Just started to wean dd this morning and have ended up in A&E. Help.

[BlameItOnTheBogey]

DD is just 6 months. We planned to wean her using some finger food and some more mushy stuff. This morning I gave her her first meal. She had two baby spoons of 'baby porridge' (a rice based mixture according to the packet). I mixed it with regular milk. Up until now she has been EBF. Within minutes of starting to feed her, her face swelled up and she developed hives all over her face (including around her eyes). We ended up, on the advice of NHS direct, taking her to an emergency clinic nearby who gave her a large does of antihistamines.

But where do we go from here? I have no experience of allergies and no idea how I will ever dare give her any food again. Rice cereal, for goodness sake, surely this is the most bland thing going? What about more risky stuff like eggs and tomatoes? And helpfully, the dr said that first reactions are usually the mildest and next time around it could be worse. Do I need to get a referral to someone? Or is she going to end up as the only EBF 10 year old ever?

I feel completely thrown by this and worried for my baby.

oh my! that must have been very scary

when you say regular milk, do you mean breastmilk? or forumla? or cows milk?

I'd make an appointment next week to see either a sensible HV (if you have one) or GP to ask for advice, and I'd ask specifically for a referral to an allergy clinic or specialist.

oh wow scary
definitely go ask HV of Dr.

assuming you meant cows milk? you can mix the cereals with breastmilk anyway.

keep BFing anyway - obviously it can't prevent all problems but it'll still be really good for her.

Thanks for the reply. Cows milk (which I thought was ok to use as a mixer from 6 months?) I know milk can produce intolerances but this was a violent reaction. I don't have a sensible health visitor (she told me off for breastfeeding...) so maybe gp is the way to go.

go to your GP and ask for a referral to allergy clinic. if she still has any signs of a rash, take a photo of it. dont be fobbed off.

this happened to me with dd4. ended up in a+e after giving her porriage with milk.

her allergy appointment came though for 6-7 weeks later. in that time, she just had things like veg, fruit etc. turned out dd4 is allergic to milk, eggs and peanuts.

she is still breastfed at 19months, and so far hasnt ougrown her milk allergy. she has an egg challenge next week. which i am crapping myself over tbh.

its very likely to be the milk thats the issue not the cereal. but if the cereal contains milk as well, then avoid it.

go slowly with the weaning. just keep it simple and basic. fruit for breakfast. veg sticks for lunch, white meat and veg for tea, that csort of thing.

Okay, don't panic. Ds2 is still breastfed at 3, he rarely eats actual food and drinks very little in the way of other stuff - hates milk, will occasionally have juice or water.

But he is bf during the day and night. You don't have to rush anything is what I am trying to say.

I'm useless on allergies having been fortunate not to have kids with them (yet) but just wanted to say I'm sorry for the shock you have had x

FFS your HV told you off for BFing? seriously? for you. you are absolutely 100% doing the right thing by BFing - even more now that it seems your DD might have allergies!

can you try mixing with breastmilk next time then? cows milk is usually ok with food, yes - only as a drink from 1yr (though BF still better obviously)

good point, what cereal exactly was it? 100% baby rice? loads of other 'first cereals' have a mix of grains and I think powdered milk - could be gluten in there too maybe?

Thank you all you are very kind for replying. The cereal was a mix of grains (rice, quinoa, I forget what else - was the Plum first baby porridge one). So who knows what is was that caused the reaction.

So it sounds like the plan is to give her just fruit and veggie sticks for the time being then until we can get a referral? The difficulty is that I am due back to work in a months time so I am going to need to get her onto a bottle during the day (was planning to BF morning and evening although according to bonkers hv, after the age of 6 months, if I insist on doing this, then I should express and give her the milk in a bottle - but that is a separate rant.....)

YOu've all been really helpful, thank you again. I am in minor panic mode and can't think straight.

you can get specialist formula if needed, but i think nutrimigen and the other need to be perscribed.

you can buy wysoy OTC. but there are other issues with soy formula.

I think fruit and veg is the way to go, there are some that are known allergens like strawberries and kiwi (maybe somebody else can give you more info!) so avoid them I think.

half half at HV saying you should give all milk in a bottle. silly moo. You'd probably get good advice on the BFing board about going back to work, introducing bottles etc.

dd4 1st reaction

reaction with just a touch of milk on her skin

Misdee - that's it! That is what it looked like. Very angry and red with what looked like stinging nettle rash (raised white bumps) in it. Did you ever try her on formula? An added complication is that we are moving overseas in 3 weeks time to a place where it is highly unlikely we will be able to get specialist formula. Panic, panic, panic....

we tried nutrimigen, without sucess. she is still breastfed.

she eats a good range of foods, and drinks water or juice.

breakfast is ready brek made with water

breakfast is things like sandwiches, pasta, veg sticks and houmous, beans on toast. i use vitalite spread.

dinner is usually whatever we are having as i cook most things from scratch and dont inc milk in her portion.

she cant have eggs or peanuts though which makes eating out hard, but i have become very assertive and ask for ingrediant lists when we go places.

Thanks so much for taking time to provide so much info misdee. It's funny isn't it, you just never think about this kind of thing until you are forced to. DS was so easy to wean and has never reacted to anything so I assumed she would be the same.

It sounds like you have to be really vigilant all the time. Panic, panic, panic about whether we can get this resolved before we are due to leave the UK and whether I can manage a special diet for her in a developing country.

i'm sure you will be fine.

it does become a case of not taking the easy option when it comes to food, and to be prepared when out and about.

it has made the family healthier on the whole, as we eat betetr food. and when we want pizza's i can make my own now, and dd4 has the base, tomato, toppings minus the cheese.

where are you off to?

but i would see the GP monday and ask for an urgent referral to an allergy specialist. do state you are leaving soon, and ask if anything can be rushed through. ideally you need to know where you are regading allergies before you go.

I ended up in A&E with dd1 aged just over 6 months, having inadvertently given her cows milk (it was powdered cows milk mixed in with baby rice)and had a similar reaction to the one you describe. It is actually quite common.

I wasn't going to give her any cows milk until she was a year old, but I didn't read all the ingredients on the side of the box. I had mixed it with EBM and she had only had a tiny taste before she had a reaction. Her face swelled up, she was bright red, covered in welts, bleeding and screaming her head off, it was terrifying.

I carried on breastfeeding until she was ready to give up (2yo), and was very careful to avoid anything containing cows milk - it's in all sorts of things that you would not necessarily expect - and she did slowly grow out of it, with the reactions getting less (and less frightening!) as time went on. She also had excema, which she also slowly grew out of. She was fine by the time she started school at 4.

I had a v supportive and well informed HV which helped. She said the best thing I could do was to carry on breastfeeding, it did help, to think I could do something positive.

We kept paediatric piriton and hydrocortisone cream for emergencies. No-one suggested allergy testing and she didn't react to anything else except bananas made her sick, and once you get used to it, it is easy to avoid a couple of ingredients.

Good luck!

It is panic stations when child has first reaction. Mine DS had it ti tomato ketchup? (tomato and peanut allergy ruled out through RAST testing). It is a perfectly normal reactiion (emtionally not allergically) so allow yourself you work through your emotions.

Congratulations on planning to breastfeed BTW am and night I think DD will love that contact especially while getting used to you being away when your at work.

Go to GP and yes take a photo I did an hour after 5ml antihistimine and it was invaluable at GP and consultants appointments.

At a guess I would say its was the milk and you can get specialist milk abroad - in some countries - where are you going BTW?

I'll try and upload photo of DS reaction (if I can work out how) which is also now having to pollen - damn the nice weather (NOT!!)

Keep us posted and we'll support you.

Tomato ketchup often has powdered milk in it, believe it or not!

Cold uncooked milk isn't supposed to be given before a year. It's ok cooked in porridge, white sauce or whatever, but it's MUCH harder to digest than breastmilk. Try mixing plain baby rice or pureed veg with breastmilk and see how it goes. Good luck!

really!!! My DS is fine with milk though. He has been diagnosed with a 'mixed chemical reaction' so appaerently its tomato with other things and can't have ketchup or sweet and sour sauce which we know of. Mindyou dosed up 4 a times a day at mo due to pollen allargy so I doubt a bottle of the stuff would provoke any reaction at all!!!

How do I hyperlink a picture to the thread anyone know????

Lots of great advice, DS2 was similar and turned out to have a dairy, fish and egg allergy. He has since developed a few more. I would suggest that as you are going to a developing country in such a short time that if you can afford it,get a private consultation with a paediatrician and some tests done before you go. It is daunting but you can then have some indication of how bad the allergy is and if there are any other possible things she may be allergic to. I continued breastfeeding until ds2 was 2 years 6 months and then switched to rice milk. He was also given a calcium supplement by the GP. Keep a bottle of Piriton with you and don't hesitate if you suspect a reaction. DS2 is now a strapping 5 year old and we are experts at reading labels, cooking from scratch and asking for ingredients lists.

mumbar - shot in the dark, could it be MSG your DS reacted to? or do they not use that anymore?no experience of this, just wondering.

How worrying for you! That must have been a right shocker this morning.

My DC are 9 and 11 so I expect alot of advice has changed (so plese feel free to ignore my suggestions if it against current advice), but I was told to start weaning on completely "natural" foods like fruit and veg.

Basically I did pureed veg. Parsnip goes down well as it is a sweetish vegetable without being quite as sweet as say banana, if you are worried about encouraging too much of a sweet tooth.

I also used to blend veggies together and even did mash with my breast milk. I used whatever we were having for dinner, sprouts broccoli,carrot, cauli etc. Cauli,sprouts and other bitter vegetables tend to go down better if blended with carrot or parsnip. Peas are OK but can be a bit iffey when starting out as the skin tends to not mush as well as the rest of peas and can cause gagging.

You really need to get in to see your GP asap because referrals tend to take a while.

Good luck with it all.

Just coming back to say thanks so much for the words of wisdom which are really helpful.

We do have health insurance through dh's work and whilst, in normal circumstances, I'd rather use the NHS, given our tight timeframe, I guess this might be the time to use our private cover. I'm assuming this would speed things up? We're London based so there should be a few options.

In the meantime, I'm reverting to breastfeeding fulltime. My nerves are too shot to try weaning again...