Advice from HV - is this dangerous or am I paranoid?

[strawberrycornetto]

Hello. I posted on here a week ago about my DS who is 6 months old because I thought he had an allergic reaction to cows milk.

I saw my HV today about it and she said I should give it to him again to check whether he has another reaction and if he does I should give him baby piriton.

Am really nervous about this, is there a risk that he could have a bad reaction? The first time, he had a little bit of milk and he came up in a hives type rash around his mouth. He also has eczema and has been sick since birth which I put down to reflux. He is small (2nd centile for weight). He has been fully breastfed so that one bit of cows milk is all he has had (thanks DH!).

I suspect I'm being a paranoid mummy but I feel really worried about giving him something he might be allergic to. Someone on here mentioned testing it on his skin but I don't really understand how to do that or if that in itself could be dangerous.

First time I gave dd cows milk she was around 1 year old, it was cooked in porridge as she had eczema and we have allergies/asthma in the family. I had delayed giving it at all under 12 months as a precaution. She got hives around the outside of her mouth. I left it a few months then tried again and she was fine. She now drinks cows milk regularly and has no problems with it at all. it may be that he will grow out of the reaction but I would check with your GP before giving it again.

I never gave my dc cow's milk in any form before 1 year. I gave them things like hummus on bread, and thinned purees with my own milk or cooking liquid (eg from boiled potatoes).

I knew another mother, who was also a trained nanny, whose child had toddler diarrhoea at 10 months which she said she knew was down to cow's milk in the diet but the dr agreed with her she couldn't cut it out now!

I thought she and her dr were mad, but didn't say so.

OK so your dh made a mistake; can you not just avoid cow's milk now for the time being and try again when baby is older?

Hi strawberrycornetto, sorry haven't had time to read all the responses yet,
I have a 6 month old too, but my 2 year old is allergic to milk and soya. She was also allergic to my breastmilk. So she was put on Nutramigen formula, baby on it to as a precaution.

You should ask GP to refer you to an Paediatric Allergy Specialist and a Dietician.

We use Medised as she reacts to the colouring in Calpol. Medised works like piriton I think.

In the very dark days of screaming nonstop, I found a site called "Milkfree". It really helped us, loads of people in the same situation.

Goodluck.

Thanks for the site info Bluedomino, I will take a look.

My dd was on special formula, too, in addition to being bf up to 22 months. It's worth knowing that you can get a banana-flavoured version if the original isn't acceptable to your child (as it isn't to many older children).

I should also say that I would keep piriton at home, even though it's not licensed. In a real emergency it will be so much better than nothing.