Tummy Troubles with 5 Month Old

My daughter was the same way and they kept telling me it was collic. She ended up having a milk allergy. As soon as we removed all milk from my diet and hers, she was a completely different kid. You can probably get a skin test to see if she is allergic to any foods. They did 12 skin pricks when my daughter was a year old and she was only allergic to milk. She would cry throughout the day and then always from 7 to about 1 in the morning non-stop. They had me start by keeping a food diary and taking away everything she could be allergic to like milk, eggs, wheat, strawberries and she wasn't eating nuts yet but that to. Then we started adding things back one at a time like you do when you are starting them out on food. I think they said give it a week between. If the doctor is just telling you there is nothing wrong and you still think there is please get a second opinion. I learned the hard way, and finally after a year I was tired of feeling like I was crazy.
Good luck

I am in nutrition and it may be as simple as needing a good probiotic. There is an ez-gest in my line and an opti-flora that have remarkable results with NO side effects. Good Luck
S.

My sister is having the same problem. She stopped eating all dairy and her son seemed to do much better if mommy wasn't eating dairy!

Gassy and spicy foods don't really make much difference. I would eliminate your dairy and caffeine and see if it improves. C., Lactation Consultant

How about picking up some baby acidophilus from the health food store. Jarrow is one brand I know of that sells it. It is in powder form. You put in on your nipples with each feeding and the baby sucks it off. It usually helps with a fussy tummy.

Another thing to consider is food intollerances. Some babies are very sensitive to things you are eating. The most common one is dairy. You could try cutting out dairy and see if that helps. I would talk with a La Leche League leader more about it.

Try Gripe Water. You can get it at Walgreen's in the baby aisle next to the Mylicon. I had the same issue with my son (5 months), and this worked wonders. It is a natural remedy that uses organic fennel and ginger extract. With my son, he will be happy and calmed down within 5 minutes of taking it. It is a Godsend! Hope it helps you as much as it did us! God bless!

I too had a very similiar problem with my daughter when she was very young. However, she was formula fed instead of breastmilk. I discovered that it was a protein issue. So maybe you should try a "test" of going a couple of without or lowered amount of protein that you ingest or another suggestion would be to try a formula called Nutramigen (sp?) made by Enfamil. It is costly but honestly it's worth it's wait in gold. From her first feeding there was a difference. There was no more pain in her tummy. It worked for me.

I think it has something to do with what you are eating. It's not just spicy foods that upset their bellies. With mine it was onions. I could not have onions in anything while I was nursing (you'd be surprised at how many meals have onions in them). My cousin had the same issue, but she had to quit breastfeeding because she couldn't find the food causing it. Her son ended up being on acid reflux medicine until he could eat solids.

I know its tough, but maybe cut out certain foods from your diet (say 3 at a time for week) to see if you can narrow down the culprit.

Hope you find the answer so you can continue to nurse!!! Good luck.

My daughter (and oldest child) had significant tummy troubles as an infant. She would cry and fuss, couldn't sleep at night in her crib and slept in her swing, and had blood in her stool on 3 different occasions. I was breastfeeding exclusively as well. The pain continued well into her 5th month at which time we got a referral to see a gastroenterologist. She was diagnosed with a milk allergy - allergic to the protien in milk. I immediately removed all milk and milk products from my diet, including anything with whey, casiene and casienate (the milk protiens). Within two days she was like a different baby.

She outgrew her milk allergy at 2 yrs of age (she is now 11 yrs old), my middle child is still highly allergic to milk at 7 years, and my youngest ( who is almost 4 yrs.) outgrew his milk allergy at 1 yr.

You might try changing your diet, even if you don't get an official diagnosis. You just have to read all labels carefully and look for milk or any of those milk protiens I indicated above. Margerine is very hard to find - you could have Unsalted Fleishmans or I buy Canola (margerine in a tub) at a health food store.

Good Luck!!

S.,
I too would raise the allergy flag. My son was diagnosed with GERD and a milk allergy (they each can make each other worse). You will have to read labels very closely. What you need to do is take a fresh poopy diaper to you Ped and have them do a hematocrit. This just checks for trace blood in the stool. First assumption is milk allergy, then soy then other stuff. Note, it can take a week for the cow milk protein to exit your milk so be patient.

If it is a milk protein allergy keep up the nursing as long as you can, because hypoallergenic formula is VERY expensive. I got so stressed with his colic (due to the GERD and the allergy) after taking all milk out of my diet, which was really hard for me. My supply went in the toilet so I had to start supplementing then the worst part came. My son just would not wait for a let down and essentially weaned himself at 6 months. We then were spending about $250 a month on formula. Finally at 9 months I switched to soy formula and he was okay.

Best of luck

I will second what so many Moms have said about eliminating dairy from your diet--weaning and using forumula could only make the problems worse and you would have to buy expensive formula--much cheaper to buy substites for you! However I would like to point out that I don't beleive that it is a true allergy when we are talking couw milk--it is a case of being unable to digest it as humans are not meant to consume the milk of other species! And we don't outgrow that fact--my oldest and youngest daughters who reacted like yours when I ate cow products are now as adults finally listening to me and realizing that they feel so much better without dairy in their diets. Both feel clearer--physically and mentally. When I quit dairy while nursing I was amazed at how all my so called pollen allergies were almost completely gone. Unfermetned Soy is not any better as it is also not digestible--I use rice or almond milk for cereal or cooking and drink water. Of course they cannot be used for infants--there are very expensive meat protein based formulas avavilbel for sensitive babies but why not stick with God's formula(human milk) for your baby and change your diet--it won't hurt and you might find you feel better too!

i had a similar problem when my daughter was a couple weeks old. she was soley breast fed....i eliminated dairy and green leafy vegetables from my diet and that made all the difference. even though it was so hard to do it. after a couple months i would cheat a little and she would suffer so i knew it wasnt time to add it back in yet. shes 9 months now and ive added everything back in around 6 or 7 months and shes doing perfectly. its worth the sacrifice. good luck i know its hard.

I second the dairy/soy allergy. I am a local La Leche League Leader and I see this all the time. I would also want to know exactly what she was being fed at the sitters.

Check out an ItsyBitsy Yoga class. This is "yoga for babies" not "yoga with babies". My son had a lot of gas and reflux trouble and all the movement really helped. There were some exercises that made him toot over and over:) Once you take a 6-week-long course, you will know enough to be able to continue at home. The bonding is nice too:) PM me for more info.

Sorry to ask, but is her poo green? Have you tried cutting dairy out of your diet? If she is consistently having trouble for so long, it could be a dairy intolerance. At this age, she's not allergic or lactose intolerant, it's actually a problem with the protein in cow milk. Cutting out dairy is hard because when you look at ingredients on labels, EVERYTHING prepared or partially prepared has milk so you have to cook everything from scratch. But it's worth it if it helps her. Try it, you should see a difference within a week and a total turn-around within 3.

Good Luck!

Hi S.,
You are no doubt desperate to help your baby. Something for acid reflux at such an early age is definitely something you will want to avoid. I agree with one person's advice which was a product to get good bacteria in her system just might be the ticket (probiotic). Allergies are another possibility - maybe something you are eating that doesn't bother you, but does her. Dairy is often at the top of the list. Feel free to contact me at ____@____.com if you want to explore more.

If your daughter is receiving your milk in a bottle, is she swallowing a lot of air?
Also, perhaps it is time to start giving her a little mashed banana or other soft fruit.
Having breastfed 6 children, I cannot imagine why she is having such issues with her stomach.
You might want to contact La Leche League and ask about it.
Look in the phone book.
Do you eat/drink dairy products?
That could cause such a reaction in her if she is allergic to cow's milk.
Hope you can resolve this for her sake.
Good luck.

She may have an intolerance which is being passed through your breast milk?? 5 months is too young to be tested, but you may want to approach your physician to see what can be done. I am not familiar with the supplement you give her at each feeding, but it coud be the problem.

Hi S.,

Each of my 4 children were allergic to dairy - some more severe than others. I breast fed each child but cut all dairy out of my diet. I even went to the extreme of no breads as they contain "whey". You may want to do a little research about dairy allergies and breastfeeding. My children manifested their allergies with mucous stools and some had streaks of blood in the stool. As I had successive children I just automatically took dairy out of my diet so as to not wait until the screaming and altered stools came along.

Obviously there are other causes of bad tummies, but this was what I dealt with and perhaps you may find that your daughter will respond the same.

I will mention that if you go this route to try to determine an allergy, stick with your diet longer than two weeks to make certain all the dairy is gone.

Good luck! I know how you feel for your child! If only we could wave a wand to make them feel better.

Blessings,
S.

Dear S.,

I'm so sorry to hear about yor daughter's tummy pain! Poor little thing.

It looks like a lot of us are on the same page here.

It's possible that your daughter might be allergic to something you're eating, and until you stop introducing the allergen to her through breast milk, she will continue to have problems. My mind automatically goes to dairy, as so many others have suggested. Here's why:

I was babysitting my grandson one night when he was about 3 months old. His mom was breastfeeding him, but every now and then she would leave a few bottles of formula with me for supplemental feedings. She had done that on that particular night, and when I gave him the formula, he became extremely ill and had projectile vomiting. It was a very chilly night, so I held him close to me until I could calm him down and get him into some warm, dry clothes. When I removed his wet clothing, I saw that he was covered in huge red welts that resembled hives. They were covering him wherever his clothes had been soaked by the liquid.

His mother took him to the doctor the next day and described his reaction. The pediatrician diagnosed a severe allergy to dairy products (not at all uncommon). It turns out that the formula his mom had left with me was a milk based formula. They had always used soy based in the past, but they had received a sample of this one, and decided to try it out.

Dairy allergies are very common. If your daughter is allergic to dairy, she could have reactions to dairy you have consumed through your breast milk. The reaction wouldn't be as severe as my grandson's was unless she were also consuming a dairy based formula directly.

If you have her tested for allergies and she is allergic to dairy products, you can switch her to soy or coconut milk and she should improve almost immediately. You could even try removing all dairy from your diet and from her formulas to see if that helps you troubleshoot the problem. Coconut milk is especially gentle and is a close match for human milk. Check out the book, "The Coconut Oil Miracle," by Bruce Fife. He talks quite a bit about coconut milk and gives some great recipes for cooking with coconut oil and milk, including a recipe for mixing coconut milk with water to make a delicious, drinkable milk.

Good luck, and give your little sweetheart a hug and kiss for me!

Hi S.,
I started nursing my daughter but it seemed like she cried all the time. So I put her on formula and still the same, very fussy and sometimes she screamed in pain. She was on meds for acid reflux b/c often she would gag or vomit, but medicine didn't seem to help. When she was about 7 months I noticed it got worse and I then had enough, so I took her to Children's Hospital and they ran test and found that she has Gasterial Paresis (not sure if correct spelling) that is when if she would eat or drink and when the food would go to her stomach, her stomach became paralyzed causing the gagging or vomiting. they put her on a powder that I had to mix with pudding or applesauce and that worked wonders. Doctors told me that she should grow out of it. She's now 5 years old and no signs of it at all!

Another mom here whose baby was allergic/intolerant to the cow's milk and soy proteins he was getting through my breastmilk - once I eliminated those foods from my diet (included reading labels for cow's milk derivatives and soy derivatives), my little baby transformed into a calm, comfortable, relaxed guy with clear, soft, beautiful skin (in addition to the stomach pain and sleep problems, my baby had red/dry/rashy patches on his cheeks, wrists, torso, etc - eczema!).

It took me about 2 weeks to fully get the hang of eating DF/SF (dairy-free, soy-free), but to me, IT WAS MORE THAN WORTH IT! The change in my son was truly shocking, and I was beyond thrilled to make such a (relatively) small change to my diet and to have him NOT suffer *anymore.*

My ped first recommended reflux meds, but I really didn't want to be giving my 5 week old daily meds unless it was pretty sure that it would solve the problem -- and for babies who are intolerant to a certain protein (typically dairy or soy, but could be other proteins), reflux meds act only as a band-aid but do NOT fix the root cause of the problem like eliminating the offending protein(s) will.

A few resources that I found very helpful:
http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/food-sensitivity.html
Yahoo! Group of moms who are breastfeeding babies w/ food sensitivities and making the necessary diet changes - great for support, encouragement, meal ideas, substitutions for dairy/soy/etc. --> http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/foodlab/

Best of luck, and you can do this!!! :)

S.,

It could be what you are eating, even with your avoiding spicy, gassy foods. I experienced the same thing with my son. It was suggested by a lactation consultant that I remove dairy from my diet. It was not a lactose intolerance issue, but a milk protein issue. You need to totally remove all dairy products from your diet and you need to read labels of everything you eat. Avoid items that contain the ingredient listed as casein, caseinate, or sodium caseinate. Now, it will take about 10-14 days before you will see a difference in your baby. And, chances are she will outgrow it and be able to handle dairy (either in her diet or yours) around the time she turns one. I remember nursing my son and worrying each time about how long he could nurse before he would start crying. Eleven days after I took all dairy out of my diet, it was as though I had a different baby! If this doesn't work, I would definitely consider contacting a lactation consultant. Good luck!

look into probiotic supplements, ask your dr. i tried it with my daughter (pediatrician recommended it)and never had a problem since. if you pump/bottle feed it should be easy to give, or maybe you can get a gel formulation.

As important as it is to breasfeed, would you be willing to try soy formula or eliminating dairy from your diet? My little Emily was very similar. She wouldn't throw up but she would spit up and be VERY gassy and fussy. You could tell it was really hurting her. We switched her to soy and almost instantly she was feeling better...

Good luck
A.

S.,
Check out the website www.coliccalm.com. I actually ordered some of this for my son's reflux (he's 4 mo). Its a homeopathic remedy, and from the reviews from people who have used the product, it really seems to work. It's all natural.

Hi, S.. A friend of mine had a similar situation with her infant. It came to be that the baby was allergic to something in her breastmilk or had an intolerance to something. Not saying that's what it is with your situation, but it couldn't hurt to ask. Goodluck and I hope she gets to feeling better soon!

Try giving her a 4oz. bottle of peppermint tea. I used that with my kids when they had colic. It works great. Use caffeine free peppermint tea. Make a cup like you would for yourself...then add another cup of cool water to dilute it a little and cool it off...you can sweeten with a little dark caro syrup or honey.
The peppermint settles their stomach and the warmth of the tea soothes it also. I found it worked much better than mylicon drops.

Try putting her on formula instead of breastmilk. Soy products seemed to help my little boy when he had acid reflux very terribly. I also added a teaspoon of cereal into his bottle. This helped keep the food down instead of him puking it up. Try keeping baby always sitting up after meals for at least an hour. I had to keep my little one sitting up all the time. We would hold him, sit him up in the car seat, or sit up in a bouncer. This helped keep the acids and food from floating up to his esophogus.

Your breastmilk might be too acidic or alkaline. Baby's tummy may not be releasing the correct enzymes to breakdown the acidity or alkalinity in the food. Try switching for a while to soy and see if that helps.

Hi S.,
The most common allergens that babies react to are dairy, soy, wheat, citrus, strawberries, eggs and chocolate. I agree with the advice to eliminate these carefully and reintrodce them slowly while you are still breastfeeding. Good luck!

My baby did the same thing. I had to stop breast feeding because of the quantity. She was much happier once she went to formula. I had to do the drops and prevacid too. Good luck.

M.

sounds like what my daughter had and it ended up being food allergies, she has since outgrown them and i nursed 4 a year so don't worry. you could have her tested the natural way--NAET-Dr,Honan in Lebanon is awesome or Dr. Runnerstum in zionsville take care and goog luck

Have you asked the doctor about intollerances to foods that you're eating? My baby has intollerances to milk and soy so they are no longer in my diet. His showed up as bloody stool, but I've read that symptoms can be gassiness and stomach cramping.

I hope you are able to figure it out.

So this may seem kind of weird... but I'm reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" right now and one of the first things I found interesting was that he says when adults don't get enough sleep on a regular basis, they complain of stomach aches and head aches, so he thinks that many babies have the same problem (along with being unhappy) when they don't get enough sleep. If food changes don't help, you could always check out the book and give it a try! :)

My 4th child was a very fussy baby at first. I am tandem nursing him along w/his 21 mo. old sister and was advised that he might be getting too much fore milk and not enough hind milk. So I started nursing her first and then him on the same side or I would nurse him multiple times on the same side. This along with seeing a chiropracter (Dr. Payton in Tipp City adjusts children under the age of 12? for $10) on a regular basis seemed to make him feel much better.

My pediatrician also said he may not being agreeing with the dairy in my diet so I picked up a bottle of Baby's Life from the health food store and give him a bit of it when I know that I have eaten too much dairy and it seems to soothe his belly. It is an acedophilus (sp?) and seems to do wonders.

S., Try keeping a food diary. My son was sensitive to corn syrup and lactose intolerant. He had major stomach issues. I figured out that they were the problems. My son is 6 and an pretty much eat anything now. When I avoided these foods, I had a happy baby. Good luck. J.(Mom of 3)

Whatever you do, DON'T stop breastfeeding thinking that formula will help the problem. The formula will only stay in the stomach longer while breastmilk is emptied out quicker (goes through the body quickly and gives off nutrients).

My son was the same way arching his back, screaming, etc. We tried all sorts of medication with him, the doctor even prescribed anti-biotics that one of the side effects might help him. Nothing worked and he was going to put him in the hospital. I talked to the La Leche League and immediately stopped dairy, caffeine, chocolate, etc. In 2 days, my baby was a different baby. Smiling, happy as can be. The doc. noticed the difference right away. I'd say try taking dairy and caffeine out of your diet and see the difference in 2 weeks. I've heard of some babies being allergic to strawberries, etc. in the mommy's milk. Just experiment and see. Now I can have milk in casseroles, etc. and a little cup every now and then. I can also have cheese with pretty much everything. Don't give up!

Hi S.,
Both of my kids also went through the acid reflux thing and had to be on meds.
We also had to thicken their formula with rice cereal. It helps it to stay down in their belly and not rise up and cause the acid burn.
My son also had trouble with certain formulas and would cry a-lot and we finally switched over to Soy formula for a while and it really helped!
Talk to your doctor about some of these things and see if they might also help your little one!
Good luck!
T.

My first son nursed around the clock and would frequently spit up what appeared to be the entire feeding. We mentioned it to the doctor but he was growing and developing fine so we thought nothing of it. When I weaned him off of the breast milk onto cow's milk his stools were horrid. I could not tollerate high fat cow's milk as a child so this too did not surprise me. We started him on soy milk and all of his problems cleared up.

When he was about 18months I read an article about the dramatic increase of babies with allergies to the cow protien in their mothers breastmilk. (American Baby, I think) It described how it frequently caused upset tummies and that to relieve it the baby would nurse more to release endorphins to calm themselves. Well the more they nurse the more it upsets ect...just a vicious cycle. This described my son and his nursing to a T. Also explained why he was better on soy.

Two months before I had my second I switched my diet to all soy. My son had none of the tummy problems of his brother. We kept him on soy when he was weaned with great success.

I should say that by the time they were both 2 they could have dairy without any problems. They eat cheese and yogurt all of the time but prefer skim milk and will still always choose soy milk if given a choice.

I would definately try to elliminate dairy from your system and see if that helps. (I did not go to the extream of elliminating all products containing whey. I only did milk, cheese, yogurt and ice cream)

Are you sure it's her tummy? - it's often hard to tell with an infant.

I also agree with the allergies, but I would also investigate baby massage. There are some great books out there - can't remember the names. You could also contact massage therapists, or maybe a midwife for things you could do. Massage can do wonders to ease her discomfort. Good luck!

My grandson had problems with gas and he still does sometimes and he's 2 1/2. The drops wouldn't work for him. Every night he would wake up screaming with pain. His naps were problems too. He also had reflux and was on medication. But the gas problems continued. We finally took him to a gastrologist. They took stomach xrays and later did a scope, and did other testing. They couldn't find anything. We are at the point that we try to watch what he's eating. Sometimes things that are greasy will bother him. Any gassy food we will put beano on it and that seems to help. He has had this problem since he was born. We feel he's starting to outgrow it but only time will tell if that's true. I do feel for you. It is awful. But I would suggest taking her to the pediatric specialist and see if they can find anything. Good Luck.

Have you tried avoiding dairy products in your own diet? This is one of the most common problem foods for babies.

C.

I work for a company that markets a really good health and nutrition line called Isotonix. They have a product called Ultimate Aloe and another called digestive enzymes that have been great at helping people with similar problems. I would be happy to get you more information if you want it.

You can check them out on my website.

www.marketamerica.com/rebeccahill

Good luck!
B.

Hi Sarah-
when i was nursing my kids i found that what I ate greatly effected them. also i went to the pediatrician who asked me are you eatting broccoli, cauliflower, beans? YES YES YEs he said stop. You need to eat a variety of healthy foods but things that are more common to give adults gas will give it to kids and upset thier tummys he also asked me to lay off the spicey stuff and low and behold.... the gas stopped.

My son is the same way and I found that Gripe Water works amazing for gas and colic even teething you can get it for like 9 dollars at babie's r us or walgreens hope this helps

Your daughter could be allergic to something you're eating. You can have your pediatrician run a simple, inexpensive test called a hemocult (they will need a poopy diaper from you) that can check. I found out around 3 months that my son had an allergy to the dairy and soy proteins in my breastmilk. Since I didn't want to switch to formula, I just eliminated dairy and soy from my diet.

Hi there S.,
Both my daughters were breastfed exclusively for 10 months and they each had their own issues. My first (now 6 yo) was allergic to milk, so I had to stop drinking and eating dairy products until I was finished nursing, it took us a few weeks to figure this out, she had tummy issues, diarrhea, and eventually blood in her stool. It all cleared up after I changed my diet. My second (now almost 5) was a totally different story. She had lots of gas and reflux and we tried lots of options with her. This was over 4 years ago and they didn't have the information or medication for kids with reflux that they have now. I was ignored and pacified by my peds office and my daughter had to suffer a lot. :( You should think about going to an allergy center and testing her, that could reveal something. Or seek the advise of a pediatric GI Specialist, they could do specific tests, too. Best of Luck!