Cows milk allergy - your experience

[mrshope]

Hi
I think my DS may have a cows milk intolerance. He is 11 weeks and the GP thinks he has silent reflux but I am wondering if an allergy could be the real issue.
Both my father and I had intolerances to dairy as children.
Any experiences? He has the symptoms of silent reflux but also I think his poos are a bit strange!
Thanks in advance!

He's having cows milk at 11 weeks?

My DD had this and wasn't diagnosed till 5 months.. She had bad eczema, vomiting after feeds, reflux and green runny poo!! Her nose was always quite blocked too..
You might struggle to get the GP to try a different formula (if you are ff) as it's so expensive but push for it if you think it's more than reflux

ds2 had cows milk allergy, not diagnosed until 8mths. Gp's are really under trained in this area.
They are also reluctant to prescribe cow milk free milks because they are so expensive.
Start pushing for a paed referral asap, and suggest you try a cow milk free formula in the meantime (although they prob won't prescribe)
Once my ds started on aptamil pepti he was like a different baby, stopped crying constantly, had normal poos, eczema became so much better.
Poor thing had suffered so much

What do you think formula is made of Bastard?

Bastard -of course I'm not giving him cows milk!!

Thanks for your replies. I am ebf - is it still possible for him to have the allergy? His poos aren't green but I have noticed a sort of mucus in them. Which I told the GP but they were spectacularly uninterested!

I'm 99% sure my dd1 has this, she's now 2.5 and no Dr has ever taken me seriously. just put it down to me being precious ftm.

She was ebf and took me to weaning at around 6 months before I think I made the conection. Terrible sleeper, really windy, clearly in pain (tense stomach etc.), cried lots but not other colick symptoms, serious trouble and pain pooing. Oddly no vomit or mucus though.

Dr said she was constipated and gave lactulose but weren't interested in finding the cause. I knew it was more and she was so distressed a lot of the time.

After a series of elimination on my part we realised it was cows milk; seems fine with small amounts of cheese and yogurt but goats milk also has the same effect. She also gets excsma like bumps on her arms I've recently noticed which I also think is connected but doesn't seem to bother her.

Every few months we try taking her off soya and trying normal milk, still the same at present. I'm expecting number 2 and will be hyper vigilant this time, the proteins (or whatever) clearly got through my milk last time. I would look at avoiding milk in your diet for at least a week and see if it makes a difference. good luck!

It took ages for my ds1 to be diagnosed. GPs and HVs didn't seem to know a lot about it.

I'm guessing you have been doing some reading... My ds poos weren't especially green either, but they were mucousy. He screamed a lot (and I mean a lot!) and I was told he had colic. He had breathing difficulties sometimes, and went quite blue around the mouth on a couple of occasions. He kept being diagnosed with chest infections because of his breathing difficulties, and was on antibiotics 3 times before he was 3 months old- which almost certainly didn't help his little immune system!

My son's allergies were/are very severe, and let's hope your little one does not have that level of allergy to anything! Even though allergies are on the rise, most children are not like my ds, and I'm worried that Imight be saying things that will alarm you unnecessarily. Many grow out of their allergies in early childhood (this is especially true of cows milk and egg).

Perhaps the best way to find out is to keep a food diary, together with a record of poo and any other symptoms. You're right in thinking that the proteins in what you eat can sometimes pass into your breast milk.

Cows milk is an obvious culprit, so it might be worth cutting that out for couple of weeks to see if there's any improvement. Write down everything you eat and drink, because there are other common culprits e.g. eggs, nuts, soya, fish. (But don't cut them all out at once, like I did, because even though your milk will be nutritious, you will be knackered and a bit malnourished yourself. You should only be doing food exclusion diets under the care of a dietitian.)

If you cut out say milk, or egg, and see an obvious improvement after a couple of weeks, then you have the evidence you need to get a referral from your gp to an allergy specialist.

On the other hand, maybe your baby is mucous y because he has a cold and is swallowing snot and the reflux is "just" reflux... I know how hard it can be when your baby is poorly and you want some answers!

Let us know how you get on, and good luck to both of you

Both mine had CMPI and I had to go dairy and soya free as I was breastfeeding (coconut milk plus yummy incidentally )

Symptoms were colic, red ringed bum hole, mucousy green frothy poo, and in additionfor dd1 eczema a bloody poo poor thing

Oh and dd1 threw up. Lots, and often!

Thanks all - very helpful.
Regarded mucus poos - sorry to be graphic...
DS's are still a normal colour but look slimey and as if he has poo coloured snot... Is this what you experienced?
Also when he poos they do look quite frothy or sort of full of tiny air bubbles.

I have been dairy free for a while and today his poos seemed far more normal! Or at least how they were 4/5 weeks ago

frothy poo does sound as if there could be an intolerance., and it's interesting that there was an improvement when you went dairy free. Think you should go back to your gp

Frothy poo is also an indicator for oversupply of breastmilk, does your baby sometimes struggle and seem to choke on her milk at the beginning of a feed?

DS had an intolerance to cow milk, he was ok with soya though. Never formally diagnosed and I just thought some babies cried more than others and mine was particularly grumpy but all the indicators were there. We realised at 6 months giving a first taste of yoghurt, cue lots of panic and emergency trip to a&e. Luckily he outgrew at 2 yrs. Be aware of hidden gems like whey, common in baby foods and porridges, contains cow milk!

Hope this helps and hope your baby feels better soon x

dS had severe silent reflux and at six months we discovered cows milk allergy, and at 10 months we discovered he had egg, wheat and soya allergy too. This explained why he spent the first couple of months of his life in complete misery we even went on medication for silent reflux which really helped, but it just masked the symptoms imho.

Look at the website 'isitcowsmilkallergy'

I would:

• insist to the GP that your LO has cows milk allergy and ask them for a prescription of nutramigen. Just be firm and say you are quite sure it is that, and you want to try it. They should prescribe it to you. If they refuse, mention the NICE guidelines.

• if you want to continue EBF then take our ALL traces of dairy and soya from your diet for two weeks. If it is that you should see a difference (as a. Disclaimer I should mention that when I did this at 2 months my baby's symptoms actually got worse, because as I found out later, he had wheat allergy too, and without realising, I was having far too much wheat to compensate for the lack of dairy).

My DS had the exact symptoms as yours, except greenish poo too. I spoke to HV and 2 GP's about CMP allergy and they all said extremely rare in a breastfed baby. Ha! Finally had further proof at 6 months when we started weaning him and we got referred to a consultant.

I agree that you should go milk and egg free, I did and saw a change after 2-3 weeks. (If CMPallergy is there, egg is closely linked.)

Also, may be do a skin test yourself? We used to put a cotton bud in milk then dab it on his skin - a hive would come up within a few minutes.Theres your 'proof' for the docs then.

Good luck - it's scary at first but you soon get used to checking the ingredients on everything. There's lots of alternatives about now too.

Can I ask a question sort-of connected and clearly very important please?!!

As mentioned above my daughter has CMP allergy but is fine with soya - how do you make hot drinks (tea/coffee for me!) without it curdling, it always looks disgusting and I can't bear to drink it!

gillyweed, put the soya milk in first, with the coffee granules, and pour hot water on slowly.

My DS2 had silent surely most stupid disease title ever reflux, abdominal pain, mucussy poo ( try closing and re opening the nappy, do strings of mucus bridge the fold?) red anus. All eventually put down to MSPI (milk and soya protein intolerance) traces of which he reacted to in breast milk. Dairy and soya free diet for me and Omeprazole made a big difference. The book 'Colic solved' by gastro paed Dr Bryan Vartebedian is v helpful despite stupid title.

Gillyweed - I found coconut or almond milk much nicer in tea

Thanks for all the advice
His poo was mucousy today and from what you guys have said I'm wondering if it's because I had soy ice cream last night...

Would it be in my breast milk that quickly?

Thanks!

proteinsfrom food you ready are usually in your breastmilk within a couple of hours

Thanks green bananas.
Poor little babe :-(

Dd1 used to have stomach cramps and diarrhoea within 3 hours. Dd2 it's 6-12

I am lactose intolerant and suspected DD may be too as she had similar symptoms. She was mainly bf, with the occasional bottle. I tried ebf to see if there was any difference, but there wasn't.

The GP also diagnosed silent reflux and we tried her on Gaviscon and ranitidine. Neither made the slightest bit of difference. We were then referred to a paediatrician, who diagnosed her as being lactose intolerant (type 1, which is unusual for a baby) and told me to stop breast feeding. I ummed and arred about that for a few weeks and cut all dairy out of my diet to see if it helped, but it didn't. She started on prescription formula and hasn't had any problems since. In fact, she has slept through the night pretty much every night since.

Her weight bobbed up and down until we swapped her milk. Since then, she's been so much happier.