C-Section Babies and Probiotics. What’s the science?

[mitchellh]

@lolad Anecdotal - I had massive doses of antibiotics over the course of a few hours in labor, which ended in a cesarean. Our baby girl seemed MISERABLE for the first several weeks. We started lactobacillus reuteri after I did some reading on it and saw remarkable improvement over the following weeks. My husband and I missed a dose for her on 2 separate occasions, each thinking the other person had administered it. Both times we only realized the missed dose after talking over why we had such an extremely fussy baby. She's like a completely different kid.

 

[cassandra77]

@lolad I saw a pediatric dermatologist for a recurring rash that started at 9ish months. Turns out it was simply irritation from bathing, which we do as part of our bed time routine. Derm noted that I have hay fever and that apparently genetically predisposes you to having a less effective skin barrier, which I likely passed on. We started putting on moisturizer after bathing and the rash is gone. Just an idea in seeing as the cause has yet to be determined.

 

[avalonv2]

@lolad Ours was a c section, and also has a milk allergy. One thing that helped tremendously that a colleague suggested was asking your insurance about convering it. I had my pediatrician write a note, sent it to the insurance, not only did they help me find it (in some instances they will ship it to you) but they reimbursed me too.

 

[katrina2017]

@avalonv2 Our pediatrician recommended BioGaia or Jarrow, both of which are inexpensive and widely available. Is there something special you were prescribed?

 

[avalonv2]

@katrina2017 Sorry I wasn't clear, the formula was what was prescribed. Hypoallergenic formula. Super expensive and hard to find, even more so than regular unless you find something like target house brand version of it.

 

[kingdomkings]

@avalonv2 That is a good tip.

Also, worst-case scenario is that the probiotic has no effect, so might be worth a try.

 

[noeltu55]

@lolad We started feeding the probiotic apricots to our C-section baby to improve his regularity, but our OB discouraged us from doing any type of probiotic when he was a newborn. It had been strongly suggested to us by a non-OB doctor.

 

[christian99]

@lolad This might be a silly question (Pregnant FTM) and I’m sorry to answer your question with a question, but why not just avoid cow milk? Or is there a particular advantage to kids drinking cow milk? Or is it just difficult to avoid in premade foods?

 

[lolad]

@christian99 Breastfeeding means mum has to eat dairy free. Bottles mean special formula on prescription. We do both. Rash has improved but not gone, which makes me think it may not be this anyway (but we continue with dairy free).

 

[christian99]

@lolad Oh, interesting! I didn’t think it would impact breastmilk but it makes sense. I was imagining you were putting milk in a sippy cup or something lol. Thanks for explaining

 

[the_precious_one]

@christian99 Also, babies in general shouldn’t drink cow’s milk until after 12 months because cow’s milk inhibits iron absorption (and iron is very important when babies first start solids), and also for a couple of other reasons. It sounds like you don’t really need to know this yet - lots of time to figure things out - but thought I’d mention briefly.

 

[jayfrost123]

@lolad Are you 100% dairy free including things like whey and other dairy by products?

 

[lolad]

@jayfrost123 Yep

 

[james_1991]

@christian99 CMPA means no lactose. And it’s sneaky: medications, processed meats, baked foods, sauces, dressings, some seasonings and a bunch of other stuff have a preservative version of lactose.

And it can take weeks of elimination dieting for the lactose to exit your system, so it’s not an instant change. The mums I know whose babies have CMPA have all switched to formula.

 

[christian99]

@james_1991 It does seem like it would be easier to get the special formula unless a parent stays at home and has enough time to make every food from scratch. Some people are great at that, I’m not though lol

 

[evebr777]

@christian99 OP’s baby is 7 months old meaning they’re still getting all meaningful calories from breast milk or formula. So homemade food isn’t an option at this age. If the baby has a cows milk protein allergy and OP wants to breast feed, OP would need to avoid any products with that protein which is hard (and not very fun). Or baby can go on a special formula but there are obviously pros and cons to formula feeding (one major one being the expense).

 

[christian99]

@evebr777 I know, I was talking about the mother eating homemade food so that milk proteins aren’t given to the baby via breastmilk. I know the baby doesn’t eat much real food, if any, at 7mo.

 

[mitchellh]

@christian99 I thought I had a pretty low dairy diet - basically just cheese. Bummer because it's my favorite snack, but no big deal to give up for awhile in the grand scheme of things.

THERE'S DAIRY IN EVERYTHING. I mean everything. When I tried to cut it out while breastfeeding, I had a day where I read the labels on basically everything that I eat and wound up in frustrated tears because I was starving and couldn't find a single thing in our house that would be both filling and dairy free other than super processed chicken nuggets which were upsetting my stomach. Going truly and completely dairy free is insanely hard.