Eating more with less – how I breastfed my food allergic children, Part Two

This post is from Allergymom.

Some told us it was was impossible for a breastfeeding mother’s diet to cause allergies in the baby. Some spoke to us like we were morons. Some spoke to us like we were conspiracy theorists glancing fearfully over our shoulders. Some made me doubt my own sanity. Almost everyone advised us to supplement with formula. Apparently, my son was not growing well on breast milk and needed more than that.

But we did find one very compassionate and experienced pediatrician. She had breastfed her own dairy-allergic child on a maternal exclusion diet. She told us about reading labels and keeping food diaries. We also found a pediatric allergist, a leading researcher in the field who is making headlines today with his success in trial studies to desensitize children with dairy, egg and peanut allergies.

I found alternative foods and recipes. I became an intrepid cook in my kitchen eager to try out Iron Chef challenges in reverse – “let us make bread and brownies without wheat, eggs and dairy.” Out of the woodwork came mothers who had successfully breastfed their children on Maternal Exclusion Diets. I found numerous blogs dedicated to cooking without allergens. I found support from breastfeeding mothers and mothers of children with food allergies. I felt entirely sane again.

I made mistakes along the way. I ate “non-dairy whipped topping” containing whey, a cow milk protein. I bought rice cheese that was lactose-free but still contained casein, a cow milk protein. But I learned with each mistake and quickly became a whiz at label reading. I did not consider breastfeeding my son beyond a year. I was still trying to get my bearings in the world of food allergies. We had good health insurance which paid for hypoallergenic formula. My son was not ready to wean, I was not entirely happy with weaning either. But he did well on hypoallergenic formula and it was the easy thing to do. I wondered if I gave up too easily. I promised myself, that given another chance, I would try harder. And that chance did come my way.

I caught on to my daughter’s symptoms very early on, within the first few days of her life. I became my daughter’s advocate. I confidently passed on food allergy knowledge from my children’s allergist to the not so allergy-aware pediatricians. I scoffed back at the doctors and returned their disbelieving stares. For the first time in my life, I was thankful for the ordeal we went through before my son’s food allergy diagnosis. My daughter is a premature baby who spent the first two months of her life in the NICU and like most babies in the NICU was started on a Human Milk Fortifier containing cow milk protein with her feeds of pumped breast milk. If she had had to suffer in the same way as my son, she might not have made it.

Sitting in the pediatrician’s office today, I looked into my little girl’s cherubic face, a tear drop still glistening in the corner of her eye after her one-year vaccinations. She reached for my shirt and peered down the front urgently, looking for the familiar comfort she knew. As I cradled her in my arms and she latched on, the nurse smiled sweetly at us and closed the door quietly behind her. I looked at my little girl’s half-closed eyes and content expression and felt confident in my decision to continue breastfeeding her for the second year of her life.