Seeing GP this afternoon - what should I ask for? (re milk allergy)

[strawberrycornetto]

I followed the very wise advice from MN last week. I didn't give DS milk orally but put a little drop on his arm. Within minutes a big red weal had come up.

My HV has referred us to a dietitian but I don't know when we will get an appointment. I am also going to see my doctor this afternoon and wondered if there is anything I should ask for? Is a dietitian the right person to see or do we need to see an allergy specialist or a pediatrician?

DS starts nursery in 3 weeks and I am very scared about what would happen if he's given milk accidentally. Will they even feed him? I will take in EBM but I'm worried about food.

I'm really scared, dairy seems to be in everything.

Hi strawberryc,

OK - the fact his skin is reacting to milk means that you do need a referral to an allergy specialist who will help to determine the extent of your lo's allergy and (more usefully) help you monitor it so you will know when he grows out of it (which they almost all do). Hopefully your GP will be supportive about this (mine was) but if not insist

Whilst waiting for the allergy clinic appointment ask the doctor about carrying piriton (liquid antihistamine)

A referral to a dietitian may also be useful for ideas of how to get calories in without dairy, advice on calcium, vitamin d etc

Speak to the nursery as soon as you've seen the doctor. Hopefully they will have experience of this and will be able to tell you the procedures they have in place to deal with allergies. They should be able to discuss with you how they will feed your lo (AVOIDING ALL FOODS CONTAINInG MILK UNLESS YOU KNOW HE IS ok WITH THESE-sorry didn't mean to put caps on), how they will ensure he doesn't get hold of another baby's milk,food etc what they would do if he did and (v. importantly) how they will communicate this to all their staff, including new staff. I think they way they discuss this with you will tell you whether you are happy to leave him there or not. (As an extra safeguard a friend of mine had a number of T shirts printed with 'Milk Allergy' in big letters and her ds wore these every day for the first month he was in nursery- but he had a serious allergy and she was pretty much happy with the arrangements in place).

If the nursery seem clueless and/or unhelpful then in all honesty I'd look for another one.

Can't think of anything else, hopefully others will have ideas.

Thanks wb. I wasn't sure if I needed an allergy specialist or if that was the dietician [confused face!]. I did go to see the doctor who said she would discuss with the hv and call me back tomorrow. She did seem to take my worries seriously because I spent quite a while talking about the history but I am not sure if she was going to talk about an allergy specialist too - I will try and push for that over the phone. I think I will also ask for another appointment with her to discuss things like the puriton. I did buy some but as its not licenced for under 1s I'm not sure about the dose and I know the nursery wouldn't administer a drug like that without a prescription.

My nursery is where my DD is already and I know that there is a child in her room with a dairy allergy but I do want to check out their procedures etc.

I don't want to scare myself but.... can a milk allergy cause a severe anaphylactic reaction? How worried to I need to be about this? I am also considering seeing whether work would allow me to delay my return until we've had our first appointment so I have a better idea of what to tell the nursery.

dietician was fab with my lot [CMPI] so also dairy free. nursery are equally fab and have a little badge (similar to an ID badge) which DD wears to say "my name is littlewitch, please check that my food has no cows milk in" this works really well. They even get her df milkshakes, yogurts and marg - i offered to send a supply from home but they said just tell them what we get and they'd sort some out
DF sounds daunting at first and you end up spending yonks in the supermarket reading every single label; once you get your head around it there is an 'equal' to everything - even ice cream (hoping your lo is ok with soya) so they need not miss out on the nice stuff. My friend recently brought DF parmesan back from her holidays...

Thanks Gigglewitch. The badge idea is excellent, I will definitely make one of my own for DS!

Morning strawberryc,

it is very rare for milk allergy to lead to anaphylaxis - most kids who are allergic have lesser reactions (my ds1 reacted to milk on his skin but when he drank it only (!) got hives and vomiting (at age 1) then at age 2 just a couple of hives (we are about to go for another challenge). I suggest you try not to worry about it (but never be afraid to ring 999 if you are worried about a reaction).

If your nursery already deals w. milk allergy that sounds very promising.

Thanks wb, that is reassuring. I am still waiting to hear from my GP who promised to call me back this morning. I think part of my stress comes from feeling that I cannot get ANY good advice from my surgery . Oh well, that's probably one for another thread....

Persist, strawb . sounds like you're on to it anyway, but nag them to distraction until you get the referrals your DS needs. once you get to see the paeds and / or dietician, things become a lot clearer. We have a great gp [lucky] but at the end of the day you can just use them as the mailbox or whatever to get where you need to be. Have you got any option to change to another dr's practice if you're finding it hard going with the ones you've got>?

Thanks. I saw dr today and told him he was to refer DS and who to . Am so lucky its covered by my insurance. At the end of the day it may turn out I'm being a paranoid mum but I would rather that than be fobbed off and DS end up really sick.

I will let you know what happens, our appointment is on 2 October (can't do earlier as we are on holiday).

Thanks everyone.