Dairy (milk) ladder - how soon would allergy show?

[lbu98caj]

Hi all. First time posting on here. My little boy (11 months) was diagnosed with a milk protein allergy at about one month old. I cut dairy out of my diet whilst expressing and then he has been on Neocate formula, with no diary or soya since (tried soya yoghurts, but not sure if that made him constipated or it was the reduction in fruit purée as he had the soya yoghurt instead). I have now started the milk ladder with malted milk biscuits (one week and two days ago, with a biscuit each day). He seemed to be tolerating it, but today has really bad diarrhoea. Is this just likely to be a bug or could it be the dairy? I would have thought symptoms of an allergy would have shown up before now? His symptoms before, when a baby, were very watery stools. Also, any tips on the dairy ladder for when I go back to work (as he will have all of his meals at nursery four days a week)? Thanks.

I'd be tempted to go carry on with step 1 and see if the watery poo continues. I'd say a reaction should show between 3-5 days with a non-Ige allergy but my dd suffers from protein build up, so she can handle one biscuit fine, but after 5 days of biscuits it gets too much.

We tried step 3 a couple of months ago. It's so hard to gauge sometimes as with DS he often has an upset tummy and ezcema anyway, but we think a reaction kicked in at around 3 days (even looser poo and ezcema on the face). We carried on for another 3 days, then stopped. After about two weeks his poo went back to 'normal' so I think it was a reaction. We are going to try again this weekend. All you can do is record everything, maybe keep going for another day or two, then see if there is an improvement once you stop...then try again. It's a very slow road, in our house anyway!

My tip for once he's at nursery would be to give him whatever you are testing him on first thing in the morning, (and same time at the weekends), then the nursery will have the whole day to monitor any symptoms, rather than waiting until you are home in the evening and possibly not noticing/having to deal with a problem overnight. Make sure nursery are aware of exactly what you are doing and that you need them to record anything and everything including time of day - moods, poos, wees, scratching, etc, etc.

Thanks tatohead. Just feel like we are not receiving much guidance and difficult to tell if there has been a reaction. Not had any actual tests either. Nursery are great with the allergy (red plates, checked by several people etc), but will not do new steps on the dairy ladder as would be introducing new food (which they do not do - everything has to be ticked off a weaning list). So going to be even harder once back at work. Older son born at 34 weeks is fine, whereas youngest has this allergy and reflux!!

Thanks PorridgeAgainAbney. Looks like it could be a long road! Problem now is nursery settling sessions, as not meant to be there if have sickness or diarrhoea!

I had to get a letter from GP stating what reactions my dc had, specifically with her stool appearance, smell, frequency. The nursery have it on file and anything that is not like her usual symptoms is regarded as 48hrs off. They needed this to cover themselves in case of questions from inspectors.

Also agreement with them that will keep them fully informed when we are trialing anything, and any symptoms noticed before drop off.

Worth asking if you can do similar?

Have nursery said he has to stay off if he has diarrhoea even if it's not due to a bug? I know you've said you can't be sure whether this is down to a bug or the trial, but if we'd had to keep DS off due to his upset tummy he would literally never have gone to nursery .

We had a meeting and filled in a care plan before he started which stated all his allergies and symptoms so they were aware that nappies (numerous per day when he started there) would be full of essentially liquid. Even now at the age of 4 his poos would be classed as diarrhoea to most people.

Maybe see if you can have a meeting with them to go through his exact circumstances so they are aware that whenever you choose to do trials there is the potential for an upset tummy but it's very unfair if they say he has to be kept off when it's not infectious!

FoofFighter and PorridgeAgainAbney - thanks for your advice, especially re poops and nursery! My oldest has to take laxatives (as he used to make himself sick from straining 😟), so his nappies are always interesting - nursery accepted the sick was not contagious and allow his poos to be squishier, so fingers crossed they are sympathetic this time. I guess it is difficult when it is not all the time, so harder to say for definite that it is not a bug. Will speak to them tomorrow and see what they say. Think we will take him off the biscuits, wait a week / until improves, then try the same again and see what happens. Thanks all.

Oh it sounds a bit like me. Push for allergy testing now, just so you can tick that off the list. We've found that the milk ladder symptoms were so difficult to monitor that we've taken dd off all dairy until all her teeth are through. She's now two and just getting the final two teeth this week. At least now when we trial we can cancel teething off the list!

tatohead - thanks for message. I know, trying to watch for symptoms yourself is difficult. Good luck when you do start again! I asked about allergy testing and was told no as it is a slow allergy (or something like that), so tests would not help. Today has been even worse - ten nappies since nap time! No dairy since Wednesday morning, so would have thought things would have got better by now. 😟 Waiting for GP to call me to discuss in case it is a bug. At least other half is home to share the nappy load now!

Are you sure it's not teething?