Possible CMPA?

[ohpoowhatnow]

6 month old baby is exclusively breastfed and always has been, aside from 2 occasions where a small amount of formula was given whilst I was out. Both occasions led to projectile vomiting green sick which resulted in a trip to the hospital. Doctors had no idea what was wrong, but suggested it must have been the formula. Roll on a couple of months and I gave baby a small amount of Greek yoghurt, which again a few hours later resulted in protective vomit episode. Does this sound like CMPA? Just to add the baby has no reaction to breastmilk and the dairy I consume. Thank you!

Could well be cmpa and with three exposures like that and such explosive reactions I would be making an appointment and insisting my doctor takes me seriously.

Yes that sounds like cmpa.
The milk proteins in breastmilk have been partially broken down by your body so it's more common that babies with cmpa are fine with breastmilk than those that aren't. It is quite typical for cmpa not to be diagnosed until weaning with breastfeed babies. I will caveat that whilst it's more common to be ok with dairy through breastmilk that doesn't make it rare to react to dairy in breastmilk
It's probably worth speaking to your GP and HV about this and getting advice about how to proceed with weaning

Thanks guys for your responses. It’s good to know you’re both thinking the same … I know CMPA can be over diagnosed. I’ll ring in and get a doc appointment and see where we go from there. Until then I’ll stick to dairy free weaning.

To have such a strong reaction to formula and yogurt I'd definitely be thinking Cmpa. Maybe the protein is broken down enough in your breast milk that it doesn't cause a reaction. Has he had any reaction with soya at all as something like 50% of babies with CMPA are also allergic to soya. I was lucky that mine could drink soya as it's so awkward weaning if you have to be dairy and soya free

Are you eating dairy or dairy free?

Be aware if it is cmpa there is heavy(ish) cross over with beef and soy/soya intolerance/allergy

I'd start the milk ladder yourself rather than wait for dietician - our referral took 18m as in we are still waiting for it and on stage 3 of the ladder. Earlier you start the better. Dont rush the ladder

Are you eating dairy or dairy free?

Be aware if it is cmpa there is heavy(ish) cross over with beef and soy/soya intolerance/allergy

No I eat loads of dairy and there’s no reaction but yes like you said it’s broken down already. Never tried him with soya will look into that and the milk ladder. Thank you !

Usually the milk ladder is done at 12 months or 6 months after the exclusion of dairy depending which is longer. There are a few different variants all are broadly the same but vary in how quickly they increment the portion size of dairy or slower build up to the purity of cows milk. You start with foods with small amounts of heavily baked dairy such as biscuits then cakes working your way through to things like cheese sauces and the pure dairy in the form of milk and yoghurt.
My daughter is very sensitive so we use a ladder that only has 5 steps for types of dairy but is very slow with portion size starting with a crumb of biscuit rather than 1/4 of a biscuit that most ladders start with. This is the north west milk ladder. IMAP is another commonly used milk ladder and it comes in 6 and 12 step options for types of dairy

About half of babies also react to soya, some only the purer forms such as soya dairy and meat replacements others are more sensitive and foods with soya lectin and flour also need to be avoided too.
Around 10% of cmpa babies also react to beef.
Let them recover from the dairy for a week or so then I'd try a small amount of soya yoghurt or similar and see how he goes. The biggest range of dairy replacements are soya based but there are now quite a few dairy and soya free ranges too. Oatly have a good range of dairy and soya free products and the coconut collaboration range is good too.
All of flora margarines are now dairy free and we use pure which is good. For things like this we find it is easier to just make the straight switch so we don't have any dairy based butters and margs anymore it just makes things simpler to have just one tub in the fridge. Flora do a solid block of butter and usually baking blocks are dairy free too. We use the baking block quite a lot as my daughter also has a coconut allergy which means she can't have flora products.

My breastfed baby also had a similar reaction to greek yogurt and CMPA was diagnosed.

Do not attempt the dairy ladder without dr supervision. Dairy is not like other allergies, it builds in their system so they may be fine with baked in dairy here and there and you then get an enormous reaction out of nowhere.

We saw a paedetriciant and allergist specialist and have been advised to not even think about trying dairy again until 18 months and only under supervision, because of how strong the reaction was to only two teaspoons of yogurt.

The paedetrician said she'd had 2 babies in hospital in 2 weeks when we saw her first (about 4 months ago) as they were given some dairy and could not stop vomiting.

And yes, breastmilk does contain some dairy protein but it's broken down. My baby is ok with breastmilk which the paedetrician said it's an excellent sign because in her experience, that means the allergy is less severe and he'll get over it in time.

@BackThen8878thanks for your response. I’m waiting for an appointment with the doctor - I won’t be attempting it myself ! Good to hear about the breast milk with diary being a good sign. It makes sense about it building up before a reaction because the first time he ever had formula he didn’t react !