After soy formula - what next for the dairy fairy?

[Anchovy]

DD is 15 months old and has had eczema since about 4 months. I would classify it as mild to moderate, and we use all usual precautions re washing powder, bath stuff etc and it is pretty well controlled (usually really only flares up when she is teething/has a cold/post jabs etc). She has dabs of 0.5% hydrocortisone when needed. Diet-wise, she went to dairy free when weaned and is now on "dairy lite" (I made that classification up!) eg soy yoghurts, goats milk and cheese in cooking, but if she is having toast she will have butter on it if I am using it for everyone else, will have cows milk cheese on pasta if DS is having it and even has a splash of milk in her porridge. On the doctor's recommendation she went dairy free when weaned and it did not make a huge difference to her skin - his view was that for her dairy was not the major issue, but as it was so allergenic we should steer clear for a while or use it at levels she can tolerate (which is pretty much where we are now). After a year he recommended trying to introduce a bit of cow's milk into the formula to see how it went. I've now done this twice and I think it is making her eczema a bit worse. I'd love to stop using formula (she has a morning and evening 6oz bottle) and move her towards something in a beaker (DS would have a beaker of cows milk at this age). Any recommendations? Do I move straight to normal cartons of soy milk? The long life stuff? Alpro (which I think is sweetened, so am not quite so keen on) I'm interested in what other people do post formula.

We dis (and still do) full-fat goats milk, which does seem to be better with ds. We were told that a high proportion of children who react to dairy, will react to soya too, so the paeditrician we saw says that he'll usually try goats milk in preference to soya, as the proportion who are ok with that is higher. Hope this helps.

goats milk is the best for excema I think. I am interested that your gp recommended a dairy free diet at such a young age, especialy as she 'only' has mild to moderate excema?

my babe had blood in his poo and bad eczema on forehead, and i cut out dairy when breastfeeding and it all cleared up. haven't weaned yet, will try goat's milk then. horrible taste isn't it?

ruty, ds1 went for goats milk formula and now has full fat goats milk (thank you waitrose and sainburys!) with no prob...never seemed to mind the taste at all!

Thanks for this both of you. Isn't goats milk a bit savoury and, well, smelly?! I use it for cooking (for example in cauliflower cheese when I think it tastes brilliant) but I always feel a bit mean putting it on cereal for DD. The thought of drinking it myself neat would make me (assume that is me barfing!) Is it hard to get hold of? I live in South London, the epi-centre of food choices, and get it in my local supermarket but when I go to my parents (Hampshire) the shops tend to suck their teeth and shake their heads at my "fancy London ways" (someone recently got sent down to the stock room having spoken to the baby advisor in Boots for the single dusty tin of Wysoy!)

Enid, when the doctor suggested DD went dairy free her eczema was quite bad (I was breast feeding and had to give up dairy as well) and we had already ruled out all the obvious triggers like washing powders and bath additives. I think with her there is no one particular trigger - I was looking at some threads earlier from people whose child had got immediately better when they changed washing powder for example and that meakes me . The low dairy is part of our armoury, but I sort of think that going full on dairy with straight cow's milk is a step too far. The eczema is got hugely better now - I would say it is well under control - and I'm really keen not to backslide. But I'm also really keen to stop mixing up formula!

Ooh Sophable - see you by the goats milk section in Waitrose in Putney, then!

Around here Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrisons all have goat's milk. As long as you're shopping at reasonable sized stores you shouldn't have a problem. Oh, and ds actually seemed to prefer the taste of goats milk, to that of formula - he certainly drank a lot more of it.

Have you tried oat milk? Dh is dairy intolerant but doesn't like soya milk (just to be difficult!).