In July I had my second child, a baby girl.\u00a0 I choose to breastfeed my daughter just as I had my son.\u00a0 My son nursed well so when my daughter started becoming very fussy (to put it lightly) while feeding I knew it was not normal.\u00a0 \u00a0At two weeks old, she began screaming (not crying) consistently.\u00a0 She was showing symptoms of \u201csilent acid reflux,\u201d severe stomach pain, painful gas and foul-smelling stools (this is not normal in breastfed babies).\u00a0\u00a0 We took her to her pediatrician asking, \u201cWhat is wrong with my baby?\u201d\u00a0 Luckily he didn\u2019t write her off as having colic.\u00a0 After examining her she was diagnosed with having a Milk, Soy, Protein Intolerance (MSPI).\u00a0 The proteins were being absorbed by my body and passing into my breast milk that my daughter was ingesting.\u00a0 Symptoms of MSPI vary but often include at least several of the following: \u00a0inconsolable crying, acid reflux, vomiting, blood in the stool, painful gas, foul smelling stool, stomach pain, skin rashes, rhinitis, etc.<\/p>\n
During the visit with the doctor, he recommended I start the MSPI diet that eliminates all milk and soy proteins from my diet. \u00a0Please note that MSPI is not the same as lactose intolerance or a milk allergy.\u00a0 As a dietitian I was aware of milk and soy proteins but hardly an expert on which foods I should be eliminating from my diet.\u00a0 I really had to study labels and felt as though I didn\u2019t know what I was doing.\u00a0 After a month of following this diet we saw very little improvement in our baby\u2019s symptoms.\u00a0 We eventually met with a pediatrician that specializes in food intolerances in infants and because my baby was not improving she suspected an additional protein intolerance that would not be easily identified.\u00a0 So for another week I tried a very simplified diet.\u00a0 Needless to say I was very hungry and everyone in our house was suffering.<\/p>\n
At this point we decided it was in the best interest of my baby and me to switch to formula. \u00a0We saw an immediate and drastic improvement in the health of our baby when we started feeding her Neocate formula; she tolerated this for about a month when we eventually needed to switch to Similac Alimentum Ready to Feed.\u00a0 For MSPI babies, Similac Alimentum powder is not tolerated well while the Ready to Feed version is usually tolerated.<\/p>\n
As a dietitian I am 100% convinced of the benefits of breast milk and it was very hard for me to no longer breastfeed. But for us it was the right decision.\u00a0 Many moms with MSPI babies are able to successfully breastfeed their babies during the entire first year.\u00a0 I\u2019m posting this blog so that it may help other parents and increase awareness.\u00a0 \u00a0The research and resource for MSPI are very limited.\u00a0 So please share any resources you are aware of and post your story to help other parents.\u00a0 If you suspect your baby may have MSPI please contact me, I\u2019d love to help and provide a link to great doctors in Nebraska.<\/p>\n
Here\u00a0are some useful resources.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.mspiguide.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.completechildrenshealth.com\/news\/articles\/what-is-mspi<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/mspimama.blogspot.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/intolerantoffspring.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n Click here to open a Milk and Soy Free Foods List<\/a>.\u00a0 Thank you to Nikki Ford, a HyVee Dietitian for developing this handout.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In July I had my second child, a baby girl.\u00a0 I choose to breastfeed my daughter just as I had my son.\u00a0 My son nursed well so when my daughter started becoming very fussy (to put it lightly) while feeding I knew it was not normal.\u00a0 \u00a0At two weeks old, she began screaming (not crying) consistently.\u00a0 She was showing symptoms Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,780],"tags":[323,324,325,326,327,328,329,330,331],"class_list":["post-1876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e","category-nutrition-2","tag-colic","tag-food-intolerances","tag-infant-food-intolerances","tag-milk-allergy","tag-milk-intolerance","tag-milk-soy-protein-intolerance","tag-mspi","tag-mspi-guide","tag-soy-intolerance","cat-42-id","cat-780-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/emmy-31.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1876"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1876"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8385,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1876\/revisions\/8385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}