Elimination Diet

[Anonymous]

I just started the elimination diet last night as a last resort. I’m already starving! We aren’t close to a health food store, so my choices for food are limited. Does anyone have some good ideas for what I can eat? Our stores didn’t have free range turkey, so I’m just eating regular turkey, making sure there are no additives, of course, but I hope that’s okay. I’m also really hungry all the time, and there aren’t any choices for snacks. Are rice krispies okay for breakfast? I can’t figure out what else to eat then. I would love to hear some first hand experience with this from anyone who has gone through it lately. Thanks so much!!!

[Anonymous]

Are you doing rice? They have rice pastas and other rice products in Meijers stores. Is there one of those close?

I found “Amy’s organic” products. They make dairy free things. they also have rice pasta mac and cheese and rice crust pizza – if your not dairy free.

do you do rice cakes? always a good snack.

applesauce?

what are you eliminating? Maybe I can give you more ideas.

We eat lean meats and vegetables. Frozen veggies always in freezer.

I always keep homemade coleslaw in the fridge.

I’ll throw chicken or beef or pork in the crock pot with some spices or salt and pepper and some beef or chicken stock. Put left overs in fridge.

raisins?

[Anonymous]

Naomi, I’m so sorry that I am just finding your plea for help now (almost 2 months after you posted). But maybe I can still be of some help even at this point. I am also on the TED (total elimination diet) based on Dr. Sears website due to my son’s MFPI. A number of MSPI/MFPI moms that regularly post on a different MSPI discussion board (http://www.quicktopic.com/23/H/aSxbbAkUULVMX) are currently or have been on TED and have many good ideas for dealing with such a limited diet (and getting enough calories and fat). I have been collecting them in a Word document and would be happy to send it to you if you’d like. You can email me at markdiannewood@mail.com and I will send you the information if you still need it.

Dianne

[Anonymous]

Dianne,

I did send you an email. I would love to have the information. I’m at a loss for how to go about adding new foods in and what to look for as far as symptoms in my son.

How were you able to find out that your son was MSPI/MFPI? Is there testing for this? I really don’t know if my little one is MSPI or not. I just want to do all that I can to help him out.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[Anonymous]

Naomi,

How did I find out that Andrew was MSPI? What a good question…the answer is long – I hope you have a few minutes to read!

Andrew was “normal” at first although his BM’s came out like soft serve ice cream rather than the explosive gas propelled poops that my daughter had as a newborn. The dr said at his 2 wk check up that he had “an immature digestive system.” Around 3 weeks, Andrew started crying and being miserable. Everyone said “he has colic” and the dr told us he would grow out of it by 3 months. Well, we knew something was wrong, that it was more than just colic as most definitions of colic are 2-3 hrs of crying several days a week usually in the evening. Andrew cried and struggled/moaned 24 hours a day until he was too exhausted to stay awake and even then he would wake after just an hour or two. We had to bounce him and burp him and hold him over our arm (the football hold, I think). To tell you how much he cried, until the dr told us at his 2 month appt that he had an ear infection, we were unaware of it since he cried so much always.

Around 4 months, he got better to the extent that he only was miserable about 75% of the day. We were delighted with this improvement! He always spit up a lot (he even spit up colostrum in the hospital), but it didn’t ever seem to hurt him during or after spitting up. The pressure in his belly before burping and spitting up was when he was miserable. Through all this, he was gaining weight – in fact at 2 months, he looked like a little sumo wrestler. He did, however, have dry red patches on his arms and legs for months – these appeared before his 2 month check up. The other problem he had was really weird BM’s. He would go days without having a BM and when we couldn’t take his discomfort anymore, we would give him (per the dr’s orders) a glycerin suppository and he would have a big blowout of diarrhea almost immediately.

At 4 mths, he weighed 16 lbs, but at a 5 month weight check, he had dropped a full pound to 15 lbs. Then at 6 months, he had lost almost another pound – 14 lbs 4 oz. FINALLY, we had the dr’s attention. Lots of blood tests were done (initial tests showed a starving, malnurished child), an appt with a ped GI, an upper GI with Small Bowel Follow Thru, a sweat test (to rule out cystic fibrosis), etc. – all negative.

At the initial GI appt, the ped GI told me to put Andrew on formula and pump/dump for two weeks so that we could make sure he was actually getting sufficient intake. Our ped recommended that we give him Alimentum since it was the least allergenic with its broken down proteins. After just one day, he had gained 4 ounces and he continued gaining nicely! Andrew’s misery greatly decreased those two weeks – he only cried and fussed about 30% of the time. At the follow up GI appt, the GI dr said “he’s doing fine now, you can just continue with the formula and breastfeed a couple of times a day if you want.” He also mentioned in passing “most babies with milk protein intolerance grow out of it by 1-2 years.” We immediately asked what that was and he said “he doesn’t have that – he doesn’t have blood in his stool or diarrhea or a rash.” We replied that he rarely pooped, but when he did it was always diarrhea and that he had had a rash for 5 months. But the GI dr didn’t want to carry it further.

When we got home from that appt, we looked up online about Milk Protein Intolerance and found info from this discussion board (the great DISA article) and more info from a link to a discussion board found at the bottom of the page on http://www.mspiguide.com. We had searched online before but never knew the terms “protein intolerance” so we had never found the right material.

From our reading online, we personally determined that Andrew had MSPI and we pursued getting him on Neocate while I kept pumping/dumping for two weeks to get all the milk/soy out of my diet and system. (When we asked the ped GI about getting Neocate, he basically told my husband “if you want to waste your money on that, it is OK with me.”) Our shipment of Neocate arrived on October 4th and October 5th is permanently etched in my mind as the first day of the rest of Andrew’s life. He was happy and “normal” for the first time — and he was 7 1/2 months old. His rash cleared up almost immediately once his diet was cleared up.

I did the MSPI diet (milk/soy free) for two weeks and then started nursing again. Thankfully, he went back to nursing after being on a bottle! However, after 3 days, he reacted by completely stopping sleeping. We were on vacation and I never again want to spend the night in a Super8 lobby with a non-sleeping baby while the rest of the family is upstairs asleep! The next day we returned to Neocate-only and he immediately getting less fussy and started sleeping again. So, now we knew that he was not just MSPI, but MFPI. I thought seriously about just giving up nursing and doing only Neocate, but the last night before we came home I had to nurse him again since we were running out of formula (and you can’t buy Neocate off the shelf). I sat there crying as I nursed him realizing that I personally wasn’t ready to give up nursing yet. So I came home determined to do the TED to be able to keep nursing him. Since then, through the TED, I have also determined that he is intolerant of barley and I think other things will show up as intolerances as I continue reintroducing foods.

Our ped eventually acknowledged that it seems that Andrew has MFPI but hasn’t been interested in considering the research I have shared with him on MSPI and reflux meds. Thankfully, I found a new ped on Thursday who is very willing to take my research and check it out for himself. Hopefully, we have found a ‘partner’ in Andrew’s care with this new ped (especially about Andrew’s reflux and meds).

So, that’s our story. I know…much more info than you probably wanted. But, one more note – one of the mom’s on the other message board said her ped GI told her that one group of MSPI babies has blood/mucous in their stool, but otherwise is happy and healthy. The other group of MSPI babies is like Andrew – miserable and colic-y and eventually failure to thrive. And our new ped said that since MSPI presents with so many different symptoms, it is very hard for doctors to really pinpoint it – especially in the babies without blood in their stool.

I hope this info helps in some way.

Dianne

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much Dianne. I really, really appreciate this information. You have no idea!

[Author]

Posts