ALLERGY BABYCARE: LEAVE A FOOD OUT TOTALLY
If reducing the level of any food has little effect, you should go further and leave the chosen food totally out of your diet totally. If you do this for common foods, such as cow’s milk, wheat, eggs, yeast, com and soya, it can mean drastic changes to your diet and usually entails leaving out most processed and manufactured foods.
There is also advice on what substitutes to use, on nutritional balance and precautions to take against new sensitivities developing in the baby.
Babies with a tendency to food sensitivity can become sensitive to foods that are introduced into a breastfeeding mother’s diet as substitutes (e.g. to goat’s milk or soya milk used as an alternative to cow’s milk) and you need to take care not to binge on or overuse any foods you use as substitutes in case this happens. So, even if a mother is not food-sensitive herself, she needs to observe the preventative guidelines.
If leaving out these foods seems hard at first, an easier route, and one that women sometimes try before they turn to total exclusion of cow’s milk, etc., is to leave out some common culprits which are less fundamental parts of the diet, and see if baby improves. You could choose one of these food groups at a time and leave it out for two to four days to see what happens. Move on to another if you get no response. Try leaving out one of the following groups at a time:
• Tea, coffee, cocoa and chocolate
• Alcohol
• All sweet and fizzy drinks, sugar, sweets, biscuits and bakery
• Orange, grapefruit, lemon and other citrus fruits and juice
• Onions, garlic, leeks, spring onions
• Spices (NB curry)
• Cabbage, broccoli, sprouts, cauliflower, kale, spring greens
Some babies are sensitive to chlorine and other chemicals from tapwa-ter passing in breastmilk. The mother could try as an alternative using filtered or bottled water (Evian, Buxton or Malvern for preference). Use the chosen water for drinking, making hot drinks and soups, and for all cooking purposes. For more information on water.
A breastfeeding mother needs to take care of her own diet. Consult your doctor about any intentions you have to leave out common foods, and about the need for any vitamin and mineral supplements.
It can sometimes take several days for the benefits of exclusion to be seen on a breastfeeding baby. So give each food (or group of foods) time to show results.
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Tags: Allergies