Nettle rash round baby's mouth after porridge/weetabix - allergy?

[Selenium]

Apologies for my ignorance - no-one in my family has any allergies so I'm not really sure what I should be looking for, but I was hoping someone with more wisdom might be able to help me.

My ds is 6 months old and we have just started weaning. He has been ebf up to now and we are doing blw. We have started giving him some porridge/weetabix (mixed with whole cow's milk) on loaded spoons for breakfast and he loves them both. However, after he has eaten, his mouth and chin which have had contact with the food are turning bright red with raised white bumps on them (like nettle rash). This is clearly itchy as he is scratching himself. The rash and redness disappears within about half an hour.

Does this sound like some sort of allergy? He doesn't get this rash when he has yogurt, so I don't see how it can be the cow's milk?

I took him to the GP this week as he has quite dry skin on his face and she gave me some cream for it. When I mentioned the nettle rash, she didn't really comment.

Help! What should I do next?? Thanks.

[ilovepowerhoop]

you could try him with just cows milk e.g. dab it on his skin or mix the porridge/weetabix with breastmilk so that you could rule out what is affecting him

[Selenium]

Thanks for your reply. I've just dabbed a little bit of cow's milk on the skin of his leg and will wait and see what happens...

[Madamecastafiore]

DS got this from weetabix and it used to give him horrendous nappy rash, almost burning his skin so may be weetabix or porridge and not milk.

[Selenium]

That's interesting, Madamcastafiore! No reaction on his leg so far. Next step, I guess, is to try making the weetabix/porridge with bm or rice milk (damn, I hate expressing!) and see what happens. If it is a milk allergy, could he grow out of it? Worried about his diet being too restrictive...

[OHforDUCKScake]

You would more likely have to dab the milk on a mucus membrane (his lip) because it sounds as though he is having an oral allergy to it.

It is possible to be allergic to milk and not yoghurt or cheese, because the proteins change in their process.

Dab milk on his lip, then you will know.

[Selenium]

Thanks, OHforDUCKScake. I've just dabbed milk on his lip and slightly around his mouth and still nothing. Bit of a puzzle. That's interesting that you can be allergic to the milk alone but not all dairy.

[Selenium]

Update: the rash and redness did come up on his lip/mouth eventually - took about 15 minute to come up. So it does look like the cow's milk is at fault. Should I just avoid cow's milk and tentatively try the other dairy products and see what happens with those? As I said, yogurt hasn't caused any problems so far.

[forevergreek]

Yogurt / cheese etc has had extra processes done to it compared to milk alone so that may be why it's just milk.

If you go to your gp they can arrange for him to be allergy tested ( particularly dairy) and see where to go from there.

Have you offered cheese yet? It's just that as a child I was allergic to dairy also but just sick etc but which cheese I was highly allergic as in throat swelling up and needing treatment. Grew out of both by around 7 years though.
Not trying to scaremonger, just it might give piece of mind to get checked first ( or give him cheese/ milk etc whilst at doctors surgey incase)

[Selenium]

Thanks for your reply forevergreek. That's good that you grew out of your allergies eventually. It's also made me realised that I should go to the GP first before I try any more self-diagnosis on him, as I realise that allergies can be much more serious than a rash. I have given my ds cheese a few times but he hasn't actually eaten much (most food goes to his mouth and gets dropped quite soon after as is common with blw in the early days!) No reaction to cheese seen so far though.

[forevergreek]

Yes doctors can do prick tests now with everything from dairy to grass so it might help a little.

There are many alternative nowadays also to dairy products and most children do outgrow allergies ( something like 96%), so it's only a temp thing.

Generally if they have a reaction but not serious then you are encouraged to remove food from main source ie not dairy every day, but to keep offering incase it changes and to build up a tolerance ie: a bit of milk on a spoon once a month

[Selenium]

Thanks, forevergreek. Good to know it will probably only be a temporary thing and interesting that you're advised to build up tolerance. I'm going to remove dairy from ds's diet until I get to see the GP about it next week and see what they say. Just starting to realise that milk is in LOTS of things!!