Confused about 2yr olds reaction to cheese

[SwimLittleFish]

Ds used to react to dairy (vomiting) and had eczema.
I realised that he could have goats milk and cheese so I carried on giving him that.
More recently, I let him have things with dairy in them but not as a main ingredient (chocolate, cakes, biscuits) and he's been fine.
He's been having proper butter on toast now too.
He's had two fairly strong reactions to cheese. He tried a little bit of babybel and he had a little bit of pizza. Both times he got hives all over and started coughing a lot. He's had bits of pizza before with no reaction. I gave him piriton and he was ok.
When we had him tested, we were told that he had no reaction to dairy and was therefore not allergic to it.
Does anyone have any experience or knowledge about this or anything similar?
I'm a bit confused by it as the coughing made me really worried and sounded quite serious.

My DH has a funny reaction to strong cheddar (pins and needles on his face) but is fine with dairy in general.
I have read that you can be allergic to cheese but it's not the same as a cows milk (dairy) allergy - some enzyme in the cheese is the allergen.
I don't know much else I'm afraid!

Thanks Igglybuff as that will be helpful to know!
I didn't realise you could be allergic to just cheese.

He's been eating goats cheese and feta with no problems.
It must just be cow's cheese then. Its all very confusing! I wonder if he'll grow out of it like he seems to have done with other dairy or if theres just a tolerance threshold. Help!

My dd was very dairy intolerant as baby/toddler. Now at 6 she can tolerate most dairy apart from cheese which gaves her the trots! Even cheese powder in food does it. Weird.

If it is giving him hives then it is not an intolerance, it is an allergy. Whilst it is rare to be allergic to cows milk protein and not goats, it is not unheard of. It is also common to be able to tolerate cmp in very processed or cooked forms eg margarine, cakes but not in cheese or milk.

I would go back and ask for a re-test.

Thanks wb.
I've just remembered that he's had icecream fine too over the summer. He's not had much but maybe half a scoop about 4 times. He had no reaction there either.
Is cheese more concentrated? I've not tried cows yoghurt or milk.
I'll have to try and get a retest.

missmoopy thats interesting to know. thanks.

Yes my DH only reacts to cheddar. No other cheese.

It's worth speaking to a specialist and making it clear it's not a dairy issue. It can't be the cows milk - must be something in the cheese which comes as a result of it being turned into cheese iyswim.