Due Dec 2023 - part 6

[Nclktnntt]

Follow-on from part 5 heading into delivery and motherhood.

@Nclktnntt allergies are such a nightmare. My dec 2023 baby is fine. My eldest has multiple allergies and we were avoiding milk, egg peanuts and wheat for almost 2 years. He’s almost 3 now and still has dairy and peanut allergies.

How is he reacting? My eldest has always been hives and face swelling which is IgE reactions. Non ige reactions I think are a bit more common and tend to be gastrointestinal signs. If it’s IgE would push for allergy referral for skin prick tests. If non ige then you should get dietician referral still.

I can’t help much with milk as mine have been breastfed. There is a good Facebook group called CMPA support there’s a main group and weaning one which have lots of advice re switching milk. Have heard of using vanilla extract etc to help get it into them.

With gluten it depends on what reactions he’s having I think. We had a wheat allergy but could eat other gluten containing foods although did eat a lot of gluten free food to avoid wheat. I think if there’s a concern of coeliac disease you need bloods to test for this and I think you need to have been eating gluten to have those tests.

It may be best to go to single veg and fruit and work out what’s causing issues. Have you tried any other allergens?

@Nclktnntt my LG has CMPA too! Sorry you were diagnosed so late. We fought for 4.5m for hydrolysed formula and that was bad enough. We gradually swapped. So 1oz of neocate 4oz etc of hipp til eventually she was on 5oz of neocate. We tried a straight switch and she point blank refused!!

weaning is going ok for us. I’m just weaning her dairy free so making things with oat milk or dairy free spread. She has quite bad reflux so I’m avoiding acidic foods like tinned toms which is harder than non diary imo!! Most of our meals are broccoli, potato and carrot based. Although carrot seems to flare her reflux too so just a little bit of carrot. It’s such a minefield isn’t it! Like @FirstMondayInMay I also follow the dairy free mum! Oh we also have an al pro soya yogurt every day 😅 but I know some kids who have cmpa also have a soya allergy. Have you tried baby porridge? Organix range is dairy free, as is Sainsbury’s own. There is a group on Facebook called weaning with cmpa which is so helpful. Feel free to msg me if you like!

Hey, did you have your app with the health visitor yet? Mines was yesterday!

Thank you all ☺️

@Noname112 that's super helpful thank you. he's had his bloods done for the allergy test and we have the sit down appointment next week to go through the results. Just during our appointment yesterday (his bum is super sore following him reacting the day before and sudocream wasn't doing anything) so when I said I think it was caused by his food, she had a Quick Look at the results and mentioned the milk allergy and that we'll have to change his milk and the gluten being slightly elevated. She did test for celiac too and said that looked to be negative but will take a proper look and message me if I needed to alter anything before next week's appointment. We suspect wheat and/or gluten because pasta, porridge, rice and Wheetabix all seem to set it off, Wheetabix is the absolute worst. It's his face and hands, they go red and blotchy and really dry & sore 😥. I'm also thinking eggs set it off too, he had something the other day which was a veggie bake that his face flared up to quite badly and it had veggies, tinned chopped tomatoes and egg yolks in. The veggies I know he's fine with do its the tomato sauce or egg yolks 🤷‍♀️ she tested for eggs though so will find out next week.

It is such a minefield! I'll check out the group thank you.

@FirstMondayInMay is that the aptimel one? I've been looking into the alternative milks to cook with as I use his milk to do everything. Thank you .

@99SR I've been looking into the hudralised formulas, did they give you something else to begin with?

@Nclktnntt yes the pepti 1 is aptamil, I think most babies are started off on it to see if symptoms persist and they need a more hydrolised formula. Have you been referred to the dietician?

When we last saw them I mentioned about hives and itching when eating certain foods, mainly tomatoes and eggs and they said it’s more likely a contact allergy but to keep an eye on it and push for further allergy testing if they continue to react!

@@Nclktnntt yeah we got aptamil pepti 1 too. But she got taken in to hospital after throwing up blood and they suggested moving straight to neocate instead of persevering with aptamil as they said her oesophagus was irritated by reflux which they assumed was caused by the milk allergy. I think they try and get you to try each milk for 4-6 weeks. But if it’s not working just keep at your HV about moving to the amino acid one! My GP said it’s the HV who decides the milk? We also tried nutramagen but she hated it lol

@Noname112 with your eldest the wheat allergy - did you have to search for gluten free too or was it just wheat? I suspect wheat allergy (have the apt Thursday to go through everything so I'm avoiding for now) as Wheetabix is what sets him off the worst, but also pasta and rice based so I'm struggling when looking for little thing to cook or snacks he can have that are milk, gluten, wheat and rice free 🙈 I'm hoping I'm wrong on somethings because avoiding milk, gluten, rice, wheat and eggs is gonna be hard.

I'm contemplating doing a nutritional list course to help understand more options and things he can have. I've realised how much my diet is full of all these things, I might just switch to dairy & gluten free myself to make cooking & meal times easier.

@FirstMondayInMay not been referred to a dietitian yet, hopefully we do get referred though to help with weaning and what to cook and look for in the foods etc. food planning and shopping today was with just avoiding gluten and milk based things 🙈 found some plant based yoghurt for him to try 🤞

His is all skin related , so it seems, he's been snotty, silent reflux, dry skin/eczema, never had solid poos, since birth, but the symptoms gradually increased so when I said back in May about a possible milk allergy, the HV dismissed the idea of a milk allergy as he was almost 4 months then. So when weaning and his skin started flaring up to certain things the doctor sent him for blood tests for all sorts of things. I thought they'd have said a contact allergy but she didn't, I think because he's fine with fruits that normally cause the skin contact issues.

I wonder if they'll do trials with different milk types given they know he definitely has a milk allergy but I also don't know if all those symptoms mentioned above are related to the CMPA or not because to me it's all been his normal 🤦🏼‍♀️.

@99SR what are your little ones reflux symptoms?

@Nclktnntt her reflux is a lot better now because she’s on omeprazole plus carobel in bottles but for the first 4/5 months was constant screaming, sick after every bottle, constant hiccups. It ended up being so severe I couldn’t get her to take her bottles which ended up in a complete bottle aversion! She was just such an unsettled baby all of the time. I think the reflux was definitely as a result of cmpa because it did get better after we changed milks. What’s your little ones symptoms? Are you on medication?

@Nclktnntt my little one presented like he had a cold; snotty nose, sucking in at the ribs, bad cradle cap coming down his forehead and eczema. I’d had him back and forth to a&e, they kept thinking it was broncholitis because of the cold symptoms but it was actually the cmpa

yes hopefully they refer you to the dietitian, if not, keep pressing on at them to do it, weaning is hard enough especially when they’ve got an allergy to deal with too!

@Nclktnntt we avoided wheat so he could have other cereals that contained gluten ie rye or barley and oats etc. We did do gluten free alternatives for flour and bread and pasta etc. We mainly just gave him the gluten free alternatives (as they aren’t cheap) and often things like pasta etc were easy enough to cook separate. For family meals we would normally make them dairy free though as it was easier and we still had dairy otherwise. Avoiding rice as well would be tricky as you’ll probably find rice flour in a lot of gluten free things. I found the “what mummy makes” book good was able to swap out what he couldn’t have from the recipes.

It’s definitely not easy so would push for dietician review. We were avoiding wheat, eggs, milk and peanuts and it is tricky. Hope you get some more information and help after your appointment. It’s such a tricky thing to have to face and deal with.

@99SR his symptoms are a bit milder / intermittent than what your little one experienced : he has cradle cap that I cannot fully shift, at 3 weeks old he started crying, arching and pulling away crying but then starving so crying he wanted the bottle, he had tongue tie so had that done private and symptoms improved but always sick after almost every bottle, however he keeps it so you're not fully sure he had been sick or not, it wouldn't seem to bother him if straight after a bottle but when it was 1,2&3 hours later he would go from being my happy little man to screaming and unsettled, this was around the 3 months mark at its worst and I raised the issue with the HV and suggested possible mild milk allergy as every symptom linked and was slowly getting worse or possibly silent reflux plus skin issues and just a snotty baby 🤷‍♀️, she agreed silent reflux and dismissed the cmpa completely due to his age, no medication, we managed to find a balance where he was fine as long as we mixed his milk for at least 3 minutes and ensured it was 100% dissolved. He's still sick, sometimes keeps it but most of the time it now comes out of his mouth and if I don't catch it, he plays with it or tries to eat it again like a dog 🤢. He's still sicky. Double chin - apparently this is a symptom 🤷‍♀️

I'm sorry you had to go through all that before they listened and your little one, it was so hard those bouts of crying, arching and upset we had and it was not as much as you & your little one went through 😥

@FirstMondayInMay I am hoping and will push to be referred, I'm not a natural cook and never had to deal with allergies or anything like that so definitely need more support from professionals to make sure he's getting what he needs. And so many things contain these types of allergies it's difficult without reading the ingredients on every.single.thjng!

My little one had breathing difficulties and sucking in during the first 5 days of his life and his breathings always been worse at night, the snotty was is when he's sleeping and even snoring. Thankfully not terrible which is why I put it down to him being a C-section baby and not his food initially.

@Noname112 I'm finding that out , yesterday I was avoiding gluten and rice and found there was very limited options left, I need to test the rice a bit more, but he had a gluten & milk free snack thing that he reacted too and it was rice based but also blueberry, and I'm not sure if blueberries are also effecting him, so I've brought a strawberry version as I know strawberry itself he is fine with. Im really hoping I'm wrong on the rice.

I'm finding out the gluten free options are much more costlier and thinking like yourself going dairy free on the family side but gluten free for his things otherwise. How did you manage the stage when he wanted things off your plate but couldn't? I cannot eat without my little one wanting it too 😂

Thank you ladies, it's such a minefield and you've all been so helpful, although I'm not happy to hear your little ones have allergies, it is nice to not feel like the only one because no one I know or any of my family or my husbands have had to deal with allergies. I have got that book arriving tomorrow hopefully @Noname112 along with the the dairy free mum one

@Nclktnntt he was never too bad for that but I mostly ate with him so he had his own plate. He did go through phases we’d either sneak a bit off his plate or put a small amount of his on our plate. Once he got to 2ish we started saying he couldn’t have what we had cause it had …. Whatever he wasn’t allowed in it. It took to that age for him to really notice we had different things. He’ll say he’s allergic to cows milk and peanuts now. I’m not 100% sure he totally understands what that means though. He has some understanding it would make him sick to eat it.

Picked up little man's new milk today Pepti 1, he tried a bit and seemed fine so went for a full 270ml bottle, got 90mins in and he stopped and wouldn't touch it. Made a new one 50:50, he took a sip and refused, so made a 1scoop to 4 scoops for the remainder of the bottle and he refused and cried at the bottle 😭 my husband pretended to drink some and shared it with him and drank it, not as he normally does but he drank it thankfully.

So my question is how long did you do the 1sccop and transition over for as my little guy has 8 scoops per bottle just now. Was it 1scoop for the 1 day then 2 the next so on and so forth or 1 the first bottle, 2 the second etc etc?

@Nclktnntt i done it for 2/3 days at a time 🫣 I only done 5oz bottles tho. So it might be easier to do it day by day if you’re doing 8oz because the 7 should over power the 1 surely? The dr told me if they are over 4m they transition slower because their taste buds have fully formed? Not sure if that’s correct though.

Thank you @99SR

Thank you all for the account recommendations and books for allergies. This week I'll be feeding the family dairy, wheat and gluten free. For most of the week - fingers crossed it tastes nice 😂😂

How are we all getting on? Our little one is starting to try to walk and trying to stand on his own - cannot yet 😂

Same here, she has been crusing for a while, started letting go of one thing to move to another, like from sofa to tv stand, she has a nasty cold and cough atm though bless her, older kids back at school so will be catching every bug under the sun lol xx

Yes cruising everywhere and starting to try and pass between furniture. Also have a couple of seconds standing without holding on. Eldest walked the day before he turned 10 months was hoping this baby would take a bit longer but starting to doubt that.

My girl isn’t crawling yet but she is DESPERATE haha so am I so she stops screaming when she can’t get to where she wants to go. Also kind of went off food too. Think her top two teeth are coming in and bothering her though!