First consultant appointment this morning...

[CakeRage]

He confirmed DS has a dairy allergy, and very likely a peanut allergy too. Wheat and soya are also possibilities, but he said the skin prick tests for them are too inaccurate at his age, so he'll test them with food challenges once his symptoms have settled. So for now we are avoiding all four.

He has been prescribed Neocate, which I have to try and persuade him on before I go back to work (in 5 weeks - yikes!), and will set us up with an allergy nurse and a dietician. Relieved that we've finally been taken seriously (the consultant was lovely), but a bit bummed about the results.

I was expecting the dairy allergy, but the peanuts has thrown me a bit, especially as he said that he would very likely outgrow the milk allergy in childhood, but peanuts could be a problem for life. Please tell me some reassuring stories about your peanut-allergic DCs who have lovely uneventful lives!

having nut allergies is a challenge, but once you get used to living with avoiding nuts it does get easier. Obviously days out, school, holidays, eating out, shopping etc will always be a challenge.

7 yr old allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, egg and most recently milk. (we like to do things the wrong way round and grow into milk allergy rather than out of it! ;)

good luck with your food challenges

how old is ur son? I have heard of people adding a touch of vanilla extract to Neocate to sweeten it up a bit. Though many little ones take it without any issues once they get used to the taste. Obv check for allergy advice on vanilla extract as allergy wanrings appear where you would least expect them.

CAN children's allergy network on facebook is good for help and advice.

cake just want to reasure you that with persistence your LO is likely to take neocate. My 9mo son was a complete boob monster nut after being strongly adviced to stop BF (due a wide range of allergies) we got him on it. Is your LO bf? If so the way we did it is I hired a decent pump and expressed milk then gave him breast milk with a little neocate and gradually increased it. Took 1 week.

Good luck!!!!

Sorry for typos sleeping babe in arms!

He is nearly 8 months, and breastfed.

Thanks for the reassurance, Bear! The consultant recommended the same thing, so I have expressed enough to give him a bottle tonight and will mix a little Neocate in to see what he thinks. He accepts BM pretty well from a bottle, so fingers crossed!

We have been avoiding dairy and wheat while we waited for this appointment, so getting quite good at label-checking. Just have to check for a few more things now!

Well yesterday he took a bottle that was 1oz Neocate mixed with 3oz expressed milk and guzzled it, so today we tried equal amounts of both and he took that reasonably well too!

They always do exactly what you don't expect!

Can I just ask why you have been advised to stop bf? My dd was diagnosed with milk and egg allergy at 6 months. We later discovered she also has a nut allergy. We were prescribed neocate but I only kept a tin for emergencies and never had to use it as dd bf until she was 2.5yrs old. I did have to cut out raw dairy from my own diet though as she reacted to that via my breast milk.

I wasn't outright advised to stop. He reacts to things via my milk, so the consultant gave me the choice of continuing, and having the dietician help me with a milk/nut/wheat/soy free diet, or using the Neocate.

I had originally planned to breastfeed only til he was on solids (for lots of reasons), so the last 2 months have been BFing out of necessity, not choice. The Neocate was a no-brainer for me!

Ok, just wondered if you had been told to stop. Exclusion diets are hard to do too. As I only had milk to cut out it wasn't too difficult.

Thanks, Miaow! We just had our first Neocate poo this morning. Grim.

Yesterday he was happily taking bottles that were 2/3 Neocate and 1/3 BM, so today I'm trying 3/4 - 1/4 and if he's still ok with that, tomorrow I'll see if he'll accept 100% Neocate. The whole process has been much simpler than I expected, although I have still been BFing his night feeds cause I can't get my head around the whole bottles at night deal. That said, he is noticeably sicker and more rashy in the mornings, so it obviously is making a difference!

I feel like I should have some kind of special 'last' breastfeed, especially as I'll never do it again (DS is the second and LAST child!). Although my nips are dancing a merry dance of relief at stopping, I do feel a little sad. It's for the best all round, though!

cake my DS is also my second and last child, I have consoled myself with the plan of getting myself some lovely new underwear (once boobs are normal again and I've worked for a bit to get some money!).

have I got advised to stop BF as my DS skin was not healing, he was still reacting quite severely to stuff in BM and there was just no way of knowing to what (he has multiple allergies). I was no dairy, wheat, egg, soya, and nuts. Also I'm a veggie. A very grim diet, thou I can safely say I'm fitting into my pre-pregnancy clothes no problem.