"Gorgon Park" wrote in message
ups.com...
FlowerGirl wrote:
I'm looking for anyone with real information on this (as in personal
experience, journal references etc)

Firstly, there is a gastroenterologist, a paed. and a LC with particular
experience in food allergy all giving different advice. I've done what
synopsis I can, but I probably have not got this 100% right ..

A friend of mine has a 7.5 mo DD who has had an ulcerated colon since
either
a) 3 weeks pp when my friend had 3 lots of different ABs due to what was
thought to be an infected c-section wound (which turned out to be an
irritation to a stitch) ... and this is what the gastroenterologist
thinks
happened ,.... or b) from birth - her family have a history of gut
problems
with the older DD and the grandmother both having some degree of
irritable
gut throughout life (but these "problems" have never been checked to see
if
they're allergies etc ... the grandmother has only been checked for
colon
cancer).

At any rate, the baby has been exclusively bf thus far, and my friend
has
kept a food diary and removed pretty much everything from her diet that
could possibly cause a problem irritating the gut lining the foods she
is
eating a lamb, chicken, rockmelon, watermelon, occasional apple,
sugar,
salt, pumpkin, zucchini ... and I think that's about it. No dairy. No
grains at all (even rice was causing an issue).

snip

I had a similar problem with my daughter (if by irritating the gut you
mean bloody stools), and the last thing that I eliminated that did the
trick is iodized table salt. It turns out that my daughter is allergic
to corn and all corn by-products. Iodized table salt contains corn
by-products and the sugar she is eating may also contain cornstarch as
a processing by-product (which does not have to be listed on an
ingredient label).

I choose to do an elimination diet rather than formula, which my
daughter's gastro was also pushing (at around the same age). She
cleared up within a week of my stopping iodized salt and switching to
sea salt.

I used the Sears elimination diet (from the askdrsears website
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/4/t041200.asp), so the foods I was
"allowed" to eat were slightly different: lamb, turkey, rice, millet,
all kinds of squash, potatoes and sweet potatoes.

So, as far as hard scientific evidence, I have none. But, what I did
is read the baby. My daughter was still healthy and still gaining
weight without a problem, even with the irritated gut and bloody
stools. If she had been sickly, I may have choosen differently. As it
was not seeming to affect her health, I choose what, to me, was the
least radical of the two options - doing the elimination diet for
myself rather than formula for her. I did it for about 6 weeks before
figuring out the whole corn thing. My daughter is now nearly 3, still
breastfeeding and has not had any further instestinal symptoms.

Hope this gives some help, or at least some hope.
Stacey

Thanks so much ... your story rings true - this baby is such a fat little
contented thing that its hard to believe she ever cries leave alone screams
in pain from wind.
... and I don't know about bloody stools, but I know they did do a stool
test and there was plenty of pus.
I shall pass the info on about the salt and sugar.
Ta
Amanda