Advice on baby allergy please!

[AuntyHan]

Hi I'm really hoping to get some advice from somebody. My nephew appears to be allergic to dairy products with extremely painful and sore looking ezcema on his face and body. He is currently 4.5 months old and breastfeeding. My sister wants to breastfeed him whilst having a no dairy diet herself in order to control his ezcema. However, she has developed numerous boats of mastitis and has had 3 rounds of antibiotics for it to little avail. Formula milk, even low lactose formula milk, really makes his ezcema flair up whilst he also appears to be congested. Any suggestions / help / advice on the following really really appreciated!

1. Top tips for managing excema in babies
2. Advice for dairy allergy in babies and non dairy feeding.
3. Any suggestions on other things to avoid to help control his ezcema

Thank you!
Hannah

a) Has your sister been taking the anti-bs for long enough? There is a thread here that explains 5-7 days of anti-bs is just not enough to clear the mastitis and it just flares up again. On that note has she been to a bfing group and had her latch checked? Mastitis is usually caused by 'milk stasis' (i.e. milk not being removed from the milk ducts properly and the duct becoming infected)

b)The allergy isn't to lactose (that is the main source of energy in bm) it's to the cows' milk protein (CMP). Any formula he has would have to be a hypoallergenic/elemental/partially hydrolysed kind not Soya or low-lactose. I don't know the name of the brands but I'll see if I can track down someone on MN who will know.

c)Avoid aqueous cream (has recently been linked to making excema worse)

d)Insist on the GP refering to a dermatologist & paediatrician as a matter of urgency if his excema is really out of control and making him miserable.

HTH

yes, as truthsweet says the reaction is more likely to be to the proteins in milk rather than lactose

if it was lactose baby would be very ill and FTT as breastmilk is full of lactose!

IME an allergy/intolerance displays a lot more symptoms than just eczema, but there would certainly be no harm done in her cutting dairy out of her diet to see if it helps.
I did this for ds2 and ds3 and it was hard as i'm a vegetarian, but it did work

hypoallergenic formulas available are nutramigen, cow and gate pepti (or pepti junior) which are based on cow's milk but with the proteins altered to make them easier to digest, and neocate which is totally synthetic

personally i think that in a baby showing signs of any allergy exclusive breastfeeding is the way to go, and i wouldn't want to use a synthetic formula although i realise they are handy to have in case of emergency. i never used one for either of mine

def see a GP and get a referral to the allergy specialist who would be able to advise on likelihood of allergy or intolerance

oh and i can highly recommend Hope's Relief cream.

it was advised to me on another forum by some parents who had excellent results from it on their childrne.
I had asked for a friwnd of mine whose little boy had the most awful eczema

she got the hope's relief and said it was amazing. she had been having to cover him in hydrocortisone to keep it under control, and once she started using this cream she nebver had to use the hydrocortisone again!!!

Hi,
I am currently exclusively breastfeeding my daughter who has a cows milk protein allergy. She gets bad reflux, colic and excema on her face if I have anything containing dairy.

She is much better since I have cut out dairy - it is hard but manageable - even for a chocoholic. She will need to read all labels as milk is in lots of things you don't expect - beef gravy for one. If the baby is already showing signs of allergy then continuing breastfeeding will help reduce the risk of further allergies.

The formulas are only available on prescription and don't taste particularly nice so the little one may have trouble drinkingit when he is used to tasty breast milk.

I would ask the GP to refer you to a dietitian who can help her with a dairy free diet and make sure she is getting everything she needs and also help with weaning etc when the time comes. The dietitian will also be able to recommend formulas if she does decide to go down this route.

Thank you so much all! I've passed this info onto my sister and recommended she joins MumsNet - fantastic to be able to get advice and support from your network.

All the best,
Hannah

Sounds like my baby - diagnosed with cow's milk protein intolerance at 3 weeks having developed reflux at 10 days and and sebhorraic dermatitis/eczema. The formula is Nutramigen 1 - it's available over the counter and on prescription. There's an "even more" dairy free one called Neocate (sp??). But before trying this she really should see the GP and get a specialist paediatric appointment. There are tests they can do on their poo to determine what it is they are intolerant of. We were prescribed Diprobase cream and told to use Oilatun Junior in the bath. I was told by my HV who has an interest in allergies that, in addition to avoiding dairy, soya can also set them off if they are very allergic/intolerant and that it can take a good 4 weeks for the effect of dairy/soya to disappear from breast milk. Really do get a specialist paeds referral ASAP. Good luck!

Thank you all so much for your thoughts on this one. I'm now on a exclusion diet. Went to a kinesiologist who recommended cutting out White flour, tomatoes, peppers and some other stuff. She thought huw wasn't allergic to dAiry, fortunately, but is to the processed whey in formula milk. Which makes sense considering his spectacular flair up after 1 oz of formula. Have got presc for this and well see how it goes. And thanks for recommendation of hope cream. Will try to track this down.
My mastitis did clear up after 3 consecutive courses of antibiotics. But has since come back and with various other breast complInts. Trying different positions. Hv thinks it's to do with his sucking patterns/ shape of mouth.

Ps that was not aunty Han, but huws mum! And yes, he is also thought to be allergic to soya.

Whey is the main protein in bm so is the kinesiologist suggesting stopping bfing? I thought the allergy was usually to bovine casein.

Has DS got any oral abnormalities (tongue tie/high arch palate/etc)?

How many times a day is DS feeding and how long is the biggest gap between feeds? Is that what HV meant by sucking patterns or did she mean the actual suckling rhythms his mouth/tongue perform?

Hi, hasn't suggested stopping bf. I think she meant cows milk whey in formulA?

Have asked gp and hv re mouth to see if any unusuL shape. They can't say anything specific.

He feeds every 3-4 hours day and night.

I think your best bet would be to speak to a BF counsellor (preferably face to face). Can you get to a LLL meeting or similar? That would be probably the quickest way to sort out if he had oral abnormalities or was feeding/latched on in a way that might make you prone to mastitis. Hope things get better.

Thanks for that, yes, been to ll mtg and spoken to nct councillor and got latch checked. Tis mysterious! Thanks for yr suggestions again.