Does your baby suffer dairy intolerance or allergy,
intolerant to cows milk protein? 29 mothers on our Facebook
page have very kindly shared their experiences, and I hope others
may benefit from the information shared.
Here are their comments:
Mine suffers from a dairy intolerance. He's on formula (22mths)
and cant have anything remotely milky. If he does... my goodness.
You know the stories of kids having 'explosions'? Mine has nuclear
explosions Being a Formula Fed kid its a LOT easier to manage as I
just get the lactose free stuff, no ice-cream, no other fun stuff.
It's not hard to manage once you get used to it!
My 9 month old was diagnosed with a dairy allergy about a month
ago. He has always been a reflux boy, but when he started on
formula as well, his reflux started coming out in a cottage cheese
consistency, and yellow. The Pead confirmed that he is allergic. He
has also had 6 visits to hospital with respiratory problems, which
since he has been off the formula he has been really great!!
Oh and I meant to say, hubbies entire family is either lactose or
dairy intolerant, my side isn't. I'm not sure if he'll grow out of
it, if he does then that's great! If not, I'm going to save a crap
load of money on ice-cream.
Our 1st son got eczema at 5mths, He was only breast fed at the
time, I continued until 16mths. But took him off yeast, wheat, and
dairy. He now is 2.5yrs and has everything now but drinks goat milk
(has since I weaned him). Still gets itchy if he has too much
yogurt or other dairy. So that is why we kept up with the goat milk
for him
Our little 9mnth old is dairy intolerant (eczema) - but is also
intolerant to kiwifruit, citrus, plums, prunes and detergents - we
knew we had a problem and consulted a Naturopath straight away - we
have him on probiotics (as well as me), avoid all the forementioned
foods, bathe him in water only, wash his clothes in liquid not
powder. We found out about his intolerances by getting our
naturopath to send his hair off for testing (cost of about $100 but
well worth it to know what he is allergic to and what to avoid). I
still breastfeed. His intolerance is controlled but we have some
bad weeks too.
My 2 year old is dairy allergic. She had green mucousy (sometimes
blood streaked) poos right up until she was about 7 months old when
we finally figured it out what it was. We figured it out when I
gave her a piece of cheese and she got an instant contact
rash/hives on her mouth and on her hand where she was holding it.
The a RAST (blood test confirmed she was allergic. So
she was reacting to the dairy protein in my milk. She also suffered
from eczema on her arms and legs.
I continued to breastfeed her and completely cut out dairy from my
diet. It took a lot of packet reading and determination but got
easier as time went by. Her eczema went away within a couple of
weeks and her poo went to normal. She is still dairy
allergic now. Have had a couple of times where she has accidentally
eaten it and her mouth, lips and eyes start to swell. The reaction
is controlled with an antihistamine and close monitoring.
Where do you want us to share? I'll start here! Maddie has a dairy
and egg allergy. Discovered the dairy when I fed her yoghurt at 6
or 7 months. Strangely she reacted the 1st time but not the second
time - she comes up in hives (red blotches with white lumps in the
middle) when she comes into contact with dairy. Had inkling she may
allergic at that point but was feeding her the Watties tinned
custards which she didn't react to and was cooking with unsalted
butter and again no problems so wasn't sure. Then we tried feeding
her a bit of cheese when we were at the Auckland food show - we
popped it straight I her mouth and she was fine, but later we put
some in her pureed veg and she wiped it round her mouth and hives
again. Took a photo of her and then when to the docs who agreed it
was probably an allergy and referred her for the skin prick tests
to make sure. That confirmed dairy and also showed up egg. Hadn't
given her anything with egg at this point except the egg custards
which again she had been fine with weirdly. Doc wasn't very helpful
at that point just said don't feed her anything dairy for a couple
of years!!! I pushed to see a dietician and ended up going to see
Anna Richards in the city who helped with food options and also
referred us to Prof. Rohan Ameratunga who is an allergy specialist.
We see them both every 3 months and Maddie has blood tests (RASTS)
to check her allergy levels. The good news is the milk level has
halved and the egg after a glitch when it rose has now started to
come down. I breastfed until Maddie was 11 months and since then
she has been on Neocate formula. Rohan has said he is 100% sure she
will outgrow both allergies it will just take time and the more
"accidental exposures" she has to either dairy or egg will prolong
the time she has the allergies, so life is a daily battle to make
sure she doesn't eat or come into contact (even milky dribble from
other babies / toddlers) with anything.
Both of my boys had dairy intolerance as babies. We didn't
realize with the first and had a year of screaming... and failed at
breastfeeding... by 2nd time aruond I had researched and
researched... and it was pretty obvious once we failed at
breastfeeding again and went onto formula and everything went
downhill... Both boys suffered silently first, then spilling
constantly, lots of screaming. Straining, and looking like he
needed to poo, but couldn't - but actually could (terrible tummy
spasms etc)... miserable, but bowel movement wise they were both
constipated most of the time as babies.. And still have that
tendency (especially if they have lots of dairy?)... I pushed for
help and finally got to the specialist pediatric dietitian when
Tyde was about 3/4months (I had trialed pepti junior formula with a
small amount of good result) He was put onto Neocate formula (I had
documented formula trials and reactions).. so got the subsidy for
it, and within a few weeks of fully on neocate, Tyde was a
different baby, still spewy, but not upset by it... Both boys did
seem to grow out of it around 1year old (but we limited dairy
intake)... Was not fun!!!! This feedback is way diluted sorry...
but I kept daily diary and fought and fought to be acknowledged
that is was not 'normal' for my baby to scream all day/night.....
but if they did not 'fail to thrive' I wasn't taken seriously (our
2nd boy ended up with quite low weight gain etc, so they did take
us a bit more seriously .... but it was such an uphill battle
constantly... I think if I had known what I do now and could've
gained the support of a dietitian I would've persevered with trying
to breastfeed as it's expensive to get the neocate and it tastes
gross so is a battle to get them to drink it... but mine did
outgrow it!! YAY!! :)
Oh and we also had constant ear infections which apparently are
also linked to the reflux - dairy intolerance etc...
We are also on Neocate formula which is absolutely awesome; the
Pead couldn't believe the difference in my wee man after seeing
him...
My daughter and I are both dairy/lactose intolerant (skin and
"tummy" problems). She is now 22 months but was exclusively
breastfeed until 19mths. I think because I'm also dairy and wheat
free we haven't had too many problems - it's already the norm in
our house. Although we don't go without - soy ice-cream, goats
cheese, 70% plus dark choc etc. Millie' always been smaller
than others and I can certainly tell when something has slipped
through in her diet - However we are just lucky it's not a full
allergy!
My boy (13months) gets bit of rash on his face whenever he has
cheese but this doesn't bother him at all - no pain. He is OK with
milk and yogurt but just with cheese. I was bit worried but some
one said it is a phase they go through... Is he allergic to dairy
product?
Oooo I'm just going through this now. My son is 7 months old and
fully breastfed apart from when I started to put 100mls of formula
in his cereal 2 months ago. He started to develop really dry
patches all over his body and then I introduced yoghurt and the dry
patches turned into full blown eczema that was red raw and he would
scream if you touched it. He has always been chucker but he was
vomiting even more so I stopped the dairy for a few days and
everything cleared up. I then had a big thick shake and then fed
him and the eczema came back and he was vomiting again! I took him
to the Dr to confirm it is a dairy allergy and he said it
definitely is so I have stopped all dairy...which isn't too bad
since I never had much dairy anyway! The Dr recommended
breastfeeding for as long as I possibly can as that is the easiest
way around it. I'm quite happy he said that actually as I was
already getting people like my mum asking when I was going to wean
him so now I have a good comeback! "The Dr said I need to feed him
for as long as I can!"
My almost 2 year old is allergic to dairy (and numerous other
foods). At about 5 weeks he started screaming, and the eczema came
up from head to toe. His bowels were runny and frothy, and he used
to swell after I bf him. He has very severe eczema; he gets staph
infections all the time as he scratches a lot. He has spent many
weeks in hospital in his short life so far. He has prescription
formula, and alternative foods. I had to stop bf him because he had
multiple allergies. He has 3 antihistamines a day and numerous
creams. We use oral antibiotics to keep the staph infections at
bay. They say he will out grow it - I'm not so sure. We just manage
day to day to keep him well and out of hospital.
Same with most moms here - my baby has eczema and is allergic to
dairy and eggs. It was really hard work. Sometimes stressful.
We are finally seeing an allergy specialist next Monday YAY I
picked up his dairy reaction at around 10 weeks, but he'd been
reacting for some weeks at that point. Have trialed goat & soy
formulas & he reacted to both :( still Breastfeeding both of us
are on a strict elimination diet mostly. I hate how much baby food
has dairy in it so I have to make pretty much everything.
my lil one is dairy intolerant I breastfeed till she self weaned
at 11 months, being intolerant meant she can have little bits but
just cant give her milk or the like, we use rice brain spread rice
milk etc and don't find it any more of a hassle
Bubs was 'sensitive' to dairy, soy and 2 common preservatives and
resulted in lots of nasty eczema. Pretty much completely solved it
with a) identifying the problem with a hair test and b) exclusion
diet for 8 weeks and then slowly reintroducing the offenders.
Worked a treat too. Now we only have a flair up if she overdoses on
dairy! Marvelous.
Our littlest is lactose intolerant and has been since birth. I
suspected early on because the misdiagnoses of reflux were unable
to be treated, despite the pediatrician assuring me that babies
couldn't be lactose intolerant, and it was most likely a dairy
allergy. It made for 6 months of screaming during and after
breastfeeding (and in general). We switched him to neocate at the
doc's recommendation at 6 months, and he was a lot happier. He's
intolerant of a few other foods as well, but happy now drinking
liddels UHT lactose free, and eating low lactose Easiyo. The
hospital dietician thinks he will outgrow it. fingers
crossed!
What is it with the whole "babies can't be lactose intolerant"? As
I understand it, it's less common, but it does happen. I have a bit
of a quandary myself, because Theo power chucks with some lactose
(especially straight milk products) and gets eczema when I eat it,
but he can't directly breastfeed so I've been expressing for a very
long time now. I'd like to stop expressing now that he's a year
old, but I need him to still be able to have some milky type thing
to drink, and I that whole "failure to thrive" thing is not really
reasonable, because he's still getting my breast milk and I'm not
going to cut him off just to prove to our pediatrician that he
doesn't do well on the basic formulas (we've tried
pepti-junior=projectile vomit).
ps, did anyone else find that they became lactose
intolerant/more lactose intolerant than they had been before during
their pregnancy, and then resulting baby ended up also being
lactose intolerant? Just wondering if it was just me...
My middle boy was exclusively breastfed for almost 6 months. He
was always rashie eczema on the face from 3 months onwards and I
noticed his bowel movements were frequent and loose. Most nights he
would be crying and crying for up to 2 hours from tummy pains. I
voiced my concern to the Health Nurse and she said that some babies
are just like that and he'll grow out of it. So I didn't think
anything of it, but the many sleepless nights from him crying were
wearing me out. From 6 months onwards I tried him on solids as well
as formula milk. It wasn't until he broke out in hives and went
flaccid to a few foods I tried, that I realized this was an
allergic reaction. My first boy is normal so prior to this I didn't
have much experience with allergies and intolerances. It turned out
that my middle boy was allergic to wheat, dairy, egg, nuts,
kiwifruit, as well as other environmental allergens! Now that he's
almost 4 years old and he's only allergic to egg and nuts, but his
wheat and dairy allergy has become intolerances. I buy lactose-free
milk and he seems to be ok with it.
Oh I forgot to mention I stopped breastfeeding my middle boy at 7
months. And before I went out to buy any more tins of formula he
can't have, I rang the company to give me samples of all their
other formulas. I explained to them about my son's allergy and they
were very helpful. They sent me out sachets of the various infant
formulas they make which included soy, goat's milk, for reflux
babies etc. It turned out that my son grew up with goat's milk
formula. Now that he's older, it's the lactose-free milk.
I found out my son had milk allergy when I gave up breastfeeding,
I put him on formula of which he bought back up and ended up
covered in eczema. We took him for allergy testing at 6 months old
and found he is allergic to dairy and eggs. Since then we have seen
pediatricians and dieticians and found that he is also allergic to
Dust Mites! It is hard now as his little sister isn't allergic to
anything and is now having cows milk in a bottle. She still puts
toys in her mouth and when my son touches them he comes up in
hives! My husband had dairy allergy as a child and out grew it at
the age of 8 so I am hoping my son is the same. It has been such a
struggle and still is. I am terrified for the day he starts school
as I worry he will share food with other children. I am trying to
teach him what foods make him 'sick' he is slowly understanding. He
is almost 3 now. So so tough, I truly feel for parents with
children that are allergic to ALOT of food.
My first child had very bad eczema and colic as baby and wasn't
till he ate egg before we realize he is severe allergic to egg.
Because my husband and 1st child's allergies, I was more aware when
next three children came along, able spot early signs at 2-6 weeks
old, reflux, excessive spilly when I ate milk or whatever food I
suspect, eczema etc. I breastfed all of them and did diary-free
diet for 2nd, and 3rd child, did egg-free diet for 2nd, did
nut-free diet with 1st & 2nd. I continue to breastfeeding them
till they are 12months plus before I stopped because I had enough
of lack of milk in my diet (not easy especially I was losing weight
fast) and used hypoallergenic formula milk from GP from 6months old
for cooking only then they drank milk from 12-14months onward once
breastfeeding stopped. 2nd child turn out to severe allergic to
nuts, egg, peanuts and banana, mild allergic to soy and had milk
intolerance till 12 months old. 3rd child turn out to be very
severe allergic to milk and mild allergic to soy and apricot. Now
got 4th child to deal with, on dairy and coconut free diet. He just
started to weaning 2 weeks ago and had only fruit and vege so far,
so don't know what his allergy will be yet. 1st and 3rd got asthma.
2rd and 3rd got eczema and all of them got environmental allergies.
1st child got allergy rhinitis......so far! Phew. Just look out for
signs, excessive spilly, reflux, explosive nappy, very watery poo,
like soup (yuk!), eczema, unusual rash appear on body without
explanation once in while, behavior changes like very moody,
grumpy, poor sleeping...might be relate to
allergy/intolerance.
My third baby (and first "healthy" one!) cried for 3 months,
Plunket and Drs said "babies cry" and NO help; she was better
feeding from a bottle than breastfeeding, and better still on
formula (gutting really) til I read an article on Lactose Overload
- babies continue to thrive but have the same other symptoms as
lactose intolerance. (Note: I had tried cutting out dairy and other
irritants out of my diet first, but obviously not enough as there
was no change). Put her on lactose free formula straight away and
she never cried again. She couldn't handle any dairy until around
15 months but now at 3, is perfectly fine (as the article said
would happen). But my 4th baby cried like this too, he's now 9
months and I still haven't solved his problem!
My daughter is nearly one with multiple food allergies including
dairy. She was diagnosed at 6 months so I have had a very
restricted diet so I can continue to breastfeed. I'm just weaning
her now onto a specialized formula. I'm looking forward to an
ice-cream. It gets pretty easy and second nature. It's only hard
when eating out but who can afford to do that anyway with a
baby.
my son was 6 months when the doctor told me I had to stop
breastfeeding and put him on formula as I was loosing to much
weight, and he was a very big boy, it took till he was 10 months to
give up but as soon as I put him on the formula he would break out
in a rash so I could never understand why the doctor wanted me to
change from breastfeeding to this formula that was making him sick,
I had allergies when I was young so was lucky my mum pointed it out
to me we changed his formula to goats and rice milk and he was ok
but when he started food it became hard as we found out he couldn't
have any dairy, gluten sugar or things with colors etc., if they
touched his skin he would break out again and be so grumpy, he is
now six and can have gluten and a little bit of dairy and organic
sugar but will still get a rash it can be hard and now at school
there has been food swapping, birthday party's and the why am I
different to the other kids they are allowed all this food and I'm
not, its not fear, but if when they get sore and rashie don't try
and sooth it straight away they need to feel what happens and they
don't like it, now he will ask people what is in food and tell them
what he cant have, he still tries to sneak sometimes but then gets
sick and tells me I'm not doing that again. We get organic
lollipops, yoghurt ice-cream and carob he is fine with these and at
a party no one can tell the difference, I just hope now with our
second on the way that he won't have the same allergies as all I
want to eat this pregnancy is dairy and sugar.
My 8 month old MAY have a diary allergy. She gets mild eczema
anyway and was exclusive breastfed until we started solids.
Discovered the problem when started mixing her baby cereal with
formula and where it touched her skin came up red, so I stopped.
Then tried baby yoghurt and got an instant reaction everywhere it
touched her skin. Luckily my milk has been fine so we're leaving
diary until she's 1 then trying again.
All my babies/kids are allergic to the protein in cow's milk. It
goes through breast milk in small amounts but enough to make them
react. I just stay off it myself, and we don't eat it as a family,
so it's no big deal. Luckily, humans don't need dairy to survive!
(and thank goodness for Bittersweet Peanut Slabs hehe)