Eczema and Reflux, Breastmilk And/or Formula

Honey, you do what you need to. And if that means Nutramigen or another hypoallergenic formula, then go for it. Don't feel any guilt. You're doing this for your daughter... And the added bonus is that it may make your life easier. But don't feel guilty about the bonus.

One of my twin girls had horrible reflux (still does at age four, actually). I was able to breastfeed by cutting out dairy, soy, and tomatoes. And we used all sorts of reflux remedies like crib wedges and infant massage But it was a continual struggle and I was fairly miserable for a year. We switched to Nutramigen at one year and the reflux went down a little. Looking back I wish I had given myself permission to use formula earlier. It would have taken one stress out of my life and I could have spent a little more time cuddling my kids and less time figuring out what I could eat.

Hang in there. And if you do choose formula, see if your health insurance will pay for it. Mine now does (two years too late!).

2 moms found this helpful

Hi. My daughter was like that and she has a tree nut allergy (pecans, walnuts, etc.). Tree nut allergies are very serious. We have to carry an epi-pen and the first time she took the tiniest bite of a tree nut she IMMEDIATELY broke out in hives and had trouble breathing...Try dropping out the nuts and see what happens.

1 mom found this helpful

My girlfriend had a son that was allergic to just about everything under the sun. He also had horrible eczema. (she used bag balm to help his skin) It was SO HARD for her to breastfeed and she had to stop when he was about 6 months. She had given up all soy, dairy, GLUTEN, nuts, and corn. Can you imagine? ugh.
While I certainly feel breast is best I can see how you would be at your wits end. Your poor baby!
My girlfriend put her baby on a special formula, I am sorry that I suck and don't remember the name of it, it smelled awful. He definetly felt better, but still had issues for a long time. He STILL has issues every once in a while. He is 6. BUT, his allergies have really subsided...he only has the peanut allergy now. There is HOPE!
Put your baby on formula. Get her healthy and get you healthy.
L.

No, I haven't, but at this point, eliminating the breast milk certainly seems like the next logical thing to try, right?

If you need to stop at 6 months, then stop. If its not working out its not working out.

My son had a very similar experience around this age. I exclusively breast-fed him for 6 months and tried all sorts of elimination diets to see if his eczema would clear up. We finally decided to try the hypo-allergenic formula and it did do the trick. I was sad to give up breast-feeding, as I was hoping to do it for at least a year, but he was miserable and I couldn't fix it with my diet. He is now 3 years old and the only thing we are with-holding from his diet is peanuts/tree nuts as there is a greater risk of being allergic to these if you have eczema. His eczema has cleared (knock on wood!).

My son also had horrible reflux and eczema that wouldn't go away. Just around 6 months, I figured out that dairy and WHEAT were the main triggers. Since I was breastfeeding, that meant I needed to keep those out of my diet too. At 12 months we were able to add dairy back into his diet, but at 3 years now wheat still triggers an eczema breakout. For the reflux, I always fed him in a more upright position and propped up his mattress when putting him down. Cutting out the dairy helped, but I think time was the biggest factor. For the eczema, we have done a ton of different things. We limited baths and when we did bathe him we made sure to pat him dry quickly and apply lotion immediately to lock in all the moisture. Every night we would lather him in lotion and immediately put on his pj's to keep the lotion in. Unfortunately, the lotion that worked the best was the messiest (usually something with petroleum jelly). If the breakout was really bad we used prescription strength cream. Since eczema can have a variety of triggers, it sometimes felt like nothing worked. Again, with time his eczema has improved.

Good luck and hopefully some of these suggestions will help!

Hi, my son was also about the same age when he had the same thing. It was so bad that my Ped. sent me to an allergist to rule out asthma. The allergist did an upper g.i. (poor baby) and said he had very bad reflux and gave him meds. as for the eczema we did and tried everything and in the meantime I dried up. Had no choice but formula and there wasn't all the special types out there as today. The reflux went away by the time he was 1year old. When my son was 4 he ended up with asthma. He is now 9 and the eczema never went away. He uses Suave Kids free and gentle body wash (it's clear) and it doesn't irritate the skin. He has flare ups that coincide with the asthma. He uses a topicle ointment followed by a layer of petroleum jelly when it's bad and inhalers for the asthma. Try clear soaps for bath time. Nothing with preservatives, dyes or perfumes. Sometimes acidic foods or foods that are hard to digest will irritate the reflux. Like tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, broccoli just to name a few. I hope this helps you out. =)

My son had issues with reflux and excema. I was breastfeeding and supplementing with formula. As soon as I quit giving him formula both the reflux and excema went away. I was lucky. I did not have to adjust my diet. But once I decided to stop breastfeeding him at a year old, we found out that he is allergic to cow's milk and every milk "alternative" out there. He is 14 months old and is still taking Nutramigen for lack of a better option. So the hypoallergenic might be just right for your baby. :) Hope you're able to get this figured out quickly! :)

I would just like to add one more voice to the "do what you think is best, and don't feel any guilt" group of voices.

I firmly believe and advocate breastfeeding, but never in a million years would I criticize you or anyone else for switching to formula for either your health or sanity or the baby's.

My son had terrible reflux and had eczema, but the eczema wasn't really too bad (clears up with lotion daily, minimal bathing, and it helped when I cut dairy out while BFing). The reflux he grew out of (the 3 week to 5 month period of age was the worst....) But if I had thought for a moment that stopping BFing would've fixed the problems, I'd have done it in a heartbeat.

It's okay to mourn having to stop breastfeeding, though. It sounds like something you wanted to do with/for your baby, and that that might not work out... Sometimes we have to mourn the demise of our hopes in order to heal and move on.

My SIL was able to nurse my neice w/o any problem for more than a year, but my nephew, like your DD also hated to nurse. She tried everything to no avail, and had to pump. He didn't have any allergy problems, but I have heard that it happens. I know that Michelle Duggar (19 kids and Counting) nursed 18 of the 19- the last one turned out to be lactose intolerant, so she had to give him lactose- free formula. Poor thing was so sick before that. Once she started taking the lactose-free formula, though, she was sooo much better!

I know you are disappointed, but when your DD feels better on the formula, you'll have no regrets.

Best wishes!!!! =o)

My friend's child had 60 food allergies. No kidding. They cut out everything and it was miserable. They added a supplement and everything cleared up. It allowed him to process all of those ingredients, which weren't really "allergies" after all - just some missing nutrients. Another friend's daughter had severe peanut allergies plus a soy & egg allergy. The allergist said the supplement wouldn't work. It did and the soy/egg "allergies" are completely gone and the peanut "allergy" is down to almost zero.