Does this sound like a dairy allergy?

[LouBIL]

My 6m old DS has generally been a sicky baby from around 2 months where he’s regularly sick between feeds and goes through multiple changes of clothes. He has always been combi fed having mainly formula in the night and expressed before bed (however, we have recently switched that bedtime expressed bottle to formula). Then all feeds in the day are BF.

He was given Omeprazole around 2 months (tried Gaviscon first made him constipated). Not sure it ever actually helped him, he’s never really seemed in pain with the reflux so we weaned him off a month ago and didn’t see any difference with him taking it vs not taking it.

I’ve always wondered if the sickness is related to an allergy but I’ve gone back and forward in my head over it because on the one hand he shows some classic allergy symptoms and on the others not at all. He’s generally always been quite chilled, he can have a whinge when he’s learning a new skill or teething but the sickness never seems to bother him.

I was never convinced it was a dairy allergy because he has formula at night and is generally quite settled in the night and sleeps well on the whole. I’ve cut out various things from my diet since 2 months for at least three weeks without seeing much difference (egg, oats, dairy). However, he’s now weaning and yesterday I gave him some cheese and today mixed milk in with one of his purees and he’s been constantly sick (again not upset or bothering him). He didn’t sleep that well last night either but that could be for any number of reasons.

He did have some eczema patches, which we were given hydrocortisone cream for and cleared it up and we changed washing liquid. He does still have it around his face but since weaning he’s constantly wet/dribbling so it hasn’t cleared. We were also prescribed Aveeno, which he had a reaction to.

When we first started weaning he wasn’t sick at all for a few days and we thought maybe he’d grown out the reflux but the sickness has been really bad the past two days.

I do wonder if he’s having too many feeds now. Currently he’s feeding 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm and 7.30pm (bottle) plus between 0-2 feeds in the night. Plus he’s having veg puree. Also, the feeding team did say I had a fast let down so could that be the reason he’s sick?

Finally, he was born on the 50th centile but dropped between the 2nd - 9th. He’s had his tongue tie cut three times, but I think it’s reattached again (although I never had any pain feeding from day 1). He’s been slow to put on weight, averaging 10-20 grams a day and people often comment how petite he is.

These are my reasons for and against him having an allergy / dairy allergy?

Reasons for:

Regularly sick, smells curdled etc (sorry tmi)
Eczema
Slow weight gain
Increased sickness from yesterday after cheese and milk
Woke up with a dry snotty nose this morning since the cheese
Eyes can be red and puffy sometimes

Reasons against:

Sleeps relatively well (since around 3 months would do 8ish hour stretches)
No more unsettled than my DD1 who didn’t have allergies
Doesn’t seem in any pain
He leaks in his nappies (usually goes in the car seat but no mucus) but only goes once every couple of days
Not particularly windy
Always had Kendamil formula and never sick in the night, only after BF
Have been told I have a fast let down
Tongue tie

Has anyone experience anything like the above or have any advice? I’ve spoken to the GP who have mostly said it’s hard to determine an allergy, what they are actually allergic to and because he’s got symptoms for and against I don’t think they want to make a decision either way.

Sorry it’s such a lengthy post and thank you to all who’ve gotten this far with it. I didn’t experience anything like this with my first and I just hate the thought of doing any long term damage to his tummy by keep pushing food he may be allergic to but on the other hand I don’t want to restrict him foods he’s not even allergic to.

It's impossible to truly know without eliminating fully and see effects. Although the fact that he seems more sick with BF than formula would point to it not being CMPA. With my dds (also combi feed) we had gaviscon, omperozole and carobel like you. But they were definitely in pain most of the time, including all night. And then started to refuse to take any feeds by a bottle by 5 months. We moved to cmpa allergy formula at 6 months and with 1 twin saw an improvement within a few days. The other twin took a little longer to start to accept a bottle but was much better within 2 weeks.

As above the only way to know is to cut it out completely from your diet and his for 6 weeks. I would try it if I were you.

My daughter had CMPA and her sick was curdled, I do think it's a tricky one though by the sound of it so worth eliminating all dairy as previous posters have said, then you know for definite. Good luck x

Thanks all. I’m just reluctant to cut out a dairy when he’s having 8oz of formula before bed and then settling well on it, no pains or sickness. He did 12 hours for the first time this week so it doesn’t make sense that he’s sick with the cheese and milk?!

Would it be a case I’d have to get dairy free formula from the doctor?

If his allergy is “non IGE” it takes time to cause symptoms. When he’s asleep his stomach isn’t being churned up by moving about and by digestion as much as when he’s awake. So I wouldn’t rely on that as a sign he isn’t allergic.
Yes you’d need to get a trial of allergy formula from the GP or buy some.

I’ve never heard of non IGE allergy but reading it makes a lot of sense thank you.

He’s currently on Kendamil, any recommendations on what is the best formula. I’ve seen there is an Amptimil Pepti 1? Thanks.