Milk Allergy help needed

Mrs_B_12

"About 50% of children with allergies to milk, egg, soy, and wheat will outgrow their allergy by the age of 6. For those that don't, and for those that are still allergic by the age of 12 or so, have less than an 8% chance of outgrowing the allergy"

From FAAN conference notes, March 2006

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_allergy#Signs_and_symptoms

Mrs_B_12

This is a really useful link, from there you can get to other helpful sheets too

http://www.bda.uk.com/Downloads/allergysept.pdf

roversbabe

My son has nutramigen formula too - he's 6 months old & luckily, our GP & HV have been really helpful in trying to find a reason for his eczema. Since starting using nutramigen, DS's eczema has become a lot better (touch wood). We did use Infasoy milk but he seems to have become intolerant to that too.

Mrs B - how old is your son now, some of the symptoms you describe have happened to my son too.

rb x

Mrs_B_12

It seems that a lot of kids who have an allergy to cows milk also have problems with soya and it's now recommended that babies with problems are now given Nutramigen or Neocate rather than Wysoy in case of further problems. My DS was given Soya milk because the GP didn't know otherwise and after a few months on that the dietician didn't want to change him in case he wouldn't take one of the other formulas and ended up refusing any milk.

No one realised the link to his eczema at the time, his reaction of milk was bad so it was his feeding they worried about most.

essexhoney

All 3 of my children have been lactose intolerant my eldest 2 were put on Wysoy and were absolutly fine.
My 3rd was a nightmare we tried absolutly everything! SMA Gold, Normal Cow & Gate (i cant remember what they call it), SMA Staydown, Infasoy, Wysoy, SMA LF, Neocate, Nutramigen.
After countless hospital appointments with paediatricians and dieticians she finally settled on nutramigen which she is still on now and *touch wood* she has been fine.

How long have your twins been on Nutramigen? It takes a little while to get into their system i was also advised to add gaviscon infant powder to the milk which helps to thicken it up (meaning that they are not sick so easily).

If your twins are not under a dietician i would strongly advise for you to go back to your gp and be reffered to one, mine has been invaluable - i wouldnt be without her now!

best of luck and hope you find something that works for your little ones xx

Carmina_Piranha_3

yes it's worth being under a dietician even if you can't get an urgent appointment. we're not an urgent case because my boy has always had good weight gain and is having lactase treated milk so he's not calcium deficient. the dietician talked to me on the phone for a while to determine how much of a problem he has.

i can fill in a food diary every so often and she'll let me know if he's deficient in anything, that's reassuring.

roversbabe

Mrs_B wrote:

It seems that a lot of kids who have an allergy to cows milk also have problems with soya and it's now recommended that babies with problems are now given Nutramigen or Neocate rather than Wysoy in case of further problems. My DS was given Soya milk because the GP didn't know otherwise and after a few months on that the dietician didn't want to change him in case he wouldn't take one of the other formulas and ended up refusing any milk.

No one realised the link to his eczema at the time, his reaction of milk was bad so it was his feeding they worried about most.

How's his eczema now?

Mrs_B_12

Provided we keep him totally milk free and away from other known allergens (dustmites, dogs and a few other foods) his skin is almost clear.

Finding a cream that he didn't react to was hard too, we tried several and found that Aveeno cream is what works for him. He is also affected by anything perfumed on his skin so we have to use an unperfumed washing liquid, powder is more likely to leave a residue in the machine, and no softner at all.

It really is a case of trial and error and I think we've been lucky to pin down what causes his problems. He is 3 and a half now, he was 4 months when he reacted to milk and 6 months with egg. It was over the next few months we pinpointed other things like the budgie about about a year, had to get rid of the bird for good.

roversbabe

We started with hydromol ointment and cream but his skin seemed to go really red after 2 months of using it - we're using doublebase now which has been OK. We've not used fabric conditioner at all in the washer on the advice of the hv and fairy non bio powder. I'll get the liquid and see how that goes. His skin is a lot clearer after changing to nutramigen but there are still patches of ezcema.

I've been bothered about the cats - I have 4 cats, the 2 eldest are 14 and I don't really want to have to rehome them, especially at their advanced age. How did you find out that there was a problem with the budgie?

Sorry for all the questions but its really helpful to talk to someone who has had a similar experience.

rb x

Mrs_B_12

We have a cat and he seems ok, we keep the cats bed in the kitchen and she's not allowed upstairs at all. With the budgie, we thought DS was getting a cold, runny nose etc and slightly wheezy. It seemed to come and go for a few days then I suddenly realised he'd been fine upstairs and it only started once he sat in his baby seat in the living room eating. By then he was having a runny nose about 5 minutes after sitting there and wheezing after 10. We moved the budgie termporarily to the kitchen and sypmtoms cleared up, the dust etc from animals settles in carpets and on soft furnishings causing problems to be more severe.

We can't use even non bio normal washing liquid, I use Surcare which is totally fragrance free. I do sometimes finish drying his clothes in the dryer to make them a bit softer.

Another big thing that made a difference was keeping his nails very short. Often he was making things worse by scratching at night and we didn't realise at first.

I don't use anything in the bath apart from Oilatum, no soaps or shampoo. I tried a few and decided that it was just costing us money and causing him problems each time we tried one and he reacted to it.

I know that his skin is worse than some but not as bad as others. Ask away if you want, I only found out what I know by other people being helpful too.