Help With Weaning

[hellokitty1]

Sorry this is so long...really long...
During a recent sick visit to the ped, in which we found out DD had her first ear infection (:(), I mentioned the reactions to milk and soy formula and the "minor" reaction to breast milk since it was a different ped than usual; and she told me I needed to cut out dairy completely or else I would risk DD never being able to grow out of her allergies. Now the regular ped told me I could continue eating dairy if the reaction from the breast milk did not seem to bother her. But after hearing ths 2nd ped's opinion and the opinions of you guys on the board, I am now definitely concerned about continuing to BF if I cannot totally eliminate dairy from my diet. While BM is superior, I can't help but think of the long-term damage I am doing to DD by not giving her a break from dairy in my system. I can manage without dairy for the most part. I mostly eat a Chinese diet which doesn't have a lot of dairy but still, once in awhile, I just have to have my pizza or a steak-n-cheese. And then, as I ponder it further, since DD has a reaction to soy formula as well, I don't think I should be eating soy either. Well, the Chinese diet has lots of soy in the form of tofu. So either way, it seems like I am in big trouble.

So, I have pretty much decided that it's time to look into weaning but I have a lot of questions about what it's like and what's worked for others in my similar situation. So here goes...

DD is in daycare FT while DH and I are at work. I nurse in the morning when she wakes up (usually early like 5am), she has three bottles plus a solids while at school. I then nurse right after work and in the evening, with a solids feeding in between. The evening session is where I nurse DD to sleep. I also nurse if she wakes up in the middle of the night and DH can't get her back to sleep with rocking, etc. On the weekends, I nurse directly (no bottles, etc). One thing I've considered for gradual weaning is to no longer pump the two times at work. (My supply has been pretty cruddy too). Here's question 1: If I wean from daytime pumping, I'm thinking on the weekends, even though I'm around, I'll need to give a bottle during the day, right? Logic would tell me that I can teach my body not to make milk during the day but I can't be picky about weekday vs. weekend, right?

So let's say I start with eliminating the "daytime" production. Considering the reason for weaning (not wanting to pass on dairy and soy in my BM), just nursing at the other times doesn't really help the situation. Here's my main strugggle with weaning. It's so easy to soothe DD or get her to sleep by nursing. DH and I don't have to sit there and rock her for hours at a time. We just bring her to bed and I nurse and we all sleep. For this, I feel very selfish about wanting to keep nursing. I feel like I am continuing to do it so I don't have to deal with sleeplessness. Yet, I can't have it both ways - if I'm not gonna change my diet, it's not fair to her. So is there anyone out there that nursed their baby to sleep at night (and even for naps during the day) and when you weaned, how did you get baby to sleep without nursing? And of course, when there were night wakings, what did you do? Do you just first start out by giving bottles during the waking?

So after eliminating, daytime feedings, what is the ideal next feeing to eliminate? And during the weaning process, I know I need to pay a lot of attention to since she is going through a pretty big change herself, but do I absolutely refuse to offer the breast even if she starts bawling?

Well, I'm gonna stop now. I think I still have more questions but I'd like to hear from you guys first before I ask more. I am really struggling with the best way to approach this as I never thought I would become so attached to breastfeeding. Thanks for listening and thanks for the advice.

[Rachels]

I can't help with the weaning advice, but just wanted to say that if it tugs at your heart when you think about not nursing, there are ways around that. There are several of us here who have done elimination diets so that we can keep nursing, and I know we'd be glad to support you. There are lots of resources out there. It's temporary. My daughter couldn't tolerate dairy at all for months, but now she eats pizza. It passes. Your ped's suggestion that she will have horrifying allergies unless you permanently and completely eliminate those foods is a tad extreme. It might be that a shorter-term elimination diet would take care of it. Just wanted to throw that out there-- you sound very conflicted and sad about not nursing (which is NOT selfish); if I'm reading that right, just know there is help for you.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[dogmom]

I would just like to echo what Rachel is saying that the 2nd ped's opinion about dairy is a bit extreme. The vast majority of dietary recommendations that people make about infants have really not had been studied well. Most of the stuff is based on anecdotal informatoion about eliminated things from the mother's diet, etc. I'm not saying that it doesn't work in many situations, but there really hasn't been a ton of research done on it. I just don't think it's responsible for your pediatrician to say that your child will have horrible milk allergies for the rest of their life since as far as I know there is no research to support that. All the older kids I know (not many) with true milk allergies come from very food allergy prone families and were probably going to get it no matter what. Have you talked to your regular pediatrician about the fact you are considering weaning because of the advice from the second? I would really do so first.

Jeanne
Mom to Harvey
1/16/03

[stillplayswithbarbies]

I'll echo what Rachel and Jeanne said. I am confused about something, and maybe it was in a post that I missed. What are you weaning her to? If she reacts to dairy and to soy, wouldn't she react to formula as well?

Honestly, from reading what you said it sounds like nursing is important to you. (it's not selfish to want to be able to comfort your child at night by nursing, that is a very giving and nurturing thing to do). If I were you, I would try to eliminate what you can, but since her reaction is "minor", I wouldn't worry about it at all and just go on doing what you have been doing. Maybe talk to the first ped about what the second one said? Or maybe talk to a pediatric specialist on allergies and see what they say about how allergies are created.

...Karen
Jacob Nathaniel Feb 91
Logan Elizabeth Mar 03

[houseof3boys]

Vivian I hate that you are going through this struggle. I am no expert but I would get another opinion on this. Maybe a specialist or just another peds opinion before you do this IF you want to try to keep nursing. I am sure that there has got to be another school of thought on this since it is common to outgrow allergies with babies. If you have already made up your mind about it though, I wish you the smoothest transition possible and hope this takes cares of the little ones allergies. :)

[hellokitty1]

Thanks for the support thus far. I am going to talk to my regualr pediatrician when we go for a follow-up after Thanskgiving (which is only next week - yikes!) I do however, want to clarify my interaction with the ped as she seems to have been misquoted here. This 2nd ped told me that if I continued to breastfeed, I needed to cut out dairy regardless of a minor or major reaction because, while most babies are able to grow out of the allergy, if I continue to pass the allergens to her, she may not be able to grow out of it. I tend to agree with her, at least from the perspective that it is a possibility so elimination should be considered. She in no way described the consequences of not adjusting my diet to be "horrific" which seems to have been quoted throughout. So I just wanted to make that clear.

I'm also a little miffed because in a previous post in which I said my ped (a different one) was not concerned about the minor reactions to dairy, I got many responses telling me I needed to cut out dairy, analogizing it to never letting a wound heal.

Anyway, when I posted last night, I was certain I was going to start to wean, at least partially. Now, I've fallen off the wagon again. DD is loving the indecisiveness :) though he is very supportive).
So, now I seem to be more confused about eliminating dairy. And soy for that matter since she can't take soy formula either. I mean, is pizza once every two weeks okay? Or a buttermilk biscuit once in a while okay? Yeah, I really should ask my ped. I'm trying to avoid allergy testing at this point just because I feel she's too young to go through that right now.

Any other thoughts/perspectives are greatly appreciated. While I may still be questioning weaning, if anyone can share their experience, that would be great, bc one year is absolutely my cut off :).

BTW, Karen, I'm looking to wean to formula that is pre-digested (the most expensive kind - yipee). For babies allergic to milk and soy, Enfamil makes Nutrimagen (Similac is Alimentum) which is for babies with allergies. It basically contains predigested stuff so the formula basically goes through the baby's body and only the nutrients are absorbed. DD is already on this with supplementation in her weekday bottles since my pumping is not enough.

[sntm]

vivian,
i have to run right now, but i will try to do some more research for you. can't find anything right now about the risk of occasional challenges in causing longterm allergies (although lots of references support the use of diagnostic challenges so that suggests to me that it may not relate to future risk of allergies.)

i think you said something about not wanting to do allergy testing right now. there is a blood test that can be done that doesn't involve all of the pricks. just one blood draw. that could at least evaluate if you really would have to give up soy as well.

try
www.foodallergy.org

jsut found one reference that said degree of compliance is related to liklihood of losing reactivity to the food. am posting the articles to remind me to look them up later. will try to find out if there is a difference between never and almost never eating the food.

223. Sampson HA, Scanlon SM: Natural history of food hypersensitivity in children with atopic dermatitis, J Pediatr 115:23-27, 1989.


316. Pastorello EA, Stocchi L, Pravetonni V, et al: Role of the elimination diet in adults with food allergy, J Allergy Clin Immunol 84:475-483, 1989.




Blood test (RAST test): Blood tests are not done as often as skin prick tests, but they can be useful in certain cases. Blood tests are sometimes done on babies less than 1 year old because their skin does not react to the prick test as well as it does for older children. A sample of your child's blood is sent to a lab for testing. This test measures the amount of certain antibodies (IgE antibodies) in the blood that the body makes when trying to fight off a food allergen. The lab results show the amounts of specific IgE antibodies found in the blood for certain foods

shannon
not-even-pregnant-yet-overachiever
trying-to-conceive :)
PREGNANT! EDD 6/9/03
mama to Jack 6/6/03