Dairy/soya intolerance so confused!

[Maisie2019]

I will try and make this brief but probably need to provide some back story for it to make sense. DS is just turned 1.
As a small baby he was given cow and gate formula and was “colicky” screamed day and night and it was all over horrific. At 4 weeks old he was diagnosed with severe GERD (cobblestone throat level) and was prescribed lansoprazole and gaviscon and this really helped. We switched him to hipp organic (suspected CMPA but never proven).
Fast forward he was still very uncomfortable but it was manageable, went through a period of severe constipation from the gaviscon but this tailed off when he started solids and naturally had less milk. From about 8-9 months until now he has been very happy and healthy however we have always kept dairy out of his diet as when we tried dairy items when weaning he would cry and have a hard tummy and be all round uncomfortable. He has never had an allergic reaction or rash. Just crying or grumpy.
We began giving him soya alternatives but again was grumpy so we stopped those. We became super confused so we paid for private testing and results showed soya allergy and an intolerance to B-Lactoglobulin (from cow milk) (not sure if I’ve spelt that right).
We began to introduce dairy into his diet in very small amounts and so far he can tolerate - butter on toast, normal formula (although like I say much happier when having less milk and only has 2 bottles a day now), muller rice, and baked in dairy.
Thursday he stole a bite of a cheese sandwich and was okay. Then yesterday Friday we tried him on a normal yoghurt. This morning he has woken up and done the biggest poo you have ever seen, yellow and mucusy. He’s then had 3 more and it’s only 9.30.
My first question(s) are this - how can he tolerate cow milk formula but not a yoghurt? He can have muller rice but not yoghurt? Could it be he’s had cheese then yoghurt within 2 days?
Its really confusing me how he can drink a whole bottle of milk and have normal poo but has had a yoghurt and this has happened.
My second question - anyone who has gone through this would you just avoid things like yoghurt (he has gone this far and survived without it!) until he is older?

when weaning he would cry and have a hard tummy and be all round uncomfortable. He has never had an allergic reaction or rash. Just crying or grumpy.

That is an allergic reaction though. The signs he had were non-IGE.

We began to introduce dairy into his diet in very small amounts and so far he can tolerate - butter on toast, normal formula (although like I say much happier when having less milk and only has 2 bottles a day now),

Are you under a Paediatric Dietician? I'd only recommend doing the milk and soya ladders under the supervision of a HCP. If you're not under one you need to eliminate Dairy and Soya and ask for a referral.

My first question(s) are this - how can he tolerate cow milk formula but not a yoghurt?

He's having non-IGE reactions do they're often delayed, can be up to 72 hours. Plus the proteins in the formula are more likely to be a little more broken down due to the heat during manufacturing.

Could it be he’s had cheese then yoghurt within 2 days?

Yes, very probably this. He obviously can't tolerate dairy

My second question - anyone who has gone through this would you just avoid things like yoghurt (he has gone this far and survived without it!) until he is older?

I say this as someone with CMPA, please stop giving him the bloody stuff. He doesn't need it and it's obviously making him miserable! Get yourself a referral to a Paediatric Dietician and only reintroduce under their supervision.

I'd also drop the two bottles and talk to the GP about an alternative.

It could be like a snowball effect , he had all of those milk products individually and then they all added up to be too much for his little system

i don’t really understand intolerances too well but my dd has the milk protein allergy and if they work similarly , my understanding is that the quantity of the allergen(in your case intolerance) determines how big the reaction is,
so if my dd were to lick a dairy yoghurt , her reaction would be less noticeable than if she were to eat a whole spoon of it ,
so maybe baby was kind of ok with the cheese sandwich but the yoghurt was just too much!

and he’s 1 so he can’t say , mum that cheese sandwich actually made my tummy hurt abit !
So maybe he was reacting to the the dairy but just couldn’t express it ,
I know it’s hard when they have reactions that you can’t see , it just makes it more complicated

the mucus in the poo definitely means he’s not handling the dairy well ,
So if it was me I would give the dairy foods a break for awhile and see if there is an improvement

you could ask a nutritionist for more advice on what to do next in terms if reintroducing it , it would be a shame to deprive him of some foods if he can actually tolerate them.

my dds allergic reactions are different depending on what she comes into contact with,
dairy chocolate, raw milk and yoghurt produce the worst most noticeable reactions
but for some reason she has had very well done cheese on a pizza and tolerated it before ,
she’s also tolerated milk baked in to cakes
the doctor told me that cooking the allergen changes the structure of the milk protein , which means the body doesn’t recognise it as an allergen any more
they usually do those taste tests in hospital , depending on the severity of the allergy
maybe they can do some similar tests for your lo

you can give him multivitamins with calcium and vit d,
Or you can try rice milk and oat milk they are both high in calcium , on the same level as cows milk
there’s lots of vegan alternatives you can try, like oat yoghurt and coconut yoghurt, so he won’t be missing out too much x

I agree with most of this but please don't go to a "Nutritionist". It's not a protected term like Dietician is so anyone can call themselves a Nutritionist and give out any old advice.

You need a Paediatric Dietician.

And please don't give Rice Milk. It's not advised until they are 5 due to the high arsenic content.

If you are struggling with getting to grips with his allergies and what to do id really recommend talking to Allergy UK.

They're a very well respected charity and only give out evidence based information

@SiouxsieSiouxStiletto thanks for your quick reply!
No we are not under a dietician. We are under a private consultant for the GERD but I probably should have added to my original post it was always very very confusing as we couldn’t tell if it was acid causing his pain or something he had consumed. Normal GPS consistently fobbed us off with “he will grow out of it” “babies cry” etc and actually when he went onto the medication he was a different baby.
We never really got any answers as to what was causing his issues but he was okay 90% of the time. He has been having the items I listed (butter etc) for months now daily and has been totally fine so we thought he was “growing out of it” like the doctors had said. Maybe it comes across like I am pumping him fully of dairy 😂 I promise I’m not it’s just very difficult to know what the right thing to do it when he has tolerated certain things for months and we genuinely thought he was okay with it. When I say months I mean he eats butter on toast every day, has milk based porridge etc..but in small portions.. I suppose I thought a yoghurt would be okay when he has been eating muller rice left right and centre for ages in small doses and zero issues. Also has zero issues, literally none, happy and healthy when he just has his 2 bottles.. I wasn’t aware that the proteins were more broken down in formula.
This is why I am so confused how can he be so happy and normal and thriving and growing eating those things but then one yoghurt (and potentially the cheese sandwich bite?!) has caused this? Potentially the volume he has consumed?

Agree with the PP who said it's likely to be the snowball effect of having so much in a short space of time.

Also, as I said I've got non-IGE CMPA. I don't know what it is about yogurt but I can feel the pain in my stomach just thinking about the bloody stuff. I've always had a crippling reaction to it.

@truthhurts23 thanks for your reply! I think it must be the level he has had, like I’ve just put to the other lady whose replied he has small amounts of a variety of things and he is okay… can I ask when your little one had something she found difficult to tolerate how long did it take to pass through her system?
I will be keeping anything new dairy wise out of his diet for now 100%. I literally love him so much and it breaks my heart that he’s had something that makes him uncomfortable I genuinely felt he was getting there with dairy and would be okay to have a yoghurt.

@SiouxsieSiouxStiletto seems that way that it’s just the amount. I’m similar with glucose - I can eat bread or pasta in a day but if I have bread and pasta I get a terrible stomach. I’ve never liked yoghurts to be fair so I don’t even buy them in we were out and he had one in a kids meal deal type thing.
No more yoghurts for this little man!
How long does it take for you for it to pass when you’ve had something you shouldn’t? Sorry to hear you are going through it.

Gluten not glucose!

It takes around two weeks for me to get over a reaction fully although I do usually start to feel much better after 3 days.

My DD had a non-IGE CMPA and has grown out of it. Allergies, particularly non-IGE allergies, are not very well understood. It’s not binary - milk vs no milk. The more processed the protein, the less likely the reaction. The more quantity of the protein, the more likely the reaction. That’s why there is a milk ladder. We did the 12/14(?) step one. Start off with a quarter malted milk for 3 days, if no reaction, move up to the next level. Do 3 days in a row before moving up. Butter and baked milk are low on the milk ladder whereas yoghurt is quite high (because it’s less processed and more quantity of protein) so I’m not surprised that there is a reaction. There is also a soya ladder but I don’t think you are supposed to do both at the same time. It took about 2 years for my DD to clear the milk ladder. We got stuck in the middle a couple of times so tried again after a 6 month break.

My teen son is lactose intolerant. I didn't work this out until he was school aged though.
He drank formula but only small bottles. He was much better when he weaned as our diet isn't heavy on dairy.
I've never done the milk ladder- just stopped giving him what makes him sick or uncomfortable.

Instead of milk (dairy) he has plant milk or Arla Lactofree. I use it in cooking without issues eg white sauce He can't tolerate yoghurt or cream so hasn't had it in 10+ years but can happily have some cheese as it's low in lactose. I buy dairy free butter for him but we don't actually eat a lot of butter so it's not a big issue.

He's learned to adjust his food preferences to take into account his intolerance. For example he will pick a tomato based curry and makes sure it's not got cream or yoghurt or he'll get his hot choc from Costa and ask for a lactose free or plant milk (no whipped cream)

Oh no 😳thank you for correcting me I had no idea about that xx

it usually took a few days before any inflammation seemed to settle down,
but my dd does get hives, so I can literally see it fading,
I’m not sure about the digestive side but it’s probably the same, you might notice some gassiness and weird poos for the few days

I know exactly how you feel x it’s not your fault, it’s really hard to tell sometimes because baby’s do get gassy and have weird poos for other reasons too
when dd was 6 months and started eating food, yoghurt was the first thing I gave her! And her reaction was so small , fussiness and abit of redness, I told myself it was heat rash!
Its like my brain was not connecting the dots ..
Youre always told that they need cows milk to thrive , so I wanted her to eat it but then the second time I gave her yoghurt the reaction was undeniable and she was diagnosed along with egg allergy and later on nuts!

I hope in your case that it is mild and he will be able to have small amounts but if he can’t, don’t worry because there are lots of alternatives now (except rice milk like the other poster said it’s not safe for babies)