Have I given my DS a cow's milk allergy?

[ScotGirl]

I breastfeed my ds, now 9mths but I started making his porridge in the morning with water and adding cows milk to cool it down when he was about 6.5 mths. Sometimes I would give him weatbix with cows milk too.

I also gave him creme fresh once and regulary added milk to mashed potatoe.

I have stopped giving him any raw cows milk now, though he does sometimes get yogurts and cheese, as he has developed excema on his face.

I am beating myself up that, because I was too lazy to express, I have given him excema by introducing too much cows milk too early and giving him an intolerance.

I can't really find any information on my web searches.

no, you can give cows milk from 6 months, just not as a main drink.
also, just because he has excema on his face doesn;t mean he is allergic to milk.

Two of my ds's are milk intolerant. One had nothing but breastmilk until he was ten months old and the other until he was about 8 months old. They had the odd bit of cow milk and yoghurt after that.

I'm intolerant to dairy so they were probably always going to be, whenever I offered them milk.

If you want to check to see if it causes his excema (and it often does in kids) then strictly eliminate anything dairy for 4-6 weeks. The give him dairy and watch carefully to see what happens. There should be a reaction within hours if he's allergic or intoleranct.

On the bright side, there are lots of ways of cooking without milk nowadays and good dairy free cook books if you do find you need them.

don't beat yourself about it, it might be something temporary, but if it helps, you may err on the side of caution and remove raw cows milk for a while, at least until he is 1 yr old.

But please don't remove dairy completely from the diet unless you have advise from a nutritionist, milk is still a very important part of his diet and finding good substitutes is not exactly easy.