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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