I'm a new mom who needs advice.  My birth doula referred me to your
wonderful site.  I looked through your archives, but found it hard to track
the information that I needed.

My son is 100% breastfed.  He is six months old and eats about every two to
three hours (on demand) on one breast per feed.  He sleeps through the
night (eight plus hours) and has since eight weeks.  He has a great
temperament.  He never experienced colic or excessive fussiness.  Sometimes
he has morning sniffles, but otherwise he's terrific.  (Doubled birth
weight before six months.)

Very small amounts of blood appeared in my son's stool at about two and a
half months.  Upon second incident, pediatrician diagnosed anal fissure.
Saw fissures on several more occasions.  In between, we saw no visible
blood.

About four months blood appeared in stool without apparent fissure.
Pediatrician diagnosed possible food allergy and recommended that I stop
all dairy.  Upon my insistence, pediatrician referred to pediatric GI.

Pediatric GI felt that allergic colitis most likely cause of blood in
stool.  My son had frequent stools (three or more per day) and doctor did
not believe that fissures were the cause of the blood, rather a result of
frequent stools.  (Stools sometimes explosive and/or diarrhea.)

Under guidance of pediatric GI, over time, I stopped all dairy, eggs, soy
(including oil), and nuts.  I don't eat fish or seafood.  Over time,
stopped seeing visible blood, but microscopic blood is present.  Recently
stopped:  beef, wheat, multi-vitamins, Claritin, Fenugreek (to boost breast
milk supply).  Visible blood just came back for two diapers.  If
microscopic blood (or visible) still remains in a few days, then pediatric
GI wants to try Nutramigen or Allumentum for about two weeks (while I
pump).  (Tried this formula one time last week and the baby hated it!)

Note:  stool frequency reduced after removing these foods from my diet.
Also, mother has allergies, including positive skin test for food
allergies, but never advised to remove foods from diet.

The doctor just did a stool culture for the first time.  Results are not
back yet.

Are there any tests that we should be doing to rule out other issues?  Any
advice as I really don't want to stop breastfeeding for a myriad of
reasons?

Thank you so much!

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