What are the symptoms of milk allergy?

[sillysally44]

I have a very fussy 4 week old baby. She cries a lot throughout the day. I'm beginning to wonder if it's a milk allergy as she occasionally brings her knees up and appears to be uncomfortable right after a feed. She makes odd grunting, gurgling noises even though she brings her wind up quite well. Occasionally has very big, very loose nappies but not always.

I mentioned it to our health visitor who wasn't helpful at all and just said I'd need to ask the GP but at this age I'm quite certain my GP will just tell me 'babies cry.' Especially as she isn't being sick or having any skin issues which are apparently key symptoms.

If your baby had this what were the signs? And how did you get a diagnosis?

My DD had frequent nappy explosions - sometimes with poop right up her back.
She was fussy and hard to settle.
Around 4 months she developed eczema.
I was breastfeeding so hadn't considered food allergies, but cows milk protein crossed via breastmilk.
She was diagnosed at 6m when she had an anaphylactic reaction to yogurt. The allergy consultant thinks it was triggered by formula that she had in the first couple of days after being born.
I excluded all dairy from my diet to continue breastfeeding, and obviously she had no dairy products.
She also turned out to be allergic to egg.
She outgrew both allergies before starting school.
If you are breastfeeding I'd try an exclusion diet.
If you are formula feeding you could try asking GP to prescribe dairy free formula as a trial (although also look out for soya allergy which can occur alongside dairy...).

Thank you for replying. Bearing in mind my dd is only a few weeks old I probably won't get any sort of tests or answers for a while then?

We are formula feeding using Aptamil. I had considered trying a new milk but my midwife advised that this could unsettle her too. I'm not sure if I'm overthinking and just looking for a reason to explain her crying.

Eczema was our main one - we were lucky that he didn't have any digestive problems and it was quite mild. He was allergy tested at 6 months.

The range of symptoms can be huge - some babies can have anaphylaxis, colitis, etc., while some babies have milder (but still distressing) symptoms such as tummy pains, runny poos, etc.

If you're worried, try an exclusion diet and see if that helps, as well as mentioning your concerns to the GP..

Just saw that you're formula feeding, in which case you could ask your GP for a prescription for hypoallergenic or hydrolysed formula (eg neocate, nutramigen) to try. I think more and more GPs are understanding of CMPA these days.

Our little one was given a provisional diagnosis at 7 days old (although she did have quite severe symptoms), so I don't think it's too early for you to be asking about allergies when your little one has symptoms of an upset digestive system.

My DS was diagnosed with CMPA very young and only because eliminated dairy from my diet. Symptoms were very very green runny poos and general fussiness. We did the milk ladder with him when he was weaned and thankfully can have dairy fine now, he's 4! There are some really helpful Facebook groups if you search for CMPA. X

My poor DS had horrendous nappy rash, literally never seen anything like it, bleeding, weeping, raw. He also had loose stools with bits of blood, he was also quite pukey. Diagnosed about the same age as your child, we ended up in A&E. He also didn't gain much weight.

I went dairy free as he was breastfed and he also got given nutramigen (this was 11 years ago). It was super stressful, I hope you get help.

Can I ask for those diagnosed young, were any tests carried out or was it just symptom based? Dd symptoms are only really fussiness and the general impression that she is in discomfort (crying, writhing about, bringing her knees up) so I feel like these symptoms aren't specific enough for the GP to take seriously...

My DD was tested in hospital, but she had had facial swelling and raspy breathing with yogurt. I'm not sure of the process when it is non anaphylactic.

With the symptoms you describe we found gripe water helped - though I'm not sure all these years later if I was imagining it!

Our diagnosis was made on her clinical presentation (signs and symptoms) . I think your GP should definitely take the symptoms seriously - a baby is distressed, so it's important to find out why.

Not gaining weight, green poo and sick a lot were what suspected it. And then when it stopped when I stopped eating dairy, it was diagnosed. I was also given nutrimigen formula but DS point blank refused it so I BF for a year, dairy free. My HV was really helpful, definitely recommend talking to them too. Good luck x

Sorry, just saw you said HV wasn't helpful. Maybe the midwife? Some HV's are specialist in allergy's so you could ask to meet with them x

The specialist feeding HV diagnosed my DC. Symptoms were pulling off breast every few seconds and crying, then wanting to latch again straight away plus very frequent green poo’s and terrible nappy rash. Also dropping down the centiles. Normal HV and GP said it couldn’t be CMPA because of no rash/eczema, expect it was! She did end up with eczema but that came months later. I was also worried about floppy larynx so saw a private ENT who checked with a scope and saw that her throat was very inflamed. He prescribed Omeprazole.

CMPA was first suggested to me when DS was 9 weeks old.

His symptoms were:

Constant crying and distressed screaming. It was unbearable. He always seemed in pain.

Very slow weight gain.

Refusing to feed.

Very bad cradle cap.

Mild eczema on his face and arms.

(He never had any problems with his nappies and he didn’t have any sickness either)