Celiac, Breastfeeding, And Intolerances

[Noomers]

I'm not quite sure where to post this but this is the best fit I could find.

I am currently breastfeeding my third child, who is 5 months old. I was diagnosed with celiac last week.

Let me give you a bit of a history then I'll ask my question:

All 3 of my kids have food intolerance/allergies. When I nurse them I have to cut out certain foods or they react. The first one was breastfed for 6 months and I had to completely avoid dairy but nothing else. She was put on soy formula after that and very quickly outgrew most of the allergy. She is slightly sensitive to large amounts of dairy but overall is fine and can eat pretty much anything. My 2nd was allergic/intolerant to milk, soy, nuts, and citrus. I breastfed him for 17 months and he has never outgrown anything. 2 years after weaning he still can't tolerate even a small amount of butter. It's quite possible he has celiac too and I'm waiting for his results. My third, and current nursling, is reacting to milk, soy, nuts, and something else (yet to figure out what that is). I was on an elimination diet to try to figure out the culprit when I discovered that adding wheat back in gave me abdominal pain. I went for celiac blood test and it was very positive, even after being off wheat for 3 weeks. I have not gone gluten-free yet but will very soon. Right now I'm researching and stocking up on food so I don't burn out right away.

I'm wondering if celiac is causing the intolerances in my children. And if this is the case, is it possible that I might see a reduction in the intolerance symptoms in my baby after going gluten-free? How quickly might that be?

In my experience and from those of friends who have also breastfed kids with allergies (we tend to stick together) it seems like a lot of these children actually fare far better on hypoallergenic formula than they do in breastmilk in the long run. I'm considering switching over but would like to know if there is any research out there on celiac in the breastfeeding mother. I ask this because if going gluten-free isn't a quick-fix, I would like to switch over to formula before more damage is done. The poor baby shouldn't have to deal with eczema and mucousy poop much longer.

[gary'sgirl]

I'm not quite sure where to post this but this is the best fit I could find.

I am currently breastfeeding my third child, who is 5 months old. I was diagnosed with celiac last week.

Let me give you a bit of a history then I'll ask my question:

All 3 of my kids have food intolerance/allergies. When I nurse them I have to cut out certain foods or they react. The first one was breastfed for 6 months and I had to completely avoid dairy but nothing else. She was put on soy formula after that and very quickly outgrew most of the allergy. She is slightly sensitive to large amounts of dairy but overall is fine and can eat pretty much anything. My 2nd was allergic/intolerant to milk, soy, nuts, and citrus. I breastfed him for 17 months and he has never outgrown anything. 2 years after weaning he still can't tolerate even a small amount of butter. It's quite possible he has celiac too and I'm waiting for his results. My third, and current nursling, is reacting to milk, soy, nuts, and something else (yet to figure out what that is). I was on an elimination diet to try to figure out the culprit when I discovered that adding wheat back in gave me abdominal pain. I went for celiac blood test and it was very positive, even after being off wheat for 3 weeks. I have not gone gluten-free yet but will very soon. Right now I'm researching and stocking up on food so I don't burn out right away.

I'm wondering if celiac is causing the intolerances in my children. And if this is the case, is it possible that I might see a reduction in the intolerance symptoms in my baby after going gluten-free? How quickly might that be?

In my experience and from those of friends who have also breastfed kids with allergies (we tend to stick together) it seems like a lot of these children actually fare far better on hypoallergenic formula than they do in breastmilk in the long run. I'm considering switching over but would like to know if there is any research out there on celiac in the breastfeeding mother. I ask this because if going gluten-free isn't a quick-fix, I would like to switch over to formula before more damage is done. The poor baby shouldn't have to deal with eczema and mucousy poop much longer.

I was diagnosed with Celiac when my son was 5 months old. I had been pursuing reasons for his and his sisters health problems and along the way found out that I had many symptoms of Celiac Disease. I was nursing my son when I went gluten free and his symptom drastically improved within a week or two and continued to get better after that.

It might be worth seeing how your baby does in a couple of week after you take gluten out of your diet before switching to formula.

Listen to your instincts and I'm sure you'll make the right decision.

I hope all of you can feel better soon.

[Noomers]

Thank you so much for responding. You're right, I really should just go gluten-free for a bit and see how it goes before making any decisions. I keep dragging my feet though! Were your kids' health issues food or allergy related?

[gary'sgirl]

I just reread my post and I see that I wasn't very clear with what I was trying to convey. My brain hasn't yet fully recovered from the years of untreated Celiac - I always feel like I'm in a fog.

What I had meant to tell you, is that we found out that all my kids have Celiac and although they seemed to have trouble with many foods we are finding that since going gluten free, slowly we have been able to add some of the foods that had previously given them problems back into their diet.

I was exclusively breastfeeding my son when we suspected Celiac with him and his siblings. Because he was so young we didn't do testing on him and I just took gluten out of my diet and he was so much better within a short amount of time that we considered that a diagnoses.

Oh, and I wanted to tell you that the main symptoms that my kids displayed at 5 months was mucousy and foul smelling poo, eczema, and sleeping problems. We also at some point noticed blood in the BM's, but I didn't realize it was there with my daughter right away because it wasn't very noticeable, but because I had already gone through the same thing with her, I noticed it sooner with my son. (I can't remember the exact time frame right now, but it did resolve after taking gluten out of their diets)

Let me know what you figure out with your little ones.