Breastfeeding Woes, Part 2: Dairy Issues {Guest Post}

Let me start off by saying I am by no means an expert.  Everything concerning dairy has been a trial and error process that we still struggle with. We are however learning and at this point that’s about all we can do.

It all started shortly after my daughter turned one month old.  She had recently been diagnosed with thrush. We were squirting the thrush medicine into her cheeks and mouth as directed. (If you are ever faced with the thrush problem, I HIGHLY recommend swabbing the thrush spots vs. squirting the medicine inside the cheeks .)

She had been on the medicine for about a week when all of a sudden every evening she would scream in pain for hours. There was nothing we could do to consol her except attempt to walk around with her. We gave her gas medicine which helped to some extent but she was still in obvious pain. Not only was she in pain but she was spitting up a TON.  We were almost certain she was having a reaction to the medicine. Which yes, I still believe she was but I also believe now, from what we’ve learned, that she was also having a reaction to diary.

At this point I wasn’t sure if she wasn’t tolerating my milk anymore or what was going on. All I knew is that my baby was BEYOND cranky - very out of the norm - and was spitting up a ton. Seriously, I went to the store the next day and bought some formula. The price almost made me cry. Ha! I ended up discussing the problem with my sister in law who suggested maybe it was dairy.

So at her suggestion, I stopped eating all dairy. It just so happens that the week this all started my husband and I enjoyed an entire block of cheddar cheese in about two days. We also had made dip using sour cream.

 So no dairy for an entire week. No cheese… milk… ANYTHING! The hardest was the milk. I’m a cereal everyday for breakfast type of girl and to all of a sudden have to change? That was hard.

I kept thinking to myself, “If this proves to be the problem, I’ll just give up breastfeeding because I HAVE to have my milk.” So selfish!  We only had to go a couple of days to realize that indeed dairy was causing the problems. About two days into no dairy our baby girl was back to herself. Not spitting up near as much and was so much calmer at night. 

Since going without dairy I have been able to drink milk again. It doesn’t seem to affect her. Yogurt is out for sure. We ended up accidently having frozen yogurt without processing in our heads that it was dairy and sure enough that night she was cranky and spitting up.  Not having cheese hasn’t been extremely difficult unless we end up going out to eat.

But like I mentioned, we continue to learn things. Specifically, most recently we learned that she doesn’t tolerate cream of (insert food here) soups. We’ve had cream of chicken and mushroom in a couple of different recipes. That night she has gas and tummy pains.  Finding recipes without the soups in them has been the most difficult thing.  Milk still doesn’t affect her and we are slowly being able to eat cheese again in small amounts.

So 6 weeks into not having dairy and we’ve cut back on the amount of gas medicine to MAYBE once a week but even then that’s rare. And thankfully our girl is back to her happy self. 


-Bridgette

Breastfeeding Woes, Part 1: Too Much Milk {Guest Post}

When I found out I was pregnant there were a few things I just knew I would do. Breastfeeding was one of them. I had taken a child development class in High School and knew breastfeeding was the better option. Of course the other reason I choose to breastfeed was because it’s free, and I didn’t want to pay money for formula if my body makes everything my baby needs.

My husband and I signed up for birth classes, but I opted out of breastfeeding classes. My thought, “How hard can it be?” Breastfeeding for me has not been particularly difficult, but I have had a couple of ups and downs.

The first difficulty I faced happened about two weeks into breastfeeding. At the time, I had no idea what was wrong.  I had no idea why, every time I fed my baby, I covered both of us in milk. I was constantly soaking our clothes and squirting my daughter. Now I know I was faced with oversupply and fast let down.

Since I had no experience breastfeeding, I was switching sides at each feeding. After some research and realizing the oversupply issue, I learned switching was not the best idea when an over production problem. I was producing a lot of foremilk so my baby was only receiving the foremilk and no hind milk.  This was the cause of my daughter’s green, loose stools, fussiness, gagging, gassiness and spitting up.

When my daughter was 3 weeks old, I decided to try a different nursing position. I started sitting having her straddle my leg facing me, this was much more upright. I also stopped switching sides and only nursed one breast per feeding.  By the end of the week, my daughter was having normal poop again, her gassiness was better, and she wasn’t gagging nearly as much during the feeding. 
The best news of all was I no longer gave my baby a breast milk bath, and I wasn’t changing shirts after every feeding. I had finally reached a point where I wouldn’t have been terrified to nurse in public – for fear of making a big mess. 

Until next time, when we discuss the latest Breast Milk Woe: Dairy problems…

Bridgette