Weaning a baby with suspected dairy intolerance

[Bethymum]

I suspect my baby has a dairy intolerance but it’s hard to tell. He is mostly breast fed and rarely has formula. I suspect cmpa due to constant reflux, runny poos, spotty skin, dry cough and fussiness. I cut out dairy for 6 weeks and I couldn’t see a difference in reflux and poo but his skin became better and I think the cough reduced. I have reintroduced dairy to see and the only main change I can see is I think he’s become extremely fussy, and maybe a bit of coughing. He has always been fussy so it’s really difficult to know if this has anything to do with dairy. My question is, how does one wean a baby with suspected dairy intolerance? He is only 4 months but we are planning to wean most likely by 6 months.

Neither of my DC could have dairy as babies. Use dairy alternatives or expressed milk wherever you would use dairy. There are soya milks designed for babies over 6 months (although many babies that are intolerant or allergic to dairy also have issues with soya). I think you can get other alternatives now too. There are also coconut-milk based yoghurts etc.

Have you gone through your gp for a dietician referral? This will help you. My DD has a dairy allergy, she was completely free of dairy from 4 months, to start weaning we did completely dairy free and then used ‘the milk ladder’ to slowly reintroduce dairy, it’s a specific guide which works scientifically (don’t ask me how I don’t know but you can google) it’s about starting with broken down milk and building up so not just starting with a yoghurt etc. my DD is now 1.5 and we have nearly completed the ladder, just a few steps to go.

Thank you, how did you know, my issue is I’m finding it hard to be sure if it’s a dairy issue or not?

Thank you, how did you know, my issue is I’m finding it hard to be sure if it’s a dairy issue or not? I will try to get a referral

With my DD she never had immediate reactions it was always hours later or the next day. For her she really cries you can tell she’s in pain, she also gets spots on her face. It is really hard to differentiate, especially when they’re young, she was a difficult baby anyway, now she’s older I find it easier, although she’s teething again at the minute so I’ve had to hit a pause on going any further yet or I wouldn’t know for sure. I remember I took a pause on introducing dairy for 6 months just because she was very fussy and unhappy anyway, once that changed I started again and it works. They say usually by 2 they’re fully reintroduced so that makes sense why it takes so long and in the handout they give you for the milk ladder they even say if baby is ill, fussy, teething etc just stop and start again another time. If it’s any help my DD was a happy and content baby by 8 months after all those months of me pulling my hair out so hopefully will get better soon for you too

You need to get allergy tested asap. It might not even be dairy and it could be something else with a much more serious allergy than you are considering which could be a lethal combination when weaning.

My baby did have CMPA but so many other allergies that it was just one on a huge list. You’ll need to have proper support to go through the correct ladders to introduce food and also have prescribed medication for reactions.

The symptoms you desribe fit.
The skin clearing when you cut it from your diet, and the extra fussiness and coughing when you reintroduced, would be enough to confirm it for me.
The fussiness is most likely your baby being in discomfort/pain.
When you cut it out you should see improvements in the first 2 weeks, a bit more by 6 weeks, but it can take months for the gut to heal and settle properly, so will be longer for all the symptoms to resolve.

If you feel you need to be more sure, the recommended way to do a challenge is to keep breastfeeding baby as normal cut dairy from your diet completely for at least 2 weeks, then have either a full glass of diary milk or adult size dairy yogurt. You then watch and wait for 72 hrs. Monitoring for any sign of reaction in baby.

Your GP can refer you to dietician.

Re weaning, we used oat milk instead of diary. The protiens in Soya are similar to those in dairy, so I'd avoid switching to that.

As I was already dairy free, it just meant feeding baby little bits of what I had.
For us weaning for the first few weeks was just offering tastes of food anyway. So things like strips of soft pear, banana etc.
There is no rush for them to be eating 'meals' and no need to be buying the off the shelf packaged baby foods unless you want to.

A dietician will be able to support you in safely following the milk ladder once baby is over 1yr.
They don't usually recommend trying to reintroduce dairy before then as they are unlikely to have grown out of it by then.

If you noticed a difference, then it probably is dairy allergy, and as he still had symptoms could be soya too - the proteins are similar, and lots of CMPA babies have soya allergy too. Try cutting out both and see if that makes a difference to his digestion. It’s a pain in the arse (I’ve done it twice for both my kids) but honestly the difference was night and day. At 5 months I suddenly had a happy baby who slept better, and luckily with my youngest I noticed the signs earlier so didn’t have those horrific early weeks where nothing would settle them except constantly being held.

Then when it comes to weaning - you’re already dairy (and soy) free - baby can eat more or less what you eat, and you can use fortified oat or coconut milk to make porridge etc. Oatly barista is the one usually recommended by dieticians, but you can look at others. Once they’ve been dairy and soy free for 6 months then you can look at starting the soy and milk ladders (separately) to gradually reintroduce. Lots of resources online or in Facebook groups if you don’t want a allergy/dietician referral (plus that takes ages).

The only way to know with a non-ige reaction is dietary exclusion unfortunately, as allergy tests only work for ige reactions, so if you’re willing to give it a go then I would. Just check packets religiously as dairy and especially soya is hidden in so many products.

I would cut out dairy and soya and all formula unless it’s dairy free formula from the GP.

In terms of weaning - allergies rarely occur on the first exposure to introducing a new food every 3 days is nolonger recommended. Advice now it to obviously to not give the food the child is known to allergic too but to give the other may allerges as soon as possible and reguarly. The best way for nuts is to get a range of different nut butters.

It is hard to know sometimes . I was breast feeding and my son had awful reflux I felt like there was an improvement when I cut soya and dairy out so I decided to stick with it. We did see the dietician who said try the milk ladder when he’s one. So we avoided dairy during weening, when he was one we we tried the milk ladder and he did seem to had reactions usually around the cake stage . He would get runny poo or an eczema fair up or seem really grumpy. But i never knew for sure if it was dairy intolerance/ coincidence/ cold or virus or struggling to tolerate dairy due to abstinence from it. It got easier when he got to about 5 years old as he was less less ill from colds etc and we could tell better if/how things were affecting him. DS completed the milk ladder at 7 although he still gets tummy ache/loose bowels if he has a lot of dairy. So it seems he does have a bit of an intolerance to it.
i would request a dietician appointment and take it from there. If it’s a long wait you can google the milk ladder and try it yourself when he’s one.

CMPA is usually diagnosed through an elimination diet to we’d of things improve.

If you’ve already cut out dairy avd LO is still having symptoms, you might also want to try cutting out Soya as around half the people with CMPA alao have an allergy to Soya as the proteins are so similar.

If you’re not sure if Dairy is causing the issues have a read of these two articles:

Dairy and other food sensitivities in BF babies

and Cow’s Milk Allergy from Allergy UK. I printed this one off and took it to the GP to the appointment.

You might also want to read the NICE guidelines before seeing your GP.

my son had a dairy allergy that was discovered during weaning - he came out in hives after rubbing porridge on his face.

I found cutting it from my diet much harder than his! (I never found a good milk for tea, and wanted nothing more than a really cheesy pizza!)
We just stuck to mostly whole foods to avoid having to read endless lists of ingredients, but did use oat milk for cereal, oat or coconut based yogurt and non-dairy spreads.
We completed the milk ladder before he started school.

The plan was to give him a few teaspoons of yogurt every day for 3 days when weaning. On day 2, he started vomiting uncontrollably about 4 hours after the meal. He was floppy and just layed on the playmat all afternoon. Paedetrician said that's very clear.

He's 15 months, we tried the dairy ladder at 12 months and he can have baked dairy now. He also tolerates dairy un breastmilk.

It's definitely challenging, he is allergic to soy and eggs too, but it's forced us a bit to ensure absolutely everything is homemade and healthy. So his diet is excellent and he's growing really well. Loves his food.

Just a word of warning that dairy accumulates in their system and causes inflammation and long term damage. If he is not tolerating dairy well, persisting will not help build tolerance and it will actually cause more damage and make it less likely he will tolerate dairy later on.

You can't test for delayed allergies like CMPA, it's diagnosed by observation.

However I agree you need a dietitian ASAP.

There are some great support groups on Facebook as well.