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.

ah i never knew you could buy those formulas babybarrister. v interesting to know.

OP, i would def go down the private route given the time constraints you have.

good luck

Flight is right; there's no need to feel you have to do this now.

And cow's milk is not actually a 'bland' food - it's designed for baby cows not humans, for one thing.

I always used water to mix with baby rice, and stuck to veg pureed with water - until DD came along, who wasn't having any of it - batted the spoon away with lightning speed, so I became an early pioneer of BLW, although there wasn't a title for it 12 years ago!

Getting a referral to an allergy clinic is the way to go. Cow's milk is probably the most likely culprit, but my DS had a bad reaction to quinoa (again, I think it was a Plum brand mix) at an early stage in weaning. He's been fine with all other foods, but we've avoided quinoa ever since (fortunately quite easy to do!).

Hi
If you go down the neocate route,I have some tins spare sitting here unopened (just in case you were thinking of buying any)that u can have.

If you are going private then try to see Warren Hyer at his Harley Street practice or Mr El Tumi or Mr Massoud at The Portland who are all wonderful paediatricians specialising in paediatric gastroenterology and esp. Dr Hyer are hugely supportive of BF and also try and get an urgent appointment with Gideon Lack who is a paediatric allergist. All also pratice in N London if you are that side of the City

madmathsmummy MSG had crossed my mind - but isn't it in lots of things???

My DS can demolish a tube of pringles - which apparently is laced with it! - and is fine. Its only been tomato based products IYSWIM.

I just avoid ketchup/and get chinese without the sauce.

Just coming back to update; Dr Lack has no appointments until August by which time we have left. The earliest I can see anyone is 3 days before we leave. No idea what to do now.

[Thanks for the really kind offer rugrats.]

BIOTB we saw Dr Sarah Thurlbeck at St George's hospital with DD's milk intolerance.

DD's didn't come out in a rash but she would vomit violently for hours after trying normal formula. She was allergic to cow's milk protein and Nutramigen worked fine for her. Dr Thurlbeck was really very helpful.

FWIW the equivalent of Nutramigen is much cheaper on the continent - not sure where you're moving to but we had to buy some when we were out in France last year and it was considerably cheaper out there.

Luckily for us DD had grown out of her allergy by the time she was 16m but I know that's not the same for all children.

Yes the appt I have is with Dr du Toit - just wonder whether he will be able to do anything given that we will only have time for one appt?

I'm so sorry you're having to deal with this. We had exactly the same experience with DS2 when weaning him. I discovered there was milk powder in the baby porridge!

To be honest, we didn't find the HV/GP/pediatrician too helpful. The most help has been mumsnet and the rest of cyberspace!

DS2 was anaphylactic to milk, but is now improving. He's also highly allergic to eggs, soya, peas/pulses, and has recently outgrown a wheat allergy. Once you get used to it, it's amazing how it becomes 2nd nature. He has a very healthy diet (although very much meat, potatoes & veg) and is a bright, lively boy. Hope that maybe puts your mind at rest a little...

Oh - forgot to say...I breastfed him until he was 2, in the desperate hope it might increase his chances of outgrowing some. I also excluded key allergens from my diet which resulted in his exzema disappearing.

What a worry for you. How are you feeling?

Sounds like you have a lot to deal with at the moment. I think that going to a developing country would worry me too... but then again, last week I spoke to an adult who survived an anaphylactic reaction while travelling through a desert. Are you going anywhere that is far from a hospital? Breastfeeding is especially great if you are going somewhere where it might be difficult to get reliable supplies of specialist formula and appropriate clean water to make it up with.

I do hope you manage to see somebody before you go! However, I kind of agree with everyonesatit - we didn't really find the HV/GP/paediatrician particularly helpful. When we finally saw an allergy specialist, she was great, but only tested for 'common' allergens such as egg, milk, nuts, soya and fish. My DS has had quite serious reactions to some foods that he wasn't tested for (e.g. tomatoes, onions, garlic, banana, lentils, plums, mustard... the list goes on). When I excluded all these foods from my diet too, his eczema disappeared completely.

I have found that having an allergic child gets easier as you get used to the idea. Even though it is very, very scary at first, it soon becomes part of life. We carry antihistamine and epipens everywhere we go and so far every reaction he's had was 'contained' with antihistamine. One of the things that has helped me has been reading these allergy pages on mumsnet - even though my DS has lots of allergies and cooking is difficult, I feel we are lucky that he has never had an anaphylactic reaction.

Oh yes, and about introducing food - there's no hurry and I expect you are not feeling brave enough yet, but when you do, start with 'safe' foods that hardly anyone is allergic to (e.g. butternut squash, parsnip, apples, pears - and you can search these threads for more info on what people are allergic to). I'm a big fan of baby-led weaning (i.e. child feeds herself food that she picks up herself, such as nice soft stick of broccoli which has a built-in handle), as children can reject food that makes them feel poorly or makes their mouth tingle in a bad way. Don't worry (easy to say, I know!) - there will be loads of foods that your DD can eat safely and it's just a case of finding them.

and should have said - get some antihistamine prescribed by your GP, just in case. Good luck

Blameit - I assume from what you are saying that you are going to live in a developing country.

DS2 had various allergies when tiny, which he has now outgrown, but I think it was the celiac's society which had really useful info cards on their website in dozens of languages, which you could print out to give into restaurants, to explain what foods/ingredients you needed to avoid.

Someone else may know where you can find these but they were really useful when travelling, not just to make sure that you were understood, but also to give your arguments a bit of weight. If you are carrying a card, you must really really mean this . . . .

I just learned that dd 7 mths has allergies to milk, soy, egg and peanut, nuts, salmon, and peas (?) and sesame (that one I think). Make sure you don't have any milk, too, if you think baby is allergic to it. dd had major eczema etc from breastfeeding, i just had no idea. Whatever you have seems to go right in the milk.

I'm in the US, but my insurance will cover nutramigen-might be worth a call, as is expensive.

Also, make sure they give you an epipen junior before you leave. my doctor siad it buys you 20min to get to a hospital.

Here tehy tell us to introduce only one food at a time, wait three days,then next food. we start out with things like banana, rice with breastmilk, oat, avocado, carrots,cheerios (Can't choke on those) that sort of thiong. Good luck! It's stressful, sint' it??

How scary for you. Glad your little one is better.
Sounds like an allergy-most probably to Cows Milk. A full history and discussion with you re possible other triggers is vital. A visit to a Paediatrician will give you all round advice and your child all round care and should cover: testing, management of future events ( hopefully none), what to look out for in the future, what to avoid and, how to manage diet etc. Good Luck ! very best Dr Sarah

Thanks to everyone who provided advice and support. We had dd tested yesterday and she has a severe allergy to cow's milk protein. We have epipens and a prescription for nutramigen and some others. She is not at all keen on the milk I tried her on this morning (don't blame her, it tasted foul!)

We are back to weaning now using single foods - banana this morning which was thankfully uneventful.

Comma, our health insurance is american so good to know that it might cover her milk.

I guess I will be hanging around here quite a bit.

Thanks once again.