7 week old with severe milk allergy

[tattyteddy]

hello, just wanted other's experiences please

My ds is 7+1 weeks today and we started off by ebf, however by day 5 he'd lost 13% of birth weight. We ended up doing an overnight stay at RVI hospital and they checked for tongue tie but said there wasn't enough to cut. They decided on a feeding plan and I would breast feed and then top up with formula. I was expressing too, however not getting that much out.

Luckily he started putting weight on by the next day and has been gaining weight ever since. I have continued with combined feeding. Unfortunately, the GP now thinks baby has a milk allergy so he was put on aptimal pepti1 and I continued to bf too. The reason for thinking that he has a milk allergy is that I was finding mucosy blood in this stools.

So all was going well, however the mucosy blood has returned and GP advised to take a break from BF and express and dump to keep supply up. Again this seemed to improve things, however mucosy blood has returned and baby has been prescribed nutrigena proamino.

Any experiences others have had using this, did the mucosy blood go away for good? Were you able to reintroduce normal formula?

Thanks for reading.

[artisanroast]

If he possibly has a milk allergy/intolerance you should be removing milk/lactose from your diet too! If you plan to continue breast feeding.

This may be a bit of a mind field as it also involves checking food labels to see if they have milk/lactose.

You could possibly be referred to a dietitian for yourself but Allergy UK also has some brilliant information so have a wee look on there.

Hope all goes well if you continue to breast feed. If it's going well it may be disappointing to have to stop just for a milk intolerance

good luck

xx

[artisanroast]

Sorry, I realise I have not answered your question at all!!! Very unhelpful!

My friend's daughter had a lactose intolerance causing bad reflux and eczema. She removed lactose from her diet when it was confirmed. Her daughter grew out of the intolerance by 4 years old

xx

[OneSteakBake]

Yes, you need to stop eating diary and push the GP for an appointment with a paediatric allergician so he can be properly tested.

Removing diary at this such early age needs to be monitored by people who know better than a GP. (says she after her GP refused to organise for DS to be tested for a year as he couldn't be allergic to milk in the absence of projectile vomit. A year later, another GP prescribed a lactose free formula that exacerbated DS' symptoms greatly, but which was significantly cheaper than the one indicated by DS' allergician. He got a good telling off after that one though...)

[OneSteakBake]

And no, do not stop breasfeeding/expressing while your child is having the formula. I know it is difficult, but it is a good idea to try to keep your milk supply up to scratch while the right formula is found).

[tattyteddy]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Sorry I haven't posted sooner.

[Curlywurly4]

DS has a dairy allergy and I managed to breastfed him for a long time in the end.

It's recommended that you eliminate dairy and soy initially as lots of babies will have problems with both. There's loads of substitute milk available - oat, almond, are both very good.

You can challenge by slowly reintroducing into your diet once baby has been symptom for a few months and see if they react but ideally you should be referred to the allergy team.

[dementedpixie]

And don't confuse dairy allergy with lactose intolerance as they are not the same. Lactose is the sugar in breastmilk and all other milks so cutting lactose is pointless as lactose is already present in your breastmilk.

Dairy allergy is to do with allergy to cows milk protein and would involve removing all dairy from the diet including lactose free foods (if they still contain the milk proteins)

[StrawberryLeaf]

As above lactose intolerance and dairy (cows milk protein) intolerance are two very different things.

Don't give up breastfeeding, it will help him so much but you do need to cut the dairy out your diet, it's in so much so read all the labels. I always reckoned it took 6 weeks to get dairy completely out my system but I used to see a difference in a week or so.

We got a referral to the kids hospital dietician which was great. My daughter is almost grown out of it now at 4, tolerating everything but direct milk which is great.

There's a fantastic Facebook page of mums breastfeeding cmpi babies. I don't know the exact name now, but look for breastfeeding cmpi.

[StrawberryLeaf]

Breastfeeding with cmpa is the Facebook group.

Cmpa = cows milk protein allergy

[TeddyCan1]

This is perhaps an allergy which is very likely to go away as the baby with time. Don't stop breastfeeding. It is the best thing you can do for your baby. But in my opinion, you stop taking milk and milk products as well as soy products from your diet and see the result. Consult a pediatric immunologist.