I guess instead of trying to rule out allergies through my diet since it’ll probably take more time and energy and may not be conclusive, I’ve come to the conclusion that time is what I have to wait for…He doesn’t cry for hours and hours, so I’m thankful and with the spit up and grunting/other pains, everyone says that in time it’ll work itself out…

As for probiotics that are “safe” you might try Flora Baby by Renew Life (yeast, wheat, gluten, soy & dairy-free). Most (not all) probiotics are grown on whey, so if you are taking a dairy-based probiotic and he is dairy allergic, your probiotics *might* not be tolerated well by him.

One other web site that might be helpful for you is the POFAK (Parents of Food Allergic Kids) site:

http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/community.html

I am keeping my fingers crossed that your let-down theory is on the money and that you don’t end up having to deal with any of this food allergy stuff. :-)

Jasper does have some skin issues that just started developing, little pimples on both cheeks, and bumpiness on forehead, not sure if its just regular baby acne or an allergy though? He does also have redness on his inner elbows, which both the pedi and cranial sacral lady said was indicative of allergy/sensitivity.. so I’m just not sure!

I do take a probiotic, and Jasper was on baby dopholous until two days ago when we read the label and saw it said it could contain traces of milk (you are so right about the labels!).

I’m hoping the zantac helps, otherwise, will take your advice and look into a pedi GI, that’s a great idea!

My older daughter, Chloe, had FPIES (food protein induced enterocolitis syndrome) and was hospitalized three times as a baby as a result. She is now five and the reflux is long gone, but she is still allergic to dairy and soy (as an older child, this manifests itself as hives and labored breathing within minutes of eating anything containing dairy or soy, followed by days of bloody poop and patches of eczema all over her body which take weeks to clear up.)

With babies one of the first signs of protein allergy can be projectile vomiting. With my older daughter, she would throw up so violently after nursing that breast milk would shoot out her nose or would clear the entire length of her body. I’d have to change her clothes every 1 – 2 hours because she’d be soaked from her chin to her knees with throw-up. We’d have her sleep propped up at a 45 degree angle, but she’d still throw up all night long and wake up with throw up in her hair (even after she started on Zantac.) Not exactly your run of the mill baby spit-up.

Other signs to look for are a red bumpy rash or patches eczema (on the face or body), mucousy or bloody poop, and a diaper rash on the baby’s bottom that looks like an acid burn or sunburn rather than a bumpy rash.

If Jasper really only seems to have tummy pain but his skin is clear, he’s diaper rash/burn free and doesn’t have any blood or mucous in his diaper, that would point more toward reflux than protein allergy, although he is still quite little and sometimes symptoms take awhile to develop.

I tried doing the elimination diet with Chloe, but ultimately (after her third hospitalization) gave up on nursing – she just kept getting sick (losing weight, blood soaked – and I mean soaked – diapers, dehydration, anemia) from my breast milk, and we couldn’t figure out what else to eliminate, so we ended up switching her to Neocate. Neocate is a hypoallergenic formula, only available by prescription (via your pediatrician or a pediatric GI doc), manufactured specifically for babies who cannot tolerate the proteins in dairy and soy. It’s an amino-acid based formula that can be absorbed by the body without needing to be digested first – in fact, it’s what they feed babies and children who are on feeding tubes. A couple of other manufacturers make similar products (also prescription only) – one is called Elecare. I think the other is called Vivvonex (but I may have the spelling wrong.)

What we tried with Chloe (that didn’t work for us, but has worked wonderfully for other people) is having her drink nothing but Neocate for a week, while I went on a severe elimination diet and pumped and dumped my milk (they say it takes week for all traces of dairy and soy to be gone from your milk.) Then we tried to let her go back to nursing, but each time, within a week, she was bleeding again and needed to be readmitted to the hospital. (This is highly unusual and just to put your mind at ease, she was a preemie and had other food allergies in addition to dairy and soy – usually, a short amount of time on Neocate will give the baby’s gut a rest/chance to heal and will give the mama’s body enough time to work the allergens out of its system, so that when you go back to nursing, everything clicks.)

If you would like to learn more about Neocate, there’s an excellent parents message board on Yahoo – just go to Yahoo Groups and do a search for Neocate – super helpful.

Having had the experience I had with Chloe, I went into my second pregnancy with a lot more information. I gave up dairy in my third trimester and nursed while on a dairy and soy free diet. When it eventually became necessary to supplement due to supply issues (I made lots of milk – pumped 40 ounces a day, but Ginger’s reflux was so bad, she threw up half of what she drank), we only supplemented with Neocate – one bottle a day. I was able to nurse until about a week before Ginger’s first birthday, when she decided she had had enough with nursing and was only interested in the sippy cup. I tried eating cheese twice over about a year of nursing. Both times, she broke out in a severe rash all over her body. She is, unfortunately, still allergic to dairy and soy, but never had the bleeding, anemia, failure to thrive, rashes, eczema or other issues her sister had, so it is possible to successfully nurse a baby with protein allergy – in fact, compared to the seven weeks of nursing Chloe got which included two weeks in the NICU and three additional hospitalizations, nursing the second time around was an absolute success.

The elimination diet is very difficult to stick with if you have to do all of the top eight allergens. I was “fortunate” that eliminating dairy and soy was all that was necessary while nursing Ginger.

The tricky part with the elimination diet is that you really have to read the ingredients on everything you eat. You’ll be shocked to see how many foods contain both dairy and soy. Soybean oil is in most commercial bread and cracker products, for example, so you really have to hunt for baked goods that are “safe.” And there’s a surprising amount of dairy out there, and it’s listed under other names than “milk” or “dairy.” So when reading labels, you can’t just look for “milk.” You have to avoid anything that contains milk, butter, yogurt, cream, casein (milk protein), whey (the liquid component of milk), curd, lactalbumin, lactalglobulin, almost any ingredient that contains the word “lactate” or the prefix “lact”, lactose (the sugar component of milk), or any kind of “dry milk,” “milk solids,” “milk fat,” or anything containing the word “caseinate.” (There may be others I’m forgetting.) Take that list to the grocery store and you will be SHOCKED at how many foods contain dairy or dairy derrivatives.

So, a couple of other comments:

First, lactose intolerance (which babies can also have a problem with) is different from protein allergy. With an intolerance, a baby has trouble breaking down the lactose portion of milk and can have gas, cramping, bloating, diarrhea and general tummy discomfort. Protein allergy is quite a bit different – the baby is actually allergic to the proteins found in milk (and a large number of those babies are also allergic to the proteins in soy) – an allergy can actually become dangerous/life-threatening if left untreated. The majority of babies with protein allergy outgrow it by age 1 (I want to say it’s over 90 percent, although my five year old is still allergic, so outgrowing it isn’t guaranteed.)

Second, a baby can just have reflux and not have an allergy, just as they can have an allergy and not have reflux. Vomiting and tummy pain alone don’t conclusively point to one or the other. Or you can be really “lucky” like I was and your baby can have both. Zantac, Prevacid or similar medications can make a world of difference when nothing else works. I was reluctant to go the medication route with Chloe initially, but once her reflux was treated, she was like a whole new baby – smiling, happy, good sleeper – amazing. Also, her asthma disappeared – turned out she’d been inhaling stomach acid when she would throw up in her sleep. Ginger also has terrible reflux, but after screaming for her first month of life, she started on prevacid and is now a happy, smiley little thing who sleeps fairly well (even though she does still spit up at age 13 mos.)

Some babies don’t notice a difference with Zantac, but do really well with Prevacid and vice-versa. So if you don’t notice a difference with one medication, don’t give up without investigating others.

Some parents swear by the Tucker Sling for reflux: http://www.tuckersling.com/

Holding the baby upright for about 20 minutes after a feeding really does work. But when you’re so sleep-deprived you can’t stay awake an extra 20 minutes, letting the baby sleep upright in the car seat while you take a nap also works. (And if they’re upright, they are less likely to choke if they spit up in their sleep.)

Soy lecithin is an ingredient found in an astonishing number of foods – it’s an emulsifier. It’s so highly processed that the soy proteins are pretty much obliterated and studies have shown that well over 90 percent of people with soy allergy can actually tolerate soy lecithin – that is the case with both of my girls.

Some pediatricians recommend thickening breast-milk with rice cereal and feeing the baby by bottle or cup – it’s harder to throw up the thickened milk. We did this with Chloe, it wasn’t necessary with Ginger, but it’s something to explore. Unfortunately, many brands of infant rice cereal contain soy (Gerber, for example.) Beechnut and Healthy Times are good bets.

There is some evidence that giving your baby a probiotic or taking one yourself if you are nursing, can help babies with these issues. I didn’t give one to Chloe, but I did with Ginger and her issues have been much less severe – couldn’t tell you if there is a connection or not.

Many pediatricians lack experience when it comes to treating reflux or protein allergy. If Jasper is really struggling, you might want to consider taking him to a pediatric GI doctor.

I tried mylicon drops, gripe water, cranial sacral therapy and an elimination diet with both girls and nothing made much of an impact until I finally broke down and went the medication route. Zantac didn’t work too well for Chloe (minor improvement) but Prevacid worked wonders. It’s worked very well for Ginger too. I know it’s difficult to decide to give your baby medication, but when the alternatives are lesions in the esophagus, asthma, rotten teeth and/or surgery, medication is much more appealing!

So, this is much longer than I intended – I hope it’s helpful though. It sounds like you are doing everything right – I’d say continue to avoid dairy and soy and give the zantac a chance. If he does really well with the Zantac, try reintroducing soy and see what happens. If you get through a week without any problems, try reintroducing dairy. With any luck, it’s “just” reflux and soon you’ll all be sleeping much more peacefully. Good luck, and feel free to email me if I might be able to answer any questions about reflux or protein intolerance. One thing I can tell you is that it ABSOLUTELY DOES GET BETTER.

He is adorable, by the way!

I don’t, but I can say that Jasper looks like a dream (even though you are not sleeping dreamy) and your pictures are absolutely beautiful.

Sorry Mom Quixote hasn’t been updated of late. All is good ’round our parts and the end of the first trimester nears: yay. Just too tired with work now after the summer to find the time and desire to blog. I didn’t think I could keep it up — if not now, then certainly not with a baby!