prob wriong place but whats the different between cows milk and goats milk?

[MerlinsBeard]

I really should stop putting my whole post in the title lol!

keep a food diary of what he eats and when he feels ill/has any symptoms the GP should ask for one

plus if no joy you can safely omit dairy for a couple of weeks re-introduce and then if there wasmn't a difference try same thing with omitting wheat for two weeks and then re-introduce. this is what i did (remonneded by GP) and just happended to do milk first

My twin nephews drink a lot of milk, but one had an excema issue, and their parents found that giving him goats milk instead of cows milk really helped. The whole food intolerance thing is a minefield though a very individual trial and error thing - if you think it's worth trying to subsitute goats milk for your son's problem - go for it, and good luck.

There are lots of acceptable alternatives now too. It can seem as if dairy and wheat are in everything but you get used to omitting them.

DD is five now and she's never drunk milk, although is quite fond of cheese these days and doesn't seem to react to that.

he has always had trouble pooing and goes from being quite constipated with rabbit dropping like poos to having looser very wet poos but only small amounts. He is very bloated and does often have stomach ache (altho thats quite hard to tell as he has trouble with his speech). It makes him withold as he is obviously in pain when he tries to 'go'.
he also gets a horrible rash on his bum like he has been burnt which has come up again after he has had more milk.
He screams in pain and is quite windy but so is DS1 and he has no allergies that we know of.
He hasn't had true diarroeah (sp?) all that much really. Altho has had it more times than DS1 had had by the same age.

Sounds like me (sorry, TMI!) and my DH too! (but he is yeast intolerent and I am lactose - there's not much hope for our DCs is there!)

DP is lactose intolerant but despite being told that the Dr said on the last visit that she would see how he went for a month I don't think DS2 has EVER poo-ed properly

HV has said that children often have problems with poo when they potty train (I'm not training him!) and HV before that said he was doing it for attention

Oh, the poor thing MOM, definitely try all the alternatives, so many people have good results. It's worth trying

HV are generally a bit useless TBH, mine was when I told her we couldn't use oilatum, she said 'of course you can, it's hypoallergenic'.

i just want him to have a normal poo !

am going to trawl thru any milk allergy/lactose intolerance threads. Have googled and looks like it could be lactose intolerance rather than milk allergy, in which case Goats milk wouldn't make a difference.

good luck

Thank You x

ones from a goat and ones from a cow

Easier to digest, but also a different from of protein (A1 vsA2) Guernsey cows are high in A2's (supposedly good) as well.

We sawa big difference switching ds3 from cows to goats.

ds1 (with the lactose intol.) would get stomach craps within 2 mins of eating even the smallest amount of lactose (and depsite me usually preparing everything from stratch it is surprisingly difficult to avoid if you get caught out whilst out and need something to fill two starving boys as it's in so much processed foods). i really noticed (and he did) the difference immediately i took him off dairy

i appear to have been very lucky with my HVs. GP was ok but despite saying to me lactose intol. she wrote diary intol. on his notes which wasn't very helpful and then the dietician was absolutely useless.

if you get it under control and it is just intolerance then lots can have hard cheese and butter in their diet, some can with yoghurt but it is all about knowing the body's limits. after being off dairy totally (and then some cheese allowed now and again) my ds1 told me that he was ready for diary again and he was! (about a year in all)

a lot do grow out of it, but i know how you feel about just wanting them to have normal poo's!

"Structurally, the milk protein casein of the goat's milk is sufficiently different from that found in cow's milk to be easily differentiated in the lab. The casein miscelles typically exist either as much larger or much smaller aggregations than are found in bovine milk. Because of this it has been suggested that, although the quantity and distribution of amino acids in the casein fractions of the milks of the two species are similar, the sequency of assembly is almost certainly different. This difference is further substantiated by the fact that goat casein is associated with a lower mobility in an electrophoretic field. A similar difference appears to be found in the lactalbumin portion as well, with perhaps more clinical significance. The lactalbumin of bovine milk elicits an allergic response from many individuals, a serious problem, especially for young children. These individuals are often able to consume the milk of goats without suffering that reaction, an effect attributed to the dissimilarities in structure of the two proteins. "

Can't give the web link as only the cached page will come up. Lactose, fat etc much the same but goats milk has more vitamin A.

Basically proteins are similar but sufficiently different that a percentage of children who have cows milk intolerance are OK with goats. It doesn't help those with lactose intolerance but lactase may help them. Probiotics can also help quite a few children. Lactase drops can help those with lactose intolerance.

If a child is past 1 goats milk is worth tryng for digestive problems but give probiotics a go too. For eczema probiotics have a good track record. Look for them in health food stores. Lactase drops are easiest to find on the net but tablets are available in larger Holland & Barretts and can be powdered if you are determined.

I am really unsure on the dairy issue. A lot of people give up dairy products and feel better (and as I said below no other adult animals take another animal's milk except the odd domesticated cat). The Times had an article this year on it.

One good point on that was if children didn't have milk they wouldn't replace that with vitamin enriched healthy other foods. They just wouldn't have the vitamins and calcium at all so in a sense whatever your view on milk it may be the worst of two evils. If I gave my children a choice of cereal with milk or spinach they are not likely to take the spinach.

I suspect if we could manage without milk, milk chocolate, cheese, butter we'd probably all be better off but only if we replace it with suitable other healthy foods. Easier said than done in our culture.

maybe i'll look into probiotics,it was suggested to us before but harrd to find where we live.worth a try as his belly does seem weak and prone to upsets.
my ds does have a healthy diet compared to lots of his friends of similar but i think thats because as vegetarians im constantly having to defend my choice and explain where he gets all the goodness from instead of from meat.so ive always made sure he gets 'good' foods.im probably not making much sense as could do with maybe 10 weeks in bed!
xenia-my ds loves spinach!raw or cooked.i find cereal harder to get in him!

Kittypants - if I'm understanding correctly you are saying that you have a 17 month old who gets frequent diarrhoea, eczema and asthma, which you think may be caused/exacerbated by dairy?

I would recommend that you use rice or oat milk with added calcium instead of either cows or goats. It's usually milk protein that causes the intolerance in children, rather than lactose, and the protein in goats milk is very similar to cows (so much so that it's now illegal to sell goats formula in the uk, because there was no point to it!). Rice milk was what our dietician recommended if we couldn't get our dd (nearly 16 months) to take hypoallergenic formula in her cooking (she's still breastfed, but I've had to cut dairy out of my diet too).

To cut out milk proteins from butter, use one of the Pure dairy free spreads (we have the sunflower one), or Vitalite if you don't mind him having a bit of soya (advised against soya in large quantities, but won't be a lot just from this).

I see your point, Xenia, and I guess that was partly the reason for the milk promotion post-war that still lingers today. It's better for people to have milk if they won't be meeting their nutritional needs in the rest of their diet, although this is under reform I think.

here

If people have concerns over dairy affecting their child's health though, and they're informed enough to replace the relevant nutrients then I think they should be given the support.

Perhaps it's just where I live but I know lots of children who eat green leafy veg, sesame seeds and quinoi and other calcium rich foods. So much stuff is fortified as well. There are arguments for milk not being the most efficient form of calcium, something to do with magnesium hindering the absorption but I'm not sure about that.

I also feel think that subsidised farmers and the milk marketing board might have something to say about gp's telling patients that milk might not be so good for them

I'm avoiding for LO, but we have milk, just not a lot of it. The older two seem to have grown out of their allergies a bit. Lots people seem to find cheese and youghurt ok after a while too.

I am missing butter I have to say. I like my lurpak thicker than the biscuit!

Know what you mean MrsCarrot - chip butties just aren't the same any more .

We're just testing small amounts of cheese with dd at the moment, as we're hoping that the intolerance might have at least eased.

LOL at chip butties, CSWS, we had rather a lot of those when I was little, usually with a battered sausage. It's not quite the same on Rye with a scrape of Suma spread!

Actualy I spotted some Spam friters in Somerfields the other day and briefly had the urge to eat one!

My mother hated milk as a child and when she got to her 60s had bad osteoporosis and had to take huge calcium tablets and have bone scans. Camilla Parker Bowles I think is involed with the Osteoporosis society. My mother said also consider having HRT at the time (she didn't have it) to help with the bone loss risk. Exercising more too helps. I think we probably drink about 2 pints of milk a day here though so we're certainly not milk free. I think on balance avoid it if you can make up the nutrients etc in other ways. As you probably won't therefore drink it.

thanks cantsleepwontsleep.will ask gp on whatever day it is.love the name by the way!

British children have been drinking cows' milk since time immemorial. It's only recently that allergies (to everything) has become commonplace.

I'm not sure that milk is the issue. The Chinese may think we smell of milk, but they don't live any longer than us due to their avoidance of the stuff.

Any how, re: osteoporosis, I read recently that a teaspoon of olive oil every day can reduce the effects. I realize that this has nothing to do with the OP, but I thought I'd share