CMPA baby sick after oat and soya milk

MagentaFish · 2025-05-09T18:58:02+00:00

Hi, Wondering if anyone has any advice. My little boy is 14 months and was diagnosed with CMPA at 8 months. We haven’t started the milk ladder yet. He has always been EBF but is now down to just a morning and night feed. I have tried soya and oat milk as a drink for him (warm and cold), however with both he has been being sick (not a huge amount) within an hour. I don’t think it’s an allergy as he had other stuff with oats and soya and he hasn’t had the hives or anything else he had when having cows milk, although I appreciate it could still be allergy related. Does anyone have any ideas - could it just be that he’s drinking it too quickly or it’s a little rich for him? We have been referred to an allergist but the waiting list is so long we’re looking at November before we get an appointment. Thank you

DonningMyHardHat · 09/05/2025 20:12

It’s very common to have both soya and cows milk protein allergies although I would expect that to have made itself apparent during weaning as soya is such a common ingredient. Oat allergy is less common though. I assume he has had porridge etc. previously with no ill effects?

He doesn’t really need a milk drink at this age tbh (definitely avoid giving them in a bottle if you can as the sugars in dairy free milks are usually very high). A good multivitamin and some dairy alternatives in his diet are probably sufficient. Are you under a dietician?

CrabbyCat · 09/05/2025 20:30

Soya milk is top of the soya ladder - so it's possible he could react to that but not other forms of soya lower down on the soya ladder (e.g. cooked soya is less likely to cause a reaction). What other forms of soya has he been OK with, there's a soya ladder here for example https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/patient-information/the-soya-ladder/ . It's also quite possible for him to have an ige allergy with hives to milk, and a non ige allergy to soya.

However, oat allergies are much rarer and it strikes me as unlikely he has a problem with both. Is it the same time of day you tried both? How much volume did he have? Was he otherwise completely healthy, and was it on the same or different days? If you'd like a 3rd milk to try, you can get coconut growing up milk (Koko).

The Soya Ladder

https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/patient-information/the-soya-ladder

Original poster

MagentaFish · 10/05/2025 19:32

DonningMyHardHat · 09/05/2025 20:12

It’s very common to have both soya and cows milk protein allergies although I would expect that to have made itself apparent during weaning as soya is such a common ingredient. Oat allergy is less common though. I assume he has had porridge etc. previously with no ill effects?

He doesn’t really need a milk drink at this age tbh (definitely avoid giving them in a bottle if you can as the sugars in dairy free milks are usually very high). A good multivitamin and some dairy alternatives in his diet are probably sufficient. Are you under a dietician?

Thank you. Yes he’s had oats in other forms, porridge/porridge bars and been fine with them, and he has oat milk with weetabix pretty much every morning and seems to tolerate that fine.
I am leaning towards what you’ve suggested and not giving it him as a drink and just making sure he’s getting everything he needs in other ways as I think having it as a drink just doesn’t agree with him.

We aren’t currently under a dietician. We have been referred to the paediatric allergy team (very reluctantly by a GP who was adamant that the symptoms were just because he was under 1, which I knew wasn’t the case) but the waiting list is approx 11 months and we only got referred around 5 months ago.

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Original poster

MagentaFish · 10/05/2025 19:40

CrabbyCat · 09/05/2025 20:30

Soya milk is top of the soya ladder - so it's possible he could react to that but not other forms of soya lower down on the soya ladder (e.g. cooked soya is less likely to cause a reaction). What other forms of soya has he been OK with, there's a soya ladder here for example https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/patient-information/the-soya-ladder/ . It's also quite possible for him to have an ige allergy with hives to milk, and a non ige allergy to soya.

However, oat allergies are much rarer and it strikes me as unlikely he has a problem with both. Is it the same time of day you tried both? How much volume did he have? Was he otherwise completely healthy, and was it on the same or different days? If you'd like a 3rd milk to try, you can get coconut growing up milk (Koko).

Edited

This is really interesting, thank you. I didn’t realise that there was a soya ladder in the same way as a milk ladder. He can definitely do some of the lower steps eg soya lecithin. I tested soya initially quite early on, before his CMPA diagnosis, when he was being sick fairly regularly and didn’t notice any difference but then if it’s a non ige then I wouldn’t really have noticed as those kind of symptoms were pretty normal for him. I think I’ll try him out on the different stages and see how he gets on to get a proper answer now I’m looking for it. We tend to use coconut cheese and yoghurt so I will test him out on soya.

We tried the two drinks on different days and different times - with a snack/when he hadn’t eaten for a while and both caused a reaction. It was about 300ml in a straw cup, then I tried a smaller quantity of about 150/200ml but he was still sick. It’s more so the soya than the oat I think, he can tolerate oat milk with weetabix just not as a drink. It is a real minefield! But the info on the soya ladder is really helpful so thank you.

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Superscientist · 13/05/2025 10:59

Which oat milk have you tried? My daughter can't have some of them as she's also allergic to pea protein

Original poster

MagentaFish · 15/05/2025 08:05

Superscientist · 13/05/2025 10:59

Which oat milk have you tried? My daughter can't have some of them as she's also allergic to pea protein

The one he’s had most recently is the Oatly Barista. I tried him on the Alpro Growing up milk but he wouldn’t drink the oat version of that at all, warm or cold.

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