Feeding Babies with Severe Food Allergies: Trial-by-Error Lessons

My husband and I were thrilled when we found out we were pregnant with our first child. My pregnancy went so well, no sickness, no back aches and no worries to speak of. We could not wait to meet our newest addition to the family. Like most parents we were young and naive and thought that our precious little person was going to be the perfect baby, he would sleep, eat on cue, and show us signs that he was a pure genius. After all he was our baby. When the day finally came for me to go to the hospital, I gave birth with little problems and my hospital stay seemed to take so long, we just wanted to take our son home. He seemed healthy, he was eating and was responsive, he could hear and had the mobility an infant should. He passed all his tests with flying colors, so we thought we were well on our way to bringing this perfect person home with us. I was going to exclusively breastfeed since formulas are so expensive. Well, the journey was not all we had imagined or even was prepared for.

Several times during our hospital stay the nurses would ask me if they could give our son formula so I could sleep and rest. I gave them permission to do so because I was scared that he would get dehydrated. I was determined to breastfeed and at times I felt that our son wasn't getting enough to 'eat'. After we got home with him, I would alternate nursing him and giving him the sample bottles of Similac the hospital gave us. We thought those samples were a God send since at the proverbial 3 a.m. feeding it was so much easier just to give him a bottle prepared and ready to go. Our son loved those bottles and sucked them down and I noticed that he slept a little longer. About a week later; however, our son was crying and was doubled over quite a bit. We just thought it was colic so we went about getting the most expensive gas drops we could get our hands on. They seemingly worked for an hour then our little man cried again and harder. We knew it was way more than colic. Our son was not sleeping, he was not eating right, though the pediatricians said he was thriving and was in the 25% growth rate. He was relatively small to begin with, being born at 6 pounds 20 ounces. While he was putting on weight our family as a whole was suffering and for the life of us we could not figure out what was happening to our son. At 3 months we put our son on formula, since the ingredients are constant and I read that a mother's diet can seriously affect her baby. I eliminated vegetables, breads, everything and I was becoming sick. The sleepless nights and crying went on for 6 solid months, even with the formula change. In addition to the crying, our son had severe eczema and would scratch his skin until it bled, all the while screaming. So, I had an infant who itched constantly and screamed from what seemed like severe gastric pains. We researched and tried everything from Mylanta for reflux to Chamomile Tea for the stomach cramps to lotions for his eczema. Finally we took him to an allergist and a pediatric gastroenterologist at Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh because we knew that he would not outgrow his symptoms as our medical professionals suggested.

The allergist did a skin test and discovered he was severely allergic to eggs and soy and deducted that our son also suffered from a milk protein allergy, a common allergy in infants. He said that he should outgrow the milk protein allergy but that the soy and egg allergies may remain. He suggested Similac Alimentum, a hypoallergenic formula where the milk proteins are partially digested and easy for allergic infants to consume. He also prescribed an antihistamine, Clarinex, and said that a steroid cream would help as well but to use this sparingly. Our pediatrician had already prescribed a 1% steroid that we used and it did seem to work well with the eczema. The Alimentum, Clarinex, and steroid cream all gave our son immediate relief! Additionally, our allergist told me not to feed our son anything but the formula and an infant cereal. After trial and error we found the barley works well, he does not tolerate oatmeal or rice cereal to this day and he just turned 1. He now sleeps for 11 hour stretches at night and is a thriving little boy.

The important thing for parents is to recognize what is happening to your little ones if they are exhibiting symptoms that are not right. If your baby or child is not sleeping, has stomach problems or pains, and is not thriving; rust your gut. You know better than anyone when something is wrong. I am disappointed that our pediatricians locally did not advise us to switch to a hypoallergenic formula much earlier than we did. While hypoallergenic formulas are more expensive they are well worth the results, especially if you have sleepless nights with a screaming baby and just do not know what is wrong. Also, you may qualify for W.I.C. and your formulas are covered under this organization.

Eczema is a common problem in infants and I found that if there is a family member who has allergies then your baby's chances of having eczema are pretty high. My husband has environmental allergies, not food allergies interestingly enough. He also sees an allergist. Probably the most important thing to remember is to trust your instincts. If you are not getting the answers from your pediatrician, seek help elsewhere. Between the three doctors and specialists we finally found the answers we so desperately needed. There is so much research out there for babies with allergies, and even though my husband and I are research savvy, and yet could not put together the pieces without help from numerous medical professionals.

Here are some helpful tips that worked for us. All babies are different and as parents we have to experiment some.

Chamomile Tea DOES WORK on baby cramps! We made it weak with a little sugar to taste and gave him 2 teaspoonfuls when needed and as often as needed.

Gas drops also worked, we used Mylicon and also store brands. We noticed that there is not much difference if any.

Hypoallergenic formulas are lifesavers. Please talk to your pediatrician about this before switching your baby on your own. We switched our son to soy formula and did not know he was severely allergic to soy.

Warm baths help eczema and we had to buy Vanicream, a lotion designed for allergies. There is no perfumes. We eventually switched to Gold Bond lotions, they work just as well now that his skin has cleared up and we lotion our son as soon as he gets out of the bath.

Prescribed steroid creams are wonderful! Though be advised to use sparingly. Again talk to your pediatrician and seek advice.

Should your baby have severe allergies and eczema try and schedule an appointment with a pediatric allergist. Our allergist is wonderful and we are having our son retested to see if he is still allergic to soy and eggs. We are still on formula despite the fact that he turned one.