I think DD has a dairy allergy, she's 4 in Feb.

[Claire2009]

I used to be allergic to dairy, and so did my Sister, we seemed to grow out of it at around 14/15 but as kids it was bad, in-out of hospital a few times.

She's got a scratchy like rash on the top of her back, and she seems to scratch it more after having breakfast (cereal with milk) or a yoghurt, she's also had 2 ear infections close together, and has had black rings under her eyes for around 4mths now.

Where do I start? Do I need to see the GP first to confirm the allergy with bloods? It's times like this I wish my own Mum was still alive & could advise me!

I was allergic to dairy too but only found out what had caused my awful ezcema/asthma in my early 20s! Went vegan for 7 years during which my health was excellent & now can eat cows milk no problem.

When I had my DS I decided to steer clear of cow dairy to be on the safe side, given my own history & the fact that his dad has other children by a different mother who also all have asthma/ezcema. This I did by breastfeeding exclusively for the first year then moving him on to goats milk products, which he has been fine with. Now at age 2 I'm starting to very slowly incorporate cows milk into his diet in very small amounts & so far it seems ok.

It is probably a good idea to have proper food sensitivity tests done via your doc or a health food shop.

You can also try the elimination method whereby you omit the suspected allergen completely from your child's diet for a period of time (different experts advocate different durations but do a web search & decide for yourself how long you think would be right for you) & note any improvement. You can then re-introduce the food & see if symptoms revert to the pre-elimination level of severity.

Be aware that even if this is identified as being the issue & you do decide to stop giving her cows dairy products in the long term, it may take some time for her to be completely 'cured'.

Good luck claire2009, I really hope this info is of help to you & DD!

Yes - go to GP and if you have to, DEMAND until you get a referral. I had to do this (when my patronising GP gave me an 'over-sensitive first time mum' look). Turned out she was wrong and I WAS RIGHT!!! Oh, I wish I were the type to rub it in...

this is the article that convinced me I was right and gave me the balls to face down my GP.

Thanks, I took DD to the Gp today, spoke about everything, he straight away referred her to a paediatrician, will hear from them within 10 days. He didn't think it was a dairy allergy, but said he has been proved wrong before! So will see I guess! He def agreed something wasn't right, didn't even have to ask for the referral, he just done it.

Well done and good luck. Meanwhile if you want to speed things up yourself you can look at the York Test website, www.yorktest.com/
and check out whether you want to get a quick private allergy test done - you might want to look into the right way to go with children - and at the same time you'll check for other allergies (common allergens) since if you're allergic to cow's milk you're around 80% likely to be allergic to goat's milk and soya, and it's important to know because one usually replaces dairy with either goats and/or soya milk/yoghurts/butter/cheese etc etc.

Good luck.

If the paediatrician finds your DD has milk allergy, I'm sure s/he will ask the paediatric dietician to see her, who will help you through the mine field of how to feed her so that she gets all the right nutrients.

Thankyou!
I've just read up about coeliac and am even more confused now, will perhaps wait for the paed to see her.

Blimmin' 'eck your GP sounds amazing!

Actually I used to have a hideous GP but now I've moved my new one is brill.

emlitt's right re goat milk, by the way - with an allergy it's the proteins that cause the reaction (i.e. not lactose, which is milk sugar), and the proteins are similar in other animal milks. However I've not heard of a similar reaction to soya, and in fact we used it for DS and it was great.

Weill done and good luck!