Started milk ladder one week ago, baby is reacting off small corner of malted milk biscuit

[crankit]

It's taken a few days but sure enough a patch of eczema has appeared on her thigh, her poos stink and she is getting abdominal pains.
Haven't heard off the dietician since I last tried to contact her a few weeks ago so before I try again thought I'd ask if anyone on here has any experience ? Do I stop giving her the small amount of malted milks? She is in so much pain tonight with her tummy and it just doesn't seem worth it !! Does this mean she has no tolerance to dairy at all atm?
In the instructions I was given it says if baby reacts then to reduce the amount, but she's having barely anything as it is

How old is your daughter? If she's failing on that amount then stop and try again in 3-6 month's time.

@redroseroo She turned 1 a few weeks ago

The statistic IIRC is that 90% of children grow out of their milk allergy by age 5, which means that figure is inevitably going to be lower at age 1. If she's reacting so significantly then I would definitely give it 6 months before trying again.

Also FWIW, we had to wait 11 months for an "urgent" dietician appointment so I might not be surprised at not having heard anything after a few weeks.

Thank you. We've had a really unsettled night, lots of trapped wind, rolling about crying.

Would the dietician advise to try again in a few months?

We had the same issues with the milk ladder with both of our cmpa children. At 7 and 5 they both finally passed the milk ladder (just not the top step of cup of milk). We had to keep stopping at step 1. I then left it a good year or two until I retried. I then decided to wait until they could tell me how they were feeling

Thanks for this. Wow such a long time !!
Do kids need dairy ?? This is my only worry because I'm thinking what about the calcium ? Obviously lots of dairy is bad for us but it's in bloody everything

It was a really long time but they are fine. You can get calcium from other sources so we increased those foods and made sure they had vitamins. They were under a paediatrician and dietician so they ensured their diets were ok. We found Christmas and Easter the hardest. I can recommend Nomo dairy free chocolate for these. Good luck x

Mine are 3 and 6 and still no where near the top of the milk ladder. They will ask you to try again in a few weeks and you’ll probably get the same reaction. I didn’t keep retrying every few weeks. I left it a few months.

I saw a dietician for my eldest's.cmpa. He's nearly 7 now, we try the milk ladder every six months. He reacts and we stop. He now hates trying because of the pain. I don't force it because I don't think he'll grow out now. You do need to make sure you're careful to include calcium rich foods to meet their needs. Food fortified, such as best of both bread and some oat milks, or naturally rich such as spinach. There are charts on the NHS website somewhere with the rda's dependent on age.

The allergy ladders don't cure allergies. They're diagnostic. They're there as a tool to find out if your dc still has that allergy.

Your dc still has that allergy.

The only thing to do is wait as pp have said and then start the ladder again in several months' time

Sorry if my comment seemed unsympathetic! My dd had the most horrific egg allergy, her whole body used to turn purple, it was terrifying. I do sympathise. She grew out of it slower than we hoped.

DS couldn't have dairy at 12 months. Grew out of it by 2 years. There is hope. Children obviously vary so back off and try again in a few months.

You haven’t mentioned how you are feeding your baby but I breastfed my CMPA baby and I had to reintroduce dairy to myself first (via the ladder) to see if my baby could tolerate the dairy through my milk and that really helped. I started working my way through the milk ladder when he was 9 months old and by the time he was a year he could tolerate all dairy via me and so I started the milk ladder on him.

Sadly he consistently failed at either the 1st or 2nd step so we had to keep stopping and trying again about 3 months later. It was an endless cycle.

To cut a long story short he was 2.5 years old before he could fully tolerate diary and I think this is quite a normal age for the allergy to subside, and as another poster said, sometimes it can take up to 5 years.

If I were you, because she’s already reacted to a smallest amount of malted milk, which I think is the first rung of the ladder, then I would just pull back and try again in 6 months.

I think if she’s had such a strong reaction so early on then I doubt in 3 months time she’s suddenly going to be able to tolerate it. There’s no rush, just give her a bit more time before trying again.

I'm a dietitian (not in peads/allergy, so I can't help practically). Ring them, or allergy consultants secretary, and ask for advice. That's what my patients would do.

Thank you for everybody's replies they're very helpful.

I am definitely stopping with the malted milk and I will be contacting the dietician today to see what to do going forwards. Dd has also reacted to soya yogurts before, so I can't put her onto the Alpro soya growing up milk which was initially advised when she turned 1, I'm wondering if I can just try the Alpro growing up oat milk instead ?

She is currently still having x2 bottle a day of Neocate syneo. When she was on the hydrolysed formula her bowels improved but she was covered in eczema, hence the switched to completely dairy free formula.
I also have multivitamin drops at home but I'm a nightmare for remembering to give them !!

I feel sorry for her like I've caused her to be in such pain, I know it isn't my fault but it just feels mean!

I would strongly advise against soya or oat milk. Soya allergies often go hand in hand with dairy allergies, not to mention soya in any significant quantity isn't particularly good for us. As for oat "milk", there is no such thing as oats don't contain milk. Most of oat milk is water and seed oils.

Oh !! What milk can I give her then ? Or is she okay to just stay on the prescription formula?

This is one of the many myths about soya that has been disproved over and over but many people are still stuck on it.

soya milk is fine for an infant of that age especially as they only need about 300ml a day anyway? It’s fine from birth and recommended to many babies with dairy allergies. But obviously if baby is reacting to it as well as cows milk it’s not an option for you.

you don’t necessarily need to give milk after 1, it’s just commonly used as an easy way to reach a guideline calcium amount (you could reach it through any calcium high foods).
most people still choose a milk though so maybe look at the calcium/fat/protein amounts in plant milks and make a decision that way. The alpro growing up milks are fortified so the oat version will still be more nutritious than just plain oat milk that an adult has. Barista options can also be higher fat. It will be lower protein than soya milk but that again can be balanced out with other elements of the diet. Babies don’t need as much protein as we do.

there is also pea milk, hemp milk (almond milk isn’t as good nutritionally).

How does one give their baby a malt milk biscuit?..due to start milk ladder in 2 months baby will be 8 months but I’m afraid she will choke on the biscuit?

You could soak it in warm water first