Please talk to me about dairy intolerance in a baby

[Bumperlicioso]

dd2 is 7 mo. For the past 5 weeks on and off she has been sick in the night. Started off with a barking cough which seemed to make her sick. That eased off but the last 2 weeks she has been sick more often than not in the night.

It is usually late night early morning (still night waking anyway). Her eyes have been red, nose streaming fir the past 3 days. Been to see dr 3 times (diff dr each time). 1st one said virus, second said catarrh, and today dr said maybe stomach not liking milk at night. She is coughing her milk up, or clear sticky fluid if no milk. It's hard to tell if the cough is making her sick or the vomitting making her cough.

She gets really phlegmy at night and coughs a lot. Her chest is clear but dr given us an inhaler to try, and suggested water instead of milk (she is breastfed) at night. So we don't know if it is a cold, hayfever, refkuxy stomach, but a friend also mentioned dairy intolerance. She is weaning at the moment and has been for about a month. Does this sound like an intolerance of some sort?

Poor you, sounds hard. Not sure, hope someone comes along with more knowledge - but DS2 had bad milk protein allergy as a small baby. Symptoms were slightly different from your DC - he vomited up the walls as you changed his nappy, and shot it out the other end at the same time. Generally threw up a lot, and had v bad tummy pains so crying and screaming a lot. GP referred us to paediatrician who diagnosed milk protein allergy and put him on a 'special' formula called neocate, which was milk with all the protein stripped out of it. Bleugh. This sorted the problem quickly, and he had grown out of the milk protein allergy at a year old - had no dairy intolerance since and is as tough as old boots.

Thanks. If it is an intolerance it's going to be a PITA to restrict her diet (and mine too?) so I want to know if the symptoms seem likely before starting. Going to try the inhaler for now, but I may start a food diary for her.

Hi
My DS was diagnose with a milk intolerance at 8 weeks old. He never took to his bottles and used 2 scream the house down when i tried to feed him. I put it down to wind...One day he had a dirty nappy which had blood mixed in it. I totally freaked out and went straight to GP who transfered us to hosp where they diagnosed him as having a milk protein intolerance. His weight dropped very low...right off the percentiles.
Hes now 11 mnths and is still on a special formula and has never tried any dairy since but we are hopefully soon going to see if he can tolerate it.
Must be very frustating having your DD be like this and not know what it is.
Hope you get the answers your after.

Sorry, yes my DS had blood in his poo as well, I'd forgotten that bit! But take heart - he was fine with dairy from 1 year onwards, no problems.

Thanks Haley, it's not being anything that bad, though the vomiting and retching has been pretty sad :(

She has always had bad wind (gut wind) but DD1 did too so we just put it down to immaturity. She wasn't ever sick like this until she was weaned, and was EBF until then, rather than formula which is obviously cow's milk. So it may be something she is eating, she doesn't eat massive amounts of dairy, but yoghurt, cheese, butter and stuff, but I understand milk can be found in other products e.g. bread.

On the other hand it may just be a load of phlegm from a cold so may amount to nothing more. She hasn't had a temperature though.

It is very hard when you know something isnt right with them but you can't put your finger on what it is.
My DS has alot of health problems and i spend everynight searching the internet to see if i can find someone who has similar experiences to try and help me deal with my DS. Even though there are lots of doctors looking into his problems the not knowing is a horrible feeling.
I do hope you find out whats going on and can put your mind at rest.