Cmpi? Do these symptoms match?

[zirca]

DD has always been a bit refluxy, although she sleeps happily lying down once she has thrown up. She has frequent spots and very mild eczema on her face and hands. Her poo is still quite watery and coming several times a day at nearly 5 months old, and she is still feeding 2 hourly. She is ebf. I do rather like milk and cheese but am thinking of cutting out all dairy for a week to see if it helps her. She is also not fat enough really - is on a higher centile for height than weight, and she can't wear trousers as they are ridiculously wide on her. Growing Ok though.

She sounds similar to my DS - although he never slept well (still not great at 2.1). He grew well though.

The only way of finding it out is to cut out dairy as you say - but it takes longer than a week I'm afraid. Our GP said more like 2-3. DS's nappy rash cleared up on day 6 and he slept through the night for the very first time (aged 14 months) on day 20 of us both being dairy free.

He's now outgrown it so if it doesn't turn out to be the case it hopefully won't be for ever. If I were you I'd give it a go and see, it won't do any harm. Remember you won't be able to have lactose free substitutes as they still contain the proteins.

If she is growing ok she is fat enough though. Not all babies look "chubby".

And the waists of some brands of clothes even slide down big babies let alone long/thin ones!

The skin rash and poos would be a sign something could be wrong.

As PP said could you ask the gp?

GP not very interested. HV happy she is growing well and says I could try excluding cows milk and see how it goes. Strong family history of atopy and I don't want to start weaning her with an already leaky, irritated gut. Worried it will just set us up for food allergies to develop.

zirca our GP had a similar attitude - she just said there was no test for CMPI and it was just a case of cutting out the dairy and seeing what happened. Her advice was actually to cut it out for a month, then start eating it again to see what happened . I refused to start eating dairy again as it was so obviously what was causing the problem I didn't want to put him through that.

Once we'd cut out dairy and had obviously good results, she agreed to refer us to a dietician who was really good (although it took a long time for the appointment to go through).

If I were you I'd cut out the dairy, note down as much detail as you can about sleep / eczema (I'd be tempted to photograph daily to chart how it develops) / nappies and so on. Then take it all back to the GP for evidence and insist on a referral.

Best of luck.

Thank you Cupcakes that is really helpful advice. I have started a dairy free trial and am keeping a diary. Miss my hot chocolates already . Did your DS put on more weight once it was out of his system?

His weight was always pretty good anyway, and by the time we realised he had CMPI he was 12 months so eating plenty of solids. The main differences for us was that his poos became solid, his nappy rash cleared up, and he started sleeping. We were able to take him off his reflux meds within a month.

A lot of little ones with CMPI also can't manage Soya, but my DS could so I got my hot chocolate fix that way. I also found he was fine if I had small amounts of highly-processed dairy (like biscuits). I baked cakes using a dairy free spread and that kept my sweet tooth going!

I found it all seemed really daunting at first but once we found out where to buy dairy free bits and pieces it really wasn't too bad. Tesco's have quite a good range.

my hv wasnt interested in ds's nappy with blood in because his weight gain was good also its not on the same lines as his height (75 and 91st centiles) i asked and unless theyre drastically different, its not a problem i dont think. This website has some good (not sponsored by a formula company!) information and theyve got associated fb pages including a bf one where people often post their 'normal' dairy free finds! For example, lidl has some chocolate marzipan eggs and cadburys hot chocolate powder is fine if you make it with almond milk or similar! Check all labels though, and definitely keep track of symptoms youre concerned about and a food diary. It took a few weeks for us to see a difference.

The height and weight don't have to be on the same line provided they're gaining smoothly. My HV said "think Beyonce, Kate Moss and Kylie - different heights, different shapes." ie some people are tall and slim, some muscular, some curvy.
Though this is in the context of a non windy, clear skinned baby who had blood once in her nappy which turned out to be a small scratch on her bum (caused by swallowing a fingernail I think). She's 25th for length, 9th for weight but doesn't deviate from those lines.

DD is two centiles apart at 75th for height and 25th for weight. Primark trousers are too wide for her even after she has grown out of them length-wise and they are much narrower than any other make. That is the bit that surprised me really.

Although it is the poo, the throwing up and the general lack of settled mature gut that is the concern.

This sounds like dd1 but there was nothing wrong with her and has no dairy allergy and it is just the way she is.

She was born on 98th for weight and height but weight dropped to 50th by 4 months but at 2.5 she is still on 50th. So it's just where she was meant to be.

She had moderate to severe eczema we could never pinpoint why it flared up but it did v quickly and got infected very easily. But she now only had v mild flare ups.

She was violently sick afterformula on the couple of times I tried it so I stopped dairy for a while but it really did nothing except make me a bit grumpy!! I am confident she doesn't have a diary allergy as she East her body weight in cheese each week!

She pooed multiple times a day and at 2.5 still poos 1-3 times a day that is just her normal.

I hope this helps show that it it is sometimes easy to put lots of little things together but nothing may be wrong.

Thanks Mcbaby part of me really hopes it isn't cmpi as it'd be a real faff. I need to know though. If she just has an immature gut then that's fine, but it was pretty Ok until 9 weeks old when she had horrendous diarrhea and it has never recovered really. I am very conscious that time is running out before she will start solids and very keen to give her the best possible start there. I wonder if she is slightly intolerant to something and that is why her gut won't heal.