Is It Possible for Babies to Be Allergic to Breast Milk

Read time: 8 minutes

What should I know about an allergy or intolerance in my breastfed baby?

• Larn the difference between an allergy and a food intolerance or sensitivity
• Know the signs and symptoms of food allergy or intolerance in breastfed infants
• Learn which foods are the most common allergens or culprits in food intolerances
• How to manage your food intake to assistance convalesce your baby's symptoms

Breastmilk is incredible – it offers a consummate form of diet for infants, and offers a range of benefits for health, growth, immunity, and evolution.¹ The nutrients in your breastmilk come direct from what's circulating in your claret, significant that the nutrients and compounds you absorb from the food yous eat are and so passed forth to your infant.

While being truly allergic or reacting to something in mom's milk is rare in babies, a small percentage of mothers practise notice a difference in their babies' symptoms or behavior afterwards eating sure foods.

What'south the deviation between an allergy and an intolerance or sensitivity?

Sometimes these terms are used interchangeably, but an allergy and an intolerance/sensitivity are very different.  According to the American University of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (AAAI), an allergy is when the immune arrangement reacts to a food, whereas an intolerance happens during digestion.^two  Allergies mostly have more than severe symptoms, often causing pare reactions or difficulty breathing.  Food intolerances occur when we have difficulty digesting a food, which oftentimes effect in gastro-intestinal symptoms.

With an allergy, the culprit food ofttimes needs to be taken out of the nutrition completely to avert symptoms.  Food intolerances however may allow for a pocket-size corporeality of the offending food to exist eaten without any reactions.  This is the 'threshold' amount: the lowest amount of the nutrient you can eat without having symptoms.

Read more than: Major Allergens: While Pregnancy and Breastfeeding

Which foods might cause an allergic reaction?

In general, food allergens include cow'due south milk, soy, eggs, peanuts, wheat, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish.³ In children, the most common allergens are peanuts, milk, tree nuts, and shellfish.^{four, v}

What are the symptoms of a food allergy in babies?

Food allergies touch near 7.6% of children in the Us.⁴

The virtually common symptoms of an allergy in breastfed infants are eczema (a scaly, red skin rash) and encarmine stool (with no other signs of illness). You might besides see hives, wheezing or other breathing problems, nasal congestion, swelling of a trunk office (tongue, lips, face), pharynx tightness, pale pare, vomiting or diarrhea.^{half dozen}

If you notice any of these symptoms, exist certain to call baby'southward pediatrician right abroad. While you lot can likely manage most nutrient allergies in your breastfed babe by changing your diet, there are some cases in which using a hypoallergenic formula may be required.

Hither are some tips for Managing Gas in Breastfed Babies

Which foods might crusade a nutrient intolerance or sensitivity reaction?

You lot may have heard that eating foods that brand you gassy volition also crusade gastrointestinal distress for your baby, or that eating foods like onion, garlic and cruciferous vegetables will crusade colic. While there is no significant data to support such an association, at that place are some mothers who do notice certain foods make their babies fussier than usual.  This may be a nutrient intolerance or sensitivity.

At that place is a much wider variety of foods that may trigger a reaction when it comes to food intolerances; simply it's important to note that food sensitivities in babies are much less common than food allergies.

Foods that may cause reactions include: Fructose, lactose and other FODMAPs (hands fermented carbohydrates institute in a variety of foods), wheat, histamine (ofttimes institute in processed meats, cheeses, and some produce), and food additives.^seven

What are the symptoms of a nutrient intolerance in babies?

The most mutual symptom of a nutrient sensitivity in babies is a change in their bowel habits.  Extra gas, bloating, diarrhea or constipation, fussy later on eating, mucous in the stool, or crying excessively may indicated babe is not doing well with a food you're eating.

Note that if your little one has excessive crying that continues on a daily basis and lasts for long periods, that may indicate colic rather than food sensitivity.⁸ Talk with your pediatrician about this possibility, if eliminating various foods has no effect on your child's symptoms.

Read: Managing Colic in Babies

What tin can I exercise if my babe is reacting to something in my diet?

The ultimate goal is figuring out which food is affecting your baby.  An elimination nutrition can help identify which nutrient may be causing the allergy or nutrient sensitivity.⁹ This ways removing possible allergens from your nutrition for 2 to iii weeks each while you continue breastfeeding.

At that place are two ways to go about an elimination diet:

Take out one potential allergen or intolerant at a time: If there is 1 food strongly suspected as the culprit, you can choose to have out just that one food. Watch to encounter if your baby'southward symptoms subside. Should infant'due south symptoms go better, keep that food out of your diet.  If infant's symptoms remain the aforementioned over the course of 3 weeks, you tin can begin eating that nutrient over again and then eliminate a different allergen.

Take out all potential allergens or intolerants at one time: If you are unsure which food is causing the problems, all allergens or possible culprit foods tin can exist taken out for the 2 to 3 weeks and so added back in one at a fourth dimension.

For a possible food intolerance or sensitivity, add one food dorsum in over the form of 3 days – this is the claiming menstruum. The first solar day consume a small-scale amount, the second twenty-four hour period eat a medium amount, the third day eat a larger amount.  Doing it this way shows you if baby has a threshold.  Sometimes y'all can swallow a small amount of an offending food without it bothering your little one.

Think that for a food allergy, it is likely the nutrient must be taken out completely from your diet.

If your baby shows symptoms during any of the challenge days, finish the challenge and accept the nutrient back out of your diet.  Don't trial a new food until all your babe'south symptoms are gone.  If there are no symptoms during the challenge period, y'all can eventually eat this food over again! For at present, take it back out of the diet after its 3 24-hour interval claiming and look to add information technology back in after you've challenged all culprit foods.¹⁰

Continue a good log of the foods you've challenged, symptoms, and amounts you've eaten!

Y'all tin can continue breastfeeding despite the symptoms as long as your baby continues to grow and put on weight during this process.

If you plan on trying an elimination diet, especially a multi-food elimination, be sure to work with a registered dietitian. This will assist ensure you are yet getting all the nutrition you and your babe need also equally help navigate hidden sources of allergens.  Foods like milk, soy, and corn can hide in all sorts of pesky places.

Our Happy Infant Experts are dietitians and babe feeding specialists, they can assistance you lot run across your breastfeeding goals while keeping both y'all and baby happy and salubrious.  Chat with them now!

Trying to figure out what to eat while also taking out all allergens? Bank check out this Meal Plan for Allergen Free Eating.

Does breastfeeding assist protect against allergies?

While more than enquiry is needed, some studies have indicated that breastfeeding exclusively for at least four months may help to reduce the risk and severity of food allergies, fifty-fifty in families with a history of them.^{11, 12}

And so if your footling i does show an intolerance or allergy early, know that it may resolve on its own earlier they turn one and that continued breastfeeding may help to safeguard confronting allergies later on on.

What should I do if infant is reacting to my breastmilk?

Contact your pediatrician

Bring your baby in for a checkup. You'll want to dominion out any other causes for her symptoms, cheque infant's growth and weight gain, and make sure baby is not losing excessive blood if your little ane experiencing bloody stool. Your doctor can too discuss the possibility of confirming the presence of an allergy with a skin prick test.

If your child is diagnosed with a food allergy, call back to ask virtually reintroducing the nutrient later on. Nigh kids will grow out of food allergies, sometimes by their first birthday.

Continue a food and symptom journal

We know it'southward hard to find fourth dimension to consume in those first few months, let alone write down what made it into your mouth, just tracking your intake alongside your baby's symptoms is a expert way to shed light on whatever possible reactions.

But call up that foods nosotros swallow remain in our bodies for long periods of fourth dimension. So while a journal tin can be helpful to pinpoint the onset of symptoms when you lot outset eat the offending nutrient, know that your infant'south symptoms can persist for several days or up to two weeks, even if you don't eat that particular food over again.

Attempt an elimination diet

If you notice an agin reaction in your baby after y'all swallow certain foods, try removing that nutrient from your diet and watch for improvement.

Kickoff with cow's milk. The almost frequent allergic reaction in breastfed babies is a milk protein allergy.⁵ Remember, it takes time for your body to exist completely free of the offending nutrient, so make certain you've removed all sources of the food for at least two weeks.

Seek support

Irresolute your diet can exist hard.  Finding a registered dietitian who can help make adjustments to your diet will help accept some stress out of this process.   Additionally, may lactation consultants are familiar with helping brand these adjustments too and also ensuring baby is getting what they need.

Let's Conversation!

We know parenting often ways sleepless nights, stressful days, and countless questions and confusion, and we want to support you in your feeding journey and beyond.

Our Happy Infant Experts are a team of lactation consultants and registered dietitians certified in infant and maternal nutrition – and they're all moms, likewise, which means they've been there and seen that. They're hither to help on our free, live chat platform Monday – Fri 8am-8pm (EST), and Saturday – Sunday 8am-4pm (EST). Chat Now!

Read more than about the experts that aid write our content!

For more than on this topic, bank check out the following articles:

• Breastfeeding Challenges 101: Navigating nursing strikes
• Breastfeeding: How much should you eat while breastfeeding?
• Breastfeeding Challenges 101: Managing gas in breastfed babies
• Which Foods Should You Avert While Breastfeeding?

Sources

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2. American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology. Food Allergy. Accessed on 29 June 2021 https://www.aaaai.org/Conditions-Treatments/Allergies/Food-Allergy
3. American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology. Food Intolerance versus Nutrient Allergy. Accessed 30 June 2021. https://www.aaaai.org/Tools-for-the-Public/Conditions-Library/Allergies/Food-Intolerance
4. Ruchi S. Gupta, Christopher M. Warren, Bridget Yard. Smith. The Public Health Impact of Parent-Reported Childhood Food Allergies in the United States. Pediatrics Dec 2018, 142(6). https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/142/6/e20181235
5. American University of Pediatrics. Common Food Allergies. Accessed 1 July 2021. https://www.healthychildren.org/English language/healthy-living/diet/Pages/Common-Nutrient-Allergies.aspx
6. American Academy of Pediatrics. Food Allergy Reactions. Accessed on 29 June 2021 https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/feeding-nutrition/Pages/Food-Allergy-Reactions.aspx
7. Tuck CJ, Biesiekierski JR, Schmid-Grendelmeier P, Pohl D. Food Intolerances.Nutrients. 2019;11(vii):1684. Published 2019 Jul 22. Accessed 30 June 2021. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6682924/
8. 8. American Academy of Pediatrics. Colic Relief for Parents. Accessed one July 2021. https://world wide web.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/crying-colic/pages/Colic.aspx
9. Grimshaw KE. Dietary direction of nutrient allergy in children. Proc Nutr Soc. 2006 Nov;65(4):412-7. Accessed on 30 June 2021. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17181908/
10. Rakel D. Affiliate 86, "The Elimination Diet" Integrative Medicine. 4th ed: Elsevier, Inc.; 2018. https://www.elsevier.com/books/integrative-medicine/9780323358682
11. Ehlayel, MS, and A. Bener. "Elapsing of breast-feeding and the take chances of babyhood allergic diseases in a developing country." Allergy Asthma Proc. Volume 29. Issue 4: pages 386-91.
12. Hendaus, Mohamed A, Fatima A Jomha, and Mohammad Ehlayel. "Allergic diseases among children: nutritional prevention and intervention."Ther Clin Risk Manag. Book 12. (2016): pages 361–72.

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