Keep having dairy on accident

[Yellowmango]

Hi, I have an 8 month old. She is allergic to 9 foods that have been identified so far, one of them being dairy. I am really trying hard to transition baby on to hypoallergenic milk but it has not been working. I feel so guilty because I keep having milk on accident. Baby takes 4 weeks to recover from the symptoms. Yesterday marked the 4 weeks. Today I had dairy. It's frustrating because she doesn't like to eat solids when she is reacting and what my main concern is that she has no protein in her diet. I tried chicken and beef and she was allergic to it. She is having chickpeas for protein. I have salmon in the fridge which I wanted to try out but now that she will reach again I don't know if I should still go along. Although the hard part will pass, I'm concerned she's not getting enough protein

I use an allergy app to screen my food. I don’t know what the best one is for the uk, but I highly recommend getting one. You need to check every label, every time. An app isn’t perfect, but it at least weeds out the reject foods quickly.

the one I use is called FIG, but it is US focused.

I do feel for you, 9 foods is an awful lot to avoid and must be so restrictive.

Do you know why you keep having dairy accidentally? I have CMPA and think I’ve only manage it a handful of times in about 12 years?

Do you mean she’s breastfeeding? If she’s reacting through your milk, just be more careful! If she’s got an anaphylactic allergy later, then you’re really going to have to be careful.

It’s really unlikely she’d allergic to everything you’re assuming and you do know the more you expose her to the earlier the less likely she is to be allergic?

Are you waiting for a specialist appointment?

Nine foods is a little so it must be difficult for you. Hopefully your consultant will find out with some more accuracy what your dd can and can’t eat in the future.

When my dd was diagnosed with one allergy, peanut, I found that overwhelming enough. It does get easier as you get used to it being a part of your life. It wasn’t until I had my second child and I didn’t have to worry about her food that I realised just how much I was thinking about what dd1 could and couldn’t eat.

I agree with a PP that you are going to have to be even more cautious. Maybe you will just have to eat the same meals over and over again whilst you are breastfeeding.

In the longer term you are going to have to make major adjustments to what you eat as a family but you will get used to it.

If her allergy is so severe that she is ill for 4 weeks after having dairy through your milk, I assume she is under consultant care? What have you been told to do?

How do you keep having milk by accident?

I get it my daughter has 20 allergies and it was hard to breastfeed her! She also didn't engage with weaning until 13 months! I wouldn't worry about getting particular food groups in her diet but focus on diverse set foods and identifying all of her allergens. It was only when we had pretty much cracked her list that she started eating and got over reactions quicker.
What formulas have you tried, my daughter went on to alfamino in the end. She has a coconut allergy and this was the only coconut free one. I had to stop breastfeeding cold turkey to make the switch as she had a bottle aversion but continuing to breastfeed was detrimental to my health. I went into hospital and my daughter went home to dad

My daughter is allergic to beef too and her soya allergy is so sensitive she can't have soya fed poultry so can only eat corn or grain fed chicken. Generally high welfare chicken is fine but cheap chicken causes her to react. She's also allergic to fish so protein for her is usually pork, lamb, lentils, chick peas and other pulses. When she was a baby we were unsure on the lentils and pulses so I think she only had high welfare chicken. At 8 months all she was having was veg and only a couple of mouthfuls a day.

Slip ups can easily happen, I once caused a reaction by switching to museli for breakfast I enjoyed it so much thinking why haven't I been eating this. I had it every day for 3 or 4 days and then I had a screaming infant to deal with....I hadn't noticed the very clear and not at all hidden ribbons on coconut in it! I once accidentally used lemon curd in a cake for my daughter and she has an egg allergy and lemon curd is egg based. Absolutely everything has to be checked. We are very strict and food her checked at time of purchase and then when we get them home and then often before we eat them too. We have been caught out with recipe changes when reliable foods we buy week in week out have changed their recipe so even if we have bought it before we check again.
What sort of foods have you been accidentally having? I might be able to help with some safe alternatives

Thank you everyone for your replies. Her allergies usually cause issues with her stomach (vomiting, cramps, gas etc). She only gets better once I eliminate that food. As for me accidentally having milk. There's three occasions:

1. Mcvities digestive biscuits don't have milk but my uncle bought digestive biscuits from another brand. Tasted exactly the same but they had milk in them. Can't blame my uncle because I should have asked him. I didn't know at the time about other brands 'copying' each other. Since then I decided I needed to be really careful which obviously I failed at

2. My mum made me a chickpea curry that I took home. The next day I went over to hers and she told me what was in the fridge that I could eat. I had some of the chickpea curry in her fridge. Later my mum remembered how she had put 2 tablespoons of yoghurt in the chickpea curry she had kept for herself.

3. Yesterday I went over to my friend's house. Made sure the food was okay. I was having some naan which my friend warmed up. I read the ingredients on the packet. There was no milk. I finished eating and later realised that the 2 naan packets in the kitchen were of different brands and I had had the naan from the packet that said it contained milk.

I know I should be more strict. It's a shock every time it happens because I always think to myself after consuming milk that I will not ever let it happen again but then it does...

I've been successful in eliminating all other foods from my diet. It's just always milk I struggle with.

@Superscientist 20 allergies seem so awful! Is your daughter still suffering from her allergies or has she grown out of them? I suspect my daughter has a lot more than 9 allergies but that's all I have been able to test so far. How was your experience with going cold turkey with breastfeeding? I'm afraid my daughter is going to cry the whole day wanting to be breastfed and reject the bottle. As for protein she can't have chicken and beef I think she's also reacting to chickpeas and lentils. That leaves me with fish and lamb. I guess I will wait to introduce them to her. Once she is feeling better. Last night I was up googling about how much protein she should be having and how important it is. I guess it worried me more. She was born on the 0.04 centile too so I'm just a worried mum. Thank you for sharing your experience. It helps me not feel so alone

@YellowmangoAre you absolutely sure you’re dealing with allergies here, not something else? I only ask because my god child is anaphylactic to dairy, but those tiny amounts via breastmilk wouldn’t affect her (obviously her mum works really hard at avoiding it too!)

@CurlewKate Yes I'm sure my child has a cows milk protein allergy because when she or I have dairy she gets blood in her stools which is a symptom of CMPA. She has non-ige allergies where her symptoms show up in the span of 24-72 hours. It's been very hard to get help in the NHS. In the beginning I would just be told that she has colic. It was only until she was 6 months that it was taken more seriously and I had help from a dietician. I have an appointment tomorrow too. She knew about the dairy and soy allergy but let's see what she suggests about the new allergies I have found.

Dairy, egg and tree nuts here. It's hard.

I had lots of accidentals to begin with. Ultimately you can't trust anyone, and it's going to get people's backs up. But you got to do it because baby.

I had to do the shopping, because DH kept forgetting to check packets. Even if eaten before as brands and reformulations were a fucking nightmare. I had to make my food and check all the ingredients. I had to take food with me to reheat. Mum says don't worry I have some? Sorry mum but I'll be bringing my own anyway.

Couldn't trust anyone eating out. Vegan food? Fried in same oil as the halloumi. Laughing at me asking why I'm asking if the pepperoni has dairy in it? After I made them check (literally asked them several times to show me the packet) they saw milk was on list of ingredients. Someone literally put cheese sauce on some food because they 'forgot cheese was dairy'. No hot drinks out at Costa or Starbucks etc because they don't clean off the milk well enough even if you ask for a non-dairy milk.

You got to get militant but it does suck.

I’m a lot older (58), I’m coeliac and lactose intolerant and I still make the odd mistake. But when someone else makes the mistake, ie coffee shops the effects are absolutely awful. Asking for lactose free then end up realising they’ve used cows milk, within 20 minutes I know about it, it’s gotten so bad now that I’m bed ridden for a day with horrendous stomach cramps and god awful diarrhoea. Ok it won’t kill me, but they don’t know that.

I’m amazed that a lot of coffee houses offer me Oat milk, they’re not being educated on food allergies, oats contain gluten. One server in my local bar was shocked, but was going to introduce it into training and alerting staff to the fact. For some people it’s just a lifestyle choice, for me the effects are devastating. I’ve recently discovered that lactose intolerance affects the absorption of my HRT patch, bloody marvellous, I give in 🤦‍♀️

@CurlewKate my daughter is nonige and was very sensitive even tiny amounts in my diet caused a reaction. Directly a single crumb of dairy biscuits led to her scream for 2 days continuously only calmed when given antihistamines! She's also so sensitive to soya she reacts to soya fed poultry!

@Yellowmango yeah it was hard going, I think at one point we only had a handful of safeish meals and she still was having random reactions which made it hard to assess the very long list of maybe foods!
The cold turkey was pretty brutal, I'm so grateful for my partner taking it on! She didn't drink for 26h! She had a little bit of food with formula in to get some liquids in her throughout the day. At this point she couldn't look at a bottle nevermind drink from it except at nursery where she would have a couple of Oz over the day. On the second day she went to nursery, polished off 2 5oz bottles and was on formula from then (around 10-11months) until 2! She was 20 months before she ate enough to get nutrition solely from food and we could start reducing the formula. She barely gained any weight between 7 and 13 months.
I had run out of options breastfeeding, I had severe treatment resistant depression and was admitted to a mother and baby unit when I had to stop breastfeeding and I had collapsed the day before sending her home with very low blood pressure and sugars. My weight had dropped below 7 stone, which was too low even though I'm short! My daughters dietitian was more concerned about my health on my daughters restricted diet than she was my daughter!

She's 4.5 now and hasn't outgrown any of her allergies, it's now looking like she might not ever fully outgrow the full list completely. We are hoping that she'll be able to start tolerating baked foods at some point, that's our aim. She's tolerating accidents better and without reactions but still reacts to even tiny amounts daily.

Two lessons I think from those is every packet should be tested and trust no-one, if you can check food whilst still in the packet and then watch where it goes in the oven!