Cows' milk allergy?

[Diplobrat]

Hi all, I saw our GP today about a 3 day bout of diarrhea in my 3 month old baby, and she suggested that he might have a cows' milk intolerance. I'm a bit surprised at the idea (maybe wrongly) and I wanted to sense check with others, as the GP in question (while very nice) has made odd judgments before. So our baby:

• Is 15 weeks old, exclusively breastfed.
• Has gained weight very well, moving up and down between the 75th and 91st centiles.
• Hasn't generally had diarrhea, usually 3-5 poos a week at normal newborn consistency. He has however often seemed uncomfortable when pooing and is pretty windy (tummy massage has helped). Another GP wasn't too concerned about this and said it is colic which he will grow out of.
• Does spit up a lot, but seems perfectly happy about it.
• Has tended to eat very frequently (15-20 times) in the day for short periods (10 minutes or so) when other babies his age have reduced this number a lot. However, this has started to calm down a bit over the last week.
• Sleeps well at night (8-10 hours over the last few weeks).
• Has had a red, rough rash on his cheeks over the last few days, coinciding with the diarrhea.

Obviously I will happily try an elimination diet for two weeks, but I'd be grateful for views about whether an allergy really seems likely. I had assumed it would be unlikely based on his weight gain and it seems odd that the symptoms would have appeared/changed so suddenly at this age.

The weight gain can be a bit I’d a red herring as babies with CMPA can sometimes overfeeding as the action of BFing is very comforting to them.

And I’m not medically trained but of the symptoms have only been present for 3 days it does seem a bit unlikely.

Having said that it won’t hurt to go DF for a couple of weeks as long as you take a decent Calcium and Vitamin D supplement.

Have a read of this article on Kellymom as it’s very good.

I would also read of this on Tongue Tie if he’s having short regular feeds. It is in the realms of normal but worth reading to see if he has any of the symptoms.

And are you getting any RL support?

My DD had CMPA, she wasn’t breastfed but she actually was gaining weight well rather than dropping, she was uncomfortable, pulling legs, grunting, trapped wind, poos appeared painful. She had spots on her face, she was sicky but this only became an issue around 4 months. Poos were very varied from the get go, sometimes would be diarrhea, sometimes constipated, only really clicked when there was blood in there. She never slept at night but did through the day so her routine was just backwards but the older she got the more she would cry and appear uncomfortable/in pain

Interesting - thank you so much both! I'll definitely try cutting out dairy and see what happens (can't hurt for such a short time, and I'm taking a multivitamin for breastfeeding anyway). Sounds like an allergy isn't impossible.

Thanks too for flagging the tongue tie guidance @BunnyRuddington - I'll have a read. I spoke to the local infant feeding support team about the frequent feeds and they didn't seem concerned, but it may be worth checking again if it doesn't continue improving.