Please help! is this a milk allergy?

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jojo2909

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I hope someone can help me with this as I feel like no-one is listening to me!!!

My daughter (4months) has been unwell from the day she was born. There's always been something wrong with her but I have a feeling it may be an allergy to cows milk.

Her symptoms are:
Diarrhoea
Fussy when feeding
Reflux (which is pretty bad)
Constant snuffles
Sounds chesty all the time
Coughing
Sneezing
Green poo
Generally miserable from 2pm until she goes to bed
Unsettled at night (after sleeping through at 9 weeks) waking up 4/5/6 times.
Had an eczema type rash but seems to have cleared up now?
Watery eyes.

I have been to see the doctor several times now but am looking for a mother's opinion to be honest!

Thanks in advance :flower:
 
Sure sounds like it. What type of formula is she on now? We had reasonable relief from Hypoallergenic but did not find full relief until we went to an Elemental formula.
 
I would switch her to a hypoallergenic formula - here in the US the main brands are Similac Alimentum and Enfamil Nutramigan. See if you can find relief. Give it a good 2-3 weeks - it'll seem like it's getting worse before it gets better. Very few kids cannot tolerate the hypoallergenic either and need Elemental.
 
Hi hun

it sounds like it 100%, my second youngest had this but he was ok on comfort; however I still think he has a milk allergy (he's 3.5 now) as he has a lot of the symptoms again now so ideally you need to get them onto a formula that will not continue to sensitise their system to the milk proteins. The only milk based hypoallergenic formula in the UK is pepti junior (cow and gate) as far as I know; but there may be other lesser known ones. The elemental formulas available are neocate and nutrimigen, again may be others I am not aware of. Usually these are prescription only.
 
could be a lactose intolerance?
 
when I looked on the internet I could find over the counter lactose free formulas but dairy free are prescription only, might be worth a try.
 
not an expert, my friend had luck with soya infant milk.
 
Yes hun, It does sound like it, i would try the sma lactose free formula, u canbuy it in boots off the shelf xxxxx Hope it helps ur lo xxxxx
 
Lactose intolerance in babies is rare and is usually short lived and in response to a tummy bug, this is what lactose free formulas are designed for. True lactose intolerance from birth would mean a baby never gains weight or grows properly and would also have kidney/liver problems since in most cases it's linked to some rare disorders to do with these organs. Also lactose intolerance causes digestive upset only, not eczema et al. With milk allergy taking the lactose out of the equation won't help and since lactose is needed for energy and brain development a lactose free formula shouldn't be tried without medical advice or for anything more than a few weeks.
 
My little boy Vinnie had exactly the same symptoms as your LO and my HV said the quickest way to see what your dealing with is to buy a tub of SMA lactose free milk which you can buy from bigger boots stores give it 48 hours and see if you notice a difference, because a change will happen almost straight away.

I didnt see a doctor until his 6 week check and when i discussed his lactose intolerance he was not bothered about doing any offical testing he said i was his mother and if i think he is better then carry on what i am doing

Try the lactose free milk for a couple of days or so and see how you get on

Carly x
 
I am reluctant to try any formula until she's had the tests to confirm an allergy.

She didn't sleep well at all last night, constantly writhing around, and only took 1oz for her feed this morning.

I have to take a poop sample to check if she has an infection first before they'll do tests for milk allergy. Thanks everyone for your responses, I really appreciate it x
 
Hi Jojo,

I felt compelled to reply to your post as you seem to be going through exactly the same thing we are with our son who is 6 weeks today.

He's now on his 4th type of formula Pepti Junior and whilst we're seeing mild improvement, he's still wheezing, full of wind and very unsettled.

I've been doing extensive research myself on the web which may or may not be of help to you. Basically there are 3 things in milk which seem to cause issues - lactose, whey and casein. Whey and casein are the two proteins in milk. We had tried Aptamil First Milk with colief (supposed to provide lactase to break down lactose) but he was still bad. Then we were put onto Nutramigen which is casein based even though it's been hydrolysed. He was even worse on this which would seem to suggest an issue with casein. So now we're on Pepti Junior which is 100% hydrolysed whey and is lactose free. We're just waiting to see what happens. As GP told us it's all a case of trial and error because he may be allergic to both proteins, and/or lactose.

The milks available seem to be sort of graded in what they contain (and how expensive they are). Type Infant feeding Info into Google (sorry it won't let me give you the web page on here cos of spam) - there's a really useful pdf of all the formulas on there.

From what I understand there's:
- Comfort Milk which is partially hydrolysed and still contains lactose
- Hydrolysed casein based milks such as Nutramigen 1 which are also lactose free
-Hydrolysed whey based milks such as Cow & Gate Pepti Junior which are also lactose free (there's Cow& Gate Pepti which contains lactose too)
-Totally elemental milks which contain neither whey or casein as their man-made are amino acid based, such as Neocate and Nutramigen AA

I really hope this helps. I went to the GP armed and it seems to have got their attention. If the C&G Pepti Junior doesn't work she's said we can see a paeditrician.

Best of luck!

Helen xx

PS Nutramigen 1 tastes and smells vile - my son hated having it - just worth knowing in case they prescribe it!
 
sounds like it - my daughter was very similar from tiny, we blamed colic but it became apparent it was reflux (she didn't have all the syptoms you have listed but quite a few and the GP wanted to rule out milk allergy).
GP prescribed us Nutramigen a Hypoallergenic formula, she had just come off cow and gate which gave her a terrible rash - HV told me it was heatrash!
The rash cleared up but the reflux was worse, I think because the Nutramigen is quite thin so we went back and got sma staydown and she has been fine ever since.
Can you get another GP to speak to? or even some advice from your HV to back up?
A lot of babies do grow out of allergies as the gut matures so it isn't necessarily a life long issue but if there is one and it sounds like there is your GP needs to address it xx
 
HH4 said:
Hi Jojo,

I felt compelled to reply to your post as you seem to be going through exactly the same thing we are with our son who is 6 weeks today.

He's now on his 4th type of formula Pepti Junior and whilst we're seeing mild improvement, he's still wheezing, full of wind and very unsettled.

I've been doing extensive research myself on the web which may or may not be of help to you. Basically there are 3 things in milk which seem to cause issues - lactose, whey and casein. Whey and casein are the two proteins in milk. We had tried Aptamil First Milk with colief (supposed to provide lactase to break down lactose) but he was still bad. Then we were put onto Nutramigen which is casein based even though it's been hydrolysed. He was even worse on this which would seem to suggest an issue with casein. So now we're on Pepti Junior which is 100% hydrolysed whey and is lactose free. We're just waiting to see what happens. As GP told us it's all a case of trial and error because he may be allergic to both proteins, and/or lactose.

The milks available seem to be sort of graded in what they contain (and how expensive they are). Type Infant feeding Info into Google (sorry it won't let me give you the web page on here cos of spam) - there's a really useful pdf of all the formulas on there.

From what I understand there's:
- Comfort Milk which is partially hydrolysed and still contains lactose
- Hydrolysed casein based milks such as Nutramigen 1 which are also lactose free
-Hydrolysed whey based milks such as Cow & Gate Pepti Junior which are also lactose free (there's Cow& Gate Pepti which contains lactose too)
-Totally elemental milks which contain neither whey or casein as their man-made are amino acid based, such as Neocate and Nutramigen AA

I really hope this helps. I went to the GP armed and it seems to have got their attention. If the C&G Pepti Junior doesn't work she's said we can see a paeditrician.

Best of luck!

Helen xx

PS Nutramigen 1 tastes and smells vile - my son hated having it - just worth knowing in case they prescribe it!
Click to expand...

Agree - reminded me of watery packet cheese sauce...
My LO took to it ok but she was only 8 weeks then so I guess she couldn't put up much of a fight :wacko:
She did look at me as if to say what the hell...with the first bottle.
Have been told since you can mix it slowly in with the current milk to wean them onto the taste :thumbup:
 
Beware - sometimes a severe intolerance won't show up on a allergy test.

Hopefully the poop test gives them the information they need to make an informed decision. We found blood in DD's poop for months before EleCare.
 
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