Milk alergy help!

[Newtothis2021]

Hi everyone
Little one is 7 months old weaning is going well (mix of BL and puree but she prefers BL)
Discovered she has a milk alery early on so have been using her formula when cooking but can she have any vegan/plant based milk. I drink Mighty m.lk but this I'd pea protein not oat...would that be OK?

Also looking at vegan options for cheese and yogurt etc but they contain small amounts of salt and sugar....is this OK in her small doses too as she doesn't have much in one go of anything

Also any recipe books or good dairy free indtagram accounts to recommend would be amazing (I think eggs might be an enemy too :(

Anything you think which may help me
Lou xxxxxx

Are you under the care of a dietitian? When my DD was diagnosed with cows milk protein allergy we were referred to a dietitian for weaning advice.

Is the formula you've been using for cooking a prescribed dairy free version? Ordinary formula contains dairy so isn't milk free unless it specifically says so.

I used soya milk when weaning my daughter. You can get a junior version but we just used the standard one. We did use the sweetened version as the flavour was better. The amount of sugar is very small.

I would recommend you seek some proper medical advice though about your child's allergy and suitable safe alternatives.

@Lindy2 thank you so much. I feel so so stupid.
I called the doctor as her excema flared up so bad and she had a rash all over her tummy. They told me to send in photos and then just called back and said it'll be a kick allergy cut it out and do a food diary.
I stripped back to just veg it cleared up and so I assumed with gp saying that it was milk. She's been fine until I accidentally gave her some bolognase pouch with milk in and it flared up again....thing is she is on normal foruma...I didnt even think I feel like an idiot. The gp didn't even ask me and just said it was milk.
I'll be calling back first thing. No idea what it is if she's OK with her formula it can't be milk. I'm baffled
Xxx

Milk not kick I meant there 🙄

Sounds like it’s a bit of a muddled picture because the instant reaction to the pouch sounds like CMPA but then as pp said, if it was the formula would be causing problems. My LO has fairly severe CMPA and so does my older one and the reaction to my attempt at formula was extreme.
Where we live all children with CMPA are being referred to community dieticians now rather than paediatrician for advice with weaning etc. But personally, I think you as the parent need to do the bulk of the detective work about what the particular triggers are. Keeping a fairly detailed food diary will be really helpful as so many things have hidden milk in them.
In terms of advice, I’m not an expert, but I think the general advice is that no milk to drink (whether that’s cow or oat or pea or whatever) till 1, but they’re okay for cooking. I think the vegan cheeses aren’t nutritionally that similar to dairy cheese, not so much protein, so just be aware to make up that elsewhere with other sources. But small amounts will be fine. I think the general advice with healthy vegan cooking is fairly similar to weaning anyway, just trying to stay as close to homemade and whole foods as possible and limit ultra processed foods. Unfortunately it does make plant based yoghurts less of a good choice. But you can make homemade ice creams with fruit and bananas for little one. We’re pretty much entirely plant based because of their milk allergies and our long standing vegetarianism and it’s not been an issue at all really for weaning or beyond. Good luck.

@AutumnVibes thanks so much for this. I'm going to start again from the beginning, she's been fine and I know its not wheat it's just taking a while for it to clear to start again. I'm going to try a little cows milk in her porridge tomorrow morning rather than her formula to rule this out in my own head as I'd convinced myself it was milk after gp but as you both have said formula would be an issue too.

Really appreciate you sharing your knowledge xx

Hi, glad it’s been helpful. When I worked out it was milk for mine, I was told to strictly eliminate all dairy for 2 or 3 weeks then have a milk blow out day (yogurt, milkshake etc) and see if there is a reaction. I didn’t get as far as a blowout but there was a really clear reaction as well as really clear elimination of symptoms in the dairy free weeks. So I’d suggest doing that. But for you to do that she’d need to have no dairy in her formula either, so you’d have to have a hypoallergenic formula prescribed by the doctors, which makes it quite tricky. GPs and health visitors can be hit and miss with their understanding, so I’d maybe try one of them and see if you get any advice. The difficulty also is that your baby is older and may well not take kindly to a change to their formula, so could be really tricky.
It’s annoying not to have an easier way to work out if it is CMPA but apparently elimination and reintroduction is how it’s done. Good luck.

If her eczema flared after bolognaise the I can think of 2 possibilities (obviously there are others). One is a tomato allergy. The other is a reaction (but not an allergic one) to the histamine in tomatoes. Tomatoes are high in histamine, the chemicals that mediate allergic reactions (that's why we take antihistamines to treat allergies). So sometimes allergic people get a flare up of symptoms when they eat tomato rich foods because they have just boosted their histamine levels.

My DD has cows milk allergy. Surely you'd have seen this reaction before weaning started. But they can react act any time.
Cooking milk changes the milk protein so its easier to digest.
Try koko supermilk it's got the highest calcium and vitamin supplements.
But you need to push for an Oviva dietician by your GP to manage this properly as you shouldn't mess with milk unsupervised as it's crucial to the development of your baby. You need prescribed formula till 12 months.

If OPs baby is on cows milk formula then it can't be a cows milk protein allergy. It must be a different ingredient in other foods causing the issue

DD had mild CMPA (and a more severe egg allergy) - diagnosis for both confirmed through blood tests. BUT, her mild CMPA meant that though her eczema flared up when she consumed cow's milk, she was actually OK with formula, yoghurt, and cheese. In fact, the doctor recommended keeping them all in her diet to let her through the milk ladder faster. She eventually outgrew the CMPA by her 3rd birthday.