Milk Allergy: suitable substitute and general advice please

[technics]

Hi everybody, This is my first post so please be gentle

I have a 10 month old son and in the last few months ezcema has appeared, mostly over his tummy but it is slowly spreading to his legs, arms and neck. I have been to the drs and spoken to hv and they have said it is certainly not food related but have not suggested what the cause could be. DS has been prescribed diprotherm(sp?) and oilatum bath. DS was exclusively breastfed to six months and is now blw. DS is still bf but I do use some dairy: about four bottles of formula a week when he's at nursery, yoghurts and the odd bit of cow's milk when making porridge pancakes.

Anyway, I've read a lot of threads on mn re ezcema and I'm now almost certain this ezcema is caused by a milk allergy. DP has only recently told that he in fact had a milk allergy as a child, DS is very mucus-y/snotty and of course the ezcema.

I was thinking of cutting out dairy for a couple of months and seeing if there was any change. So my questions are: can I buy a formula substitute from the pharmacy (I don't want to ask the dr to prescribe it because she has said she is certain the ezcema is not food related and I don't want to tell her how to do her job!). And what can I use as a substitute for it in his food i.e. yoghurts, and small amounts of milk when preparing meals.

Thanking you all in advance and look forward to receiving any advice

Afraid it is definitely true ladies, since Nov 2005 if my memory serves me correctly (which it might not ).

That's a good point from girlfrommars though - your ds may be able to manage without milk at nursery, although if he's happy to drink it then I really can't see any problem with giving him oat milk instead of water. It will after all contain more nutrients than water, so can't really be criticised for containing less than other types of milk.

Ah, x-post re nursery.

Hi all, I'm off to bed soon, I just wanted to thank you all for your advice and input - it's given me lots to think about.

I am in a similar situation - waiting for milk allergy to be rubber stamped as the cause of dds excema - using 'neocate' at the minute on script from my GP. It has everything cow's milk has (nutrients, calories etc) but it is a replica.

My advice would be to go back to the GP and ask her to prescribe something so you can try and compare your lo's skin before and after.

I would try to be firm and insist that something is done aside from being prescribed the usual emollients. It can be hard enough to manage the skin without worrying about reactions and them getting enough of what they need.

This gives quite a good explanation of milk allergy and intolerance

Technics, I would be really interested to hear how you get on with this as I am starting to suspect dd (almost 7 months) may have a milk allergy.

my s is 7 months and has allergies to soya,milk and eggs, hes had lots of tests done at kings hospital in london , prick and patch testing, prick testing they told me is not as 100% as other tests, he had bad reaction to soya through the patch testing..i don t know who told you about too young for testing !! my son was tested at 4 months !! hes been on nanny goats milk since 3 months old although he is BF as well. i have to exclude from diet all the things hes allergic too!!what a pain.esp as im vegetarian!! they tested him on goats milk and that came back as fine and theyre happy for me to continue with goats milk[i would have anyway] its not supposed to be available here in the uk as new zealand won t allow testing done on it by the uk , health and safety ...!!!thats the only reason.. however since it suits my son fine i will stick with it..my first son 8 years ago was brought up on it too..
weve tried all the allergenic milks available through th e hospital and hes shown an allergy to them all..two because they contained soya..fancy putting soya into hypoallergenic milks when its a possible allergenic itself!!! my son has eczema because of his allergies, they are delayed reactions which means he ends to react the next day for a few days until it works out of his system again..its a real pain as he loves his food and desperately wants to try everything were eating which often involves slight accidents when his exzema flares up...tonight he had tuna pasta for the first time[tuna being the new food] and hes thrown up all of his tea straight after so im wondering whether he has a reaction to tuna or it was just to heavy fo r him although he loved it ..poor thing..

Hi guys, just wanted to thank you all for posting, your input is very helpful, and give an update generally.

After reading Friday's posts I decided to take action and eliminate milk from DS's diet for a short while, just to see if my suspicion was correct. I visited the pharmacist on saturday (AM, before your post Jumparoo) and she reluctantly sold me a small tin of nutramigen (£12 I couldn't believe it!). I have also cut down on milk myself (DS still bf), not completely eliminated, just cut down.

Anyway, I just cannot believe the results already. DS eczema has cleared up hugely and is well on its way to disappearing! I'm over the moon but on the flip side just a little disappointed that my dr poo-poohed my suggestion it could be food related.

So Jumparoo I think you are right, I really do need to go back to the dr and beg ask to be referred. Interestingly, friends who have babies attached to my DS's surgery were very quickly referred to a dietician but only after vomiting when drinking cow's milk formula, not merely coming out in eczema.

With regard to allergy testing Bambi, I think the idea is that it's not wrong/bad/incorrect to test very young babies for allergies but merely pointless as it may give incorrect results - false positives/false negatives. But please don't quote me on that, it's just something I've read over the weekend and based on my very very limited knowledge on this subject!

CSWS if you visit this thread again, I wonder if you have any views on me eating soya? Do you think this is a bad idea given DS is under one and still bf? And your thoughts on giving DS, say, one soya yoghurt a week (he's now 11 months old) Is it right that babies under two should not be given any soya?

Hi - we had a similar problem. DS was breastfed to a year then developed eczema every time we gave him formula. Experimented with help of HV (v basic - formula = eczema, no formula = no eczema). Our gp was great and prescribed soy formula. We avoid rice milk because of the arsenic scare, and use aveeno and hydrocortisone on prescription. He is coming up to 3, and definitely losing the allergy as predicted.

Another post pointing to me taking DS to dr and requesting referral! My DP grew out of his allergy too which is good news.

Hi technics. I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to read through all of the posts but I can give you some advice from my experience of having a child with horrendous excema and a milk allergy. I was referred to a dermatologist for my DD's excema and given all sorts of potions which really only ended up drying her up even more. The thing I recommend to anyone and everyone who has excema is aloe vera - not any old aloe vera but Forever Living Products aloe vera (I'm not a supplier so not plugging it for any other reason than it works and is amazing). You can find your nearest supplier on their website I'm sure. I use the aloe vera gelly morning and night and on top of that I use the aloe propolis. My dd's excema has disappeared completely. I still use it on her skin as it's so nice and keeps her skin moist. My dd's face was raw with excema and now it's gorgeous again so please give it a go.
My dd (just 2 years old) has nutramigen 2 formula. She had a bad reaction to a rice pudding at 5 months (I breast fed her til she was 6 months) so she was given a blood test (which isn't conclusive as it said she was allergic to wheat too but she isn't!). I was told by a nutrionist not to give her soya milk to drink - something to do with oestragen (probably spelt that wrong!) but my dd does have soya yogurts quite often - sometimes one a day. I haven't been told this is bad for her, the nutrionist said it was fine. So, that's my story. You should persevere with your doctor and explain your findings. They can prescribe formula as it is very expensive. Your baby should start on the Nutramigen 2 from 1 year I think. Keep on at the doctor and ask to be referred to a paediatrician. It's right to go with your gut feeling and not to feel put off by the doctors. They are often good but quite often they get things wrong or ignore things that shouldn't be ignored. Take care. Hope this helps. PS I gave up dairy when I was breastfeeding her after she had the reaction and I drank goats milk and used the pure butter. I steered clear of cheese completely and all this did help. Good luck. x

One main reason there is a rise in child food allergies and (more commonly) food sensitivities from products like cows milk, soya, corn and potatoes are because these products are generally GMO products and we react to the added strains oppose to the actual vegetable. With cow?s milk, the reaction is from the extensive hormones they?re injected with and food they eat: same with eggs. Soya and corn are also ?E? numbers on processed food. Not all ?E? numbers are bad, (unless you are sensitive to them, obviously) but it is, for whatever reason, the labelling system here. MSG is the sodium salt form produced from glutamic acid which is a natural constituent of many fermented or aged foods, including soy sauce, fermented bean paste, and cheese. However, as soon as I eat it, I know because I double over in pain. My dh ate a pile of cherry?s one year in BC and within an hour, broke out in an all body rash. So did many people across BC and Washington State and it turned out cherry farmers where experimenting with a new pesticide. Anyhow, I?m rambling,,,

You said you were going to eliminate milk from son?s diet to see if it clears up his eczema, (I suspect it will) but after maybe introduce organic milk and if he is fine then you know it?s not a milk allergy. Here?s a couple of site?s too. Good luck. Let us know how you fair.

hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/html/food_allergy.html

www.foodallergy.org/

ps? Goat?s Milk is illegal in UK? Why can I get it at Sainsbury?s?

I am also a huge fan of Aloe Vera for skin rashes and cuts, however I just use it straight from the plant.

Hi Slowly, thanks for all your tips. My DS' cheeks are also very dry and I've found a supplier for the Forver Living products (I would not be able to keep an aloe vera plant in the house without killing it!) so thanks for that. I will be making another appointment with the dr as it seems to be the only way forward.

And thanks too chefswife that's very interesting reading. A very good point about the organic milk too. Is it a given then that organic cow's milk from, say, sainsburys doesn't contain hormones then? And all other nasties? I will eventually try that in the future for cooking etc but ideally I'd like a cow's milk substitute for DS's formula in the meantime. I think I will need to go to the drs/oat milk route for that because as far as I know there isn't an organic cow's milk formula? or is there? Just thinking that if there was I could reintroduce that to see how he is with it.

My previous post should have read goat's milk formula oooops

v surprised re allergy to cows milk being to GMO and not the actual milk. Surely children would react to more than just milk and milk products in that case?

i think the nanny goats milk thing is that it is no longer allowed to be called "formula". it def is not illegal and is for sale in waitrose.

very interesting post chefswife. DD2 had terrible eczema from formula and normal cow's milk but was fine when we moved her to Babynat Organic Follow on Formula (cow's). maybe it is due to a lack of GMO or something else in it.

she has a diagnosed egg allergy but negative to diary allergy when tested (RAST and skin prick). the dietitian at the hospital is analysing the babynat milk she was so astonished at the difference in DD2.

GMO?s are about gene splicing. You can?t ?add? it to milk. My post wasn?t very clear. I meant that the food that cows are eating, grains and corn, are GMO?s, (unless they are organically reared) and that affects their milk they produce as well as the heavy amounts of hormones and medication they are injected with. These elements are found in the milk even after pasteurization and then we ingest them which can lead to ?food? sensitivities. Drinking milk directly will have a more pronounced effect on us rather than a product that has a milk component. IE: a glass of milk opposed to a cookie. Organics can get expensive but if you do one thing, go organic with dairy products.

And, no, organically reared animals are not given growth hormones. It?s a part of the legislation.

oh my goodness why on earth am I not drinking organic milk already.... Thanks chefswife

amidaiwish I have found some organic milk formula on a website (thank you) but can I ask, do you buy it online? And, if so, can you recommend a good/cheap website please?

Of course some children will have a milk allergy, I?m just saying that it?s a good idea to stop feeding them milk till the ailment goes away then try organic milk to see if it is a milk allergy/sensitivity or simply the added stuff.(Provided the kids are not doubled over in pain when consuming the milk or whatever food you think may be causing the problem.) And if you are breastfeeding, try changing your dairy to organic as well.

I?m trying to work and play around on mumsnet?

Morethanmum? some children are more tolerant to products and physical reactions are not the only problem that incur from altered and processed food. My friend?s child was diagnosed with ADD and promptly told Ritalin was the only answer. She had reservations and I suggested she try changing his diet to only whole foods and try go organic for as much as you can. There was an incredible change in her ds? behaviour and attitude. Although now she is fighting all the neighbourhood kids off from her extensive fruit bowl.

I'm a big fan of goats milk. It worked for my family, and is a very natural 'normal' product . Formula from independent health food shops or waitrose. Fresh goats milk from any large supermarket.

Also - I'm a bit sceptical that dairy is really all that vital with a good overall diet and a decent amount of breast milk.

When my ds started having problems, it prompted me to look at how much dairy me and Dd ate. I realised it was very little compared to other people (I eat cheese and take milk in my coffee; Dd used to eat yogurt and a sip a little chocolate milk. She drinks much more milk now we have goats milk.) . However, we both naturally ate a lot of other foods which were rich in calcium.

Are you oriental? Apparently it's more common in people with oriental background. If you look at chinese, japanese cooking, virtually no dairy. Instead, lots of dark green vegetables etc.

technics, i buy the organic formula from a chemist near us, The Maple Leaf, which has a lot of homeopathic/alternative medicines too. Or Sloane Pharmacy i think which maybe a chain.

or try olimia.com ?

Turniphead i do agree that it isn't great to self-diagnose or to follow a restricted diet if it isn't necessary.
however i also know of 5 children in real life (rather than on mn!) who suffered severely from eczema and changing/reducing/eliminating dairy brought about an instant improvement/relief.

i certainly don't think these children have an "allergy" as they do not have the serious symptoms associated with an allergy. However most of us in the west drink/consume far far far too much dairy.

After breastfeeding for 5 months we decided to go with Nanny Goats Milk (I beleive mentioned above). I dont want to compare my or anybodies child/children to animals, but for the longest time whenever an animal is born in captivity and the mother does not make it it is reared on goats milk most of the time if milk of their own species is not availabe. But never cows milk as the animal would not survive. It is a very simple fact that has been a reality for centuries.

After sourcing ours form the local health food shop we found it on www.mummydeli.com along with other products we had to source form different places. For example baby bottles that are BPA free (BPA is a know hormone disruptor that most of all available baby bottles on the market at the moment are made with this chemical.... look on www.environmentaldefence.ca/toxicnation/action/bisphenolfaq.htm
Once you read this you will also consider looking for BPA bottles as well!

I think at the end of the day we all want to provide our children with the best we can.. And if we can avoid giving them things we know are not good for them, or could not be good for them why do it. Good luck.