Possible milk allergy

[Mistymoo]

My ds is 6mths and has been bf since birth. He started having solids just after 5 months and one thing I tried him with was fruity porridge. After he was on this for about 4 days I noticed big red, dry patches on his torso. I thought I'd stop the porridge and the rash died down.

The other day my mum had ds as I was ill and she gave him a bottle of formula. He was sick after having it and sick later on too. Also when I changed him later the blotches had come back. So I think he has a milk allergy. I'm going to the drs tomorrow about it.

My dh keeps asking when can he drink cow's milk properly and I said it's not until 1 yr but I don't think he'll be having it. He thinks the formula and the milk powder are different to cows milk. Is he right? I don't think so because you can be prescribed with soya formula if there are allergies. Could someone please tell me which of us is right?

Thanks

Formula is usually made from cows milk.

If your baby is allergic to milk you can get goats milk or soya milk formula in the supermarket / chemists if you want to try it yourself if you dont get an answer from the Drs.

Be careful when you are weaning as milk is in lots of food that you wouldn't expect.

Once your DS gets to 1 if you want to avoid cows milk then you can buy rice / almond / soya milk easily in the supermarket - or there is a brand called lactofree which is cows milk with the lactose removed.

Thanks for your reply. I know quite a lot about it as I had allergies for years when I was younger (fortunately I have grown out of them). DH will not be convinced though!

It's worth mentioning (and you'll probably have read this on these allergy threads), that if a child is allergic to milk then there's a good chance they'll also be allergic to soya, so you should also be careful about using soya formula or soya products.

Given that you have had allergies this increases the chance of your DC having allergies. I had multiple allergies as a child and both my DC now do too. My brother was never allergic to anything though, cause of allergies is not known for sure.

It would be good for you to continue breastfeeding for the longer term, until you've got an alternative sorted that you're all happy with. BF was a real lifeline to my daughter who stopped growing after I introduced solids. She was never able to have any formula, and we tried loads of types. I started a thread on this today as I'm going through the same process with my son now. I wish I'd known about Mumsnet allergy boards back then, I've found the contact with other experienced allergic folks to be so helpful.

Best of luck!

i think you should hold of on any form of animal milk, until you know what sort of allergy your child has. (apart from your own breast milk of course!)

introduing goats milk would/may be suitable for a INTOLERANCE ALLERGY, but not for a IgE classic FOOD ALLERGY, due to the severe nature of classic food allergy reactions.

the same stands for nut milk , such as the almond........

Keep food simple and introduce one at a time, i would avoid packet food, etc, and make your own to confirm that you are aware of the ingredients in the food.

seek medical advice.

Was at dr today and he is not saying ds has an allergy to milk but something is definately triggering his exzema. He said it would be the additives in the milk or porridge. Have been advised to hold off milk at the moment when dealing with solids and basically introduce him to everything very slowly to see what is a trigger. I think it will be a long haul thing but hopefully I'll manage to work it all out :)

That should read it "could" be the additives in the milk or porridge.

My DD had very similar symptoms - severe and prolonged vomiting when she first had formula (12 weeks) and yoghurt (6 months).

She was diagnosed with cow's milk protein allergy by a paed at about 8 months and was put on a dairy free diet - ie nothing containing cow's milk protein at all.

She was also underweight from around 12 weeks, I think possibly because although I was exclusively BFing (apart from the odd experimental bottle of formula) I wasn't on a dairy free diet. She put on weight quickly once she was mainly on solids at the age of 12 months.

We reintroduced dairy at about 18 months which gave her eczema, but fortunately when we retried about 2 years she seemed okay, so we gradually reintroduced it and she doesn't seem to be allergic at all now.