Looking ahead

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Permalink Reply by Verity on February 16, 2012 at 7:52

HI Beth, my Hv said that any siblings finley has are likely to have cows milk problems. Finley is actually cows milk protein allergic, however I said would a new baby be able to go straight on to neocate then, she said she doubts it and that I'd have to go though the same process as with Finley as its not 100% that the next one would have problems. 

If we ever have another then I'll obviously ask a doctor etc rather than the Hv, but they wouldn't be able to do a prescription for an unborn baby or put them on a milk they may not need. With regards to dairy free pregnancy I'm unsure, I think Jen Rawling knows more

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Permalink Reply by Jenny Rawling on February 16, 2012 at 8:51

Brave lady! We are/have considered a no 3, so I've looked into this, and unfortunately can't find any concrete evidence. My paed says as we have one unaffected child and one CMPI that the likelihood is a 3rd would be "normal" but from eveyone I've spoken to on boards like this, food intolerances seem to get worse with each subsequent child. Even from the distance that 18m gives me, with Matthew turning out delightful, I'm still not sure I can put the family through it again.

Dairy was something I really craved in my pregnancy with Matthew and I had loads (milk's good for you, right??) and I've since found out that sometimes your body craves the thing you or baby is intolerant of. He was born a good pound lighter than my older son, I do wonder if it was a factor in his low birthweight - poisoning him in the womb :(

In terms of clearing your system, you would need to be dairy free for probably a week to ensure it wasn't in your milk, so I guess if baby could arrive from 37 weeks that means the last month of your pregnancy. I've decided personally I would continue my low dairy diet (Matthew now tolerates me eating some dairy but I still use Oatly on cereal and as a family we're mainly dairy free because he is) and pay attention to getting enough calcium, then go completely dairy free before the birth.

I know one person who has managed to get their 2nd baby striaght onto Neocate. She actually intended to breastfeed and went dairy free pre-birth then had problems and had to use formula straight away. I suspect in most circumstances you'd have to have some evidence that baby had problems though. Look at it that you wouldn't have any messing about 2nd time round, you would be a clued up Mummy on their back from day 1 and get it all sorted out much sooner.

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Permalink Reply by Beth on February 16, 2012 at 9:50

Thank you for your responses. Jenny, that's interesting about the dairy cravings as I went the other way and had very little dairy during pregnancy. I even remember feeling guilty when a friend said I should be drinking milk and I wasn't. I've thought about the rest of my diet too and it was very healthy - no caffeine, no chocolate at all (totally went off it). I'd thought maybe me NOT drinking milk could have cause my LO to be CMPI. 

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Permalink Reply by Jenny Rawling on February 16, 2012 at 11:36

Maybe we should both stop blaming ourselves then!

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Permalink Reply by Beverley on February 16, 2012 at 15:09

If it helps, at the GOSH study day, lots of people asked this question and Dr Shah said that allergy/intolerance is more likely in 2nd/3rd children and that going dairy-free during pregnancy hadn't been shown to make any diffference. Sorry! X

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Permalink Reply by Verity on February 16, 2012 at 15:16

Blimey we are doomed if we have another then seeing as Finley is our first lol! 

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Permalink Reply by Beth on February 16, 2012 at 16:29

Exactly what I was thinking about us too Verity!

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Permalink Reply by becky corran on February 16, 2012 at 20:05

Interesting about dairy in pregnancy,i craved it in both my pregnancies and both mine been CMPI, 2nd pregnancy i would have pints of milk and huge chunks of cheese-not to mention the chocolate and cakes!! However many of my friends have been the same and had non CMPI babes.

My first lo had blood and mucous in her stools and had reflux symptoms-mainly in that she couldnt sleep flat,no screaming etc tho. When after my own research at 4mo i cut out dairy all symptoms dissapeared after two wks...was an amazing transformation.

2nd baby now 9wks old and for us the reflux has been much much worse, with medication and my dietary changes things have improved though.

For us the risk of another refluxer has put us off a third baby for sure.

At least with your second you will know the signs and be able to act on them quickly. I am just glad we didnt have a small age gap...its two years but hubby wanted them much closer in age.

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Permalink Reply by Beverley on February 17, 2012 at 8:50

The only other thing that occurs to me is that, in our case, our first child is absolutely healthy and our second on the more extreme end of the allergic spectrum which seems unusual. My own theory is that it might have had something to do with the fact that I had a lot of antibiotics during pregnancy which may have affected my own gut flora and my LOs gut flora somehow making it more likely that proteins were passing through my milk and causing problems with his sensitive gut.

No one has ever really confirmed that this is true in any way but I would stay away from antibiotics during pregnancy and take lots of probiotics myself in case this might help.

Probably woukdn't do anything and the antibiotics is my particular pointless way of blaming myself.

No way we'd have another but D is particularly extreme and we've got 2 truly delightful children and I'm 41 and knackered. So lots of factors. If I were younger and only had one, I would probably consider it.

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Permalink Reply by Verity on February 17, 2012 at 9:08

The antibiotics throughout pregnancy also rings true for me, I probably had about 6-8 lots and they were 2 week courses for kidney infections. Then had IV antibiotics during labour. Then Finley had benzyl penicillin and gentamicin every 12 hours for 5 days when he was first born. So in my view it's too much of a coincidence. 
Bev, I private messaged you on Facebook not sure if it sent.
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Permalink Reply by Beverley on February 17, 2012 at 11:50

Not seen your message Verity - try again!

Permalink Reply by Sara B on February 16, 2012 at 22:19

hi beth
It is me (i assume) that jen is talking about. The main banefit of being mainly dairy free through my preganacy and totally dairy free from 32 weeks was i worked out that I am CMPI! I am still baisically dairy free despite my little man being on neocate from birth.
You can't get neocate on script for an unborn child, but you can buy it off amazon or OTC at the chemist. The hospital will be funny with you about it, but it is worth it.
For what it is worth, expect your second child to be a refluxer and to be worse. it is still hard second time round, despite knowing the drill, in some ways it is harder, the medics don't seem to like educated mummies!
Unfortunately my husband and I both have intolerances, which means gentically my kids have the perfect storm going on, so i am resigned to them never totally growing out of it. I am a bit of the opinion that if mother nature had her way my youngest wouldn't have been for this life, i thought i was miscarrying at 7 weeks, at 20 we found out there was a rate placenta issue and if i had gone in to labour his chances of survival were horribly low, then with the cmpi/ allergic bowel issues he dropped 3 centiles to the 0.4th in 3 weeks. Despite being on neocate. We wouldn't change him for the world and he is a brave tough smiley little boy. But had we had a perfect veiw in to the first 5 months of his life out here, we probably wouldn't have put him through it. He's had a horrid time. The best thing i did was to insure him before he was born so we could take him to GOSH and get him the care he so badly needed.
They also said to me that subsequent children would be worse, which is academic as we can't have any more, but may be useful to others.
Feel free to ask if you have any other questions. Xxx

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