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Allergies and intolerances

Doctors appointment. What do I do now?

9 replies

Pleasesleep · 01/05/2013 21:44

I took my 10month old DS to the doctors today as I suspected some kind of allergy.

I posted on here a week ago about his awful awful sleep (awake every 45 minutes some nights) and some very kind mumsnetters advised me that that could possibly be the cause.
I told the doctor his symptoms: bad sleep, sometimes green / stinky nappies, sometimes rash when eating, bad wind, (once) blood in his nappy, folds under eyes, has had hives. She said that it did sound like a dairy intolerence and that he would grow out of it.

She advised that I stop breastfeeding as the ingredients are the same and its possible that he was allergic to both. She has prescribed Neocate and vitamin drops and said to put him on those. Although, in fairness she did say it was my decision etc. Does that sound right? I was a bit confused by that as I thought cows milk was very allergenic and breast milk wasn't? I feel very stressed at the idea of having to wean DS.. especially as he doesn't eat tonnes as it is.

This has hit me for six a bit to be honest, I really wasn't expecting it and now I'm having to check the ingredients in everything.. I don't know where to go from here.

Is it worth paying a private dietician for some advice?

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5madthings · 01/05/2013 21:45

The advice to stop feeding is crap!

You could try cutting dairy out if your diet if you haven't already?

Did you ask about a referral to an allergy specialist?

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Pleasesleep · 01/05/2013 21:57

I thought it might have been crap. I haven't tried cutting out dairy, but things have only really been bad bad since we started weaning. He's always been windy, but previously slept pretty well etc.

I didn't ask. Should I have? She told me I didn't need to come back unless we had more problems and just to eliminate dairy...

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5madthings · 01/05/2013 22:03

OK well you can try cutting out dairy from your diet and his, a pita but manageablke I had to for ds3.

I think it can be worth seeing an allergy specialist, they can do tests to see if he has any other allergies and can give good advice re diet (very dependent on the dietician some are not so good)

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harverina · 01/05/2013 23:02

Terrible advice re. breastmilk being the same as cows milk!

I breastfed dd until she was 2.5 yrs and cut out all raw dairy since she was 9 weeks old. My dd was fine if I ate cooked dairy in small quantities but I know that other mums have had to eliminate all dairy when Breastfeeding.

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eragon · 02/05/2013 14:12

hives indicate a true food allergy, NOT intolerence.
make an appointment with a younger ,or recently qualified GP in your surgery and ask for a refferral for testing.

btw for food and environmental allergies.
good luck.

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Pleasesleep · 02/05/2013 22:06

Thanks for the advice everyone :) it is so so appreciated.

The thing is she didn't really seem to know the difference between allergy and intolerance, she said there was no difference!

Will it be ok to ask for a second opinion? I don't want them to be dismissive.. If I ask for a referral do they have to give it to me?

He seemed a bit happier after 24 hours of no dairy, has only woken once this evening! :)

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harverina · 03/05/2013 00:20

There is a huge difference between an intolerance and an allergy - not to minimise those with intolerances (as they can make a baby or child very unwell in the short and longer term)

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ukey · 03/05/2013 02:18

best to ask for allergy testing, to be sure exactly what ur wee one is reacting to, as u mentioned its only been since weaning....so could be a number of things causing it.