weaning allergic babies...

[monkeymamma]

Help!

My ds seems to be intolerant to milk proteins and also soya/beef products when they pass through my breastmilk. Diagnosing seems to be a long process so for the meantime I'm just avoiding these things and continuing to breastfeed, but I do need to wean him (have been advised this will help with his symptoms, also he is huuuuuge - nearly 99th centile - and starting to get really low on iron) so have been starting this, but with limited success :-( He is nearly 6 months by the way, and I started with the baby cereal/fruit/veg about 2 weeks ago. (I haven't been offered any nutritional support for baby (though he's been seen by paed consultant at local hospital and will go again) - am waiting for GP to call about a referral for me to see a dietician so I can make sure I am eating enough myself whilst b'feeding...argh).

Hopefully he may grow out of it and one day be able to have milk products himself, so I may be massively jumping the gun, but for those of you who have had DC with similar issues, I am hoping you can help me with a couple of questions...

The first is bedtime drinks. I'd like to stop breastfeeding when he's 12m, and had planned to move straight to a warm milky drink at bedtime. However that won't be suitable if he still has problems with dairy. What did you offer instead? Eg rice milk, oat milk, or a warm/diluted fruit juice? Warm water seems pretty un-comforting!

The second is just how to make sure he has enough calories and fats as weaning progresses... even things like mash potato and fish pie etc need milk! What did you give instead and how did you make sure they were getting enough of everything?

thanks so much for reading, hope it all made sense!

Hm, not sure I'll be much help as my DS has soya products but when he was under 12 months he used to have a special formula that has no dairy products at all. He only had it in porridge etc, as I was breast feeding, and moved onto the soya milk after he turned 1 but you could probably carry it on longer if soya is a no no as well (it is pretty vile though so not sure how you'd get on trying to get him to drink it). The dietician prescribed it so I'd push for an appointment as the one we saw was really good.

The weaning is a PITA. It's hard when you can't do anything with milk or cheese but again the dietician had ideas and I was quite lucky because DS can eat beef.

All I can say is I was told he WILL grow out of it. I only discovered DSes allergy when I weaned so whatever he's allergic to doesn't come through breast milk but it was pretty severe ? his hands came up when he held a crisp with cheese powder in it! I was prepared for the long haul but at almost 20 months we're gradually reintroducing dairy. He can eat things with trace dairy in, such as biscuits etc, and normal butter and we're about to try yoghurt so try not to worry about it too much.

Obviously our situations are a bit different so I can only tell you my experience but I'd really try and see a paediatric dietician ? my HV referred my DS.

My DD was allergic to egg and dairy (just passed a challenge in hospital last Tuesday at almost 4 years old!).

Rice milk isn't suitable for under 5 year olds (contains arsenic). If your DS can't have soya then you could use Oatly for cooking. There are infant formulas which are suitable for dairy allergies - you can get them on prescription - nutramigen is one of them (it tastes foul though). It is available OTC but costs a fortune.

Vitalite spread is dairy free, as is Pure (one variety contains soya though). There are various kinds of vegan/dairy free cheeses available in health food shops but IME they aren't very nice and, as my DD hadn't had cheese, it wasn't really a taste she missed.

Sorry, should have said, the formula DS had was called Neocate and I was told it is the only one with absolutely no animal products at all ? we were when we looked up how much it costs.