Seeing GP tomorrow...

[Laura032004]

DS has an intolerance to milk/lactose? and gluten. He used to be able to have goats milk/cheese but we went on holiday for a few weeks, and he didn't have these, and now we're back, he gets diahorrea/stomach pain when he has them.

As a milk alternative he has rice milk (soya milk gives him terrible diahorrea). However, he's now down to 2 v.short bf's a day and I want to increase his milk/calcium intake. Is rice milk nutritionally OK for an 18m old? Is there a formula version?

When we gave him the goats milk after the holiday it has given him a few patches of excema (which he used to have before we stopped dairy products). Does this indicate an allergy or an intolerance?

Saw GP 2 weeks ago about it, and he admitted that he didn't know anything about it (I probably knew more than him, but I'm playing v.dumb as I want to hear what they think), but said that if I gave him a bit of time he'd read up on it. Fingers crossed he has!

bump

GP's in my experience have very limited knowledge of allergies - sorry. We went down the alternative route of testing after the hospitals allergy consultant could not even determin what dd was allergic to (after endoscopy had confirmed her health probs were food allergy related) We saw a Kneisologist who was fantastic and in a half hour told us what numerous appointments and testing had failed to diagnose. This was 5 years ago and she still has to avoid cows dairy, beef and yeast.

I lost all faith in conventional medicine as far as allergies go after this and would not go down that route again - painful and inaccurate in dd's case!

Sheeps milk is supposed to be the nearest in consititution to human breast milk and they do make a sheeps milk formula - make sure whatever he does go on has calcium or added calcium

Good luck!

Hi Laura
How old is your DS? SORRY! Just seen he is 18 m.
I know some1 at Mums N Tots group where I go whos DS also suffers with the same intolerance!
I really felt for him at easter time etc....
I will have a talk to her & see if I can get any info 4U.
Her DS is nearly 3. It may be a few days b4 I see her, so bare with me.
Have you tried the net for any sites.
Not really educated on this kind of thing.
Hope some1 can help on mn
xx

if your child has not had allergy testing from a recognised consultant I'd be very wary of leaving food out of their diet. Sometimes its the only thing to do if there is a food intolerance as conventional allergy testing can't show that but really you need to try and see an allergy consultant, especially if you have gluten to worry about as well as milk. Several mumsnetters have had good results with kneisologists but you have to choose your parctitioner carefully.

Rice milk is very low in nutrients, even those with added calcium don't contain a lot else. I don't know of a formula version and I don't know where to get sheeps milk formula. The website www.lactoseintolerant.co.uk may have a link. Your doctor can prescibe a hydrolised formula suitable for children who can't have normal milk or you could try Pepti Junior. If your child was mine I'd give him probiotics and then try goats or sheeps milk cheese as his problems with goats milk may be temporary. If that still caused problems I'd try lactose reduced milk, maybe with added lactase. I'd ask the gp for a prescription for non milk formula as a back up. Basically I'd try really hard to get something other than rice milk into him, at least until he's past 3. Many children outgrow milk intolerance by then.

Probiotics were brilliant for my son's eczema. Temporary milk intolerance is common after an illness but probiotics can help with that. I really think they could help your child.

Result - he's going to refer us to a paeditrician (sp?). We're getting somewhere finally!

brilliant. Only problem is that will take weeks if you're lucky, months if not. Best to phone the clinic in a couple of weeks to check they have had a letter