milk allergy through breast milk

[ang772]

my breastfed seven month old son has always been a sicky baby, with irregular messy nappies(runny and greenish). After months of looking at my diet I have finally come to the conclusion that he has a cows milk allergy or intolerance. I cut all diary products out of my diet for two weeks and there was a dramatic change. He hasnt been sick, his nappies are more regular and better consistency, and his general mood is much happier and calmer. When I brought this up with my doctor, he said my diet wouldn't affect the baby. Has anyone had any similar experiences and do you think I should get a second opinion?

what a load of rubbish! OOh drs make me mad. My friend's son as multiple allergies and she cut all dairy out of her diet and his exzema [sp] cleared right up. I am sure that someone with experience will come along in a minute.

Your doctor is talking out of his backside! Sadly he is one of many ill informed GPs out there.

Although milk proteins don't pass through all women, they do for some (it's not really understood why at the moment)

We discovered the same problem with my dd when she was 15 weeks. We've since seen a paed who confirmed the diagnosis. I would see another doctor at the same practice if there is one, and ask for a referral to a paed.

They won't actually do a lot for you at this point, but if you choose to, you should be given a prescription for a hypoallergenic formula, which you can use when weaning. Alternatively, use rice milk with added calcium for cooking, but this isn't as nutritionally beneficial as the formula would be. Sadly the specialist formulas both smell and taste foul - my dd refuses to touch them, so we're still breastfeeding (she's nearly 15 months) and I am still dairy free myself.

The good news is that around 80% of children outgrow such an intolerance. Our paed said he would see us again if dd is still intolerant when she turns 2. The only way to test is to give her some dairy from time to time (yoghurt is recommended first) and see if she reacts or not.

Oh, and don't be tempted to use soya milk instead - see here and here .

Yes get a second opinion.

Dds has lots of food allergies. When I was pregnant with DD I was told by Ds's paediatrician not to eat anything he is allergic to while feeding her to stop her being exposed to these items early on in the hope it would help her to avoid these allergies. I did and she has not got any allergies - whether this made any difference I will never know, but my point isthe Paediatrician firmly believed that the allergiens could come through in breast milk - as did my midwife who told me to exclude them before she was born too.

Can'tSleepWon'tSleep, I hate to call you on this one, but the studies on soy affecting long-term fertility are utter rubbish IMVHO. One only has to look at the large and ever-increasing Asian population to see why, don't you think with the amount of soya-based foods (like tofu) they eat, someone would have noticed if there was a problem?

Really, one has to take these studies with a pinch of salt. The risks are at best theoretical, and for those whose children refuse to drink the hypoallergenic formula, or for those who are so allergic to milk that the paediatrician recommends they don't use such formula, there really is very little wrong in using soya formula. The more realistic risk is soya allergy/intolerance.

ang77, I don't have any direct experience or scientific knowledge, but I do have a friend with a lactose intolerant baby - my friend has stopped eating all dairy, and drinks goats milk now and will do for as long as she feeds her DD (now 10 months). If my friend has milk, or ice cream, or cheese sauce etc. she notices a rash on her DD almost immediately after the next feed. If stopping dairy had such a dramatic and positive effect for your DS, then I'd carry on not eating dairy, and seek a second opinion. Hopefully you can get a referral to the hospital for allergy testing, so that you know exactly what your LO is allergic to.

For weaning, my friend was expressing to get milk for her DD's breakfast, but now she gives her goats' milk, and it seems fine.

my DSs colic seemed to improve when i cut milk and cheese from my diet, although i left in just enoughmilk for a cuppa tea...so i guess he can tolerate some.
Now hes 4 1/2 months we have tried a formula and his face, particularly round his mouth, got really red. GP said try another formula...(which we havent yet as DS started refucing the bottle!). but i did eat a cheese omlette the other day and during his next feed his face/round mouth went red/blotchy again. Dont knw what to do really.
Sound familiar? Any advice?

My ds is eleven and a half months and has had a severe allergic reaction to dairy (once we started weaning), i've cut down on the dairy i eat but it doesn't seem to affect him as much as having food directly.
As far as weaning goes, I've never expressed milk for adding to food (too lazy and rubbish at it), i make porridge pancakes with water and apart from that i give him lots of fruit, veg, meat, soup, pulses etc, its not too difficult to do if you want to, i was offered various other formulas to use for sauces and cereal but never felt the need. Not sure how i'll feel when i do decide to stop breastfeeding though, may start worrying about calcium and the like then.

Oh Henrietta - your friend is so lucky to be able to tolerate goats products. It's quite rare for a cows milk protein intolerant child not to also be intolerant of goats (and sheeps) milk protein (hence it's now illegal to sell goats milk formula in the UK).

mumfie68 - I totally agree that where there is absolutely no other option, soya milk is better than starving, but my comment was aimed at ang772, who hasn't yet explored other options, and won't have been given this information yet by any health professionals.

Just lost a message that didn't appear?

Although a truly allergic child would probably have difficulties with all milk this sounds like an intolerance and quite a few babies with intolerance are fine on goats or cows milk.

Soy milk has been linked to nut allergy and if a baby develops soy allergy it makes life really hard. Try hypoallergenic milk first. My friends recommend pepti junior, mixed with breast milk if you have to until they are used to it.

As others have said, dairy cosumption in the mum can cause a reaction in the baby. Both my daughters had this problem, and with one of them I had to cut out a whole load of other foods too. I came across loads of doctors who were ignorant of this so your doctor is not the only one unfortunately.

I wouldn't recommend soya milk, and any doctor who knows his stuff wouldn't either. Also there is a bit of a debate concerning hypoallergenic formula. Firstly it is foul and a lot of babies refuse it, also some babies are unable to tolerate it anyway. It is NO WHERE near as good for your baby as your breastmilk (it even compares unfavourably with regular formula) so good for you for breastfeeding.

I breastfed my eldest for 18 months and she never had any kind of formula as I felt normal food was ok for her by then. I plan to do the same with my second (will try to feed longer this time as I will not be on a punishing elimination diet!). My children's allergist was quite happy with this and agreed that hypoallergenic formula has its uses but is far from ideal. Lots of women never give their babies formula of any kind whether they have allergies or not. I was lucky in that I was able to take time of work and do this but I know it is not always possible.

Good luck with all this, hope things continue to improve for your wee one.

DD2 had eczema when i was bf. i was quite fond of caffe lattes from starbucks at the time..... funnily enough i also craved milkshakes when pg

anyway, i cut out dairy and her eczema cleared up. only started again when introduced formula.

so yes, def gets through to them from bf.

My dd also reacted when I consumed any dairy (even when it was the last ingredient on the list) by getting a rash all over her torso. I cut out dairy and it went away. If I messed up and ate something with a speck of dairy, it came back ao I was super carfeul. But, at 7mo, she has a allergy prick test done that said she wasn't allergic and I started eating it again and she was fine. I didn't give her dairy directly until she was over a year but now (16mo) she has milk all the time without any problems; Proof that they can grow out of it.

thank you all for your input i will definately get a second opinon thanks xx

Our dd1 has a milk protein intolerance and we discovered it long before she was weaned. Thankfully, our GP was an asthma and allergy specialist and he KNEW that my diet affected her!

Get another opinion.

Sorry... Xposts. I see that you have already come to this conclusion.

HI, it might interest you to know that it's all a big lie that we need dairy and all that....we have been brainwashed to believe that...but in countries like asian ones, where they don't consume dairy, the rate of osteoporosis and things is, incidently, lower.
In the end all fruit and vegetables contains usable (i.e. easy for the body to get at) Calcium and things like dark green leafy vegetables (like Broccoli, Spinach, Kale) are particular rich sources.Also things like Hazelnuts and Almonds are good calcium sources, too, and I am sure there is more.

this site has also info on dairy free diet

Oh, also, with my 2. son I was really sure it was the dairy, and then I realised that it was fat that made him spew up so much, etc....I did drink a lot of full fat milk, which got me first to the dairy conclusion, but I then realised that he also got really bad after I had Fish and Chips from the chippy and other fatty foods, so, must have been the fat in the milk...

my 1 year old ds is severely allergic to milk, eggs and lentil and we've now just found out we can add peanuts to the list. When I ate lots of cheese and dairy on holiday while we were in France (he was 5 months and this was before milk allergy diagnosis) he came out in the most terrible eczema from head to toe. At 7 months old (post allergy confirmation) we saw a top allergy consultant who confirmed that this reaction at 5 months was prob due to milk protien in my breast milk as it can pass through.

We are now part of the LEAP study at St Thomas' and on Friday 3 skin prick tests and his blood test came back positive to peanuts, I'm only mentioning this because they said in his case to try and give him more soya because it could possibly help his body build an immunity to peanuts because it is a close relation and it may help us to be one of the rare few who can outgrow it (can't say I'm hopeful on that one!.) If I had heard this from our local allergy consultant I would have dismissed it but coming form a top allergy specialist who is doing a study on peanuts I think I might see if it works, but we do know through 3 tests that he doesn't have a prob with soya so I'm not obviously telling everyone to give their kids soya I just thought it was quite interesting. Sorry waffle over!