calcium intake in cmp allergic babies

[mspotatochip]

DS is 10 months and has a CMP allergy diagnosed so far based on symptoms (RAST testing next week). He is breastfed and totally dairy free. We tried and tried with nutramigen but he won't take it even heavily disguised (I even made it into custard!).

I'm back at work at beginning of june and beginning to panic about his calcium intake. IF I feed him morning , night and in the night if he asks will this be enough?

Allergy consultant doesn't want him to have rice/ soya / oat milk products or nuts/fish/. He has had some egg and seems ok with it. Eats pretty well for a ten month old.

I struggle to express and really don't fancy that option.

Sorry I can't be more helpful, but I had similar experience. My DD (now 4) has CMP allergy and we went down the route of trying specialist formulas, starting when she was 7months, and she reacted to most of those and refused neocate. I ended up resigning from work (not what you need to hear - but to be honest there were additional reasons why I did this and I didn't try as hard as I might have done to get her on neocate, or to get to grips with expressing). I'm wondering why your paed is recommending avoiding rice/oat milk etc. I'm thinking if it was just one or two drinks per day to tide your child over then you could continue with BF morning/evening/nights when you were together. Would you consider co-sleeping to make it easier on yourself? I looked into breast pump optinos, Medela do a couple of automatic double pumps in back packs that may be worth a look, I only ever had a manual Avent pump which I didn't get on with, but said Medela pumps cost £170 or more so it's an expensive choice, particularly if you think it may not work for you. I ended up BFing my DD for 3.5 yrs as there really was no alternative bar rice milk, which is not a suitable main milk for a little kid. I went back to work just before DD turned 2yo, she had rice milk during days, though there is now concern over heavy metals content of rice milk so may have chosen oat milk in hindsight. I now have baby DS so hope he is free of allergies as I'm dreading having a similar experience again.

i would look into a decent calcium supplement

have a really good google because i know i came across a lot of stuff about how all supplements are not equal. some of the cheaper ones are not readily absorbed by the body etc etc
so worth doing your research before buying.

i feel for you. i worry about ds2, but he can have oat milk which is fortified, so has the same amount of calcium as semi-skimmed milk. but that's not an option for you, so i think supplementing is the way to go

we do try and ensure a good calcium/iron rich diet, but with toddlers it's often hit and miss what they'll eat each week!

I do feel for you - I have totally lost count of the number of people who have warned me that I need to worry about the calcium intake of my 18 month old dairy allergic DS. Quite often, I tell myself that we have only been obsessed with giving cow's milk to children for the last 100 years or so and that most of the world gets by fine without the range of dairy products that we have come to take for granted.

Rice milk contains low levels of arsenic as well as heavy metals and is not recommended as a drink for young children. Soya isn't a great option either, especially as lots of children who are allergic to dairy react to soya as well. For a dairy-allergic child, breastmilk is an absolute lifesaver and the best thing you can give your DS for as long as you can possibly manage it.

Broccoli has calcium in it (though nothing like as much as milk) and there are other calcium rich foods you could try (google for a list). However, I wouldn't worry too much about calcium intake as long as you are breastfeeding. I totally echo the advice about co-sleeping as this makes it much easier to feed all night while still catching up all the zzzs you need.

Broccoli, particularly the stems, are calcium rich. DS who was allergic to soya, has been drinking calcium enriched rice milk for years and he seems fine. He started with it when he was 2. I don't think is good enough for a younger child.

I have also been told by the paediatrician that after a certain age, there is no particular need for children to continue drinking milk in a regular basis. I don't remember what was that age but I remember being told it wasn't essential for DS when he was about 3 or 4 years. I think it was something related to children satisfying their calcium needs by following the average diet.

my dc are all dairy free - owing to cmpi or allergy. We find that the calcium isn't the issue - it's iron.
Get referred to a dietician when you start weaning, or now if you'd rather, I found it an enormous help

I didn't mean weaning. I meant re-arranging his diet for you to go to work etc.
Had too much giggly grapejuice

is your son ok with a cup or bottle, my son was breastfed and did not like a bottle at all but he is happy with a sippy cup. He was given pregestimil which he did not like even heavily disguised. i started giving him a bit of rice milk (a while ago from the advice of my HV) with nesquick as he wouldnt even drink that. i started adding small amounts of pregetimil very gradually and now he is taking 2floz of pregestimil to 3 floz of oat milk. i wonder if the same process would work for you although using a bit of breastmilk. I know you said you struggled expressing but very small drinks could be given just to try and accustom your son to the taste. Also you could ask about using a flavouring in the milk to help disguise the flavour until he gets used to the taste.

I breastfed DS until he was 2 because he wouldn't take any hypo formula.

We saw a dietician and by far and away the most calcium rich food on the list they gave me was porridge.

I don't understand why they wouldn't be happy with giving him fortified oatmilk as a daytime drink.

ricemilk has too much arsenic in and i would avoid soya products as he may develop an allergy to that as well as the proteins are similar to milk proteins.

hmm, I wish the study had been done earlier, a bit late to be careful with DS in this aspect, but in case some one wants to read it, here it is
Arsenic in Rice research

Sorry guys DD was sick last night and I was too busy to check this. We have another appointment May 27th and I need to double check but she was adamanant no oats /rice/soya not even in food because I remember asking that. The rice and the soya I understand but the Oats I don't get. She also doesn't want him to have fish until he is five which is troublesome as I thought canned salmon/ sardines etc would be a nice calcium boost. I hadnt even started worrying about iron yet but at least meat and spud stew is his favoutite meal........

I can borrow a double medela pump from a friend to try out at first which will save a big outlay before I see if it will work for me. My main problem with expressing is apart from hating the feeling it hurts me. My right breat in particular seems to get overstimulated or bruised or I don't know what and I end up with engorgement / start of mastitis. I have a very dodgy shoulder so not keen on manual pumping but will get one to try.

I do work about 3 mins walk from nursery and they have said they will "allow" me to brestfeed him at lunchtime but caution that it won't help him / me settle. I'm not so sure, if I turn up after lunch before sleep and he falls asleep on boob surely won't be that traumatic? He will be at nursery 4 days a week

We had a private dietician appointment then BUPA refused to cover and I had to cancel as we are totally skint at the moment. We are hoping to get an nhs one soon but if not will book a private one as son as we have results of RAST tests (figured better use of money at that point).

I totally haven't started preparing / cutting down on feeding yet on the principle of get asmuch in when I can, hopefully this cold turkey approach won't be too cruel. I'm meeting my boss next week to ask / inform him that I will be making full use of flexi time to have short days for the first few weeks.

I need to look into co-sleeping "techniques" as we tend to fall asleep when I'm feeding at night but I did wake up to him screaming on the floor one night and that has put me off somewhat. Also DP is very heavy sleeper and totally unaware of his presence and we don't have a spare room.

There is another option but GPs are often reluctant to prescribe it as it is ridiculously expensive, it is called Neocate.

Isn't neocate £5 a sachet? I was horrified when I found out nutramigen is about £13 a tin!

Is the neocate that much / slightly more palatable or is it the fact that it comes in different flavours?? I tried nesquik with the nutramigen but he wasnt fooled...........

I'm saving the NHS a fortune by breastfeeding him

Neocate is good becasue it had not animal protein in and therefore good for severe CMP allergy suffers. It is broken down into a very simple form (amino acid based). It is expensive and you have to push for it but I hve never had any problems getting it.

With regard to calcium we gave Calcium Sandoz which is a calcium supplement advised by the dietitian. We recently had a soya food challenge in hospital and my LO can now have soya so gets enough calicum form soya yoghurts etc although he is still on Neocate as his main form of "milk"

It's great that you work so near to nursery and could breastfeed in the lunch time - sounds like an ideal solution to me.

I know that parents of dairy-allergic children often worry about iron but I've been told by my local breastfeeding counsellor that there's plenty of iron in breastmilk - and because breastmilk is such amazing stuff, the iron in breastmilk is nearly all absorbed by the baby (unlike in supplements, formula etc.)

When my CMP allergic DS's iron level was tested by the allergy specialist at 12 months, it was absolutely fine. I've been offered Neocate a few times but never fancied the idea - have also heard that some babies don't like the taste.

I recall when I was trying to get DD onto neocate I tried some myself, tasted pretty awful. I seem to remember it smelled like nail varnish remover, we had a tub of formula, unflavoured sort. Later she was giver a couple of sachets of the flavoured stuff (blackcurrant I think, it was a while ago now) she refused this also.

Biocare suppliments are good, many avoid common allergy foods. This one is by far the highest %RDA that I've seen.
Calcium Suppliment

calcium sources

It's hard not to worry about nutrition when you are limiting your LO's diet but you will be able to ask the questions in a few weeks, in the meantime, give her as many calcium foods (that you are allowed - lots are excluded unfortunately) and concentrate on a calm return to work. At 10 months, morning and evening feed should be sufficient. Your allergy consultant should refer you to a dietician but you could ask your GP for a refferal directly if you think that would speed things up. (we had a visit this week and the dietician was a very reasonable person who put me at ease about what my DS was eating)

Similar story here - did give ds1 rice milk at the time from 12 months (when I went back to work) but subsequently switched to oat milk.

Gave calcium sandoz syrop - supplement recommended by dietician, and then prescribed by specialist when he was tested and found to be deficient in calcium. Was also deficient in Vitamin D and iron so you should watch those as well. I think it's quite common these days, just most people do not test their children so wouldn't know (long story why we got him tested..)

Sorry if not making enough sense - v tired!

I tried the banana neocate and didn't found it that bad... but lo and behold... DS is also allergic to bananas, so despite not having bananas in it, DS would have none of it.

Talking about flavoured neocate, I don't know if this is still the case but the flavoured versions were not for babies.

I have a ds with severe cma and he is now 4. We saw a dietician recently who mentioned that the hovis best of both bread is calcium fortified. I think he only has to have 2 slices a day for the whole of his rda.

Hope that helps

Just an update I think I've got a dietician apt for beginning of June will update after. I didn't realise any of the breads were fortified Hovis it is then

My dd is on Neocate and she likes that now. I started giving it to her on cereal while she got used to the taste and then small amounts in a cup.

To increase her calcium intake she has:

• soya yoghurts
• soya cheese
• sardines and other bony fish
• spinach, brocolli
• fortified breakfast cereals

I make tomato sauce (with added spinach and broccoli) for pasta in bulk to which I add sardines/mackerel/tuna/ham/dairy free cheese which is a good staple to add eat frequently.

I found seeing the dietician very useful but google a calcium 'chart' and you should get the same information.

Sorry I have just reread your post and see you are avoiding fish. My sardine advice won't help you much then!! Your baby will be significantly less stinky of hand though

Can I ask where you get dairy free cheese from?

DD has severe animal protein allergy (amongst other things and a cheese substitute would be great)

She is on neocate BTW and just had to get used to it.

Have you considered hiring a hospital grade pump? I did this when I first started weaning ds2 off bf and although I never really got on with expressing, I could easily express 7-8 oz in 10 minutes or so with one of the hospital grade pumps. They are a bit on the expensive side, but actually if you think about it, not more than it would otherwise cost you in buying tins of formula (for a non-dairy allergic baby).

We also never got on with Nutramigen. We had much more luck with Cow and Gate Pepti at first (which is also hypoallergenic but somewhat more palatable than Nutramigen).

KiddingAnxiously - if you're allowed soya, you can get "Cheezly" dairy-free cheese from health food stores. It's pretty good in cheese sauce, although it takes a while to melt.