pregnant- when to start diet?

[Anonymous]

hello everyone,

i need some help and instructions on how to go about eliminating foods from my diet. my dd will be born dec 10th and i plan on breastfeeding ( i didnt for long with shane). i want to be extra careful this time with the reflux/mspi.. so i thought i’d do what i can before seeing anything?!? is that silly?

i heard that i should eliminate dairy/soy for a while BEFORE she is born to get it out of my system… is this true?? how long?

do i need to eliminate anything else??

what is ted? i know what it stands for.. but when do you do it? is there a middle ground before that??

and is there some website that tells me what to eat.. and what foods to eliminate first?

thanks~

[Anonymous]

I considered doing that with Eli but the dr said just to wait and see what happens. I am really glad that I did b/c while he is allergic to milk he can have soy….so I didn’t have to cut anything extra out of my diet.

I didn’t breastfeed for long with Isaac but I was very determined that I would not matter what w/Eli. He is now 4 1/2 months old and I have never had to even supplement! Just wanted to tell you that for encouragement!

[Anonymous]

Not sure, but I thought Dr. Sears has an elimination diet on his website?

Good Luck! It is so close now!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Lauren I wouldn’t do anything until probably 2 weeks before you are due. And at that point I probably would only cut out dairy/soy and go from there. It would be so hard on you and probably not too good for the baby to do the TED while you are still preggo. I would also talk to your OB as they may have some good info for you as well. It is getting closer by the minute.

[Anonymous]

I agree with Beth…I wouldn’t do TED while pregnant…too restrictive, but dairy/soy might be something to try and avoid the last two weeks. I didn’t because I was the same as Sarah…I just decided to wait and see. McKenzie did have intolerances to MANY things, but since I had this site for information, I knew exactly what to do when we saw the blood and we went from there. Good luck!!

[Anonymous]

There is a link to the Dr. Sears article in the post: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=7497

This has been discussed in the past on the MSPI forum (http://www.quicktopic.com/23/H/aSxbbAkUULVMX). Some moms have done very restricted diets during their whole pregnancy, others during the last trimester, and others during just the last couple of weeks. Cutting out specific foods did not seem to prevent MSPI for any of their babies. The advantage of going milk/soy-free during the last two weeks would be having “clean” milk from day one of nursing. Then, if no symptoms present within the next couple of weeks, you could try adding either soy or milk back into your diet one by one.

Some moms have felt that their own use of enzymes and probiotics during pregnancy have been of benefit. There is no way to know for sure, but it definitely fits into the “what can it hurt to try…” category.

As far as TED, it is best used as a tool to determine what is bothering your little one – not as a preventative measure. Thoroughly eliminating the common MSPI triggers (milk and soy) would be the first step. You could wait and see if your baby reacts to a normal diet and then take out milk and soy, or you could remove milk/soy from your diet for the last two weeks of your pregnancy so that your milk is free of milk/soy from the get-go.

If your little one continues to react, you could either (1) eliminate one by one other common triggers (like the top eight allergens plus gluten) and deal with the symptoms in the meantime or (2) go on a TED and eliminate most foods, establish a symptom-free baseline, and then start adding them back one by one.

I guess option 1 would be like the “middle ground” you mentioned. It would probably depend on the degree of your little one’s symptoms. Some are miserable and their suffering makes you miserable so the TED would be a quicker way (in theory) to get to the bottom of it. But, if your little one’s symptoms are more manageable (i.e., semi-bad diapers or a rash that doesn’t itch), you might be better off doing less drastic diet changes and play around with eliminating foods one by one until you find the offending food(s).

As far as a website of what to eat on TED, there is actually a lot of information in https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=7497 and in https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=7498.

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

thanks everyone!!

wow.. theres a lot of info i need to look through! ;)… not sure if i should start the dairy/soy diet 2 weeks before or wait to see any symptoms.. hmmm…

will of course update everyone on how she does when baby comes!!

[Anonymous]

i agree about not doing a strict elimination diet during pregnancy..you need your calories! .although i have heard that if you are exposed to fewer allergens during pregnancy then it could lessen the chances of LO having allergies. I don’t know if there have been any studies to show this.
i’ve thought about this myself and think i would cut out dairy/soy for the last couple of months (if i felt like i could handle it at the time!) i think it’s probably more important to be getting rest and trying to relax– congratulations!

[Anonymous]

Another advantage of going milk/soy-free before delivery is that you would have time to get accustomed to shopping for and coping with the diet before you have the demands of a newborn.

[Anonymous]

When I was pregnant with my first son, I had never heard of MSPI or infant reflux, but I did notice that he hiccupped in the womb all the time…and he continued to hiccup like crazy after he was born until a couple of months later when I finally realized it was a milk protein intolerance….poor thing, I joke sometimes that he was born sleep-deprived! The nurses couldn’t even perform the hearing test that takes about 5 seconds because he never quit crying and barely slept at all the whole 2 days we were in the hospital 🙁

Anyway, when pregnant with my second son, I ate normally — I couldn’t stand the thought of cutting out dairy/soy and it not even helping, then having to continue it the entire time I nursed. But several months into the pregnancy, I noticed that he was hiccupping more than a dozen times a day. I cut out dairy/soy for about a week just to see what would happen, and the hiccupping was down to about 5 times a day. That should’ve been my first clue that while baby #2 had problems with dairy/soy, he also was going to have other protein intolerances plus plain old GERD. That may sound crazy, but I think I can kind of tell what’s coming based on how much the baby hiccups in my womb! So I did decide to cut out dairy/soy 2 weeks before my due date, and I think it helped. Nathan actually seemed like a “normal” baby for the first week or week and a half….I guess it was just a grace period.

Anyway, sorry to ramble. Good luck with whatever you decide, and hopefully it will all be unnecessary this time around!

[Anonymous]

pretty interesting..shane had tons of hiccups .. this baby doesnt. if your theory is right… i will be soooooo happy!!! 🙂

[Anonymous]

I’ll have to agree… I don’t remember too many hiccups with Claire, but Ben hiccuped in the womb almost constantly. I should have known then!!!

[Anonymous]

First of all I am so excited for you! As the other ladies have said I would not recommend TED during pregnancy. I lost a good 10 lbs doing it for only 2 weeks. Basically all you can eat is turkey, squash, zucchini, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pears. It’s not a lot and you get tired of it really fast. I am however staying away from dairy as much as possible this whole pregnancy. I don’t know if it will help or not, but I’m hopeing. If nothing else at least it won’t be in my milk. I would suggest like the others ladies have said maybe cutting dairy out 2 to 3 weeks before the baby comes. Whatever Shane had a problem with is what I would cut out. For Justice it was the dairy. Good luck to you. My fingers are crossed.

[Anonymous]

CONGRATULATIONS SHELBY!!!! I don’t think I knew you were pregnant!

That’s great news!!!

[Anonymous]

Thank you. I’m excited and scared all at the same time.

[Author]

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