To cut out dairy and eggs or not and for how long?

[Breadly]

DD (13months) is is allergic to cows milk and eggs. I breastfed from birth and am still feeding. When she was born she had explosive yellow poos, up to 12 a day. Very windy, poor sleeper - I remember asking the health visitor in despair if there was something wrong, she said it was normal. Another one said it was colic and suggested gripe water. Then she went through a period of green poos - different health visitor said I wasn't feeding her long enough before changing breast. I asked both if they thought it could be milk allergy (my cousin was allergic as a baby) and both brushed me off. She always had dry skin but by 4 months she had developed eczema, diagnosed by the Gp but never getting better despite all the creams she gave me. I asked her again about allergy and she said it was just eczema. I didn't feel she listened to me so read a bit on the internet and tried a milk free diet for 2 weeks. It didn't seem to make a difference (though now I'm not sure I did it properly - I didn't think to check food labels). When I started weaning her, she had came up in a rash when I gave her yogurt and egg. We've just been to the allergy clinic and again I don't feel listened to - her skin test was positive for milk and egg and I told them that I'd tried to go milk free myself but wasn't sure I'd done it properly and it hadn't made a difference. They didn't tell me to do it again or to stop breastfeeding but did give me formula to add into meals instead of cows milk and said to avoid eggs. I'm feeling guilty feeding her when her skin is so aeful, but I'm really confused as I font know whether I'm making it worse, or if changing my diet or stopping breastfeeding will help her. If I'm honest, I did feel a bit of negativity from the doctors about still breastfeeding but not sure if that's because of her age or because I'm poisoning her. Is it possible that she has a milk allergy thats NOT affected by breastfeeding (or is that impossible). The more I read, the more confused I get and I don't feel very supported by the hospital. Help!

jojay yes I suppose that's what I was wondering. Everything I read online said you shouldn't eat dairy and breastfeed if allergy. But they knew both and didn't tell me not to, so I wondered if it was possible for her to be allergic but it not make a difference what I ate. I definitely don't think I did it properly the first time though so perhaps I will try it. I don't think I would get much help from the GP or health visitor but I could contact the hospital and try to talk to the dietician who gave us the prescription for the milk.

I feel very guilty for only just realising all of this. I was so keen to breastfeed it never crossed my mind that I could be harming her.

Broadly do not feel guilty. Some medical professionals don't believe that the cows milk protein crosses into breastmilk. The allergy professor said most mothers found it made a difference but that the evidence was mixed.

In a very similar situation, DS is dairy free and has been for 3 months, since about 13 months and his eczema has massively improved. Slowly reintroducing milk back into my diet, as I also cut out milk as breastfeeding him at night.

We use oatly as milk replacement, and coconut cream and yogurt, and bake with stork block , and it's not been so hard. Have even come round to pizza without cheese.

Nothing lost to try, just make sure you both supplement calcium and vitamin d.

superj - if you get a hankering tesco and sainsbury do a good dairy free cheese range, they've actually just introduced a Wenslydale and cranberry version which is GOOOOD! Also a blue cheese one but not tried that one yet!

Oh and lots of Facebook groups which post their free from finds- like Easter eggs, biscuits etc. Free from mummies and dairy free baby and me are some to look at

Missbax might try that Wensleydale, will be nice to have 'cheese' and crackers

It's lush!

Don't feel guilty Breadly, it would been worst if you had formula fed a baby allergic to cow's milk (although I guess that's when HCPs then can't ignore it anymore).
There isn't anything to loose in trying a dairy free diet to see if it helps. It did help in my case, my son was very refluxy and ebd.

Thanks so much for the FB screenshots, as if THAT proves anything

You and people like you are dangerous, peddling complete nonsense and advising people to cut out large parts of their diet for no good reason at all.

For those reading this and wondering if the cut out everything zealots are right: they aren't. See a professional. Lunatics on the internet are no substitute for actual facts. Elimination diets can and do harm.

I don't even have a Facebook account so not sure what you mean by that. And I'm not advocating cutting out ANYTHING from your diet, simply that you can get all the nutrients you need without eating meat. Or are you actually saying you didn't realise you could do that?! You do know that cholesterol is ONLY in animal products right? And that animal products contain 0 fibre? Or again, are you going to admit that you didnt actually know that at all? 😂

My DD(2) is dairy, gluten and egg free due to allergies. I think it's the combination of all three that makes it trickier e.g some gluten free breads contain eggs, some things are dairy and egg free but contain gluten. Our top finds/ things we buy most often are; schar white sliced loaf (one of the only breads that conform to all 3 allergies), schar breadsticks, violife cream cheese, koko yoghurts, asda gluten free frozen sausages, tesco frozen free from chicken nuggets, yoyo bear fruit roll ups. Vegan shops and products are are good because they are all already egg/milk free so just have to look for products that are gluten free as well.

Breadly I know it seems like you are asking a friendly bunch of mums for advice. Unfortunately people with extreme views will post on threads like these. You are vulnerable because you have a baby and you are confused by the medical advice you got. Please go back and talk to professionals do not make drastic changes to your or your babies diet because of food fanatics on the internet.

When DS was diagnosed with Dairy Intolerence I was told I would have to give up dairy as well if I was bf

Well actually the dietician told me on the phone..."oh you will have to give up bf-ing"

Food fanatics?! 😕

Have you tried switching to organic?
My DH has these symptoms when he eats regular milk and eggs. We changed to organic dairy and he hasn't had any issue since. I think it must be either the pesticides or antibiotics that don't agree with his digestion.

Hi
It is so hard isn't it. My daughter had multiple critical allergies. dairy, egg, wheat (not gluten) , soya, beef, sesame, pulses, banana. oddly fine with nuts! She reacted noticeably through my breast milk. So I excluded all of them until I stopped feeding when she was 3.5. It is perfectly possible. But a challenge to begin with.

I have been involved with a few different forums. There are mums who find a real difference after exclusion and others who don't. I know of other severely allergic babies who didn't react at all through bm. So it does seem to be luck of the draw.

I would advise you to keep a detailed diary of what you both eat, skin, sleep and nappies to see if there is any pattern.

It can take a number of weeks. some say 6 before all traces are out of your system. I saw improvements very quickly though.

Many babies who cannot tolerate dairy are also unable to tolerate soya so try not to introduce lots of soya products into your diet as this could prevent any improvement.

my daughters eczema was directly caused by her allergies. She was covered head to foot within days of anaphylactic shock caused by formula touching her lip.
She needed steroids and emollients along side a restricted diet to help her skin.

We tried a number of creams before finding that hydromol suited her. and steroid ointment not cream applied liberally twice a day for 10 days I think it was. If the steroid doesn't touch it you need a stronger one.

My daughter is 5 now. Has an epipen for sesame but can eat everything else. It has been a long slog of food challenges.

Please read labels carefully. Avoid everything with any milk product in for the first few weeks. You can then slowly add things into your diet whilst carefully recording reactions. This will help develop her tolerance too.

Best of luck and feel free to message me if I can be of any help

And I'm not advocating cutting out ANYTHING from your diet, simply that you can get all the nutrients you need without eating meat

Ahem.....

But if you suffer with any of these things I would urge you to try 3 months of a WFPB diet and see the results for yourself

I think the lack of adequate nutrients has addled your brain.

When DS was diagnosed with Dairy Intolerence I was told I would have to give up dairy as well if I was bf Well actually the dietician told me on the phone..."oh you will have to give up bf-ing

I think you mean lactose intolerance, in which case yes, you would have to give up breastfeeding. Obviously.
Dairy intolerance isn't a thing children generally get diagnosed with, apart from by quacks such as kinesiologists.

Noti - no offence but you're thick as pig shit (maybe you really are what you eat). A whole food plant based diet incorporates ALL food - carbs, fats, proteins, minerals and vitamins. So tell me again what food group I'm advocating cutting out?

OP - I totally understand your confusion and I do hope that you can find some support in RL. We have had similar experiences with my son, now 22 months. However at about 4 months he developed severe eczema - covered from head to toe and constantly in scratch mits. He could sleep and really life was quite hellish for us all. Gps made me feel like it was my fault for not applying enough emollient and a specialist eczema nurse told me it wouldn't be allergies and gave us some dreadful wet wraps to use instead. I have since realised that GPs really have virtually no training in eczema and the only advice my GP could give about weening a baby with severe eczema was "eggs can be bad".

We really only started getting answers are we got desperate enough to pay to see a private paediatric dermatologist who immediately suspected allergies and arranged blood tests. We had to wait about 8 weeks for blood test results which confirmed severe allergies to dairy, egg and wheat. She also gave us a stronger steroid cream to try - this was like a miracle and my son woke up the next morning virtually eczema free and was a different baby.

The exclusion diet did help - but not initially for two reasons. Firstly I didn't give up enough foods (as we never suspected such severe allergies to so many foods) and then even after excluding all known allergens(from both our diets as I was bf and then weaning as we were on this journey), he needed a course of steroid creams to get the eczema under control - it didn't just clear up by itself - but it didn't come back after that as long as we avoided the foods. Elimination diet really did help for us, but it was a slow process and not an overnight miracle. He still gets a few tiny patches of eczema now but nothing like the head to toe coverage. We also suspect a few more allergies (sunflower seeds, sesame)...

I wouldn't use goats milk unless a doctor has said to as it is very common to be allergic to all animal milk and not just cows milk. Milk products are generally quite easy to avoid but they are in some random stuff (lots of crisps, some processed meats) and I think you need to try really hard to cut out all sources to really see if it works.

Do try and get proper medical advice - if you've been left confused try to get another appointment and take someone along. It can be hard to take it all in, especially if you are juggling a baby. However, I've felt massively let down by NHS over this and it seems that there is a total lack of allergy specialists (it's not really covered at medical school) in the U.K, several GPs I saw were all giving mixed messages, reluctant to refer me to a dermatologist and tried to blame me for my sons eczema. He ended up having a life threatening anaphylactic reaction to egg as the advice that I received about weaning a baby with severe eczema was simply non-existent. He's now prescribed neocate and epipens. Feel free to pm me if you have any specific questions as sadly this thread seems to have been hijacked.

Do I really have to keep quoting your own words back to you? You should see a dr, you have serious memory issues. (I'll forgive the insults on the basis that you won't remember having said it within the hour, you poor lamb)

None of us are designed to drink the milk of another animal! Cut out dairy for sure

Now, apology?

And what nutrients would you miss cutting out dairy? Considering you can get calcium and vitamin D from many non animal sources??

Not so fast, first admit that you were advocating cutting out entire food groups. Meat AND dairy in fact, wasn't it?
And then you said you weren't. Which is it?

Hahahah so you can't defend that NO nutrients would be sacrificed??
I think you know very well what I meant.