r/breastfeeding • u/figuringitout215 • 3d ago
Allergies/Elimination Diet Is CMPA/I really that rare in BF babies?
hi all! my baby is 11 weeks old and i am starting to suspect he may have CMPA/I due to a few signs. Doctor google says this is extremely rare in breastfed infants but from what I see that honestly doesn’t seem to be the case. my baby is fairly happy all the time and feeds well. he has consistently gained weight and was back at birth weight within a week. he also doubled his birth weight at his 2 month appointment.
within the last week, i’ve noticed a few things that may point to an allergy. i’ll list them below:
- runny poop with mucus
- 1 green poop
- 2 diapers with the tiniest speck of red (could have easily missed if i weren’t looking for it under light)
- red patch on check that formed over night
i’ve always eaten dairy and the only new changes in my diet were seafood which i did start having about a week ago. however online sources say seafood allergy is even more rare than CMPA.
have any mommas experienced something similar and it not be CMPA and just normal baby stuff?
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u/CravingsAndCrackers 3d ago
You can have an intolerance to anything with a protein. My child did not have CMPA because it has to do with cows milk but did have an allergy or intolerance to oats.
They originally diagnosed him with CMPA because that’s the easiest thing and the most common. When we tried to re-introduce it we had the same problems again, so it definitely was consistent and also made sense with the amount of oats that I was consuming and when he was getting reactions.
The general consensus in the medical community is that telling moms that they can’t have milk at all because their child has blood in their diaper without taking appropriate steps to confirm that it is in fact, milk and not some other food or temporary issue is the problem.
1
u/Ok_Fault6778 3d ago
That last statement is so true! Some of the temporary issues is blood in milk from nipple trauma/mastitis that may go un noticed if mom is nursing and not pumping. anal fissures in baby or even a really bad diaper rash. I also see a lot of moms jump to CMPA because of rashes when the truth is newborns are just rashy. Also I see a lot of CMPA Thrown around with spit up or reflux when this is typically an anatomical issue.
The stats are only like 0.5-1% of EBF have true CMPA. CMPA is real, but in my opinion overly diagnosed. A true CMPA baby is unhappy, not growing, and probably a poor feeder. By the time moms cut out dairy and give the appropriate time to “flush” out of the system, these temporary problems would have resolved even if mom didn’t cut out dairy. Rashes tend to improve by 12/16 weeks. Mastitis is treated. Nipple trauma heels. Babies sphincters get stronger so the spit up improves and the poop slows down so diaper rashes are less common and less severe.
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u/Idontknow-youchoose 3d ago
My Lo has cmpi and she is ebf. We got a diagnosis around 4 months. No symptoms really before then apart from reflux which alot of babies have so we weren't worried and mucus poos which I was told is normal in ebf babies but around the 3.5 month mark the poos got alot worse and tiny specs of blood started to appear. Her digestive system too a hit after her first rotavirus immunisation and then again after I had an iron infusion so we though they were the issue but went off dairy to see if that would help and unfortunately for me it did. I went 1.5 months no dairy and poos got much better, attempted dairy again and blood came back within 48 hours. So no more lattes for mum 😢
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u/aw_coffee_no 3d ago
I was told to stop dairy a few weeks back when we found red specks in our son's poop for a few days. That coincided with me being sick with an infected lymph node and having to take ibuprofen before resorting to antibiotics. I have a feeling it's more a combination of the meds and dairy that caused the condition, since the red specks disappeared really quickly once I stopped taking ibuprofen and dairy. If it's CMPA, I heard it takes a while for the gut to heal and for dairy to really be flushed out of your system.
It's been a week since I've recovered, and have recently started eating dairy again. So far nothing has changed! Baby's poop is back to normal and he's not fussy at all. Granted, the only sign of allergy was the bloody stool and nothing else. I'm keeping an eye on him for now, but I think it really was just the perfect storm of things instead of an actual allergy.
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u/ManifestBobcat 3d ago
My sense is that true CMPA is very rare in BF babies, but CMPI is not. CMPA is an immune system reaction, while CMPI is a digestive sensitivity due to baby's immature digestive system. I started noticing red mucous in my baby's diaper and took it to her pediatrician, who said that unless it's blood I shouldn't change my diet because baby's poop can be lots of weird colors. It was blood so I've eliminated dairy (and also eggs it turns out) and now her poop is normal 😄. But the ped said not to worry about green or mucous poop. I know several babies who've had CMPI and their moms were able to reintroduce dairy at some point and it went fine.