Does this sound like a milk allergy?

[FurryFox]

DD is coming up to six months. Since she was a couple of weeks old she has always been a very unsettled baby, winging the best part of the day, not very happy etc. I just put it down to her personailty and assumed it's just the way she is.

Also at a few weeks old she developed a tiny patch of red rough skin on her cheek. It really was small and just thought it was a bit of excema but as so small didn't really worry about it. She also had a teeny patch on her arm.

I formula fed her from 2 days old on Cow & Gate but after a few weeks switched it to Aptimil Easy Digest as she seemed to be struggling with the normal one. It helped for a couple of weeks and she was a much more contented baby and was drinking much more.

However, over the last 6 weeks or so she's got more and more irritable, cries for much of the day and isn't always taking as much milk as she previously did. Her weight gain is fine though.

Her cheek is now really red with a rash and very rough and it's now covering much of her other cheek. It obviously irritates her as she tries to scratch it a lot. She's also got the rash/bad skin/excema in the folds of her legs too.

We have a doctors appointment on Wednesday but just wondering if this does sound like it could be a milk allergy? I feel awful for not taking her to the docs sooner but just assumed she was just a more demanding baby but I now think that she's in some sort of discomfort and the crying is much worse than it used to be and her skin is really quite bad.

Sorry this is so long.

Sorry for typos, especially ezcema

I still spelt it wrong, eczema, sorry.

Anyone?

Hi there, My dd is now nearly 2 and has a milk allergy. She suffered some of these symptoms the crying, discomfort and rash, but these were coupled with sickness very smelly loose nappies and an all over rash (along with limited weight gain). Fingers corssed you get a diagnosis either way as knowing what is wrong and treating it will make you feel a lot better.

Let me know and fingers crossed belss her

Eczema is often linked to dairy allergy, so yes - I think it shoudl be explored.

(They nearly always grow out of dairy allergy by three, by the way.)

hiya, how you gettin on? my ds has multiple food allergies and intolerances.i discovered his milk allergy when he was 3 months old. he was quite unsettled too,eczema started as soon as i started him on formular from breast.weight gain always ok, no chubby chap though, lol.
do you have history of food allergy, asthma,eczema in the family? any of these things could predispose baby to same atopic conditions.
it could be that at the mo she is intolerant, but will grow out of it, it may not be full allergy.hope not for you all, its a pain!!
this is a bit off the wall, but how was your delivery? if traumatic then irritabilty could be due to this and not necessarilly the milk.(although it could easily be the milk making her skin worse,especially if she is really itchy).craniotherapy is really ment to help settle them.also helps eczema apparently, i wanted to have it for my ds,but hubby didnt trust airy-fairy stuff!!lol
one thing ive learnt is to trust my instincs, if you think its the milk, stand your ground and ask Dr for hydrolysed formular as a trial so you can see if it makes any difference!(you may need to add......wait for it, chocolate milkshake flavoring to it though because it is foul.DIETICIAN advised this!i was horrified but it was only way i got ds to take it.slowly reduced amount till he had it without!
good luck,keep us posted so sorry ive waffled on and on and on.......

sounds similiar to my 3DC. I wish my 1st DC didn't have as many expsoures as he did. His reactions, ezcema and asthma is by far the worst of the three. Allegist guided us in protecting the other 2 DC (comntrolled testing) until their immune system is more mature and results are far better.

All 3 DC still use Nutramigen Hypoallergic formula. No two children are the same but my advice is not to take too many risks as some reactions get worse.

Thank you all for replying. Been to the doctors, he was lovely and listened to everything I said but doesn't think it is a milk/dairy allergy as her weight gain has always been good.

He's prescribed some cream for her excema, Aqueous which you can get off the shelf, he said it might or might not work and if not come back and we'll try something else.

He said he thinks there is no point in changing her formula because even if it is an allergy she'll probably grow out of it but surly if it then her formula needs changing?

How can we work out for sure if it is an allergy or not? I know nothing about these sorts of things. Thanks.

I went through something similar with dd who always put on weight but had eczema on her face, arms and even in here ear. It also gave her loose nappies

I moved her on to goats milk at 9 months, the powdere3d variety and it definitely improved.

Have you thought about trying her on soya milk which is for 6 months plus

In similar situation, FurryFox - DD2 (23 weeks) has eczema which has improved by using bath emollient plus cream.

DD1 was the same - we tried her on soya formula and didn't feel it made a difference but am glad I tried it - that can be given on prescription too.

If it's also any help, the doctor said that it was infant eczema and would have gone by the time she was one.

I was but he was right. Apart from occasional flare up she is fine now nearly 4.

Hope it works out the same for your DD and my DD2 - you feel awful for them, don't you!

Furry Fox stick with your guns if you want to rule out allergies once and for all. Weight gain doesn't necessarily mean no allergy. My nephew is 8 weeks and has been unsettled, sickly, whingy, wriggly from day 1 but still following his curve which is above 50th centile so on paper looks fine. My sis was convinced that there was something going on though as he just didn't ever seem happy. They tried Wysoy, goat's milk, a million different formulas, some of which were better than others but he was still never waht you would call a contented baby. Eventually she got a referral to Paed. Gastro-enterologist who thought there may be something anatomically wrong which would explain why he's in constant pain or discomfort, but when they performed endoscopy all looked fine and they diagnosed severe dairy allergy with likelihood that he's allergic to tons of other stuff too, so he will be weaned under supervision of hospital dietician. He's now on some formula which costs about £40 a tub (just as well on prescription!). Is GP's job to look at most obvious cause of illness first but go with your instinct if you are not convinced

IME GPs always try to suggest its not a dairy allergy. If you can't get testing/ formula on prescription as a trial, try buying a tub of Wysoy, and give it a couple of weeks. Nutramigen tastes horrible and an older baby may not take it.

FWIW, my dd was allergic to eggs and dairy, and had great weight gain. She got excema from about 8 weeks, which got progressively worse until I put her on soya formula. Good luck.

I'd also try to go to an excema clinic - they know a lot more about it than GPs.

Thanks for all the info, it's really helping me as I've never known anyone in rl with an allergy so have no one with knowledge to talk to about it.

It's just awful to see her so miserable all the time and crying, she must feel awful as well. Perhaps she is just an unhappy baby but I find it hard to believe that she would be like that so much of the time unless there was a problem.

I'm certain she's in pain after a feed because she always arches her back and the crying starts.

I think I might try and change her formula, thanks for the info on those and see how she gets on. Also as she's approaching six months I'm starting to think about weaning but obviously if she does have a dairy allergy I need to be avoiding certain things.

If I change her formula how long would it roughly take to make a difference do you think?

For me changing to goats milk made a difference in 2 days.

She is 2.5 now and still on it which means I have to buy milk for her and different milk for her brothers and me but its made a difference. Nursery have occasionally given he cows milk by mistake but it has set her off again.

Also compared to ds2 who also has allergies to things it has made potty training a dream.

I will check at home since I may have a tin of soya milk left over, unused and not open

Thanks slalomsuki, that's really nice of you

Is it ok to give soya milk without being advised to do so by the GP? I guess I can do what I like really if it's for the sake of dds health? I've just noticed on the tubs it says something along the lines of only use if recommended by GP and obviously I don't know if she is allergic to cows milk but presumably it can't do her any harm even if she hasn't got an allergy?

Hi my DD also suffers from eczema occassionally, everyone except the medical experts suggested it was dairy related. I BF until 14 months then moved to water only. She gets cows milk in food only. Its much better since i stopped BF but pehaps she's just growing out of it.
It was a homeopath that really helped me by prescribing a cream and tablets to take when it flares up. (Sorry I don't know what its called) Aqueous didnt work for us and I didnt want to regularly give the the cortison that the GP prescibed. Good luck

I am sure using soya is fine without doctor's permission. It has everything in it a 6 month old needs. DD was on it from 6 months.

Stopping dairy made a difference to her almost immediately, but I have heard that it takes two weeks to get out of the system.

Everyone's experience is different, but fwiw, aqueous cream made my daughter worse, and goat's milk didn't help.

hiya, how you getting on?
re creams, aqueous is rubbish, if eczema rough and really intchy you need some thing more like double base or diprobase. theey moisturise and leave a film ontop of skin to trap miosture. epiderm also good, but very heavy, like vaseline and ruins clothes.

sorry, got to do short messages incase computer crashes! wrote big one to you the other night and lost it all!!

i would try goats or soya milk, shouldnt do any harm. they wouldnt put it on supermarket shelves else. just remember if its lactose she is intolerant of, goats milk may still irritate her.my DS couldt even tolerate skin test with goats milk.... i just put some on his arm few days before i planned to feed it to him. he came out in hives with in 15mins. but he does have extreamly bad allergy.

when trying new milk, dont change anything else in diet, so you know if she does have a prob, thats whats causing it.

once settled on new milk, introduce new foods slowly, one every 3 days, again so you know what does or doesnt effect her.
look for rashes, hives, increased scratching, loose stools, increased irritability and exacerbation of eczema.

if you think she is going to be prone to allergies, then you could do what i was advised and put small amount of one new food on her skin few days before you feed it her and see what local reaction, if any, you get.

with eczema "red" foods are thought to irritate it.peppers, strawberries, tomatoes etc. but cooking changes the acids in these foods and so the reaction. my ds can eat cooked toms, but not raw. apples even used to bring him out in a rash, but now he is fine with them....3.5yrs on.

re other dairy, if her skin really improves when on new formular, i would maybe still try her with cheese in food and small amounts of yoghurt. again, cos they are processed she may cope well with them. my youngest has v mild eczema and has all dairy, but it does get worse if he drinks loads of fresh milk. he can eat cheese and yogs till they come out of his ears though.

do check with you DR though if skin improves with out cows formular, they may advise you diff. i'm no DR!!!
my rational for saying keep it her diet a little bit is because when i found out milk making ds eczema worse i cut out all dairy!
now its chicken and egg question...... does ds have extreamly bad milk allergy because i havent exposed him to any milk,dairy, so body now see's it as foreign.....or was he always just going to have this allergy????

allergys are minefields and complicated. try not to get to down worrying about it all or over anylise things. v hard not to, i did and it depressed me terribly.
sound such a hipocrite dont i after writting all this stuff about what to watch and try!!!

take any bits of advice that will help and ignore the rest.

one last thing, check out ALLERGY UK, they provide fantstic support and infomation leaflets about all aspects allergy/intolerance. i have great cook books and info books i can give you titles for if you want them.............just font of info lol most of which is probably useless

IF you still want the tin of soya milk let me know otherwise I will bin it.

You can email me on slalomsukiat hotmail dot co dot uk and I will arrange to send it to you