I do not want to imply that the recommendations made by the doctor in the situation I had written about previously (bloody stools) was the ONLY or even the BEST decision, but wanted to give you "the rest of the story".

To summarize - G2P2 Mom (older child has various allergies) reported steaks of blood in the baby's stool, that kept getting worse and worse, despite a more and more strict diet.  (She called me not for breastfeeding, but for FOOD alternatives, because she was losing weight with the restrictive diet, and she was already tiny.) Eventually MD recommended no breastfeeding x 7 days, and the use of an "allergenic formula".  Mom chose to follow that instruction and has now resumed breastfeeding, still using strict diet (and avoiding chocolate, which may have been the trigger all along, as when she reduced intake of dairy, wheat, soy, beef and fish...she found a non-dairy non-soy chocolate and was eating MORE of it).

Baby has been retested and after breastfeeding again x 7 days, no signs of return to bloody stools.  Now doctor wants her to stay on the strict diet x 30 days.  Mom has decided to follow this recommendation, but now has books and information so that she feels she is managing her own diet well. 

She  has offered to communicate with any mom who has decided that she needs to try a restrictive diet with babies who are truly showing signs of allergy.  She feels she has some support and help to give those moms.  

Jeanette Panchula, BA-SW, RN, PHN, IBCLC
Vacaville, CA

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