Advice on ruling out cow's milk allergy in 10wk old

[SeymoreInOz]

Hello all, this is my first post in allergies so please bear with me!

DC1 (now 7) was allergic to cow's milk until she was around 2 years old. I breastfed and she spent the first 4 months of her life with dreadful colic, reflux and diarrhoea. We discovered she was allergic to cow's milk when I tried to give her a bottle of formula at 4 months old. She didn't "do" bottles and spat all of it out. Anywhere it touched her skin went bright red and she was covered in hives. Off the back of that incident she was diagnosed with cow's milk allergy, I went dairy free and she was prescribed pepti for FF and was generally much happier.

Anyway DC2 was totally different, a very chilled baby. I ate all the dairy I wanted and breastfed without incident. I also gave normal formula for bottle feeds and he was just fine.

DC3 is 10 weeks old and was very colicky straight away, I went dairy free and he improved although he is sometimes gassy/fussy and poos mucous etc. I want to know one way or another if he has cow's milk allergy because my diet feels a bit limited (the dairy alternatives in Australia are pretty grim) and when he starts solids I might need to keep them dairy free. My GP said "just give him a bottle of normal formula and see what happens." He does drink from bottles so I know he will down formula if I offer it, I am really worried about potentially making him ill if he is allergic. What could happen? Just vomiting?

On the other hand he might be fine and I can start drinking lattes again!!

[LondonCalling74]

It's a difficult one. Until he's actually exposed directly to the allergen then you can't be sure. My son did react to milk in my diet and I gave up dairy for the duration of Bf but I know someone whose son had an anaphylactic reaction to dairy just after they started weaning onto solids at 6 months yet he had been exclusively BF and it was not apparent he was affected by her diet.

[garliclover]

I don't want to be the voice of doom here, but my DS reacted quite badly to just 1/10 normal formula diluted with Pepti when he was 6 months old: hives, wheezing, itchy throat (I now realise that's why he was scratching at his ears) and projectile vomiting. It was only later that we were told that that was a situation in which we should have used an epipen.

Rather than seeing how he reacts to a bottle of formula, how about trying to see whether his current symptoms improve after a day or two of Pepti? Or if that's not an option, trying him with normal formula knowing that you can get to hospital quickly if necessary (very unlikely, I know, but you just never know when you're dealing with allergies!). With Piriton and Ventolin at hand.

Good luck!

[LittlePushka]

Just wanted to mention lactose intolerance , from experience, in case it may be relevant - I am told it is not uncommon this and milk allergies to be separately present in families.


My baby went from healthy weight on 50th centile at birth to 2nd centile at 8 months wheneventually lactose intolerance was diagnosed. I breast fed to five months and formula fed to 8 months Not until his diagnosis and lactose free formula was prescribed did he almost overnight change, though he never did a poo you could pick up (had you wanted to!) until he was two.

He eventually acquired full tolerance by the time he turned six and we tried every six months or so until that time to see his reaction. Always manifested itself evidently in his unholy smelling sloppy poo and a general malaise and fussy /poor feeding about him. He never had hives/skin reaction. As time went by the time he was 5 on he could tolerate lactose in all dairy save for milk, then by 6 he could tolerate even that (though he always prefers water as a drink, perhaps undersandably)

I hope you resolve his issues. Good luck

[SeymoreInOz]

Thanks for the advice! I hadn't thought about getting some antihistamine numpty. I'll do that! Can you get ventolin over the counter? It's a catch-22 isn't it, I want to know if he's allergic but I don't want to set off a reaction in him! I might wait until the weekend when DH is around.

They sell Aptamil Allerpro here, I haven't seen pepti. It's $25 (around £17) a tin, which is about the same price as standard formula! I seem to remember that hydrolised formula tastes disgusting, is that still the case? DD would only drink it when she was weaned from the breast and there was no alternative.

That's interesting about lactose intolerance. Does it always present with slowed weight gain? DS was on the 50th centile at birth but has now shot up to well over the 100th centile, exactly what DD did. I think it's to do with comfort feeding. Interestingly DS1 (who was not allergic to cow's milk) started on the 50th centile, went down to the 2nd, and is still very light now.

[garliclover]

Just reread my post and thought blimey, didn't mean to sound so dramatic! Also not sure what minimum age is for anti-histamine and inhaler.