Dairy intolerant 1yo DD - want to wean her off bfing - any tips/advice?

[Starshinetiger]

My DD seems to be dairy, egg and wheat intolerant (so far). No surprises on the dairy and egg as DS (3.5 is too) and that runs in our family. However, whereas DS was on Nutramigen top-ups from 9 weeks and exclusively on it from 20 weeks, have perservered with bfing DD and excluding these foods from my diet.

Now she's 1 and still having disrupted nights due to bad wind and discomfort so I'd like to stop bfing so we can try exclusion diets and not worry about whether something I've eaten is affecting her.

She won't touch Nutramigen with a barge pole - who can blame her, it tastes vile , but HV and Nutritionist seem to suggest Oatmilk will be okay now she's 1 (she has this on cereal anyway).

Has anyone weaned a dairy intolerant baby over 1 straight to Oatmilk (or want to suggest another substitute)? Any tips on how to do it (DD is very keen on bfing, but only feeds before bed, in morning and mostly once during night, unless we have a hellishly uncomfortable night like last night where she feeds and feeds until she passes out - she will fall asleep in the cot on her own if she's not uncomfortable, so this isn't the problem).

Thanks in advance!

have u tried soy milk or if its only a drink they need try a very small amount of juice in water just 2 taste in a sippy cup i wud try not 2 giv bottles as baby may get attached 2 that an take a while 2 get them off it again it mayb difficult at times an u can supplement ur child diet with multivitimins so as 2 ensure they get the correst amount.

Thanks - Cookiejo, have been advised against soya as it is as allergenic as dairy.

Stewie - GP said when DS was a baby that they wouldn't allergy test until he was 5! Nutritionist I saw last week said that was probably because allergy tests aren't so reliable in children under 5 and you get a lot of false positive. Ah well, will give the reintroduction of foods a go for 6 weeks and see what happens... DD took 4 ozs of oatmilk from a bottle tonight after only a small battle and then topped off with a bf, so we shall see how it goes - she is incredibly windy again tonight though

Oatmilk has about the same fat and calories as semi-skimed milk. I'm therefore assuming her weight is OK if the HV and dietician have said it is OK for her to have and she is getting plenty of fat via the other food in her diet?

Otherwise another alternative might be to try her on Cow and Gate Pepti which does not taste so bad as nutramigen.

DS2 was also still very keen on bfing at that age, but once we found a substitute he would actually drink, it all went much quicker than I imagined (after months of trying out different options). We went onto Pepti and now Neocate Active (which comes also in blackcurrant flavour), so that might be another option to try. Neocate Advance also comes in (I believe) either banana and vanilla or chocolate flavour. Both Neocate Active and Advance are suitable for over 1's and are designed for children with multiple allergies. Both have more calories per 100 ml than full fat milk.

Thanks Unseen - that's all really helpful. Are all of those just available on prescription? I was kind of hoping not to move onto any formula at all, having bf to 1 year.

DD is sticking like glue to her 25th centile - apart from the first few weeks where her weight dipped down to between 9th and 2nd, but since we stopped dairy and eggs has been consistent.

All those mentioned are available on prescription (which is a good thing as they are prohibitively expensive without). Both types of Neocate mentioned are actually not based on cows milk at all, but are man-made mixtures of nutrients which are as hypo-allergenic as you can get, which can help with getting rid of allergy-related reflux type problems or other gastrointestinal problems.

I know it's a bit less convenient to move onto formula after avoiding it for so long, but it soon becomes fairly easy and at this age there's no need for all the boiling water, sterilising etc. you can just make it up in tap water and store in the fridge until ready to use (although it does need to be used within 24 hours). So this does remove a lot of the faff and hassle.

Our GP normally gives us a prescription for a couple of months worth of packages of Neocate at a time, so there's no need to be constantly going back and forth to the GP's for repeat prescriptions either (though I admit it is less convenient than just popping to the shops when you run out).

Might be worth a try anyway? You can always stick to the oat-milk idea if she doesn't take to it.

My gp surgery was definitely not going to give us Neocate. Too expensive!

I went straight onto Oatmilk. The dietian said that was ok but to make sure that I gave DS lots of fatty foods. Basically everything that we tell ourselves we shouldnt eat I was to give to DS.

Good luck. It is really hard work but once you get into the swing of it then it gets easier.

Sainsbury do some lovely free from foods, if that helps.

Thanks Ronshar - is good to know someone else has done it. Can you tell me what you give DS in terms of fatty foods? With no egg, no dairy and no wheat, I'm kind of stuck in a food rut for DD for food. Would love to get some inspiration from you.

Thanks for tip on Sainsburys - yep, having been diagnosed wheat intolerant myself over 10 years ago, I'm very familiar with the Free From range - you would laugh if you saw how excited I was when they started doing wheat free fish fingers several years ago

Dont tell anyone but I give DS cake, biscuits, dairy free brownies etc.
I put Pure spread on and in anything that will take it.
To be honest I am a bit boring on the food front and rely on bread and potatoes alot.
I give him lots of meat, veg & fruit.

I am not sure what else to say as with the wheat & egg free diet it cuts out lots of the things I give to ds!
One of the ladies on my Oct 08 post natal thread has a wheat/egg free diet I shall try and send her over here for you.

DS is still only on the 25th for his weight. But is growing taller so I am not too worried about it.

Thanks Ronshar! Yes, DD has a diet of pretty much cornflakes for brekkie (she far prefers these to baby porridge!), then red meat, fish, chicken, veg, pasta, potatoes, rice for her two meals, so she has two proper cooked meals a day as sandwiches are too difficult without the wheat. She eats lots of fruit and rice cakes for snacks. Guess it wouldn't do any harm to giving her things like biscuits, etc. now she's 1. She loved her wheat/dairy/egg free birthday cake , but we've finished that now - may have to make another one this weekend as DS loves cooking too

She too is on 25th, which is what she was born on and is growing height-wise too, so I guess I should not worry about it too much. Is nice to chat to someone who is doing similar to us though

Dietian said to me that at this age it is far more important to get the fats in than the veg.

I also give ds vitamins every now and then, forget every day to be honest.

Ds also loves Humzinger bars. I think they are ok for you too. He constantly throwing them at my head in a not too subtle hint!

Ok, I'm the one Ronshar mentioned. Ds is allergic to dairy, egg, soya and most fish (and we discovered he is allergic to kiwi recently too!). He was exclusively bf to 6months, and at age 1 I started giving him oatmilk to drink (I use the red oatly, with the added calcium). Tbh, I just gave it in a sippy cup with breakfast and dinner (same as I did with dd when she started drinking cows milk. Obviously soya wasn't an option for us!
He adores his oatly and according to our dietician 300ml of oatly covers off his calcium needs until he is about 3. Other good sources of calcium are tinned fish with bones (eg salmon) and broccoli.

Fats are important, so I use Pure spread on bread and make sure he gets his vitamins too, though like Ronshar I'm not always good at remembering . I do things like salmon reasonably often (the one fish ds can eat) and lots of stews with red meat in. I also bought some good allergy cookbooks which have been a lifesaver, when the dcs nap I'll track down their names and post them here....

I can't be much help on the wheat as, although ds came up as allergic to it on his allergy tests, we decided not to cut it out as it didn't seem to be affecting his eczema and we were avoiding enough as it was. Have you ever considered baking your own bread as I have a friend who is wheat & gluten free who manages some nice bread using the speciality flours.

One thing about the free-from ranges, with the combination of allergies you have you may find it difficult to get anything that covers all of them. We can't buy anything from there for ds as the egg/milk combination usually kills it and if not the soya is the last straw .

I don't understand why you haven't had allergy tests. We found them useful as a guide to what might be causing ds' eczema, though they haven't been fully reliable. We got referred to a paediatrician for his lack of weight gain and eczema and were immediately given RAST tests and have them repeated every 6 months.

Oh, I also just thought - our friend can get food on prescription for her gluten-free son. You have to push your surgery/pharmacy for a list of what is available but I know she gets prescribed certain breads and flour.

Ok, have to post this quickly as ds is waking up, grrrr.... Cookbooks (all available from Amazon)

My most used cookbook:
Your Allergy Free Diet Plan for babies & children - Carolyn Humphries

Other good ones:
The Kid Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook - Leslie Hammond & Lynne Marie Rominger

Dairy and Egg Free Cake Recipes - Katie Crookston (not wheat free but you can use wheat free flour!)

Btw Ener-G do an egg replacer for cooking (though I'm not sure whether it is wheat-free, and don't have time to track it down right now, sorry) I got it from this website

I can't believe that neither ronshar nor Ekka has recommend this book. The recipes are gluten free and almost all dairy free, so if you can get hold of egg replacer then they should be fine for you, and very yummy (at least half of our post-natal thread now has a copy!). All of the cakes contain veg, so great for your 5 a day too - any excuse to eat cake .

I am still bf'ing my dairy allergic 17 month old, but have also been advised that oatmilk is fine (though less preferable than nutramigen, which I agree is utterly vile) for this age group, should I wish to wean. We do offer it sometimes, but ds isn't overly enthusiastic in the main.

Have you had a look on Aitch's blw blog btw? When I weaned my dd (who was milk intolerant) there were lots of recipes on there, largely posted by moomin iirc, which were very allergy friendly, as her dc had multiple allergies.

I think that testing for allergies depends very much on your GP. Mine poo-pooed the idea of dd having a problem with dairy because she was still gaining weight at a rate of knots (comfort feeding), and only referred us to a paed after lots of pressure was applied by my hv.
With ds I didn't even bother to consult him over milk allergy, but when I spoke to him about the more serious seafood allergy (massively swollen roof of mouth on first exposure, which some reading suggests it could mean anaphalaxis on further exposure) he prescribed me some tablets (that I think buy us an extra few minutes) 'just in case' and said just not to give him seafood then, laughing when I suggested referring him to an allergist!

Thanks Ekka and CantSleep. Will definitely be checking out those books and purchasing one or more.

Ekka - thanks for that egg replacer. Had tried the Whole Egg replacer before because you can get that in our health food shop, but while we started DS on soya when he was two and he seems fine, I had used that egg replacer before that and it exacerbated his eczema then I realised it contains soya - boo! Will need to get purchasing from that website!

Cantsleep - my GP seems very much of the vein as yours. Told me they wouldn't do allergy testing for DS before he was 5 - so it's not a case of not wanting to allergy test, but more no access. DS was even hospitalised for poor weight gain due to so much vomiting when he was 8 weeks and the consultants response was just to put him on formula top-ups and only gave us nutramigen (hypoallergenic) "to make sure I gave it to him" apparently

We started seeing a nutritionist last week for DD, but she has just suggested an exclusion diet and reintroducing foods, hence my wish to start weaning her off bf, so if I accidentally eat something I shouldn't (which I really try not to), it won't affect her.

Agree Ekka on the free from ranges mostly containing dairy or egg, but the Sainsbury's free from jam tarts are fine! as are their fish fingers and in our Waitrose you can get some pink wafer biscuits which are fine too. Btw - when your DC get to going to party age, did you know that normal party ring biscuits are dairy and egg free (not 100% sure on the soya though Ekka - you'd need to check).
Thanks again for all the advice.

Several of the GP's I have seen with DD1 nut allergy are all of the opinion that if an anaphalatic reaction is shown then they will NOT test because of the risk of a major anaphalatic reaction.
The risk of death is a serious clinic issue when testing. a know anaphalactic.
The clinical history is proof enough for epi pen to be prescribed.

Interesting thread. I weaned DD1 off BF at age 1 and she went onto Pepti until she was 3 and could tolerate enough cow's milk to meet her needs. I didn't realise that oat milk was an option.

I'm currently BF DD2 (4mths) who is so far dairy, soy, gluten, nut & egg intolerant (as far as I can work out) and I'm already thinking ahead to when I go back to work at 9 months. I won't have time for expressing so will need a milk substitute of some sort during the day. Is oat milk ok

Well, just for variety, ds2's (milk allergic) diectician told me he should not rely upon Oatmilk for his milk intake. He's demand breastfed, so not an issue for us, although I do miss milk chocolate and cheesy things!

DS2 has turned out to be a big fan of avocado, which is good for the calorie intake, and I shove pure spread in everything. Its a constant worry, though

Party rings have soya in.

hobnob - oatmilk isn't really nutritious enough as a sole drink for a 9 month old, but if you were bf'ing morning and night and just giving oatmilk in between then it should be fine - I know people who have just given water during the day due to their return to work.

Hobnob - I'm only introducing oatmilk as a main drink now she's 1, but I went back to work just before she was 10 months old and like Cant says, I fed her morning and evening and she just had water during the day. We did take a bottle of oatmilk with us for her, but she did't really take it and is only starting to get interested in that now. I did have to feed her a couple of times during night, so pretty sure she compensated in that way, but hey ho!

That's comforting to know cantsleep.

I still have an unopened tin of neocate in the kitchen that I can't bring myself to do anything about...

SST I'm sure DD1 did that too. I suppose getting going with the neocate now would prevent that and would mean that at least 1 feed a day was allergen-free which might improve things a bit but I'm just to darned lazy.

Hobnob - see with DS, we didn't know what we were doing and he ended up on Nutramigen topups from 9 weeks and exclusively from ca. 20 weeks. Tastes vile but he was starving. As I knew better and avoided things with DD, she has always been determined just to bf, so 1 year on, still trying to define all her intolerances and still no sleeping through the night, so in retrospect I do wish in some ways that I'd got her to take some hypoallergenic formula early on and could have had the option to bf or ff. Agree though that life without bottles is easier, especially when it's DC2!