Hi there

It seems that Henry has an allergy to cow's milk. We gave him formula yesterday and he started vomiting three hours later. I also noticed a small amount of eczema on his arm. The doctor at the hospital thought it may just be an intolerance, however the more research I do the more it seemed like an allergic reaction. He has also been a bit raspy when breathing.

If your child was breastfed, did dairy that you ate affect them?

What did you do when your child started solids in regards to dairy?

We are going to the paediatrician next week so I will ask him questions then. I just wondered about other's experiences.

Ok, sort of second hand experience here but it might help. All 3 of my sisters were allergic/intolerant to cows milk as babies/toddlers.

They had soy formula instead (horrid tasting stuff, made the mistake of licking my wrist after testing bottles a few times) which did the job and they all grew out of it by about 2. One had eczema on her shoulders as well but it cleared up when the allergy did and she has never had a problem since. Dad has asthma so Mum isn't sure of the eczema was realted to that or the allergy though.

My sisters weren't breastfed so I can't help there but Mum just used the soy formula to mix up rice cereal and just didn't give them yought or cheese until they were 2-3 and had could handle cows milk again.

Amelia has a severe dairy allergy (also soy and egg allergies). I will pop back later with a longer reply as I've just gone through the whole starting solids thing - it's a little more challenging (mainly because you don't know what else baby might be allergic to) but it's fine once you learn how to read labels on food!

FWIW - Amelia has the whole gamut: eczema, asthma and allergies - apparently it's common for all three to go together.

Archie is allergic to cow's milk protein.

He never had a reaction to me eating dairy when he was still breastfeeding so that was never a problem.

We first found out when we tried to give him formula when he was a few months old which ended with a projectile vomiting episode and a trip to emergency.

Then my paed gave me a prescription for formula where the cow's milk protein is already broken down, therefore easy for him to digest without a reaction.

When starting solids at 5 or 6 months my paed gave me a list of things to try one step at a time (once he was well established to solids like vegies and fruit), and if he had a reaction to anything I was to go back one step. It started with custard, then fetta and ricotta cheese, then yoghurt. He seemed to do very well on all of these.

Then at 12 months we tried him on full cream cow's milk hoping he had grown out of the allergy but it caused a lot of dramas. He broke out in a terrible rash so we took all dairy out of his diet until it cleared. Then all of a sudden he wasn't handling any dairy at all - even the cheese and yoghurt he had been eating for months.

So we then tried soy milk which seemed to be going brilliantly and then I gave him soy yoghurt which immediately caused a big rash. But that also happened a week or so after his 12 month immunisations so we are not certain if it was the yoghurt or if it was an outbreak due to the needles which is very likely.

He hasn't had any form of milk til this morning when we tried soy again and it went well. So our fingers are crossed and we are hoping for the best. But our paed told us to try him on cow's milk every few months to challenge his reaction to milk because it can be outgrown quite quickly. From what I recall I think he said 80% of kids grow out of an allergy to dairy before they reach 3 years of age.

OK - I'm back! Lisa has given a really good overview.

Lisa - I'm jealous that your paed has allowed you to "challenge" Archie. Our allergist is *so* super-conservative and we're not allowed to let Amelia try anything at all!

I agree with Lisa - Amelia has never been effected by the dairy that I eat flowing through to the breastmilk. Once she was diagnosed I was told I'd have to cut dairy out of my diet. Since I'm a Coeliac and already live on a pretty restricted diet I challenged the allergist and pointed out that Amelia didn't have a reaction in the first 6 months of BFing so she let me continue to have dairy myself.

Amelia was first given S26 formula at 5.5 months ol. She didn't like it (fortunately!) and spat the whole lot out. Wherever it touched her skin, she broke out into hives. A trip to emergency and subsequent allergy testing later, she was diagnosed with severe dairy and egg allergies and a milder soy allergy.

We were given an Epi-pen in case Amelia came into contact with dairy (even on her skin) as she was considered to be severe enough that she might go into anaphylactic shock. We were also given a prescription of Neocate formula which is dairy and soy free. Initially we just used this in place of milk for cooking/cereal etc but she now has bottles of Neocate while I'm at work. Otherwise, we fully BF (still at 16 months).

When we started solids, we were given a list of foods to start with (fruit and veg) in a specific order of least allergenic which we started on first. We had to introduce everything extra-slowly and watch for reactions (esp. to citrus, banana, wheat, meat protein etc). I also had to carefully read all ingredients lists for signs of dairy, egg and soy (eg: casein and whey are dairy products) - luckily for me I was used to reading ingredients for myself (being Coeliac!).

My main worry is that now Amelia is older, she is running around with other kids and potentially picking up other's food or sharing something she isn't able to even touch, let alone eat. This really stresses me out and I'm not looking forward to having to put her into childcare later this year.

We are obviously still completely avoiding dairy, egg and soy. We have had Amelia tested again just before Xmas and her allergies are still well and truly there, so we will have to wait and see if she grows out of it in time. I was told that 60% of kids grow out of it by age 3.

Hope that helps and happy to answer any questions you may have!

Emily had a cows milk protein allergy that became apparant when she was about 6 months old (when we first tried her on formula).... Her symptoms would be wheezing, bright red rash all around her mouth and on any skin that the milk touched and hoarseness.... On the advice of her paed we trialled soy milk (even though 50% of kids who are allergic to cows milk are also allergic to soy) and she was fine on the soy.... So she stayed on the soy for a few months until we trialled reintroducing some dairy at about 9-10 months old..... By which stage she had completely outgrown it - go figure Her paed said though it was quite common for littlies to outgrow allergies quite quickly and if we had been solely BFing we might never have known She is nearly 2 now and eats dairy like a pig!