Nursing Moms Diet

[Jellieh]

Hi, I am new here. I am a mom to 5 wonderful children 2 of wich are celiac. My oldest 11 was diagnosed at 2, my third is now 8 and was diagnosed about 1.5 yr. My fourth baby was kept gluten-free until about 3 yrs old simply to let him thrive .....then i slowly introduced gluten into his diet....he will be 5 in feb and so far he is doing wonderfully. My question is this.....I have just recently had another baby....he is almost 3 months old and I am wondering about gluten passing thru my breastmilk. I did not abstain from gluten with any other babies but am curious to know any thoughts on this subject. He has been mucuosy from about 2 weeks on at times throwing up....we have had 2 colds pass thru our home so it may just be that ....but once youve gone thru other children with celiac it is hard not to see it everywhere and not be on "the lookout". From what I understand the medical comminity is not certain this is an issue......so any moms with thoughts on this I would love to hear. Thanks so much!

[Michi8]

I don't know if "they" know for sure whether gluten passes into breastmilk or not, but it certainly doesn't hurt (and could definitely help) to err on the side of caution and eliminate it from your diet. Also worthwhile to eliminate other potential allergens from your diet...milk in mom's diet can also be a big culprit for baby's health.

Michelle

[Mamato2boys]

Hi there - I have a four month old son that I too am breastfeeding. I had read on here (and I believe on another website) that glutens do pass through breastmilk. I know that with my son glutens turn his poop orange, mucusy, watery, and he usually explodes out of his diaper.

Like the pp said, dairy can be a major irritant for bf babies (I know it was for my older son and is for the baby), so you may want to try cutting that out first. It takes as long as 3 weeks to work out of your system, then another 3 weeks to work out of baby's, so you have to give it as long as 6 weeks before deciding whether or not dairy is an issue. For my son the response was much quicker - just 3 days. Whichever you decide to avoid (dairy and/or glutens), make sure you do one at a time so you'll know which it is !

[FeedIndy]

I can attest from my own daughter's reactions that gluten does, indeed, pass through breastmilk. She did not start thriving until I went gluten free myself. She's doing well now at one and I weened her completely about 3 weeks ago.

[Guest cassidy]

Gluten does pass through breastmilk. If your son is having problems then I would recommend you stopping eating gluten to see if he gets better. If so, then you may need to go gluten-free while you breast feed or stop breast feeding.

[Jellieh]

Thank you for your responses so far. After I posted here my baby had a bowl movement that came out like mucous. Looked like someone wiped there nose in his diaper actually . I phoned the celiac assosiation in ontario and they flat out told me gluten does not pass thru the breastmilk. Mabe it doesnt ....i dont know but i would wonder how everything else does . So I am debating cutting out milk for his poor sake. I just wish it wasnt always so hard to figure out

[FeedIndy]

My doc also told me gluten doesn't pass through breastmilk, but she was 10 times better 2 days after I joined her on the gluten free diet! I think there may be some controversy in the medical community about what proteins and allergens do or don't get transferred to baby, but I can tell you without a doubt my DD improved greatly when I cut out gluten.

[AndreaB]

I had also read that gluten passed through the breastmilk. I had ELISA allergy/intolerance testing and came back intolerant to gluten as well as soy.

I went gluten light as I wasn't intolerant to oats and barely, as well as soy free and my baby's eczema cleared most of the way up. It wasn't until I went completely gluten free that he completely cleared up.

Gluten does pass through. My doctor wanted to test me to see what the baby could be responding to that I was eating.

[Jellieh]

Sorry to pester but i'll never know if i dont ask ...right? I was wondering if the symptoms I have described are similar to any your babies have had. I have heard that they are similar to a milk intolerance. Thanks again for your responses.

[Ursa Major]

My oldest daughter's kids all have intolerances. All but one (of five) is intolerant to dairy. None of them had the symptoms you describe, but rather, the dairy would cause awful eczema for them, which cleared up when she eliminated dairy from her diet.

With your family history, I would bet on it being a gluten response. There is only one way to find out, and that is to eliminate gluten from your diet. You should see a change in your baby's stool within a few days, if gluten is the problem.

Just beware that it could be gluten AND dairy. The only way to really find out is to test the different foods. I know, it's a pain for you, but necessary.

My daughter and son-in-law are both fine with dairy themselves. She loves yogourt and cheese. Since she has many intolerances herself, having to eliminate whatever her baby is intolerant to limits her food choices even more. But she does it because she loves her babies.

Her youngest, who is now almost four months old just started having eczema. So, she stopped eating her yogourt, and the eczema cleared up. Just to be sure, she reintroduced dairy, and the eczema came back. So, she will be dairy free until the baby is at least a year old, as she won't normally wean babies, she lets them nurse until they decide they're done.