Navigating weaning with possible dairy intolerance

[Longlostpals]

So DD is 6mo. At 3mo she developed eczema- doc advised giving up dairy, less baths and prescribed creams. I did all this and it's cleared up. Now she's on solid food and I'm not sure about a few things:

1. Is there a way I can check if her dairy intolerance is actually real? Don't want her to miss out on milk, cheese etc if it's not necessary

1. I've breastfed her so far and she's never had formula. I'd like to introduce her to formula in preparation for my return to work. What formula do I use? A soy based one?

1. For things like porridge, weetabix etc where the recommendation is to use cows milk- what do I use? Soy? Almond milk?

Thanks! Would love to hear from people who have faced similar issues

I was / still am in this position so would like to help if possible. You should research "the milk ladder". Your baby is most likely intolerant to CMPA, the theory behind the milk ladder is that the more "baked" the milk is, the more broken down the protein is, Therefore easier for your baby to digest. At 11months we are just up to cheese and started the ladder at 7 months. I breastfeed too so I subsitute cows milk with oatly fortified oat milk for cereal.

I am back at work full-time and my baby wakes 3 times a night on a good night, it's draining! But like you I cannot subsitute with formula.

I would avoid soy based products as the proteins in soy are similar to those in cows milk.

You can get dairy free formula but for me, at the time it didn't seem worth it. I regret that now. So maybe speak to your doctor regarding feeds and being back at work fulltime.

Lots of ellas kitchen are dairy free and home cooked recipes are great for ensuring no milk content. And cow and gate banana cereal is dairy free.

Sorry for any formatting and grammar issues. Currently pumping at work so typing is challenging.

I hope the above helps.

Oh thank you! I will look at the milk ladder and buy some oatly for cereal. If anyone has any experience of non dairy formula I'd love to hear about it.

If you are BFing, are you following a DF diet too Long? How old will she be when you go back to work? Introducing a suitable formula may be hard as from what I understand they don’t taste great. If you’re not going back for a couple of months, there might mot be any need for formula anyway. Like Ok says though, definitely don’t give Soya milk or products yet.

The Dr who told you to make her diet DF should have referred her to a Paediatric Dietician, really if you’re a BFing I would have expected them to refer you to a Dietician too although you’d probably have to ask for that. Just make sure you have a really good calcium and vitamin D supplement.

There are lots of foods you can still give LO, although it can be daunting at first. Obviously fruit and vegetables are DF. You can make Blueberry pancakes with an alternative milk. Spag Bol is fine. Roast dinners at home should be fine if you don’t use any dairy, just check the gravy and make Yorkshire’s with an alternative milk or miss them out. You can even make pizza with an alternative cheese.

As for you, cheap bourbons and Jaffa cakes are usually DF as is some dark chocolate. Pizza express is good to eat at as they do vegan pizza. Even Toby Carvery is good as you can order your veg without dairy, Hace the meat or a vegan dish and some of the gravy is DF.

Eczema is extremely common in baby's so are other issues which doctors can attribute to being caused by dairy allergy. There was a programme on the bbc called the doctor who gave up drugs. He found that prescriptions for dairy free formula increased 500% in the 10 years leading up to 2016. He also found that doctors were attending meetings about dairy allergies which were sponsored by the companies producing dairy free formulas. My daughter was on dairy free baby formula and I just gave up at 5 months because she was always vomiting gave her a bottle of cows milk and she's never looked back. You also said that you gave your wee one a cream at the same time so that may actually been what made things better. Just introduce dairy a bit at a time don't overwhelm her with too much as to be honest it could well upset her tummy. I was told I was dairy intolerant at the start of the summer I gave it up for 6weeks and nothing changed I think it's all a bunch of nonsense to be honest. And as far as babies go I think it's an issue of over prescribing on the behalf of gps. If your dd does infact have a serious allergy then you can stop dairy again, but the phrase "dairy intolerant" has become way overused.

Mumunder if you gave up dairyvand nothing changed, it’s unlikely to have been a dairy allergy. When I gave up all dairy I felt completely different after 3 days and fabulous after 2 weeks. It’s very hard to describe the difference it’s made to my life.

Yes the formula companies should to be pitching to GPs but the rise in the prescriptions for formulas that are suitable for babies with CMPA could easily be due to more awareness of the allergy. It’s much better than when my DParents had me a long time ago and they were basically told to put up with the screaming.

I don’t have a “serious allergy” as you put it, I’m non-IGE so dairy isn’t going to kill me but I still do have an allerfyvand anything with dairy in can make me feel quiet unwell for several days. Your post comes over as quite dismissive of people who have dairy allergies.

Please excuse the typos.

Hi @Longlostpals

My 8 month old has suspected dairy intolerance. I'm also breastfeeding, we've been dairy free since he was about 10 weeks. We're just about to start on the milk ladder. Weaning hasn't been too bad - I've become used to looking at ingredients lists as I've been dairy free myself. We use KoKo milk, yoghurt and cheese replacements.

We've been mix feeding with Neocate for the last 2 or 3 months. Neocate is, from my understanding, the most 'dairy-free' of the allergy formulas. Others like Nutramigen have dairy in but more broken down.

We introduced a bottle of dairy free formula once a day from when baby was around 4 months. At first we mixed it with a few drops of vanilla essence, and he would drink a few ounces - now he has it on its own and will drink a whole bottle. I know some others have mixed it with expressed milk at first and gradually reduced the proportion of expressed milk to introduce slowly to baby.

The drs warned me it might be hard to get him to take it, but I think that actually the point when he started taking larger volumes was when he started weaning and was getting used to lots of other different tastes too.

That's a bit of a ramble, sorry! Let me know if there's any other info I can help with!

The milk ladder is a good way forward.mine fell off the first rung and we have goats cheddar ( mild) goats butter and milk, as well as various oatly, almond and coconut milks (coconut makes the best hot chocolate!). We’ve avoided soya and now avoid rice milk due to the arsenic levels in rice.
It’s really doable, gets easier every year with more awareness and products available.

Thank you all! The problem I've had is different advice from different health professionals so I feel a bit out on my own. I'm not sure if 6 months is too young to start the milk ladder or not. I'll ask my GP about neocate.

Personally, I wouldn’t start the milk ladder unless you have the support of a Paed and a Paediatric Dietician. Much better to get baby used to solids first. I personally wouldn’t start the milk ladder if you are introducing formula or you won’t know which one is to blame if there’s a reaction.

My ds has CMPA and his dietician advised us not to trial the milk ladder until he's 1.

They do suggest however doing a trial of cows milk protein which basically involves giving normal formula and waiting.
If they react either straight away or within a few days- it confirms an intolerance.

It's probably easier tbh because you'll know it can only be the formula causing the problem, if baby isn't eating anything else