Babies skin

[Abbiecol]

Does anyone know what this is on my babies cheeks it’s always there and extra inflamed when he is hot or sleeping has been like this since birth doesn’t seem to be a milk allergy as his nappys are fairly normal and isn’t sick often, tried eczema creams and nothing working and the doctors are useless

It could still be a milk allergy the symptoms are broad, varied and often non descript!

Ahhh Thankyou it’s so confusing! I’ll have to try and get an intolerance test for him

Unfortunately there are no reliable intolerance tests approved by allergy UK or the NHS. Those that are available can give a mix of false positives and false negative results which means the results are broadly meaningless.

The only way to determine if there is a delayed allergy (newer name for intolerance In babies) is removal for a period of a few weeks and then control reintroduction to see if symptoms returned. Immediate allergies that most people recognise as allergies can show up in blood and skin prick tests but these are not always reliable in babies giving false negatives and experiences trump a negative results .

Thankyou, would I be best switching to soya?

In the long term yes. In the short term no.

About half of babies will react to both dairy and soya so it's not recommended that you switch to soya dairy replacement until you have confirmed that it is just a dairy allergy. The general advice is to avoid high levels of soya - milk, yoghurts and meat replacements during the first month of removing dairy. Soya flour and lectins that are in everything are fine.

If after a month symptoms have resolved you can try including soya replacement products to see if they react. If you have had a partial improvement you might want to now remove all soya as it could be both a dairy and soya allergy.

Oat would be the preferred replacement of milk and oat or coconut for yoghurts if avoiding dairy and soya.

Will he still get nutrients required from oat milk? Thanks for your advice

Oh sorry I think I missed this morning that it was switching for him not you. Sorry I was pre coffee!

Soya formula isn't suitable you want to speak to your GP or HV about a trial of a hypoallergenic formula. You start with a dairy based formula that has been broken down and for some babies this is sufficient for them to not recognise it as dairy.

He’s now 1 so able to drink cows milk instead of formula what would be the best substitute for that please? Thankyou

In that case yes oat milk is fine you just have to be careful which you get to replicate whole cows milk.
You need per 100ml 3g of fat, 120mg calcium and some iodine. The last time I checked the best were alpro growing up oat milk or oatly barista. Both are pricey at £2.10 a carton! We get the barista in bulk on Amazon saving 15% using subscribe and save.

I would use oat milk for 4 weeks and then try a carton of soya milk with the same dietary advice as above. If that's ok soya or oat milk can be used. Soya is probably slightly better than oat. Just in case you do some reading there is some debunked concerns about boys and soya which has no evidence behind it.

Sorry can I just say, if you are going to use oat milk, buy the alpro toddler milk as it's fortified with vitamins and iron that he still needs. My little one has been on the soya one and it's amazing the difference it makes. Hope your little one gets better

Can I just ask what the debunked stuff about soya in boys is as I switched my little boy to soya formula at 3 weeks because I knew he was intolerant to dairy, I only have soya myself and have for 25 years. The doctor tried to make me switch back to dairy but no way was I putting him in pain like that. I kept being told that the plant hormones affects boys but my reasoning was that dairy contains female hormones so don't really see how it could be worse iyswim. My little one is thriving so I'd love to know what had been debunked

Thankyou! We tried soya lastnight and he did not like it was refusing to drink so will try the Alpro growing up oat milk! Fingers crossed

@Abbiecol did you warm it up? Mine won't drink it cold but guzzles it warm. I only ask because I've tasted both and the soya is better. Hopefully your little one likes the oat one😂

Yes warmed it up and still refused it but he is very fussy 🤣 trial and error I guess 🫠

Yes it is this that has been debunked. There is no evidence that plant hormones have any effect on boys.

I knew I was right😁 I think the doctor was just so pissed that I hadn't consulted her before changing him that she just wanted to prove me wrong, but luckily I'm not a pushover so just ignored her basically. It's really shit that there could have been the option for people to give their child soya formula but that crap was spouted at them. It's alot Easier to get a tin of soya formula in the middle of the night than a prescription one😂