Hi all,
Was just scrounging through BnB to see if there was an allergy section and was about the ask admin to consider starting one when I found this thread.
Logan turned 1 a few days ago. We have not done any official allergy testing, but we suspect dairy and gluten sensitivities/intolerances.
He struggled for a number of months with constant upper respiratory tract infections. By the time he turned 10 months he got his 9th course of antibiotics
I finally said 'enough is enough' and changed tactics and started taking him to a homeopath rather than paed or gp. She suggested that we remove wheat and dairy from his diet as she suspected he had developed sensitivities due to his body being so run down from all the antibiotics. I did that and noticed a slight improvement, but not as much as I'd hoped. Then a lady in a health shop I went into suggested I remove all gluten from his diet, not just wheat. She asked if he was bloated and I said that i thought he might be, but i wasn't sure. He'd also had a rash under his chin for over a month which I at first thought was caused by drool, but it wasn't improving at all.
I took him off all gluten and 3 days later the rash literally disappeared overnight. Within a week his tummy no longer looked bloated. Since then I have tried cheese twice, first just a tiny cheese wedge, and the second time half a slice of cheddar, so not huge amounts. Both times resulted in lots of crying and obvious stomach cramps that night, and lots of snot the next day. I had also suspected even before seeing the homeopath that yoghurt caused him to become snotty, but then I doubted myself and so let him continue to have it. Since then I have seen very clear evidence that both cheese and yoghurt result in him becoming snotty the next day, and the cheese definitely causes tummy cramps as well (he hasn't had yoghurt for so long I'm not sure if it ever cuased cramps or not).
He's been on a cow's milk based formula since 8 days old and I always thought he was fine with that. He started sttn at 5 months, and did so for almost a month, until he got admitted to hospital with RSV. He'd been on oral antibiotics for 5 days, and then got IV antibiotics for 5 days after that. It's been since then that he's had the constant recurrent infections, and he's never sttn since then.
For at least the last 2 months (i can't really remember how things were before then) he's been waking every 4 hours at night crying and crying, often seeming like he had cramps. I was confused as I expect this from a newborn, not from an almost 1 year old.
A week ago, the day before and the day of his 1st birthday party he got a really bad cold, and his nose got so blocked up that he could not breathe enough to drink his bottles. He went to bed without having any formula, and STTN! He seemed to be getting better the next day, then I managed to get him to drink some formula at 4pm. Exactly 4 hours later, shortly after he'd fallen asleep for the night, he woke up crying and crying and acting like he had cramps. I managed to get him through it by just giving water and rocking him etc, and I think i might have given him a bit of rice milk as well. Once he went back to sleep he sttn again!
So I have now taken him off his formula as it has become abundantly clear to me that it has been the cause of his sleepless nights and that it clearly does affect him badly.
So now I'm trying to figure out what milk combo is best for him. I can't really afford Similac Alimentum which is for allergy kids - a tin that would last at most 4 days costs the same as a tin of his 'normal' formula that would last 2 weeks. So for now I've got him on calcium enriched rice milk. The calcium content is the same as cow's milk. I'm also trying to include healthy fats in his diet like avocado's, oily fish (although that's expensive so I can't buy it often), and olive oil. And today I went and bought some organic hemp seed protein powder to add to his bottles. But that seems to be a bit of a flop because it doesn't dissolve properly so keeps clogging the teat and half of it stays behind so i'm not even sure he's getting any in. So i might have to go and buy the pea protein powder instead.
Oh, and the reason I haven't gone the route of soya milk is because I gave him a soya yoghurt once as a "treat", and an hour and a half later he projectile vomited everywhere, far worse than I've ever seen him do.
ETA: He has now been antibiotic free for two months which is the longest he's gone since he was 5 months old. Longest time he's gone in his whole life without antibiotics is 11 weeks, so I'm really hope we manage to beat that! he's definitely getting stronger and stronger and managed to fight off this last cold without any antibiotics at all which is a first
she can still tolerate small amounts of dairy but that must have been too much. Need to get her appointment sorted with the allergy doctor.
We all drink coconut milk and love it.
Huggles welcome to the group!
