Starting to wean - Suspet CMA - HELP!!

[Alice88]

Hello,

I'm new to Mumsnet and was hoping some of you lovely people could help me out as I'm feeling a bit let down by my GP.
My DD is 24 weeks old and is EBF. I tried giving bottles when she was younger to give me a break now and then but she flat out refused them! I tried expressed milk and formula and she just refused to even let the bottle in her mouth. There was one time we thought we had a break through and she drank a fair bit of formula, I think she liked the taste, and the whole lot was thrown straight back up! I assumed she wasn't used to it's richness. That was the last time she ever even considered a bottle though!
At four months I started trying to get her to try a cup so that I wasn't tied to her constantly. I was giving expressed milk, but as it was slow progress I bought some ready made formula again to try as I was fed up pouring the breast milk down the sink. She never had much of it, a couple of sips at most, but would immediately come out in a rash all around her mouth after. I tried a different formula and same thing. I therefore stopped giving it.
I am now coming up to weaning and she is very interested in everything we have. I gave her a small spoon of my yoghurt the other day as she was so interested and she came out in the rash. My husband put a small drop of latte on his finger and let her taste it (decafe) and again, immediate rash! I am therefore now thinking she has a dairy allergy or CMA. I showed my sister the rash, she is a nurse and she agreed it looked allergic.
I took her to the GP and explained the situation. I was hoping to know for sure whether she did have an allergy or not and if she did how to handle it.
The doctor basically said they wouldn't test as she was under a year, maybe she does have an allergy, don't give any dairy while you wean. You could try soya but she will probably be allergic to that too. She said shes gaining weight so they wouldn't be worried and perhaps the HV would know more. Then she gave me a prescription for Aptamil Comfort milk for 'mixing with baby rice' (I actually plan to go down the BLW route) and showed me out!
I am just as confused as ever! Didn't realise the HV, who I've not seen since DD was 4 weeks old, was a dietician or allergy expert! I also looked on the CMA website and comfort milk is not suitable for CMA! Is it ok to leave out a whole food group when weaning? Will she get enough calcium, fat, vit D etc from breastmilk? I don't think she will drink a special formula that has all the added vit D and things. When do I try dairy again?
Sorry for the long post. I just feel so confused and alone!

Sorry for typos!

Some of the GPs advice does sound a little strange, perhaps you could ask for a different GP (do they have a baby specialist at the practice?) and get a second opinion?

I guess you could look into vegan recipes and substitutes as essentially you'll need to be vegan plus eggs. If it is CMPA then the only alternative to breastmilk would be a specialised formula. Nothing else is suitable I don't think, from 6 months.

Hi Alice.

It sounds exactly like my son. He's been diagnosed with a cows milk protein allergy. I was EBfing and tried him with a bottle (which he didn't take) but got hive like rash on his face from a few drops. Like a nettle rash. GPs are clueless when it comes to it (even though it's common 3-7% of babies have it!!)

I pushed my GP for hospital referral (an allergy clinic) and am now under a paed, dietician and allergy nurse. My son is on prescription formula (it's hydrolysed so the proteins are broken down) he's on aptimil pepti 1 and can tolerate it. Others can't and have to have a special amino acid based formula.

Go back. Push for a referral. They skin prick tested my son age 5months so it's nonsense they can't test before 1 year. You need to have diet advice when weaning and a specialist to give you a reaction plan (we have liquid anti histamine to give if we get a reaction when weaning)

My son is early days with weaning and we are just on veggies, fruit and chicken at the moment but I use his formula to make his food. It's a bit scary and we are taking it slowly and introducing new things one every three days to watch for reaction.

Hope that helps.

Agree with the others, go back and insist on a referral, take someone with you if you have to. Your go should have Nice guidelines on when to when to refer "your hv may know more" is just not acceptable. She needs to see a Paed and a Paed Dietician .

Can you keep on with the Bfing? Your lo will get everything they need, but if you want reassurance about nutrition and Bfing, you could ring one of the Bfing Helplines.

I too think it's CMPA. Have you cut out dairy in your diet too?

As for weaning, lots of babies world wide are dairy free. If you want to give her yoghurt stry Wot No Dairy. Violife do a cheese substitute. Pure sunflower spread is good for baking and some breads are dairy free. Try to make sure she has oily fish regularly as it is rich in fat and protein, and omega 3 of course. Almonds are also rich in calcium, try her with smooth almond butter on crumpets, chickpeas have lots of calcium are good too so try hummus.

Let us know how you get on

My DS has a CMP allergy. He was also EBF so picked up on weaning. I gave him wetabix with milk and he instantly came up in a nettle rash. A friend (a nurse) advised dairy and egg allergies often come together so I tried rubbing a bit on his lips - caused a few little bumps. GP was great. Referred him for allergy testing. We saw specialist paed and had prick testing by 7 months. Confirmed allergies and that soya and gluten ok. Definitely push for testing. The paed said that as Weaning the testing was important as it allowed us to manage his diet.
There are lots of great substitutes. I recommend Holland and Barrett. The good news is that babies usually outgrow CMP allergies.

It does sound like CMPA, push for a paed referral. We had out diagnoses via private paed as I couldn't wait the 10 weeks the nhs appt was taking. It cost £150 and we saw Dr Chakravati at Springfield Hosp in Eesex, the man is a genius!! I'm not sure where you live so no idea how close/far that is for you. I went back to my Drs and gave them the diagnoses and prescription we needed which they filled, if a little begrudgingly. My DD is 17 weeks and our dietician appt isn't till she's 6 months 2 days so we will def won't be weaning before then in case of other allergies. If you LO does have CMPA and you would like to move to formula and she's also allergic to Soya Drs will prescribe a hypoallergenic formula, again begrudgingly because of cost, we have Aptamil Pepti 1. Our allergy started while I was EBF and was so stressful I have up at 11 weeks, a decision I still regret.