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Got Baby Food Allergies? Find Out Symptoms and Ways of Coping Here!
Baby food allergies: could they be troubling your little one? Maybe your baby has terrible eczema and you're wondering if it's related to his formula. Or perhaps you're a nursing mother whose infant is terribly colicky — your baby won't sleep for more than 45 minutes at a time, maybe — and has a nasty red oval rash on her bottom. You're at you're wit's end? I know I was! I few years ago, I gave birth to my first son. I thought I had read all I needed to know, and this baby thing was something I could handle. I ended up with a breastfed 5-month old who awoke up to eight times per night , cried for long periods each day, and had unusual rashes I couldn't explain. Around three months, a friend had suggested to me that eliminating dairy from my diet might reduce colic. To my amazement, within three days, my son was significantly more content! What was more, his baby acne completely cleared up. Several days later, I discovered that eggs were also a trigger for him. Later I discovered other problem foods: peanuts, soy, and oats. Through this experience, as well as having a second son with food allergies and intolerances, I've learned a lot. I hope you can learn from my experiences and reading, too! Baby food allergies, it seems, are not at all uncommon. They can occur in breastfed babies as well as formula-fed ones, although allergies are less likely in a breastfed baby. Food allergies that are most common include cow's milk, eggs, soy, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shell fish. Symptoms vary, and I will not always distinguish between what the medical establishment considers a "true" allergy, and what is merely an "intolerance." Although not all these will occur at the same time, some possible symptoms for baby food allergies include:
This list may seem overwhelming--you may be thinking, "You're saying almost ANYTHING could be a sign of baby food allergies!" Not exactly. But there are a host of symptoms that have become so common as to be considered "normal," as well as symptoms, such as reflux, that are usually treated as an illness themselves, rather than being recognized as a being related to food. The truth is, baby food allergies are due to problems with the immune system. Although it is common to read statements such as "the reasons for food allergies are unknown," many prominent physicians, such as Doris Rapp and Sherry Rogers, both of whom have written helpful books on this topic, believe that food allergies are a side effect of environmental illness. There are so many toxic chemicals and environmental stressors in our day, taxing our immune systems, that in your baby, food allergies themselves are really only a symptom of this larger problem. You can read some more about infant food allergies here. An Elimination Diet You have several lines of defense to help your baby. Food allergies will need to be identified, to start with. Medical testing can be very stressful for an baby with food allergies. Instead, try putting your baby (or yourself, if you are nursing) on an elimination diet. This means you'll have to feed yourself or your baby only low-allergy foods for a period of about three weeks. Read this page to get yourself started. Next, gradually re-introduce suspected foods while keeping a food diary. The food diary is very important! Do not neglect this. You'll need to record your baby's reactions (again, and your own, if you are breastfeeding). Reactions from baby food allergies may occur anywhere from immediately (if the food is given directly to your baby) to 48 hours later. This may seem like a terribly wide range, but the food diary will help you see correlations. Only re-introduce one food every few days so reactions can be isolated. If there is a reaction, avoid the food. If there is no reaction you or your baby may continue to eat the food. Once you have an idea of the the items that bother your baby, the food allergies can be treated, for starters, by avoidance. So, if you find that milk is a problem, you'll need to be careful to read labels on all packaged foods to look for milk-derived ingredients. But wait! Avoidance is only a partial solution! You'll need to rotate your foods, too. A Rotation Diet So, what's a rotation diet, and why do it? Well, your baby's food allergies or intolerances will likely multiply if you don't. If, say, you replace cow's milk formula with soy formula, he will likely also develop an allergy to soy as well. Why? Because:
Click here to go to the main Rotation Diet page. Click here to read more about Infant Food Allergies. Click here to return from the Baby Food Allergies page to the Beyond Food Allergies home page!
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