Is it possible to be intolerant to soya but not dairy?

[ilovetosleep]

Hi, I wonder if any one can advise me. I am getting conflicting advice from hcps re this. DS and I (bf) have been dairy, soy, gluten and egg free since he was 5 months, he's almost one now. It definitely eased severe reflux symptoms which were then completely eradicated when we started omeprazole.

We recently had a failed wheat trial and a semi successful soya one - when I say that, I mean he did have small patches of eczema and runny stools but paed said this was not enough of a reaction to be concerned about Either way it's not a huge issue as we eat v little soya, and he seems fine with it as an ingredient eg tamari sauce in cooking, and I don't really like the idea of a little boy having so much soya in his diet to use it as a milk replacement.

Anyway now the paed wants me to start the milk ladder. I always thought dairy allergy was sometimes accompanied by soya but have never heard of a soya allergy without dairy allergy. So would I be wasting my time/potentially causing DS grief by starting a milk challenge that is destined to fail?

We are just about getting sleep back on track and I don't want to wreck it, on the other hand it would be awesome if he could eat dairy.

(Btw skin tests negative for wheat, soy and dairy, positive for egg)

Thanks in advance

[ppeatfruit]

Sorry I wouldn't do it but that's me, it's possible to be allergic to both dairy and soya.

[momb]

You can have soya allergy without dairy allergy. Have all the tests you can and work out exactly what's what: the less you have to limit his diet now the more things he'll be used to eating by the time he's an adult.

[ilovetosleep]

momb thats what I'm worried about. Ds1 eats anything and everything and I'm finding it a struggle (and pretty depressing) having to limit DS2s diet so much. The thought of having an extremely fussy toddler who has never tasted dairy is pretty depressing - I can't imagine it would be easy to introduce new foods to an older child.

I know he wont have an ige reaction, so it's less daunting I suppose. And i guess there is a chance he'll be fine a certain number of 'rungs' up the ladder even if he can't tolerate fresh milk?

momb when you say all the tests you can, what do you mean? We have had skin tests but not offered anything more. We are doing all food trials at home ourselves - do you count these as tests?

We are hopefully repeating the egg test when he turns one as they were optimistic that many kids grow out of it and his reaction was not severe.

I really really want him to tolerate gluten as when we did the trial he loved bread!

[momb]

No sorry, I meant the trials. Just get as much info as you can so that you limit him as little as possible.

[ppeatfruit]

We don't eat wheat but we eat spelt, Kamut and pure rye bread (so not bread deprived!) they are ancient forms of wheat that are much easier to digest than the normal wheat, they have some gluten but it doesn't affect us like the normal bread.

Everyone has some foods they don't eat, because our bodies are different it's just how it is.

Also there are good non dairy and non soya milks on the market now.

[ilovetosleep]

I haven't managed to get him to eat anything 'milk' based unless made with bm - breakfast is hard work. He refuses porridge if made with almond milk, koko or water, and I haven't yet tried him on other forms of gluten so toast is out too as I can't bake bread every night. I think we'll start on the milk ladder this week. He had some tofu yesterday and his skin seems ok so maybe I was imaginining the reaction last time to soya? It's such a minefield. I never know what is a reaction and what is coincidence.

[HungryDam]

Ilovetosleep, try some honey in the porridge with koko milk, my DS also a refuser started having it.

[ppeatfruit]

We use the gluten free oats now they're much nicer.

[ilovetosleep]

Yes we use gf oats at home anyway. I had been holding off honey ( and just using fruit purée to sweeten it) as he's not yet one, but surely 11.5 months is ok ?! He's a fiercely independent spoon refuse too so that doesn't help!

[InterOuta]

ilove, I would go ahead with the honey. Sounds exactly like my independent DS, so frustrating, wish I had not done BLW.

[ilovetosleep]

DH and I have just now made a discovery, just a day before we were going to start the dairy ladder.

Having been fastidious about my diet for months now, I have just realised that my latest addiction (a particular brand of popcorn) has whey powder and buttermilk powder in it. Its one flavour in a brand that is usually MEWS free, so this just slipped the net.

Anyway I only discovered this brand about a month ago on holiday and ate about 4 large bags over the week. That week DS slept appallingly, woke every hour, and developed a nasty cough. We had 3-4 hours of wakefulness at night towards the end of the week and the rattly cough continued for about a fortnight.

Could this amount in my BM affect him so significantly? Coincidence? We saw GP who diagnosed viral cough/cold etc. I'm now dreading doing the milk ladder. Since then we have been working on his sleep and he's only waking twice a night now from every 2 hours. I'm anticipating having all that over again, and I guess this is the only way to find out if milk was the cause.

Am so stressed out now...

[Gileswithachainsaw]

Tbh if he's happy and sleeping without dairy then why rock the boat?

dd was only intolerant to milk but I worried at first about the restriction and then I just thought, she's happy she eats and sleeps well why ruin that over some sodding cheese.

I decided to leave if til she could actually tell me. We still hardly touch dairy now she has dairy ice cream occasionally and is ok with chocolate but life is so much easier when your not constantly on the look out fir a reaction.

There are so many alternatives and so many ways of making things without dairy it's hardly that important any more Imo.

custard, rice pudding etc can all be made dairy free really easily.

I realise that with multiple restrictions it's much much harder but sleep o's also really important and 1 is so young that you will never know what's down to teething or illness or developmental stage and what's a reaction to food.

I'd leave it

[ppeatfruit]

I agree with Giles Ref. sweeteners; Maybe maple syrup as opposed to honey (which isn't recommended is it?) or rice syrup that's lovely, not too sweet.