To expect the NHS to pay for me to breast feed

[pamplem0usse]

OK so not quite:
10 week old DS has a cows milk allergy. He's EBF so the only solution currently is for me to cut out all dairy from my diet. I'm already a pescatarian.
Dairy free alternatives seem to be really expensive.... AIBU to think I should be able to be prescribed some of these given (a) the amount of money I'm saving them on hypoallergenic formula and (b) since I'm likely to save them significant amounts of cash by helping prevent further allergies develop....

[Wheresmypopcorn]

Seriously? YABVU

[foxy6]

op i can understand where your coming from my sister used to have nearly all her food free on prescription when she was little due to lots of food allergy's and your dc might also qualify for [prescription food when older.
but yes to day i should get paid to eat a special diet whilst breastfeeding is like saying we should get paid for not drinking alcohol and smoking whilst breastfeeding because of the health problems we are preventing.

[sashh]

If you really want to save the NHS money don't have a child. That will save the NHS a ton.

[TenaciousOne]

LDNMummy, why coconut oil? That is expensive if you are looking for a butter substitute, Pure is a good one. I use Pure sunflower or Olive not soya for the reasons stated it effects DS.
Children under 5 shouldn't have rice milk, so we use either Oatly or Coconut milk.

[3bunnies]

For those who are asking for schemes to be paid not to smoke, good news, in some areas the NHS will pay you to give up smoking, plus you save the fag money.

I don't agree with being given money for a dairy free life, but I don't think it would break NHS bank to give prescription on request to bf mother of dairy free child for sufficient calcium + vit D tablets. You need loads of calcium when bf for your bones and the child's teeth and bones.

FWIW all three of mine couldn't have milk to varying degrees, the girls still don't have much, but ds who was the worst (I had to be dairy and soya free from 2 weeks); also intollerant to potato, rice, flour etc. I had to be absolutely free of even traces otherwise his hernia came out and he bled internally. He is now just 3, eats whatever he likes, gets through 3-4 cows milk drinks a day, and is fine. I know I have been v lucky with him, plus going for zero contaminents initiallly helped. Still feel a bit sad that e.g. Dd2 won't eat ice cream - she possibly could but says they don't taste nice (dietician said not unusual) (btw swedish glace is soya so not suitable for most CMPI), but we find some lovely sorbets instead.

I know it won't help everyone, Couthy's son sounds far worse than ds, but many of them do grow out of it, and being hypervigilent now really does help in the long run.

[trixymalixy]

when DS was dairy and soya free I never bought coconut yoghurt LDNmummy. For puddings he had custard made with bird's eye custard powder and oat milk with fruit stirred in. I sometimes also stirred fruit into Oatly cream. I also made rice pudding, jelly with fruit and certain flavours of the old fashioned blancmange are dairy and soya free. None of those are expensive.

You don't NEED coconut yoghurt, there are plenty of low cost alternatives.

[trixymalixy]

I also made ice cream from oat cream, but not very often as that ended up quite expensive. So he would have sorbet or ice lollies instead.

I nearly cried when we were in Rome and found rice ice cream in a Gelateria.

[MackerelOfFact]

I want paying for not abusing and/or murdering my children. I'm saving the NHS, Police and Social Services so much time and money!

[KittyFane1]

I eat no dairy and I eat no bread.
It is perfectly possible to cook without either.
As for the NHS paying, YABVU. get on the Internet and do some research into what you can eat instead. You don't need to substitute it for other 'dairy like products' . Find other things to eat.

[wewereherefirst]

DS2 is gluten and dairy intolerant. We don't get his (or my food as I bf) free and nor would I expect it and we manage on a fairly low budget. (make own bread/cakes/biscuits).

At least we have the alternative foods, many countries don't have a basic selection!

[FlangelinaBallerina]

Perhaps you're perplexed because my 'abusive' post has been deleted whereas yours hasn't Quint. I was just explaining that you already had got into such a debate and had indeed been abusive yourself. The time to decide not to engage had therefore been and gone. I have a particular problem with people who are happy to be rude then suddenly decide, after throwing out an insult, that suddenly they're going to take the moral high ground. bit late for that!

[OHforDUCKScake]

Flangelina, Ive got to ask what are you on about?

Ive read Quints posts and see nothing abusive all? One about saving the NHS money by not smoking (a lot of posters said the same thing) and pointing out that the NHS is health insurance.

How is it abusive in anyway? Or make her a fuckwit?

I, along with most on here, agree with her. Yet you seem to be pointing her out.

Why?

[OHforDUCKScake]

NHS is not* health insurance

[BalloonSlayer]

Why shouldn't children under 5 have rice milk?

My DS1 was on it from 18 months.

< looks suspiciously at strapping 12 year old wondering when he is going to crumble into bits >

[OHforDUCKScake]

BalloonSlayer I may be wrong here but I think its to do with the level of arsenic in the rice milk.

[trixymalixy]

Yes, it's to do with the level of arsenic. I think it's only an issue if it's used as a main drink for under 5s, but we mostly steer clear of it anyway.

DS had loads of it when he was little too, before we heard about it.

[BalloonSlayer]

Whoops what does arsenic do to you then?

Does it make you lose everything you own, "forget" to clean your teeth and be incapable of organising your homework? If so, I fear DS1 may have been badly affected.

[clemetteattlee]

When this happened to my DS I mainly lived on bourbons and Hobnobs. I think it was this that mad me determined to work with the medics to wean him back onto cows milk which we were luckily able to do within 6months.
If it is any reassurance CMP-allergy in babies is often temporary so it won't be like this forever.

[clemetteattlee]

And I made lots of cakes with Vitalite.

[clemetteattlee]

Oh yes, and YOU should be getting the calcium supplements (they are massive) on prescription (which will be free because your baby is little). If this hasn't happened you need to talk to your dietician at the hospital.

[OHforDUCKScake]

Clemete no amount of determination to work with medics will get an allergic baby back on cows milk.

Your situation must have been quite mild.

[clemetteattlee]

My son was hospitalised, given a lumbar puncture and a CT scan because he was screaming 24 hours a day and they didn't know why. It wasn't mild, it was horrific.
CMP intolerance is not the same as lactose intolerance and does not have the same prognosis. Given that many cases of CMP can be traced to assymptomatic gastroenteritis in very early infancy, once the GI system has had chance to recover (in our case it took six months) then the allergen can be reintroduced slowly and under supervision (this of course is the theory behind the brilliant work being done at Great Ormond Street.)

There are undoubtedly cases where this doesn't happen (I see many of these on the wards) but CMP is one of the most likely to be more short-lived. I think it is important to give parents hope, and then strategies to cope with whatever situation they are in (generally I don't tell parents in clinic that I survived ours living only on biscuits)

[clemetteattlee]

Joyful, fair point, but at 10 weeks old the issue of intolerance versus allergy is not known because the system has not yet had the opportunity to recover from the effects of the intolerance. Allergy only proven once that has happened.

[OHforDUCKScake]

I assumed we were talking about allergies, as in the OP. If you had mentioned intolerancd it would have made more sense. I understand what you mean now. In fact, I actually didnt know that about intolerances.

I agree about allergy only proven once it has happened. It makes me think the OP's child maybe intolerant rather than allergic. I was going to post that but thought I sounded as though I thought I knew better that her paeditrician, which I dont. I did know more than my sons paeditrician but they were incompetent wankers