Only 2 symptoms. Does baby actually have Cmpa?

[Mkenn]

Hi

Just wondering if anyone has an experience like mine with their baby. I have a 5-week old baby girl who in the last week has developed a very nasty rash on her face which is also spreading down her neck. Coincidentally she has also has tan colour mucus poos. Other than this she doesn't present with any uncomfortableness drinking milk. She is drinking expressed breast milk and formula during the night. Milk actually is one of the main things that calms her and settles her.

Midwife believes it's a viral infection as she is a little bit snotty as well. GP wants to try giving her hypoallergenic formula to test for a cow's milk allergy.

Has anyone else had a baby who had a cow's milk allergy with only two symptoms such as the rash and also mucousy poos? Seems unlikely perhaps and I don't want to chop and change her feeding unless absolutely necessary if of course she does have an allergy.

Rash and mucus poos are two of the biggest CMPA symptoms. The issue is, if it IS CMPA and it goes under the radar, you will find she becomes very unwell during weaning and having cows milk products directly.

Mucus is the gut trying to heal itself from the inflammation. Babies with CMPA ( I have 2 myself ) with often feed and feed and feed because it soothes the tummy pain making they get into a cycle with it.

You would need to remove dairy from your own diet for a fair dairy free trial though. If she reacts through your milk she is also likely to react to the extensively hydrolysed formula they'll give you as it isn't dairy free, just broken down like breast milk.

Oh nasal congestion is also a sign of CMPA, both my sons had this too.

Does the rash get worse after a feed?

Ours had only eczema and we have ended up concluding CMPA as it disappeared when they went onto the hypoallergenic formula. So yes it could be. The only way to tell unfortunately is to use the hypoallergenic formula (may also need to stop eating dairy if BF). Thsi was confirmed as recently he accidentally ahd a few sips of dairy milk at nursery and got a nasty rash that lasted a week or so. They had always had loose poos but I'd been told that was a variant of normal so not sure if that was a symptom. As an aside, for us it took at least 6 weeks before we saw an improvement. The GP said it would be max 2 weeks.

Has the baby always been mixed fed? For us the eczema started when our little one moved from mixed fed to formula only. So it might be worth considering whether the start of the symptoms coincides with any increase in the amount of formula versus breast milk. If it does that might be another reason to suspect CMPA.

My 4 month old has had diarrhea now for 18 days. I’ve been to the doctors twice and stool samples have come back clear. At first it was like 8 poos a day more recently it’s only been 2, so doctor said cmpa would not improve as baby is still having formula and the diarrhea is the only symptom. Says it’s probably a bug that’s lasted a while and was missed in the sample. If it continues to go back we can try the milk for cmpa. She’s still pooping day 18 so think I’ll go back tomorrow..!!