help...think he may have a dairy allergy, need advice desperately

[Heathcliffscathy]

a couple of weeks ago, my homeopath suggested that ds might have a dairy allergy...i so didn't want this to be the case, that i've kind of been ignoring it in the hope that it will go away (always a good strategy this i find...not), but i can't any longer. symptoms: he is wheezing (not badly, but when he takes a deep breath in) and coughing and snivelly, but it's been too long to be a cold. he's had mild eczema since he was being exclusively breastfed. he's been on one bottle of formula a day (rest breastfeeding) since he was about 3 1/2 months old. I weaned him at 4 months, v slowly (baby rice, then some fruit purees. he is now 6 1/2 months old and has 3 meals a day (all of which are mixed with whole milk). since i introduced wholemilk in cooking around 2 1/2 weeks ago, his symptoms haven't got any worse. however they aren't getting any better either. i'm in a bit of a panic: if i take dairy out, how am i going to give him enough milk for his last (bottle feed)? also, in the morning/evening he has cereal/babyrice mixed with milk and fruit? also at lunchtime he has veg or protein and cheese also mixed with milk (he seems to prefer milky cold foods to anything hot). i know it's all my fault probably for not exclusively b/fding until six months...but we were having terrible sleep problems that were immediately improved with the introduction of solids (i know this doesn't work for everyone etc etc). anyway, he is still on 3 breastfeeds a day and i plan to continue this as long as poss. sorry to ramble on, but i'm panicking a bit about this and dont really know where to start in terms of cutting dairy out. should i go to goats milk formula for everything initially? or soya? should i try somehow to make my milk come in for the evening feed so that all his feeds are breastmilk (i'm completely crap at expressing so don't know how i'd do this)? please please help anyone who has any experience or advice, i'd be so grateful...

well, atm theres nothing u can do (he's had it now). dont beat yourself up over it. he'll more than likely be fine. look out for odd poo, or if he seems a bit grumpy with tummy pains.
i have been down the gluten-free route with dd2, as she was a dreadfully sicky baby (still is, dx with reflux recently), it did help a fair bit. however my mum gave her a sponge finger once when she was babysitting (none of my mums family has allergies or intolernces), not thinking twice about it, and dd2 ended up screaming with coliky type pains and very smelly poo's.

Bread is good for him Sophable! Gluten is only a problem if he has coeliac disease, which I am sure he hasn't and even then six months is supposed to be the cut off point. Bread is a really good food for everyone (except coeliacs) and yours sounds yummy! Coeliac disease has nothing to do with a lactose intolerance and isn't connected. Don't panic! BTW my ds had honey at that age and was fine too. The risks really are very tiny and the 'risk' from bread is non-existent.

honey tomorrow it is then thanks aloha, now you must truly think i am an over anxious numpty...btw, NO WAY (sorry for use of capitals but i'm feeling this) do you look your age (read when you had ds on another thread!) you look at least 10 years younger...in fact are you sure it wasn't a typo...?

soph ds was diagnosed with mild milk allergy at 14 yrs old, we switched to goats milk and this aided a lot... stopped the snottiness anyway...
Sorry cannot be of more help hunny pie
he outgrew it all by age 5 too

Hiya Sophable, how you getting on with DS, are you any wiser to what his intolerances are?

We have had to take ours of Soya too now, he is on Nutramagin. Am too scared at moment to try him with Gluten as he is such a healthy baby. What id give to just pass hima bit of bread to chew on. I spend my life reading food labels. Shopping takes twice as long and my freezer is full of frozen veg cubes.

Sophable, don't worry about it! Glad he liked the bread. Sounds very wholesome.

oops, crossposted, c+3, we had the soya thing too, but not anything life threatening, it just used to look like I beat him and then there were the hives.

If you'd like any recipes, let me know.

hi charlie and jj: he loves his goats milk formula...so we're sticking with that for now and we'll see. does anyone know if you can give babies whole goats milk in their food (like cows milk?)??? still reeling from my idiocy this afternoon: why do i always introduce new things when things aren't settled (actually cause things aren't settled and i want them to be: which is a backward logic nonsense i know )?

My aunt did. If he's tolerating goats' milk formula, I don't see why it's not worth a try.

She had goats, hippie that she was.

I used goats milk as whole milk for 4 yrs!! DS grew up healthy and strapping so layperson would say YES goats milk is fine as replacement milk!!

JJ i could kiss you for some reciepes. My poor little lad is all vegged out. Im sure his skin is turning an orangy colour from all the swede, carrots, sweet potatoe and butternut squash i give him.
Please send me some id be sooo grateful.

sophable - only just caught up with this, but your ds sounds so much like mine was at the same age. We went to whole goats milk at 11 months (initially thinking it would help with the snottiness, but actually the first effect was on the excema) - and just as you are finding ds actually seemed to prefer the taste of it to ordinary formula. We also used it just as you would normal milk in cooking, etc. Now at 2.8 ds seems to have largely grown out of it - whether that's just down to having less milk in his diet overall, or an actual change I can't tell - and is ok with cow's milk cheese and yoghurts, and limited amounts in his food, so we only use the goat's milk now for drinking.

Funnily enough, although the hospital paeditrician was all in favour of the goat's milk, saying that they often recommended it before soya as it was common for children with a cow's milk intolerance to react to soya too, the HV was horrified "but there aren't any vitamins and minerals in cow's milk". Doh!

thanks for posting lunarsea...

just to update. bread didn't have a bad effect at all (phew). bit constipated: but bread does do that. i think i'll probably leave off bread for a bit, but maybe try a little pasta. i need something stodgy other than baby rice and sweet potato that ds will eat. thank you all for all your support on this thread.

How come my pead hasnt mentioned goats milk does anyone know. Hes not allowed milk or soya and is on a prescription milk that is gross. Am i being stupid, is goats milk classed as dairy??? If not where can i get some

Sophable you sound like your doing a grand job, bread can be a bit stodgy for them. Are you just keeping him off dairy cos you could always try porridge for him, thats stodgy

goats milk is dairy charlie: just not cows milk, which is the most common dairy intolerance. ask your paed whether it's worth a try?

Thanx sophable hes not allowed dairy so thats why prob. Glad yours likes his goats milk though. I noticed you have given him gluten free rusks, were they wheat free too and if so where can i get some??? Please, sorry totally hijacking your thread for my own good

charlie, i think u can get gluten free rusks from most supermarkets., just be careful not to do what i did and pick up the banana ones instead of gluten free as the colouring is almost the same.

for what its worth my son got terrible eczema once on mixed feeding ie breast and bottle, and started to scream whenever he even saw the bottle at one point..he was about 4 months old and in one weekend he refused all of his bottles and my natural instinct was to put him straight onto goats milk(nanny) formula , instantly he drank it and no more screaming in agony or anything ..after the weekend i went straight to the drs and explained what id done and thankfully she was a very understanding dr who believed very much in the mothers own instincts , she however said that she couldnt recommend nanny milk as enough research had not been done on it and in her profession she couldnt recommend it but couldnt stop me ..know what i mean!anyway i kept him on it for over a year and reintroduced cows milk at about 14 mths and he was fine.. sometimes i wonder whther goats milk was the reason why he got all his teeth through so quickly.full set by about one yr old!! and he`s built like a rugby player !!!and has an excellent immune system and stamina.. who knows heh? so go with your instincts and good luck

Similar story with my neice and nephew - very bad excema, amongst other problems at the slightest whiff of cow's milk, so both on goat's milk and are absolutely fine on it. Hate going round there for a cuppa though - they very often don't have 'regular' milk in the house!!If tested for allergy to cow's milk and proven to be allergic, goats milk is available on prescription. Though this might depend on your area and GP.

bambio, your ds sounds like mine. Doesnt have any dairy, lactose, wheat or gluten and is also a budding rugby player. He is 8months and wieghs over 22llbs. My pead said whatever im doing, keep on doing it as he is the healthiest boy she has ever seen.

defo sounds like the goats milk then , i wonder how many rugby players were secret goats milk drinkers!!! my son now is 4 1/2 and wears size 6-7 clothes and i can hardly pick him up now!! any one else out there with similar goats milk stories?

Amazing really that there hasn't been that much research on giving goat's milk to young children who have possible reations to cow's milk. The reason we tried it was because my grandfather used to be a goat farmer - this was back in the 1950's/60's - and apparently then they used to sell a lot of the milk to the parents of children who had the constant snottiness and/or excema type symptoms. If it's use was known about - and apparently fairly common knowledge - that long ago how come nobody has actually confirmed it with a scientific study?

Sorry bambi, bit of confusion, he isnt on goats milk hes on nutramagin, but it does go to show that maybe dairy does affect some children and thier digestive systems

where do those of you who use the nanny goat formula get it?