Breastfeeding a Baby with a food Intolerance: by Dr. Trill

I’d like you to meet Dr. Trill. Creator and founder of “Free to feed”. She’s a mother to two beautiful daughters who had severe infant food sensitivities. Check out her story below to LEARN more.

We were told that our daughter June had colic.  She screamed constantly.  All day, all night, for weeks!  My husband and I were exhausted, confused, and constantly worried.  At 3 weeks old, we woke to find her completely covered in a rash a massive bloody diaper.  Our pediatrician did not seem phased and lightly mentioned that I could try removing dairy from my diet.  I did exactly that, only to find the blood and rash continuing to escalate along with her cries for help.

I finally received a referral to a specialist, who took pity on my soul and admitted us to the hospital.  After we were admitted, the nurse walked in as I was breastfeeding June and she was livid. She said I could not breastfeed any longer and just left it at that. Then the doctor informed us that "your breast milk is killing your baby" and I was devastated. Breastfeeding had already been a challenge and I was finally getting the hang of it, or so I thought. To test out the theory, we were told June needed to go through a 24-hour starvation period.

Those hours stretched into what felt like decades. She screamed herself to sleep then awoke and did it again. Since I was literally the food, holding her made her even more upset. If I tried, she would continuously root and we both cried. Pumping in the room to keep my supply up made it even worse. I found myself sitting in the hospital stairwell, pumping my poisonous milk and sobbing uncontrollably. Confused and terrified by what I had somehow done wrong by doing what I was always told was best for my baby.

It was determined that my daughter had a food intolerance and was reacting to dietary proteins transferred to my breast milk.  Unfortunately, doctors are not able to effectively test infants to determine what they are reacting to, particularly if it is a non-IgE mediated reaction.  At this point, I was given an incredibly expensive corn syrup based hypoallergenic formula.  Wanting to continue breastfeeding for financial and nutritional reasons but finding little information or support, I removed the top 8 allergens from my diet and nursed June until her first birthday.  This caused my own malnutrition and postpartum mental health concerns due to the unnecessarily restrictive diet and isolation that resulted. 

Fast forward a few years to my second daughter, Rose.  She had the same ailment and I was awestruck by the lack of content, support, and resources available to get us through round two.  That is when I created Free to Feed.  Originally, Free to Feed was to be a simple website that would translate scientific literature into digestible content (pun intended) for everyday parents.  It quickly evolved into a mission to spread awareness about dietary transmission and to build products to help parents navigate child food allergies. 

I am no longer nursing (Rose weaned at one) but I am inspired and motivated by the thousands of mothers who are impacted by this every year.  Today, I am developing a test strip to allow mothers at home to detect food allergens in their breast milk! I offer Food Allergy and Breastfeeding Master Classes for Parents and Professionals as well as one on one consults to empower women to continue breastfeeding through infant food allergies.  Giving mothers the power to be Free to Feed!

You can find out more about allergy free breastfeeding here.

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