Extreme Elimination Diets: Nursing to Combat Infant Food Intolerances
Associated Press reported Rebecca Boone recently published a fascinating account of her attempt to combat her infant daughter's severe food intolerances through a "few foods" elimination diet consisting solely of turkey, rice, squash, canola oil, salt, and black pepper. Her essay also provides a basic introduction to the pros and cons of elimination diets in breastfeeding mothers versus hypoallergenic formula in kids with food intolerances, with quotes from physicians on both sides of that particular debate. You can read her essay here.
Eliminating allergenic foods in a breastfeeding mother of a child with food intolerance symptoms is one of the more commonly indicated uses of an elimination diet; in Boone's case, for example, her daughter was tested as intolerant to dairy and soy, but eliminating those foods from her diet didn't solve her baby's health problems. Elimination diets are also used to confirm other test results, to test for some food intolerances that may not be testable by standard allergy diagnostic tests, or to diagnose other conditions (such as migraine headaches) that may be related to food.
One thing's for certain: the more foods you eliminate from your diet for an extended period of time, as Rebecca Boone did, the more psychologically stressful this sort of diet is. Few foods diets quickly grow monotonous, even if you're the sort of person who'll happily eat a relatively limited diet --- there's a difference between relatively limited and the type of diet described in this article!
More about elimination diets, breastfeeding, and allergies:
Comments
I cannot believe I came across this topic. I just got through a very traumatic year with my second child, a baby boy who became severly anemic due to instestinal bleeding from food intolerances. I too did the complete elimination diet since he was about 8 weeks old. I had surrendered to the idea of using the formula that our insurance did not cover only to find out that he absolutely refused to take a bottle. We attend speech therapy sessions to teach him how to use it. In the end, after batteries of tests and a negative RAST and prick allergy test, his allergy and asthma doctor recommended that I breast feed for as long as possible as breast milk can only help heal his gut at this point. He is now 16 months and we are both eliminating eggs and dairy. I have to admit that I feel worse after reintroducing numerous foods. I have decided to cut out many just for the sake of feeling better and more energetic. I have a thriving, albeit healing, happily breastfeeding 16 month old and I intend to continue as I did with my daughter. He is a very healthy eater at this point and it just takes A LOT of patience, creativity and a few runs to the local fast food joint for greasy french fries and a plain hamburger with no buns.
My daughter had intestinal bleeding due to dairy and soy insensitivities when I was breastfeeding. She is fine now, but for five months I had to exclusively breastfeed while restricting my diet to non-dairy, non-soy foods. It nearly drove me insane. I created the Nursing Mom Recipes web site, http://www.nursingmomrecipes.com, to help other mothers who find themselves in the same situation.