~ been there, done that. I would suggest treating the little guy homeopathically so that his allergies go away. When children are new born it is the BEST time to treat homeopathically for permanent results.

My youngest had head to toe eczema as one large allergy symptom. Typically there is a 3-5 year time frame to treat eczema, but with homeopathy it was gone in 8 months - along with all of her other food allergies.

There are multiple natureopaths in the Twin Cities - wherever you are, seek one out and get your son cured. This will save you years of stress as he grows older and finds he cannot attend parties or even enjoy life because of allergies.

My favorite is Helen Healy, ND in St. Paul.

Hi, S.. Let me introduce myself: I am a SAHM with 3 sons all with food allergies: milk, egg, peanut, nut, fish,shellfish, sesame seed, kiwi, beef. I nursed till they were 3. I have tons of recipe book suggestions. I get the monthly newsletter from FAAN. That has a lot of good recipes in it. Let me know if you need any other info., you can email me.