Apparent Cow's Milk Allergy in 13 month old

LessMass

Hi All,

I've come to the conclusion that my (soon to be) 13 month old daughter is allergic to cow's milk. She had her vaccinations the other day and I mentioned this to the nurse, I asked her what she thought about it, did I need to bring my daughter to the doctor or anything? the nurse said " check that on the website "
me: which website? (thinking it was a HSE one or something)
her: the website (as if there were only one!) it'll give you a list of things then (?!?!?)

I assumed she meant for me to google it! which I've done but I find it hard to judge sometimes as to what's valuable information and what's purely hearsay, so here I am asking has anyone on here experience this issue with their baby and if so what course of action did you take?

Many thanks in advance,

LM

crazy cat lady

The only way you can be sure is to tale your daughter to a doctor and have her tested. It wouldn't be right to use the internet to make a self diagnosis. You could come to the conclusion that she is allergic to cows milk, exclude it from her diet and deprive her of much needed nutrients, vitamins and minerals. The underlying cause for her symptoms may then be overlooked and proper treatment may be delayed. The nurse you spoke to should really have encouraged you to speak to your Gp

LessMass

Hi CCL,

Thanks for that, I sorta thought myself I should take her to the GP but just wanted to hear if anyone on here had ever been in a similiar situation.
I've excluded all dairy for now and it's working a treat - she's back to sleeping her 12 hour nights so that's a god send! In order to do that I've put her back on formula not sure if that's a great idea but it's all I've got at the moment, I've also tried her with soya milk on her cereal but she's not sure about that just yet :rolleyes:
Will speak to the doc and see what they think!

Cheers!
LM

Nevyn

Check with the dr it could be dairy or it could be cows milk, I know of a few people who could not tolerate cows milk and grew up drinking goats mik instead.

Grawns

Is your formula dairy free then? If not I doubt it's a dairy allergy but talk to your gp. If she had a dairy allergy you would have known long before 13 months as there would have been a failure to thrive ( unless exclsuively breastfed). She could be just sensitive to full on cows milk so returning to formula and continuing to give yogurts etc and small amounts of cows milk should see her right. My daughter wouldn't drink cows milk when introduced at 12 months or formula so I shovel yogurt and cheese into her instead. My sister breastfed until 9 months and her daughter had to go on the soya formula as she was sensitive to the dairy version. She outgrew this fairly quickly. There's always soemthing to stress about

lynski

Grawns, not necessarily so. Children can develop sensitivities as they get older or after illness. My daughter developed a sensitivity to formula and cows milk at 13 mths after a bad vomiting bug and teething.
We were advised to take her of formula while ill and she could not manage it afterwards, TMI warning, but she got really bad diarrhea and once i took her off formula things improved. Any time she drinks cows milk, 2-3 hrs equals very runny napppy and sulphur smell too.
So I discussed it with the gp and he said try her again in 6 mths, as long as she is thriving, and getting a varied diet then good. She has been taking cheese and yogurt, but I think she may have been even more sensitised in the last few months, as i am taking her off all dairy from tomorrow to see if things improve.

Grawns

That sounds horrible Lynski. Maybe I didn't make myself clear as I said the child was probably sensitive to cows milk but not allergic . I have a nephew in law who was allergic to dairy at birth and now is allergic to peanuts, sesame and soya. He did outgrow the dairy allergy but had to have special formula as an infant. I suppose the difference is the definition of an allergy vs sensitivity. Controversial topic.

I spend my days trying to make sure Bridget is getting enough calcium as she won't take milk or formula. Cheese and yogurt are great for that but if you're withdrawing them you can get Orange Juice with added calcium. Tropicana do it but I've never been able to get it in Tesco but I've found it in Supervalu..

Just a suggestion but if a vomiting bug triggered it maybe you could try a course of baby probiotics. It might help with the dairy issue and won't do any harm.