Could this be an allergy to formula?

[Grandhighpoohba]

DD 7mo has been EBF. She has fairly bad excsema (sp)and is being seen by the paediatric dermatologist, who is more interested in treating the symptoms than establishing the cause.

Anyway, I'm returning to work in 8 weeks (no choice) and expressing is not an option as I have been unable to do so at home, and the nature of my job would make it impossible anyway. So I have been trying her with formula, which she has completely refused until this week.

However, on Friday, I managed to get her to take some with her solid feed, and she then fell asleep, but woke up after an hour and vomited everywhere. She has a bit of a cold, so I assumed it was to do with that, and went back to EBF for a couple of days. But on Monday, she was very healthy, full of energy, and I gave her some porridge made with formula, and within 10 mins she was vomiting everywhere, and became very lethargic. She recovered after a couple of hours. She has been fine since with solids that don't contain formula.

So what do I do? I am loathe to try her again with the formula, as she seemed so unwell, it feels like I would be poisoning her IYSWIM? But I have to stop breastfeeding. Help!

how long/often will you be at work?

it's doable to carry on breastfeeding and just feed around work if you wanted to?

if you do want to offer formula instead of, or as well as, breastfeeding then I would go and see your GP and explain what has happened and ask for a prescription for a hypoallergenic formula for her

I have a friend who had a similar experience. Her dd was started on soya formula but at 7 months your dd may refuse it as it tastes foul! I agree with thisisyesterday that you can probably continue feeding around work if you want to. Is she fairly well established on solids? If so then she could have solids and juice/water during the day and make up for the milk when she is with you.

You need to go to see your GP and ask to be referred for testing.

If positive then you will hopefully be prescribed a hypoallergenic formula. Soya formula is no longer recommended as can have an effect on male fertility, is really bad for teeth and has a similar protein to dairy so not always suitable for dairy allergic kids.

Will be working 4 full days a week with an hour commute each way, so will be out of the house at 7.30, and not home til 6. We have only just started on solids, she seems to like them, but is not so keen on drinking anything. I have been a bit cautious in introducing foods due to her skin. Part of my reason for wanting to stop feeding her is that she still takes three feeds in the night, and I don't feel like I will be able to function at work if I am still doing all the feeds. Although I suppose she might cut down on them once we are further on with the solids. She takes a lot of feeds, so not getting any for 11 hours or so seems too long!
Sounds like a doctor's appointment might be the way to go. I had wondered if the excsema was connected to my eating dairy, but the dermatologist said it wasn't really possible to test effectively.

Thanks for the help!

Interesting that you say she has eczema also. All 3 of my daughters have had a dairy intolerence as babies. My eldest daughter had severe eczema and reflux - with both pain and projectile vomiting. She was bf for the first 3 months and we knew that when I ate dairy it made her skin and reflux worse. She was given a bottle of formula at her late night feed at 3 months and the next morning when she woke she looked like she'd been rolling in nettles! Finally the HV listened to my concerns and prescribed Nutramigen. She still threw up pretty constantly until she was about 10 months, but the pain and the projectile vomiting stopped. her skin also cleared up massively. When she started on solids we avoided all dairy and then introduced it very slowly. Some things caused a reaction (yoghurt for instance) and so we had to use alternatives (soya yogs). By 11 months she had grown out of it and was on cows milk to drink and on normal yoghurts and cheese etc...

My twin daughters have never had the exzema but had reflux from birth. As they spent their first 2 weeks in neo-natal they were very closely monitored and they were prescribed Neocate at 10 days old. (They had previously been mixed fed) Since then they have had some recurrence of their symptoms and they now have gaviscon added to their feeds too. They are on solids now though and are tolerating very small amounts of dairy. Haven't tried yoghurts or cheese or anything though.

Sorry for the long post - just wanted to give you the full picture. I would say that it is quite possible she is having a reaction to the formula and her exzema could also be related, but I would be looking very carefully at your diet also as that could also be affecting it. Dairy is the most common reason for a baby to react to formula and her symptoms do sound very familiar to me! I would expect your HV/GP to ask you questions about your family history and about your own diet and about any patterns you have seen. It might be worth cutting out dairy yourself first to see if that helps the exzema and then you might be able to go to the docs armed with a bit more info.

Hope that's helpful. Feel free to ask again if you want to know anymore...

oops - cross posted! Anyway, just wanted to add that I don't think you'd get testing done - it's generally agreed that it's not conclusive until they are a good few years older. Things like this are treated by trial and error at this age.

That's interesting, 2plus, her older brother was a very sore windy baby, but is the only family member with clear skin. DD however, although she is more pukey, never seems to have pain in her gut.

When I asked the dermatologist about whether dairy in my diet could be the problem, she said that it wasn't really possible to tell as excema is cyclical, so flare-ups when I eat dairy could be coincidental. She was really dismissive when I tried to discuss causes, and said it was impossible to establish.

Interestingly, my brother had an intolerance to dairy from birth, so maybe a genetic component. I think I may cut out dairy, need to lose some weight anyway, and I'm a sucker for butter. But that means no cake or chocolate either doesn't it? Oh god.

Both my kids were tested at 6 months old, by a few years old most kids will have grown out of their allergies.

My dairy allergic DS was also allergic to Nutramigen as it still contains dairy although heavily altered. 2plus2, your DC could still have been reacting to the dairy in it.

Definitely worth mentioning the family history - we have a strong history of atopic allergies, dairy intolerence and exzema - mentioning that definitely made the docs sit up and listen. Some docs (and HVs) will just be totally dismissive no matter what you say though - that's why keeping a food & symptom diary can be really helpful.

As for the pain - apparently not all babies have it. My twins didn't have any pain until they were about 4 months. The reflux at birth was just constant puking, but no pain at all. Then at 4 months the pain started and they were prescribed gaviscon. I was told it is not unusual for reflux to flare up/start at around about 3 months and as my girls were a month early that could explain why it was 4 months for them.

Cutting out dairy is SO hard! I did it when I was 16 for 2 years and then slowly reintroduced it. I cut it out again when I had my 1st daughter but it was impossible to eat properly when I was also cooking for my son and husband who obviously needed dairy! You can generally get away with some very good dark chocs if you really need a choc hit. (I did!) It's amazing how many everyday foods have butter and milk in them - pancakes, biscuits, butter basted poultry joints etc... etc...! Pizza without cheese is an aquired taste!!!

That's really interesting Trixy - I never knew that. I guess because the pain stopped and her skin cleared up we were so pleased we just put up with the puking (and constant carpet cleaning!). The Neocate has certainly been better for the twins though. I know the only reason they got it though was because they were in NN as the GPs round here just won't prescribe it - the rumours of £30 a tin are frightening!!!

Doctor's appointment it is then! It's interesting, the dermatologist was very interested in family history of allergies, but wasn't interested in what the allergy was to. She very much seemed to think that it is genetic, but that if you can control the symptoms with creams, it will go away and it doesn't matter what is causing it. We have cats and I thought they might be the problem, and she said not to bother getting her tested and not to get rid of them, as it was impossible to tell.