My DS of 2.5 months was recently diagnosed with silent reflux. He is on zantac and prevacid. Should I eliminiate milk from my diet since I'm breastfeeding? I'm getting conflicting advice from the doctors.

Thanks!
Lisa

It certainly couldn't hurt. I b'fed my dd for 19 months and am currently b'feeding my ds (who is 3 months old). When I cut out dairy and soy from my diet with my dd, I noticed that it did seem to help a lot with her reflux--and it really helped with her constipation. I just automatically went dairy and soy free when my son was born and, when I do sneak in either of these, he gets gassy, has loads of spit up (more than the usual 47 gallons he gives us!) and is very fussy.

If you do decide to give it a try, you'll need to give it a good week or so to begin to see results. You'll need to cut out milk, cheese, yogurt, etc. and you might also want to avoid products with dairy ingredients (like spaghetti sauces with cheese, anything with whey, casein, etc.)

You might also want to consider cutting out soy protein, too, as dairy and soy proteins are very similar.

Hang on and I'll get you some helpful links. :-)

It is up to you, generally most people do say that it makes a big difference. It wont hurt to do it either. You could always go off it for a month and then re introduce it to see if it made a big difference. Good luck!

If your little one is still having problems and being fussy I would give it a try. It is hard, but not as bad as I thought it would be. My son could not tolerate milk or soy at all he would get very gasy and puke all day long and have very nasty mucusy poops. I quit breastfeeding and put him on hypo formula.

With my new baby I new what to look for and cut out milk and soy right away when she started getting gasy and puking and all. It has made a big difference, she still has a lot of gas problems, but like Mary said, she is much worse when I cheat and eat dairy or soy.

If my kids every give me a chance I am going to make a sticky in the MSPI forum for moms on the elimination diet to post the meals that they are eating to give us all some more options. It is hard when you have to change the whole way you eat over night. Though, it is totally worth it if it gives me a few extra hours of sleep at night and less crying during the day!

I believe there is a BIG connection between reflux and MSPI. All of my kids have been MSPI, but only the last 2 had reflux (AJ was VERY mild MSPI though and he's the one that didn't get reflux). I've been milk/soy free since Ilana was born and she's already off her reflux meds at 6 mos. Pretty good considering Evan was on his till 21 mos. If you look on the allergies board, there's loads of info in the stickies.