Am I being an idiot??

[ElmMum]

I haven't yet given my 8mo DD any cow's milk, egg, citrus, fish or deadly nightshade foods (or nuts, obviously). She has had a tiny amount of wheat with no obvious reaction.

This is because my niece has serious allergies to dairy, eggs, nuts and wheat.

But DD had a small amount of formula at 2.5mo, gradually building up to just over 6mo when she was entirely formula-fed. She hasn't had any adverse reaction to the formula, so am I being stupid and actually could give her dairy foods?

Don't want to ask my allergy-expert sis for fear of revealing the true level of my ignorance about food allergies!

Thanks in advance

Milk with stuff is okay, like fromage frais. Just go slowly.

Just because your niece has allergies doesn't mean your daughter will. My nephews and nieces have v bad allergies but my lot don't.

I have four children, and only one of them has food allergies.

relax,
formula is dairy, btw . cows milk is still cows milk!

if no signs of any other atopic disease, feel free to go ahead with a normal infant weaning plan.

latest theory is that late weaning is not a good idea. Formula is dairy. I'd get on with everything except nut - and some people would say you should do nut too. Just keep a bottle of piriton handy, in a real emergency you can give some under the age on the bottle.

(my child has severe allergy to peanut)

bear in mind that if you overload on dairy, your dd might become constipated - then you can ease off (we found out a hard way)

It's not just that my niece has serious food allergies - I have hay fever and my husband has asthma and eczema - so DD is fairly likely to have some kind of allergies I would think.

I know formula is cow's milk and I know my question is a bit stupid but I just wondered whether they do something to formula in the processing that makes it less allergenic than full fat cow's milk straight from the carton.

Didn't want to assume she's not allergic and give her a slice of cheese, and then find she had a horrible reaction.

Think I'll start her on some fromage frais or similar and see how we go.

Cheers

tatt - DD is eating solids, just not the ones I mentioned, so it's not that we're not weaning. Sorry for confusion

she will be higher risk with that background and formula is processed. Not sure whether formula is less allergenic than cheese - that's processed too and is considered less allergenic than milk. Cheese or live yoghurt are better choices than milk for introducing dairy.

I'd guessed she was eating something but wheat is one thing you want to introduce while still breastfeeding if possible. It's also supposed to help to introduce it slowly.

journals.iranscience.net:800/Default/www.sciencenews.org/20020525/food.asp

http ://www.wheat-free.org/news20050719.html