I have MS and need an alternative to cow's milk for my toddler!

[Cornberry]

I have just discovered that I have MS and this increases my daughter's chances of having it. Apparently cow's milk is possibly one of the culprits for developing MS and I really want to giver her something else but what?? Soy is really bad for you, what else is there? She's 19 months and has about 300mls of cow and gate a day, and now I'm terrified it's doing her harm :( Any ideas welcome. Thanks.

I have MS - the dairy thing is new to me. By coincidence I have an MS nurse appointment soon, I'll ask then.

I knew about the Vit D thing but I don't think supplements are a substitute for vit d from sunlight. I drag my dd out into the daylight whatever the time of year.

That's the best way nicotina, also if you don't do it already, leave sunscreen off for the first 20-30 mins to boost absorption.

Hi op, I'm really sorry to hear about your diagnosis. My husband was diagnosed privately by one of the best consultants in London's neurological hospital. He assured both of us that there was only a 1% increase to our daughter (I was pregnant at the time and v worried).

This was laterbacked by more consultants. They all talked about vit drops for her though.

I'd speak to your ms nurse/doctor if you can. Dairy is such a great form of nourishment that I'd want to be really confident before taking it away, especially if she's keen on it.

Diagnosed with MS*

Also, forgot to add but neither of us are aware of the diary issue.

Op, learning you have MS when you have children is very scary - speaks from experience, here. Hope you have an MS nurse. Please look at MS Trust and MS Society resources. I know it is often hard to face info about MS when you are just trying to get through the day being a parent (assume that's not just me, either). If there was a magic fix all/prevent all, you would know about it by now.

Eat healthily, pace yourself, be kind to yourself, give up fags if you smoke. Yoga is good. Mindfulness is good - I was prescribed a course , believe it or not. Was a total sceptic and changed my mind (pardon the pun).
Let your child do their thing, encourage healthy eating, get 'em out in the sun and rain. We apparently build up stocks of Vit D from sunlight in the summer and run on Vit D fumes in the winter- our temperate climate means the U.K. particularly Scotland is a hotspot. This is why they suspect a link between lack of Vit D and MS. Get as much sun (even rainy stuff) on your child as you can. That's all I know about Vit D. The dairy thing is totally news to me - I'll ask my MS nurse when I see them next week.

My son (23 months) and I have Hemp milk. We think it's lovely!!

Op - I have ms and follow the dr swank diet. He ran a 34 year study of ms patients who severely cut saturated fat, but ate lots of unsaturated fat. Turns out if they stuck to the guidelines they didn't deteriorate, but if they went off piste for just special occasions, it was enough spike an inflammatory response and trigger ms relapses.

The best thing we can do is give ourselves and our children high dose vitamin d, a natural steroid and preventer of getting ms in the first place.

Interesting, pre-school, I'll look into that.

thanks again. I am astonished that the dairy thing is news to so many. It's apparently thought that for many people the protein in cow's milk can trigger an autoimmune response, and also it's to do with fat content. MS is more prevalent in countries with high consumption of dairy as well as further from the equator. These tend to be the same countries.

overcomingms.org/about-multiple-sclerosis/why-do-people-get-ms/the-dairy-connection/

I don't know what to believe but we eat tons of it (well I used to but cut down last year as I could tell it was making my symptoms worse even before diagnosis while also cutting out gluten) so yes I will try and speak to some specialists but my faith in doctors is pretty low, having been to see literally fifty before getting one to take me seriously. I am new to all this but I'm looking into managing it through diet. I think the advice for my daughter is good advice. She needs to get in the sun as much as possible, if only the bloody weather would cooperate!

in case anyone hasn't seen this:

www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwiVurzCzfzSAhVmI8AKHVw4CkEQtwIIHDAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DKLjgBLwH3Wc&usg=AFQjCNHIbTuCjYZW2-wU5O1JyOpVXEhLOg

I am astonished that the dairy thing is news to so many

Of course it is, there is no proof of it at all.

I have MS cornberry. Both my DDs drink cow's milk in moderation. As others have said i prefer to make sure they have Vitamin D. If i were you I'd speak to your specialist about this - are you under a neurologist at the moment?

I am waiting for my near appointment so I will ask.

casey it's not because there's no proof that it would be unheard of! There is no solid evidence that Vitamin D is a factor from what I've read.
Doesn't mean it might not be true. People become entrenched in their beliefs based on very little indeed. I'm afraid that I cannot blindly trust a doctor's advice. I saw a neuro three times last year because of numbness, trouble swallowing and breathing, and dizziness. Her advice? Stop breastfeeding. So I think it pays to take on board a wide range of perspectives so you can at least make an informed opinion.

It's only an informed opinion if those perspectives are based in fact. You can find plenty of people online who will assure you that juice cleansing and crystals will make you better, but that doesn't make it useful information.

well I gather that all the advice is speculation, and based on various studies. I don't think anything is fat with MS. That's what's so scary about it. But I do know that there's the people with crystals at one end and the drug-happy doctors at the other. I'm hoping for something in the middle!

Well the website you link to may look very nice, but it's basically a sales site for George Jelinek's book and diet. He may be a doctor but personally I'd take the advice of a neurologist on MS over an Emergency Medicine doctor with a book to sell.

He's plugging a product just as much as the drug happy doctors

No. Real solid medical advice is based on real solid medical research. Your links are to a dodgy site dedicated to selling you crap. You can't give them equal weight.
Those "drug happy doctors" aren't trying to sell you anything, they are only trying to help you. For your own sake, don't go down the rabbit hole of believing the nonsense you find on the internet and scorning the people who actually know what they are talking about, and are there to help.

I have MS and have read the OMS books, and also looked at The McDougall Programme which similarly suggests that a plant based way of eating can be used to help manage MS symptoms /progress. I loosely follow it, I gave up meat 2 years ago and go through phases of eating no dairy, but haven't managed to crack cheese fully. I also don't use a lot of oils/fats. So I understand what you're talking about, and I found that I feel better when I eat less processed stuff, but I don't think it's necessary to stop your baby's cow's milk. Totally up to you of course, but the chances of her inheriting MS from you is tiny while the nutrients she can get from milk are important.

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis, it's always a shock and can be scary. At the start - and I mean this in a nice way- don't spend too much time googling causes and cures , it can terrify you... chat to your neuro when you get your appointment. Look into the treatments they recommend and take care of yourself. 💐

OP I was dx with MS 5 days after finally getting pregnant with DS. I am now pregnant with my second.

There is a small increase in the risk of my children developing MS compared to the rest of the population. But the overwhelming consensus from medical professionals is that the risk is nowhere near great enough to alter your plans about starting a family.

As for the OMS protocol... I am on the fence. Whilst I believe a good, healthy diet is beneficial, I don't believe it's a cure. There's just not enough peer-reviewed evidence to back it up. But each to their own.

There's also really not enough evidence provided for me to consider removing dairy from my sons diet.

There will always be the latest theory on what causes MS (last year it was aspartame) but they really don't know yet. There is much evidence to suggest it's both environmental and genetic. There's also lots of evidence to suggest smoking and obesity increase your odds of developing the disease. But they're not 'causes' in themselves.

Sorry to hear you've joined the club. I hope you have a good S Specialist nurse you can discuss this all with

My local neurologist now tells patients to take at least 5,000 iu vitamin d daily and reduce sat fat. It makes sense really, since sat fats are well documented to cause an inflammatory response, which of course we know is the problem with ms.

I sometimes give my children 1,000 iu vitamin D, but don't always remember and so Truro give hem a little sun exposure too. Apparently that's not enough in its own though.

Are you following the Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis program? If so this question comes up quite a lot on the Overcoming MS Lifestyle Support Facebook group so I'm sure the lovely people on there would have suggestions.

If you've not read the book it might be worth it as it is full of evidence based recommendations with referenced mainstream studies and there are various things you can do to help with MS risk in children such as vitamin D supplementation.

Also to clarify OMS is a registered charity. Unlike Wahls it isn't trying to sell you anything. They even give you the book free if you are newly diagnosed. For those in doubt I do recommend the Facebook page - its full of people at different stages of their journey and there are lots of people that have halted aggressive MS and neurologists are starting to come round to it in the U.K by recommending elements of it such as high dose vitamin D, low sat fat, supplementation with omega 3 etc

Hmmm I've read that website as well. My take from it is that they strongly recommend continuing with what advice the medical professionals advise. So if they suggest taking drugs/steroids, then take them.

The diet will not "overcome" ms. It will merely minimise the risk/frequency of relapses.

AND from what I can gather, it's all anecdotal. The evidence is not conclusive either way from what I can read, in that it's quite generic dietary changes but all pooled together. (Hmmm not explaining that well. The old synapses not firing well this morning) . Anyway, that's why we need strong research programmes.

Can I suggest that you look up the Anne Rowling clinic? For a look at what research projects are ongoing right now. I think there might be one for tjose newly diagnosed with me.

As for the medical professional who advised you to stop breastfeeding. it has been well documented that pregnancy/breastfeeding seems to have a positive effect on reducing any symptoms of MS. So in order to fully and clearly diagnose you they need a clear picture as such. I'm only speculating here based on information I was given from ms nurse when pregnant.

*MS NOT me!

I read the intro to the Overcoming MS guy's book. He quoted Deepak Chopra which isn't particularly impressive. I'm with Brian Cox on Deepak Chopra.
But the recipes look interesting.