Possible dairy intolerance in baby, conflicting advice

[Bumperlicioso]

DD2 is 7 months and for the past month or so nearly every night she has been coughing in the night/early morning and throwing up her milk, it's literally been bubbling out of her. If she hasn't had milk, or chucked all the milk up then she has been bringing up a clear sticky fluid.

I've been to the dr's 4 times in the past 5 weeks. The first time she definitely had a bad cough and a temp but the dr just said it was a tail end of a virus. Then it stopped for a week or so, then started again, along with a gunky eye. Took her to another dr who proscribed drops for the eye and said being sick was probably just phlegm.

Then when it had been going on every night for another two weeks I took her to our usual dr who gave us an inhaler for the coughing and suggested just giving her water at night. Still going on. So on the off chance we stopped giving her dairy and lo the vomiting and coughing stopped.

Just took her back again today as I didn't really know where to go from her. It seems my dr doesn't really believe in a dairy intolerance, and said if it was an allergy it would be all day and straight after dairy. Suggested putting her back on the dairy so she is not malnourished and gave us ventolin inhaler, and sent us to the HV to get her weighed. He said he wouldn't refer her to a paediatrician unless she is not thriving.

So went to HV clinic this morning, weight is fine. HV said to keep her off dairy for a month then reintroduce it and see how she is.

I also mentioned to the dr that when we gave her homous she came up in hives (I think that is right, raised red skin) around her mouth which lasted a couple of hours. Dr's solution was 'don't give her homous', HV's response was 'well, I'd have thought she was too young for homous'.

So I'm now completely confused, don't want to keep giving DD inhalers unnecessarily, don't want to keep her off dairy unnecessarily, and don't want her to start being sick again (involving being up for 2 hours every night till she's stopped coughing herself sick).

Any advice? If I am to keep her off dairy what alternatives/dairy free snacks can I give her?

My GP and HVs responses when ds reacted to egg were don't give him egg then/isn't he too young for eggs.

I'd cut out dairy and see how it goes. Are you breastfeeding?

Oh and the reaction to hummus could be the tahini - sesame is quite allergenic I think.

You can slowly reintroduce dairy in a few months as she may grow out of it. Also try different types of dairy to see what the reactions are. DS reacted worse to milk (sick) compared to cheese (wind)

Also an intolerance is different to an allergy - your doc should know that.

As for hummus - it could have been the lemon juice in it. DS reacted like that to acidic foods including tomatoes when he was that age. Indeed some sources suggest steering clear of acidic foods until 12 months. Also hummus has sesame seed paste in it - so could trigger a peanut allergy. So I'd be wary - check her with tiny bits of citrus and if she reacts similarly then should be fine.

Cows milk shouldn't be given as a main drink until 1. Have you tried formula?

Thanks for the replies.

WRT to the homous, I did wonder if it was the tahini, could it be linked to a nut allergy? Dr didn't seem concerned. She has satsumas and tomatoes with no problems, though possibly a little rash from strawberries. I seem to remember DD1 having similar. But she lived on homous!

As for the fact that different things can cause different reactions, which I also suggested, apparently there is no evidence for that, it's all or nothing, and anything else is just anecdotal from mums (who probably go on the internet too much he might as well have said ).

I think I will steer clear of dairy for a while then start trying to introduce it. She is breastfed. Presumably formula is dairy so may agitate as well, which is a pain actually as I have just got around to the idea of trying her with formula to try and get her to sleep at night!

Any advice on good dairy free foods? Will miss the easiness of giving her cheese and yoghurt.

Yes formula is dairy but wondered if she'd had any.

DS can't have dairy which is a pain! He's ok with hummus but not until he was 1. I gave eggy bread and avocado on rice cakes for high fat snacks at that age. Plus biscuits with no dairy. Also oat milk or coconut milk enriched with calcium (not the stuff you use for curries - you can get it in the same section as soya milk etc).

Thanks. At the moment she seems fine with just removing obvious dairy, milk, yoghurt etc. She's had broadband croissant with no obvious ill effect.

Broadband? I mean bread and croissant although I guess it won't be long before she's gnawing on the broadband cables

Just to give you my experience; ds was intolerant to dairy and would vomit if he was given milk/yoghurt/cheese. I don't really have much dairy myself so he wasn't sick often when I was bfing but would get arash and exzema if I'd had dairy. The drs and hv's were as helpful as yours
I avoided dairy for a while and used oats milk enriched with calcium. It was a real pain.
A few months later I tried him on goats milk and he was absolutely fine with it! How I rejoiced. He was also fine with goats cheese and yoghurt.
Now he's fine with food containing dairy as a minor ingredient (cakes, biscuits etc) and has even had a few spoons of icecream with no consequences.
I think most children do grow out of it but for the time being, I'm carrying on with the goats stuff.

Ds also reacted to houmous and lentils. I'm also worried that it might be realted to a nut allergy. I've never avoided anything that says 'not suitable for nut allergy suffers...' but have never given him any nuts.
Everytime he eats lentils now, he gets red cheeks but no other reaction.

My friends dd has cows milk intolerance, it makes her chesty and coughs up phlegm etc. Shes 5 now and has some dairy but still gets ill if she has alot. You could try soya or goats milk formula? Are you avoiding dairy whilst breastfeeding? I also make my own hummous by blitzing a tin of chick peas with garlic and lemon juice, I usually add red pesto too, for extra flavour, but you could leave this out. Wouldn't recommend broadband cables though!