Breastfeeding and Food Allergies

The most overwhelming part of my breastfeeding experience has been dealing with my son’s food allergies. When my son was just a little over 1 month old I noticed that during his diaper changes he no longer had mustard seedy poop. They now were orange or green, very mucusy, and had a couple dots of blood in them here and there. After speaking to my family doctor and naturopath it was recommended that I cut all dairy out of my diet.

About a month later from taking a break from eating and drinking dairy the mucus and poo was still occurring. I contacted my family doctor who referred to me to a pediatrician. In the meantime, my naturopath suggested I eliminate food that belonged in the sulphur family such as: onions, garlic, broccoli, cauliflower, and also tomatoes. Definitely a complete overhaul on my diet.

Two weeks later we had our pediatrician appointment. He told me to add the foods from the sulphur family back into my diet and to eliminate soy. I cut out soy and noticed an improvement in my son’s poop immediately. I was happy to be able to eat things like onions and garlic again but geeze every label you read contains soy or soy derivatives.

Finally I was excited to eat pasta with tomato sauce again and tacos with salsa. The excitement quickly dwindled though. After eating the tacos another mucus poop reappeared. Good thing this poop happened in my naturopath’s office. Right then and there she did a food sensitivity test on me to see what else my son could be reacting to. The results were dairy, soy and tomatoes. Although my son having allergies stinks I was relieved to finally have some answers. My naturopaths then recommended I start my son on probiotics and cod liver oil to help build up his immune system and to strengthen his little gut. 

Cutting out all of these foods have definitely been a challenge but getting my son’s poop back to normal will be much more rewarding. 

Do you suspect that your breastfed baby may have any food issues? It would be great to hear other mom’s experiences. If you’d like to read more about my breastfeeding experience please see my first post – My Breastfeeding Journey.