Now, Adalyn is 6 months old and I’m really doing my research (on leaky gut in a breast-feeding mother), I can’t believe that it’s taken me this long to fully learn about how healing a leaky gut could possibly make our lives a whole lot easier.

Leaky gut in a breast-feeding mom means that your food isn’t properly being digested and furthermore that the blood barrier in the colon is compromised. This is significant because anything that enters your blood also ends up in your milk, so if you’re not properly digesting foods then you aren’t filtering toxins in your digestive tract either.

The toxins and undigested stuff can end up in your blood supply and thus in your breast milk (when it normally wouldn’t) which can appear similar to food sensitivities and other ailments in you and baby.

This makes perfect sense to what’s going on with myself and Adalyn and that would mean our issues weren’t necessarily related to food sensitivities, but rather she’s just being exposed to things through my breast milk that her body either isn’t ready to handle or shouldn’t have to handle yet.

This is particularly alarming because a child’s toxin barriers aren’t fully formed yet, so toxins that enter the body can harm the brain and body. Plus, if mom has a leaky gut then her digestive bacterias (that are the root of the leaky gut problem in the first place) have already been passed to baby, so baby needs leaky gut healing too.

Many moms automatically assume when their baby has gas or acid reflex or colic symptoms that it’s because of baby’s food allergy and that it’s something the mothers eating. It’s partially true in the case of leaky gut syndrome the difference is that the leaky gut can be healed and prevented.

There are various options when it comes to healing a leaky gut, they’re all very similar to an elimination diet however the end result is not to simply do away with certain foods from the diet altogether rather the goal is to remove them temporarily so they got has time to heal and later function more properly.

I’m thinking once get digestion on track again a lot of these no-no foods for leaky gut healing could be added back in. I was warned that we that healing the leaky gut is long and tedious process and I’m not particularly excited about having to undertake it but I’ll do anything to make Addie feel better.

So, I started my healing process with removing sugars from the diet. I just took an online course that said whatever foods you perceive that you cannot live without or that you crave intensely are likely the foods that cause you the most problems with regards to digestion and the leaky gut. Sugar is number one on my list of cravings so that’s the 1st thing I’ve taken out.

After sugar the other major food to eliminate (for me) would have to be processed foods I guess you’d say. Mainly snack foods that are high in carbs. I tend to go back and forth between sugars and carbs not only for quick energy during the busy day but also to fill me up.

Without the sugars and carbs I tend to always feel hungry and hunger immediately sends me reaching for something sweet or something processed and filling.

So that’s where we have been for the last three weeks. I’m working to improve my diet and to heal my gut/digestive tract so that my breastfeeding child is healed and is not suffering. We are also, finally, getting an evaluation for tongue tie.

If you’d like more resources on leaky gut and nursing you can also check these articles out:

• The Gut, Microbes and Poop
• Healing Leaky Gut: Mothering.com
• 9 Steps to Perfect Health – #5: Heal Your Gut

Updates:

1/3/18 – I wanted update this post with our progress since it was initially written back in 2012…

We are now a gluten free family. We were also a dairy free family until we got our own dairy cow (a Jersey A2 milk cow). We never did get anywhere on the tongue tie and none of my kids (we had a son after this was written) have any speech or oral issues as older kids.

After having leaky gut pointed out to me back in 2012 I was set on a journey to figure out what foods were causing issues. I went on a full blown elimination diet where gluten, dairy and nuts were removed. During this elimination diet I also got a Celiac blood screening done, I reintroduced gluten intermittently for about 3-4 weeks before my blood test. I should have been consuming more gluten before the test but it was making me ill. I found out I was on the cusp of a positive result for Celiac disease (a percentage point away from a positive antibody screen).  I had no interest in allowing the gluten to do any further damage. With proof of elevated levels of antibodies I understood gluten was impacting my health but that I was not a full blown Celiac sufferer, YET. I’m not positive which Celiac genetic markers I carry but I do have a brother and a father with gluten issues and an aunt with Cron’s disease. 

It turns out I was having a “Leaky Gut” due to gluten sensitivities in 2012. 

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Babies vomit. Mine in particular loves to be at the breast 24/7 which inevitably leads to overeating, which in turn results in an overly full stomach and projectile vomiting. Awesome!

She’s shot vomit everywhere exactly 3 times. Once from her swing on to the floor. Once while cuddling me in bed, it went right down my shirt, arm and all over my side of the bed. Then this morning we were both back asleep after a long early morning feeding when she began to quietly fuss…

Half asleep I was verbally consoling her but had my back to her. She’ll calm down after hearing “you’re okay” or “shhhh, it’s okay”. So, I am consoling her and an explosion of vomit hits my back, my hair and once again soaks my side of them bed.

I shot up, wiped her face, arm and the bed. Made sure she wasn’t choking on vomit. Then I stood there looking like “someone killed my puppy” as N put it while I pondered my next move.

Did I want to lay some receiving blankets down over the wet vomit spot, wipe myself off and lay back down to sleep for a few more hours or was it shower time?

There was warm sour milk dripping from my mop of crazy hair, down my back and also from my left arm. Keep in mind she did this same thing to me the day before and I’ve becoming increasingly sensitive to the sent of sour milk on myself now.

After several seconds of deliberation I choose to shower off and wash the sour milk from my hair. If it hadn’t soaked my hair I so would have opted for sleeping some more but having baby vomit in my hair was just too much for me to ignore, this time.

So, I headed off to the shower at like 5am and thought to myself… “Pretty soon sour milk in the hair will be something I am used to living with, I am just not there YET!”

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We are learning about this whole parenting thing and we are so in love with little Everly. Unfortunately, we’ve got a fussy uncomfortable baby that we can’t seem to calm. Everyone is saying it is colic and everyone has an opinion about her ailment that doesn’t seem to help us in treating it.

I just hate calling it colic because the name doesn’t imply any specific condition or treatment. Everyone just throws their hands up and says “Oh colic, hang in there- it will pass”. I am sorry but just accepting that it’s a mystery that she’ll out grow isn’t okay with me. Her fussing is due to something and I want to know what so I can fix it.

She’s not fussy all day, just over certain extended periods of time. Recently she’s begun fussing at the breast too and she’s really straining to poop or pass gas.

We took a trip to the library on Sunday and checked out a bunch of breastfeeding books for me to read. Some books say colic goes away and that parents just have to tough it out. I’ve read that breastfed babies can’t be constipated but many are typically gassy and strain to poop normally. I’ve also read about how a mom’s diet can cause digestive distress for a breastfed baby.

On Sunday night/ Monday morning I had to take Everly down to the nursery and spend the night with her fussing and crying all night. We left N to sleep in the bedroom since he had to work on Monday and he spent the previous night with her fussing so I could sleep.

Anyway I am pretty sure feeding is making her tummy hurt. It’s either something in my diet or it could be her nursing pattern and the fact that she’s not getting a good mix of foremilk/ hindmilk. She could be swallowing air or not properly latching on too. Basically it could be anything…

I am just overwhelmed, frustrated and at a loss right now. I want to know what the problem is so it can be fixed but there is just so much conflicting information out there and nothing seems to be working.

Today I’ve tried breast compressions during feeding. I just read about breast compression to encourage baby to finish feeding on a breast as opposed to sleeping before sufficient hindmilk is consumed.

Everly is very soothed by feeding and has fallen asleep during feeds since she was born. I chatted with a lactation consultant about this at The farm and she showed me how to compress the breast and keep her nursing longer. I had no idea that poor latch and baby’s dozing at the breast can be a cause of colic.

To get more info I am also reading about:

Help relieve abdominal pain in infants with colic.
Colic and the breastfed baby, diet issues, let-down and other causes.

Last night was much of the same fussiness. She didn’t sleep for very long and when time came for feedings she would only nurse for like 10-15min before pulling off, fussing and grunting or falling asleep. The pulling off and fussing/ grunting is hell on the nipples and I wish she would just nurse long enough to get sufficient milk. It might reduce the constant nursing and allow us all to get some sleep.

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