OK… so my ideas for you as the mom! I do not have all the answers, nor do I have the miracle-cure-all to tell you about, but I CAN tell you what worked for me and my children. π I have my story written in detail on my blog (see signature) but I will give you a condensed version here.
For the first 12 weeks of my oldest son’s life, he screamed for hours in pain and had blood in his stools, while we changed meds, formula, and diet and did numerous tests. There were times I wish he could admitted to the hospital because I was so afraid at home with him. He would gag and choke and barfed every where all the time. He has severe diarrhea all day long! He was labeled Failure to Thrive because he wasn’t growing properly.
I was extremely frustrated with my pediatrician. But at 12 weeks I called a MOM!!!! And SHE gave me answers!!! My ped had mentioned a milk allergy but had never mentioned the term MSPI! This mom told me all about MSPI and sent me info about it. I was so frustrated and out of sleep that I quit nursing cold turkey that day and gave my boy only Nutramigen. It made a huge difference! But knowing what I know now, I know that it would’ve been MUCH better for me to drastically change my diet, take probioitcs and enzymes, and continue nursing. But as an old saying goes… “We get to soon old and too late smart”. π
So with second child, Jackson… it was pretty close to a rerun of the first of child. I did know a little more but he was just as bad if not worse than Quinton. I nursed Jackson for 8 weeks then went to Nuutramigen. He was on Prevacid before he was a week old.
When Quinton was a year old and I asked the dr what he should drink he suggested soy milk. I was SO upset! Earlier I had given him a bunch of info on MSPI and obviously he never read it. At that point I decided that “I was on my own in life”.
When Quinton was close to 3 and Jackson was close to 1, they were both on Prevacid, avoiding dairy and soy, Quinton drank only water and Jackson drank Nutramigen. At this point someone suggested I try giving my boys Kangen water to drink and even though I didn’t think it would help, I was willing to try. Well, I was REALLY amazed at how it DID help. The alkalinity of the water counteracted their acidity but also the water is an antinflamitory so it helped soothe their inflamed esophagus and intestines. Within several months I had both boys med free! But they still would have flare up with dairy and some other foods. After Jackson turned a year I tried several kinds of milk on him and none worked so soon he was only drinking the Kangen water and so was Quinton. There were many times when they woke up at night in pain that I wracked my brain trying to figure out what caused the pain this time. But I did find that although it was difficult to get a child to take several drinks when they are really sleepy, that if I could get them to take several good swallows of the Kangen water, they would settle down and go back to sleep.
A year later someone suggested I contact a well known nutritionist named Shan Stratton. Again, I felt as if “what could he do or say that could help?” But I was willing to at least call him. So I did! This man’s focus in nutrition is digestion. And within a few minutes of listening to him, I realized that if what he was saying was true…. my children’s life could be changed!
Here is a brief description of what I learned that day… The reason that my children had so many digestive problems is that they had an enzyme and probiotic deficiency. The pancreas is what makes digestive enzymes and puts them in our stomach to break down the food we eat. All foods have enzymes in them but anytime a food is cooked or processed it kills the enzymes. With our diets today of mostly cooked and processed foods itβs hard for our pancreas to be able to produce enough enzymes. Without enough enzymes in the stomach to break down the food the only thing our stomach knows to do is produce more acid to try to break it down. Too much acid in the stomach will cause heart burn, acid reflux, indigestion, irritable bowel syndrome, etc.
If a parent has a pancreas that isnβt producing enough enzymes then it is possible that their children can be born with a pancreas that doesnβt work well either. If the mother will take a supplement of enzymes and probiotics while pregnant she will pass these on to her baby and have a baby with a healthy digestive system.
Probiotics are the good, live bacteria that live in our body. One of the things they do is coat and protect our entire digestive tract (and also the ears and nose). When the stomach produces too much acid then it is forced up the esophagus and down the intestines and will kill probiotics. (Antibiotics also kill probiotics.) When the probiotics are depleted then the acid is traveling right up next to the , throat, esophagus and intestines with no protection. This can cause them to get raw, inflamed, and even bleed sometimes.
Shan is the nutritionist to many professional athletes and so therefor owns and sells his own line of supplements. I right away told him me to send me a bottle of the probioit/enzyme supplement called Digestive Health!
After my boys had taken these pills for 3 days, things started to change. They started to sleep all night long without tossing and turning or waking up in pain. After a couple of months, I started to add dairy back into their diet. Fast forward 2 years… Today both my boys eat ANYTHING! But they still take the Digestive Health pills. We buy the bottles by the case. π I believe that my children’s pancreases just don’t make very many enzymes. Digestive problems run in both sides my husband’s and my families so I assume it’s inherited. If my boys (for sure Quinton) drink a glass of milk and don’t take a pill it is highly likely that they will toss and turn that night. I think that Quinton will always be more sensitive to foods than Jackson because he struggled longer than Jackson.
Shiloh was born a year ago and has been a been than normal baby! No digestive problems!!!!! I took the Digestive Health while pregnant and nursing and now she takes them directly. I doubt she will ever have food sensitivity like the boys because she has always had a health digestive system.
OK…. I’ve been trying to write this for over an hour now and keep getting interupted so I will sign off now. Hope it all makes sense and feel free to ask me questions if you have them.
I hope that you can SOON find the right answers for your little one like I have for mine!! π
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You are being an AWESOME mom that is wanting to be her own advocate for her child! Too many moms just blindly follow the doctors advice because they don’t know what else to do. But I guess in reality… the doctor is trying his best to tell you what knowledge he has. 
