elecare and breastfeeding

[Anonymous]

hi

I was wondering how many of you are breastfeeding and supplementing with elecare or neocate? I had to stop breastfeeding to switch to nutramigen because of my son’s troubles. This was before we started any medicine. The nutramigen gave him a horrible rash and blood in his stools. The ped. then switched him to elecare. I was so sad to stop breastfeeding and am wondering if I can give him any if I avoid milk and soy? Also, how difficult is it really to avoid these things – is it worth it? Pretty soon my milk supply will be gone. Anyone that has gone through this I would love to hear how it went for your child. I am so afraid of “hurting” him – every time I breastfed him he would immediately scream and scream until he would fall asleep. I have more info. now and he is on prevacid (15mg) as well as axid. I wonder if with the meds and avoiding foods if we can do this… both my husband and I have horrible allergies which is why I would love to breastfeed just for that supposed protection for Rowan. Please, let me know what you think or any suggestions!

Stacey

[Anonymous]

You CAN keep breastfeeding! It’s definitely not easy, but in my opinion, it is so, so worth it. I breastfed my first gerdling for 14 months, and have breastfed Ali for the past 8+ months. Both were/are MSPI.

What I did for both of them was start off with two weeks of a total elimination diet as outlined on the Dr. Sears site. After the two weeks, I slowly added foods back into my diet. In the end, the only foods that I have had to avoid are dairy/soy. It is difficult in terms of shopping/cooking, but definitely doable. It just takes a little pre-planning and a lot of label reading.

That said, don’t feel guilty if you decide that formula feeding is a better fit for your family. We are actually making the switch to Elecare because of constipation and worsening reflux. At this point, it is the least invasive of our options.

Good luck with whatever you decide, and feel free to ask away if you want/need more information on breastfeeding on an elimination diet.

Kelly

[Anonymous]

Stacey,

I’m in the same boat too. The only diff I guess is I stopped BF and give expressed breast milk to my dd as she is having food aversion and I used to sleep feed her. Even now, She refuses the bottle after 2 oz and by using bottle I know much she has taken in.

I did put my dd on Neocate for 5 weeks and meanwhile I continued to pump and freeze. The Neocate trial did not go well for me..but Alimentum helped in reducing spittings. Meanwhile during those 5 weeks I went on elimination diet (I’m living on rice only as I’m a vegetarian) and then I introduced breast milk. Since last 1 month, there is a big improvement..but still there is a long way to go. I give my dd expressed milk in day time and Alimentum in night. I have not introduced any new thing in my diet as I’m trialing solids for my dd…

In the last GI appt., the GI warned me against breast milk at this stage saying it may come in the way of improvement. But, I feel I’m acutally helping my dd..only time will tell who’s correct….

Please free to ask me any questions..

[Anonymous]

thank you for the info!

[hellbennt]

yes you CAN breastfeed

and like kelly says “That said, don’t feel guilty if you decide that formula feeding is a better fit for your family. We are actually making the switch to Elecare because of constipation and worsening reflux. At this point, it is the least invasive of our options.

Good luck with whatever you decide, and feel free to ask away if you want/need more information on breastfeeding on an elimination diet.”

you wrote ” I have more info. now and he is on prevacid (15mg) as well as axid. I wonder if with the meds and avoiding foods if we can do this”

this is TRUE. the Prevacid can always be increased and you can change your diet. There are lots of posts here on how to do it…

[Author]

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