Help needed!

[Brasso4]

My DD is 6 months old and has been breast fed since she was 5 days old. Prior to 5 days, she did have some formula and had one bottle of formula when she was around 12 weeks old (because I left my expressed milk at home).

We have recently begun the process of introducing solid food and she was quite enjoying fruit and veg.

We decided to introduce breakfast this week and gave her some baby porridge and she has reacted to it (reaction took around 5 mins.) She only had a tiny amount, and her face went really red/blotchy, she had red marks on her thighs and her chest (hives?). This lasted for around an hour or so.

I am assuming that she has some form of allergy. The product was Cow and Gate Banana porridge but I am assuming the worst and that she has a milk allergy (although she never reacted to formula). Can someone suggest where to go now? (I am going to make a GPs appointment today.) I will stick to the vegetables and go back to baby rice with EBM. Any other advice would be lovely, I feel soo guilty, like I have hurt my beautiful baby.

Look on the packet for the ingrediants. It may be something different to milk, could be wheat? Oats?

Please dont feel guilty this is nothing to do with what you have or haven't done.

I agree there could be a gluten problem here. It's best to see the GP & take it from there.

Strangely some babies have hives & there is never a real answer.

Definitely milk. Gave DS a tiny amount on a spoon at lunchtime and same reaction. Feel gutted for my LO - possibility of no cake/chocolate! Wiil have to go back to expressing as don't want to risk formula. Have appt with GP on Tuesday but till then, no dairy or wheat for my LO. Thanks for responses, at least she does not react to my milk, despite my own quite large dairy consumption - mainly chocolate while BF!!!

brasso, dealing with a dairy allergy is a pain in the a**e, its true, but don't despair, when the time comes you can get dairy free chocolate and dairy free butter so you can make wonderful home made chocolate cakes (amongst others) that DS will love :-)

sorry to hear about his reaction though and good luck with the GP

If she took cow milk-based formula without problems, it shouldn't be a milk allergy? My dd has it, and can't take any formula but that hypoallergenic stuff.
Don't give her anything new and see if you can get her tested. Also for other stuff on the label, soy etc. Good luck!

Maybe soya?

Milk on a spoon gave a reaction and the porridge only has milk, banana and rice. I wonder if it is an allergy that has developed recently?

Same reaction as the porridge - perhaps slightly worse. Around the lips DD went red. She then developed lumps on her chin, neck and the top of her chest. The skin where the bumps was was also red. The bumps looked a bit like nettle stings (hives?). Her face then looked blotchy up to the eyes, which also looked blotchy. After about an hour everything had returned to normal.

get her weighed and find out a doise for her. dd4 could only have 1ml of piriton when she had her reaction to milk.

def get referred to allergy clinic, and a dietician.

stick to what she is ok with for now.

plain porriage made with water is fine.

and breathe.

and a big {{{hug}}} from me.

did the reaction look like this?

Yes, perhaps a bit worse.

that reaction spread down her chest, and we ended up in a+e. was v scary.

def get her to GP and get a dose sorted.

i tried milk on the back of dd4 neck after that reaction, as the a+e dept said it was probably the porriage and not the milk and this is what one tiny drop did here

dd4 is now 21months, allergic to milk, eggs and nuts, but doing very well.

Brasso I could have posted almost exactly the same as you. DS2 (just shy of 6 mths) had exactly the same reaction from a 'just add water' porridge. Made his skin where he currently has eczema go just like you said. I have avoided since and am off to GPs. Let me know how you get on? I'll post back if I get anywhere.

Hi Brasso - my girl had a reaction to cheese at 6 months (I BLW and BF as well) - her hand blew up where she'd been holding the chunk of cheddar.

I got her checked out, as I was convinced it was a cow's milk allergy, but she has no allergies whatsoever. But - it put my mind at rest massively. I don't know if it was just the first few months of getting used to actual food rather than BM (she reacted to tomatoes loads, apparently, lots of babies do).

Small note - the blood test for allergies is a disaster for a baby (I also had a right old witch doing it to DD) - go for the prick tests if you can. Far less miserable for a baby.

A relaxing breakfast this morning - DD had some Plum porridge made with EBM and there was no reaction to the porridge. Unfortunately, I think that her food experiences over the past two days have had an affect on my little one - she is now refusing to eat. So will try some gentle fruit and veg at lunchtime but might leave things for a couple of days.
Doctors appt set for next Tuesday and seeing HV tomorrow. Thank you for all your help with this - it has been quite scary. Just hoping it is only a milk allergy....

Hello thought I'd check back in after GP today. Long story short - was told no testing,as very often reactions will change over time so try dairy again in matter of months. Was told other food stuffs would be a trial and error thing (was asking for any 'foods likely to create a reaction' lists or similar as LO has also had a vomiting reaction to banana). I also had to ask for advice re formula as although DS is breastfed and hasn't had formula to date, he will need a bottle or two during the day when I go back to work part time. Was prescribed Neocate so we'll see how we go.

Glad to hear you had a successful breakfast, brasso, how did you get on with fruit etc?

Fruit was fine at lunch time - LO ate her whole portion of pear!
Your experience sounds interesting grin, although not sure I like the trial and error idea.....(will be very scared of anaphalictic (sp) shock).
Interestingly, my LO was also sick with broccoli, but we think she gagged herself sick because she didn't like it!!!

Mine just plain old refuses broc, unless it is in an Ella's Kitchen