Food Allergies in the Breastfed Child: A Poll
February 2, 2009 by Angela White, J.D., breastfeeding counselor
Filed under breastfeeding, health of the baby, nutrition
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Please leave a comment to explain your answer. Whether or not your child has known food allergies, do you restrict your diet in any way? How easy or difficult is it to eliminate particular foods from your diet? Is there a history of food allergies in your family? If your nursling has food allergies, to which foods? Did your nursling or other children outgrow any food allergies?
My 9.5 month old has had reflux symptoms (spitting up 40-50x/day in early months) since around 4 weeks. I suspected it was a milk allergy but was reluctant to go dairy free since she was gaining weight, not upset or in pain and developing normally. Her symptoms have lessened since starting solid food at 6 months but are more prominent the few times I gave her yogurt or cottage cheese. My pediatrician said not to give her any more dairy until 12 months and then wait until 18 if she still had a reaction. I’m now going dairy-free– I decided that if I was the one vomiting every time I ate milk or cheese, I would probably stop! It’s challenging– the major sources of dairy are hard enough to give up or find replacements for (esp since many allergic to cow’s milk have soy allergies, too) but milk and butter are added to everything processed, it seems. My plan is to give it a month and see if it makes a difference in her symptoms and her tolerance of dairy at 12 months.
As far as I know, neither of my two daughters has any food allergies. When my second was very young, I was concerned she might have a dairy sensitivity because she spit up so much. The amounts astonished all my friends and family! I did dairy elimination for three weeks with no improvement in the spitting. It’s possible some other component of my diet was at fault and I’ll discover the allergy later on, but I just didn’t have it in me after three weeks without cheese to handle further eliminations. My daughter didn’t seem unhappy and gained weight well, so it’s also possible she was overeating.
No one in my family, or my husband’s family, has food allergies that I’m aware of. I’ve never restricted my own diet, pregnant, breastfeeding, or otherwise. Luckily, I’ve never had issues with either of my kids. I do introduce new foods gradually, and hold off on certain foods for my kids until they’re 12 months or later, but that’s about it.
My son ~ 5 years~ for sure has a peanut allergy (no history on either side).
We think my daughter ~3 years~ has a peanut allergy. We have not attempted to give her anything, but early on when I was breastfeeding, I’d eat peanut butter toast and she would get all splotchy after nursing.
Ditto what Amber said. The only thing I’ve kept my son away from is honey and nuts because he just turned 1. He has always grabbed what looked good off my plate and so far no issues.
When my baby was about 1 month, he showed signs of having a milk sensitivity. So I restricted dairy from my diet until he was about 6 months. At that point I gradually would have a little milk here and there and he never reacted badly, so I’m back to eating cheese and having my ice cream
It was hard at first because everything contains milk, but it was worth it for my baby to have baby soft and to not have such bad stinky gas amongst other things.
I restricted myself from peanut butter during my pregnancy and while breastfeeding, and didn’t let my son have any either for quite a long time. But there is no history of peanut butter allergies on either side of our family, and only one close relation with any food allergies at all, so we stopped that. So far, no reason to think he’s allergic to anything.
The Boy (2 years old) does not appear to have allergies and is still nursing. We don’t eat a lot of dairy though, and what we do it is cheese and yogurt. I do notice if he eats ice cream (special treat for us), he is gassy, but I am also sensitive to dairy (but not allergic).
My 2 breastfed sons, almost 3 and almost 5, have no known allergies. My daughter, who was not breastfed, has many. But, my daughter’s didn’t show up until she was older – 8 or so – so I’m not assuming my sons won’t have any. I had no known allergies until my early 20s, and now I have many. (I was not breastfed at all.)
There are no known food allergies in our family. Our dd hasn’t shown any signs of allergies, but I still have followed all of the recommendations regarding introducing new foods.
My 2 1/2 year old son just weaned 2 months ago. He has peanut, egg, wheat and corn allergies. We were VERY surprised by this since no one in our family has any food allergies. His peanut allergy is considered severe and we must carry epi-pens with us. When exposed he has non-stop vomitting and hives. The thing about peanut alleriges is that it will get worse with each exposure.
The egg allergy is there but he can tolerate egg in foods like pancakes, cake, cookies. The wheat and corn was just recently discovered by skin testing. We do not limit these at all since he has not had any ill effects from consuming these 2 foods. Also, the Allergist thinks the corn and wheat positive result may be due to the egg allergy. When he was skin tested in December the egg test spot was very strong and the doc said that a strong positive egg result can cause the immune system to be hyper-sensitve and could have affected the results for the wheat and corn. He was negative for wheat in corn in previous tests.
We completlley avoid all peanut and tree nut containing foods and have reduced his exposure to eggs but have not completley eliminated those foods from his diet.
When he was little he had reflux and had to have medication for it. Now, I think it was his peanut allergy. I ate a lot of peanut butter while nursing and he would have been exposed through my milk.
I am curious about breastfeeding a baby with food allergies. My four month old had a skin test and was positive for peanunts, eggs, and milk. He has had horrible excema almost his whole life. Recently he had hives off and on for two weeks. They would only go away with benadryl or steriods and then they would come right back. He is only breastfeed… no other foods yet. My four old has a severe peanut allergy which we discovered at about 9 months old. I also have food allergies. I just wonder how vigilant I need to be with what I eat since I am nursing him. I plan on not drinking milk and not eating eggs and I can totally avoid peanut butter. But what about cheese, yogurt, and things with eggs in them such as cookies. I guess i just have to try it and find out. I have not had any peanut products for a week and his excema is already improving and the hives are totally gone!!!!
Hi Adrian,
Here is some information on how careful you need to be about eliminating the cow’s milk protein from your diet. It’s hidden in a lot of things!
http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/food-sensitivity.html#protein
And here’s some more on food allergies:
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/4/t041800.asp
Good luck!
My boy seems to have allergy to seafood, my hubby has it too but was rather mild and happened only a few times. Before I realised that my boy had the same allergy, I went through nights of crying (baby) not knowing why his skin is as such. Once I eliminated the seafood from my diet, his skin is now smooth. At least, when he goes on solid food, I could see which food he is allergy to again. In this case, I just tried eggs for my son at 14 mths old, and his rashes came back.
My son was sensitive to dairy when I was breastfeeding him. He had very bad gas until I eliminated it. However, he seemed to outgrow that allergy around 18 months, but then developed a very severe allergy to eggs. He scores a 4+ on the skin test and we carry an epi-pen. He must avoid eggs in everything.
My daughter was also sensitive to dairy while breastfeeding, along with soy and oats. I had a very restrictive diet! (But I lost a lot of weight, which was good too!) She developed severe constipation at 3 months, even though she was completely breastfed, and had awful smelly gas. Once I eliminated the oats from my diet (I was eating granola everyday) everything cleared up! She will be 2 next week, and she’s no longer nursing, but we still don’t give her dairy and oats (cheerios etc.) If we do, she has bad gas. She has not been to the allergist, as I think her food problems are sensitivities and not true allergies, at this point.
My newborn has a strong reaction to my breastmilk after I drink cow’s milk and soymilk. I have been sticking to almond milk to reduce her gas symptoms.
My son is 9 months old and breastfed. He has food allergies to milk, eggs, yogurt, and wheat. We are hoping that he outgrows them by the time he is one. All family members that had allergies outgrew them. I have to refrain from dairy, but my eating wheat has never bothered him.
My little girl has a milk allergy. Thank goodness at 22 months she still nurses. It’s not a lactose thing, it’s a milk thing. We give her rice milk just so she can have milk, but when it comes time to stop nursing, we’re going to have to be careful to ensure she gets her calcium and vitamin D.
None of my children had any known food allergies, but I did go on an elimination diet for my third child. Although I am a dietitian, I struggled during that time because I was so exhausted it was hard to come up with something else to eat. Because I really didn’t notice any difference, I just went off of it altogether after about a week. It was an eye-opening experience for me and I am interested in helping breastfeeding mothers manage. It ended up that my daughter had foremilk/hindmilk imbalance that caused her to arch her back and spit up.
I’m interested in how you found out that there was a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance. My son is six months old. He has been exclusively breastfed until a couple of weeks ago. He has terrible reflux (without apparent pain but will keep him up at night-especially the evenings), stinky gas and gas pain, and smelly poops. I went on an elimination diet (no eggs, dairy, soy, wheat, eggs, etc.) with a little success but not completely. I went to a GI who thought that he had a milk protein allergy and instructed me to put him on a hyperallergenic formula for several days then gradually add breast milk if I insisted on trying to breastfeed (with the above restrictions but add nuts to the list). I did that, he slept better and seemed to feel better. However, when I added the breast milk he was soon back to the same symptoms. We then went to an allergist and he doesn’t appear to be allergic to anything. I really don’t want to give up breastfeeding but I don’t want to make him suffer either. Although, he seems to really want to continue breastfeeding-based on his behavior and I hate not being able to feed him. (He stopped taking the formula as well and conitnues to try and root on me.) I would be interested in seeing if this imbalance could be adding or creating some of his issues. As well as seeing if anyone else has any insight!
Thanks
My 14 month old was diagnosed with food allergies to milk, egg, peanuts, tree nuts and soy…right around 12 months when I started giving her cows milk and eggs and she had horrible allergic reactions.
I’m still bf and until she’s fully weaned I need to match her allergy-free diet. I’m happy to do it, obviously to help her.
My daughter had horrible eczema since she was an infant. Her pediatrician kept telling me that my diet was not affecting it. Upon being diagnosed with food allergies, the allergist told me that my intake of dairy was likely causing (or contributing to) the eczema. I noticed an amazing difference when I stopped eating dairy products.
We have no history of food allergies in my family. I ate nuts and peanutbutter occasionally throughout pregnancy and nursing and never thought twice about it. I have 3 year old son who has no food allergies at all.
The allergist says that my daughter may outgrow everything except the peanut allergy.
Although the diet changes for me have taken more energy for me — I have to work harder to prep food or figure out what to eat at a restaurant… knowing that it’s for my daughter’s health, and knowing this is the way SHE has to eat, too, makes me very motivated. Plus, I needed to lose some of the baby weight anyways, so not eating all that cheese is helping.
My son is allergic to dairy, eggs, and peanuts. We discovered these allergies very early (6mos), and he was breast-fed, almost exclusively. He had never eaten an egg or a peanut, and he’d had very limited exposure to milk via a very little bit of formula.
I had kept all these foods in my diet through pregnancy and until his allergies were discovered. (He also had eczema, but hives were what got us to an allergist.) His exposure was via breastmilk, so I eliminated all those foods from my diet after his diagnosis. Eventually we ended up supplementing with hypoallergenic formula– my milk didn’t contain enough calories for him on that diet, and he lost weight. Very disheartening.
I’m now pregnant with #2 and don’t quite know what to do. I’m still drinking milk and eating the occasional egg or nut (per the doctor), and I guess we’ll just watch the baby for eczema, hives, or spitting up once she gets here. Again, I doubt that the elimination diet will be sustainable long-term, but with any luck this baby won’t have as many allergies.
i suspect that my son (5 month) has food allergic,when he about 4 monh i feed him cerelac (wheat) and he has a very bad reaction, eczema and swolen round face and head area, its so shocking for us coz no one in the familly has story of food allergic and none of my previous kids now 6 and 4 years old has food allergic,we still didnt take him to do his allergic test yet,im breastfeed him and now im just limiting my diet on dairy,and egg, he seems got no proplem when i eat anything contain wheat or egg (cake,pancake,bread) we might do test for him when he bit older.
My son, who was exclusively breastfed at the time, began to have tiny specks of blood in his stool at about 1 month. His pediatrician suspected an allergy to something I was eating and I had to go off of wheat, soy, nuts, eggs, and dairy for about 4 1/2 months. This was HARD! And after all that, we never really discovered the cause of the blood. My son is now 16 months and has no known allergies, and has eaten all these foods.
I want to tell other mothers who are struggling with a restrictive diet to check out the articles “Help for Breastfeeding Mothers on an Allergy Restriction Diet” and “Allergen-Free Recipes for Breastfeeding Mothers on Restriction”. You can find them on the “Oh Baby!” page at NewbornBib.com You’ll be able to enjoy many of your favorite types of foods again, such as pizza, cookies, cake, and even “ice cream”!