allergy to breast milk, I didn't realise this existed! any experts know anything about it

[laksa]

My dh was chatting to a guy he met on the golf course and naturally the subject turned to breastfeeding. Anyway the guy basically told my dh that his wife had had to give up breastfeeding when their ds was 14 months old as he had an allergy to breastmilk ( not something his wife was eating/drinking which transferred into milk). He was pretty scathing about the NHS who he said had failed to diagnose it and in the end they had gone to france (wife was french) for a second opinion and it had been discovered there.

I was pretty amazed as I'd never heard of this before, how common is it? Does anyone know of anybody who has experienced this?

I don't think this is possible, tbh. Some children have lactose intolerance, but that sets in around the age of 7.

More likely, the baby may have been allergic to something the mum was eating or drinking? This is pretty rare, but it does happen.

I don't think that sounds true.

thats what I thought but apparently the guy was pretty adamant that it wasn't anything that the wife was eating/drinking as they tried eliminating the most likely offenders quite early on. Wish I'd actually been there when they were talking about it.

Thing is, the baby was 14 months old. Maybe the mum really wanted to stop, but couldn't come up with a reason? Who knows. It sounds like he really believed (and she really believed) it was a breast milk allergy. Pity they're going around telling other people such a thing exists, but hey.

An allergy to breastmilk - basically, congenital lactose intolerance - is very, very rare, and it shows up straight away. The baby has to be fed with speciality formula.

There is no breastmilk 'allergy' I have heard of that takes months and months to diagnose. It would be spotted long before that.

I am gonna stick my neck out - it's rubbish!

That thought did cross my mind but I would have thought it would have been easier to just stop than travel to France for 'permission'

It didn't make much sense to me so I was curious to see if any of the breastfeeding experts like Tiktok had ever heard of anything like this.

Not trying to spread misinformation about breastfeeding as know there is enough of that about to put people off already

ah crossed posts...was waiting for tiktok.

will probably stay away from this topic of conversation if dh invites them to dinner...

BTW, thanks for all your help when I was struggling in the beginning with weight gain issues, doubt I would still be breastfeeding babylaksa at 12 months if it weren't for you and others like VLC etc.

It's very frustrating when people you otherwise respect starting talking complete and utter bollocks about breastfeeding (or weaning, or anything else really that's so delicate and full of rampant bs!)

know what you mean, babylaksa still doesn't sleep through (although is getting better) and the other day dh came home with some advice from a colleague who told him to put weetabix in her bottle and if we were still breastfeeding to stop that as it was one of the main reasons for her waking up...I had steam coming out of my ears

A friend's baby has an allergy to lactose - all milk including breastmilk. But it was diagnosed at lot earlier at Great Ormond St hospital. She had prescribed formula. G O St say she might grow out of it in her teens but no guarantees. So that's what they talk about playing golf.

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Yes - the girl I know has skin that begins itching at once even if a drop of milk or a smear of butter gets on her hand. It is severe, although not a life threatening allergy as a peanut one might be. Her school is fantastic about it now she's that age. And the hospital was superb.