How to Tell If My Baby Is Allergic to Breast Milk?

Breast milk is nature's perfect food for babies. True allergies to breast milk are virtually nonexistent. Most breast milk allergies are actually allergies to other food proteins that are present in the mother's milk. Identifying and eliminating common allergens in the mother's diet resolves almost all cases of breast milk allergy.

Instructions

1

Discuss your baby's newborn screening results with your doctor. This heel poke blood test is done on all babies within the first few days of life to test for rare metabolic disorders. One of these is galactosemia, a genetic absence of a liver enzyme that is essential for digesting lactose. According to La Leche League, galactosemia occurs once in 85,000 births and is one of the only true contraindications to breast-feeding.

2

Recognize allergy symptoms in your baby. These include colic, reflux, eczema, chronic congestion, vomiting, diarrhea and blood in the stool. Discuss these symptoms with your pediatrician before beginning treatment, as allergy is one of several possible causes. Tell your doctor about any family history of allergies. Babies whose parents have food allergies are at higher risk for allergy.

3

Remove common allergens from the mother's diet. Start with cow's milk, the most common allergen. The mother must stop consuming cow's milk in all forms, including butter, yogurt, ice cream and cow's milk derivatives such as casein and whey found in the ingredients of many products. It can take one to two weeks for all traces of cow's milk to be out of the mother's system and another one to two weeks before the baby is clear. While results may be seen quickly, it sometimes takes as long as six weeks for the baby's symptoms to improve. If eliminating dairy products does not work, other common allergens to try include soy, eggs, peanuts, corn and wheat. Like cow's milk, these can be eliminated one at a time for several weeks to see if they are affecting the baby.

4

Try an elimination diet. The baby's symptoms can be relieved fastest by the mother eliminating all common allergies at once. This is done by eating a highly restricted diet for several weeks and then reintroducing foods one at a time, stopping if the baby's allergy symptoms return. See the Resource section for information about the elimination diet recommended for this purpose by Dr. Sears.