How long for toddler for recover from symptoms of milk allergy?

[natashaps]

Hi everyone,

My 17 month old daughter has been diagnosed with cow's milk allergy and I'd love some advice on what to expect in terms of her recovery from current symptoms. I live abroad and have had some horrific experiences with doctors so I find it hard to feel sure at this point.

Her CMPA diagnosis came after 3 months of regular vomiting and diarrhoea that were kicked off with what seemed to be a stomach infection - we did lots of tests to rule other things out and dairy has ben identified as the most likely culprit. If the CMPA diagnosis is correct, I hope it might explain a lot of issues she's had since birth (slow eight gain, skin sensitivity/rashes, terrible sleep waking screaming regularly, getting quite sick to the point of A and E visits more than once, and even being hospitalised for a stomach infection). I'm still breastfeeding her once a day and don't want to stop quite yet so for now she and I are on strictly no-dairy diets. She is also on a medicine to calm 'silent reflux' as the doctor suspected that was affecting her and might have explained some of the awful nights she's had.

We've been dairy free for 3 weeks, and while she hasn't thrown up in a few weeks now or had terrible diarrhoea like she had before, she still has a very watery undigested poop every day which scares me. Our doctor said we had to wait up to 6 weeks before making an assessment as her intestinal tract was so inflamed it hadn't been processing food properly and needs time to heal. She does seem to be finally sleeping better (fewer night of her up for hours in the middle of the night restless).

I'm wondering from other parents what the recover looked like? Is it normal for it to take this long for their bodies to settle down?

Thank you

My exclusive breastfed son was 2 months old when the midwife told me to try cutting dairy out of my diet and if he didn't improve to also cut soya out. Turns out he is allergic to both and he improved significantly within about a month of going free from both.

If your daughter has been ingesting dairy for so much longer it might take a few months to fully heal from it. I'd try getting rid of any soy products too to see if it helps as lots of children with CMPA are also allergic to soya.
My boy is also allergic to eggs but I could eat them and still breastfeed.

At least you know what the source of all the illnesses now is and things will only get better from here OP. X

It was about 6 weeks for us at age 4mths, and we started the milk ladder aged 1yr after weaning.

There is no research into this. People either says days or 6 weeks but it’s all guess work. Definitely consider removing soya as 50% of children with cmpa are also allergic to soya.

I have a dgc who is allergic to both dairy and soya. It does seem to go together for a lot of youngsters. However it can be a real pain trying to buy suitable goods unless you are willing and able to cook from scratch.

Thanks so much for your responses. It does all seem to be a bit mysterious. I have also cut out soy (though I did eat tofu by mistake one night so maybe I set us back?!). Is it like an all or nothing things while their immune system calms down? I was left with the impression that her body would flare up again with even a tiny bit of exposure and we'd be back to square one. Is that right? Is it normal for her digestive system to still be a mess after 3 weeks of no dairy? I thought it would gradually improve but the poops remains the same (sleep etc has improved)

Really helpful to hear, thank you. If this diagnosis is correct, it really makes me sad that it took until 17 months to get and I understand that it might take longer for her to recover now. We'd been through so many doctors for so many issues that I now think were related (I even told one doctor she seemed fussy after I had milk when she was exclusively breastfeeding and they didn't take me seriously). I hope within a few weeks we get there. I wonder if we should cut eggs out...

@IhaveaBigBum Really helpful to hear, thank you. If this diagnosis is correct, it really makes me sad that it took until 17 months to get and I understand that it might take longer for her to recover now. We'd been through so many doctors for so many issues that I now think were related (I even told one doctor she seemed fussy after I had milk when she was exclusively breastfeeding and they didn't take me seriously). I hope within a few weeks we get there. I wonder if we should cut eggs out...