Milk Protein Allergy - Patchogue,NY

Wonderful that you will continue breastfeeding! Cutting out dairy is more indepth than one might think. There are many, many products that have dairy protein in them. My suggestion is to see a lactation consultant who can probably give you a detailed list. Good luck!

I have a son with off the charts milk protien allergy. I found out when he was 4 months old. I did go on the diet as if I had the allergy. So very thankful i did.
I would first recommend googling milk protein allergy this is where I got most my information. Milk has tons of other names besides milk. On the plus side I lost ALL my baby weight on this diet. I use rice milk for cereal and use it to make mashed potatoes. or most things I cook that needs milk. You can get rice milk at Costco cheap! Also why I'm so thankful about continuing to breast feed is that later he had an allergy to soy that showed up after he started eating food. Needless to say after they turn 1 that's all the options they had. So I nursed him till almost 2. I know this is awful feeling! You just want to help your baby. I would have to say as weird as it sounds this has been a BLESSING for my entire family. Meaning I NEVER read a food label till I had to and was disgusted what I found I had been eating and feeding my family. Tons of dyes and chemicles.
I LOVE DAIRY.....so I hear YOU! This is what I learned, use hummas on sadwiches or wraps. Lots of wraps don't have milke in it and also MOST bread has milk in it. I get Healthy beginnings white wheat bread at costco. Also smart balance has a dairy free butter I cook with it and use it as spread. Avacados are AWESOME creamy tasting! My other suggestion is eat as pure as you can while nursing. When you baby begins eating I cooked all my baby food for my last one! SAVED $$$. I love to help new moms facing this you can email me at ____@____.com would love to connect! I found out about his allergies after many doctors and ended up at a pediatric allergy office. That was helpful to find out allergies I didint' know about. You are lucky finding out so early because you have a much better chance of your baby growing out of it. Hope this helps.

My daughter had a pretty severe milk protein allergy. I felt like if I just looked at dairy she would have bloody poops! And I leave in Switzerland-land of delicious dairy!! Be sure to ready labels. In the US there is dairy (or milk protein) in so many things! Google milk protein allergy and you will be able to find a list of exactly what to watch out for. I also couldn't eat beef because apparently beef has milk protein in it! Who knew? Luna bars are a nice treat and they don't have any milk protein in them. Anyways, it is possible to do and she will probably outgrow it by her first birthday. I nursed my daughter for 18 months. The best part is that most everything that tastes good has dairy so the baby weight will just melt away :) Good luck!

Hi S..

My son has a milk protein allergy. Getting myself off milk products (especially cheese) was really hard at first, but I'm so, so glad I did it. I was also never healthier (and never had such fantastic weight loss, perfect skin, etc.) than when I was dairy free. My son remains dairy-free at almost 5, and he's a super healthy, smart little boy (reading quite well before even starting kindergarten). I believe his diet is partially responsible.

You've gotten some great food advice already; I just want to add two things:

1. Check with your son's doctor before reaching for the soy alternatives. Some soy proteins can structurally mimic milk proteins, so you want to be careful.
2. This website has some great information about dairy-free products, plus links for recipes: http://www.notmilk.com/

Good luck! If I can do it (and I am an amazingly flawed, un-self-disciplined human being), you can too.

I would cut everything out for 2-4 weeks, then add things like cheese and yogurt back in. These things are processed in a way that the proteins are processed out. My 9yr old has a milk protein allergy and his causes severe eczema (like skin falling off eczema) and makes his psoriasis flair up. he avoids cows milk and things like ice cream, but he can eat yogurt and cheese just fine.

It will be hard for that month, but it takes up to two weeks for the dairy to beo ut of your system and out of your milk. After that time I would add a few things in like the yogurt and cheese. My son was fine with me eating those and he breastfed.

I dealt with this with my daughter. We discovered it in the hospital thankfully, her allergy was pretty bad.

I had to cut EVERYTHING out, mac & cheese, chocolate, milk, yogurt, sour cream, butter, cheese, cream cheese, cakes, doughnuts, ice cream, frosting, bread, I mean nearly everything is made with milk. I had no idea how much food had milk or some sort of dairy in it until I needed to cut it out of my diet.

I think a milk free diet can be done. It was harder for me because I don't eat meat. I am not a vegetarian- just don't care for meat often. For me it was milk free/soy free. because she was allergic to soy also.

She was still having a body rash and the green foamy poop at 3 months. Nothing I was doing was working so I had to make the difficult decision to stop nursing her. I still regret it to this day and wish I would have stuck it out more.

I ended up putting her on Nutramigen Formula. Ick.
It's a hypoallergenic formula, since she was allergic to obviously regular and soy based formulas.

She is going to be 2 in a few weeks and thank goodness is finally outgrowing her allergy and is tolerating milk products pretty well now.

Unfortunately, you have to cut out EVERYTHING. Not only milk, but butter, ice cream, sour cream, cheese, and yogurt. And that's not all, either. You also need to cut out anything that contains milk product - that means most breads, margarine, chocolate, and anything that says it contains casein, whey, milk solids, etc.

In general, if you didn't make it, read the label. If you don't have access to the label, don't eat it (yeah - no random birthday cake at someone's party, no sauces in restaurants, and no bite of a friend's chocolate bar).

Going dairy free is hard, but worth it. I used to live on cheese. I cut out all dairy when my twins were about a month old and breastfed until they were a year old. Within a month or so I no longer missed dairy and I got in the best shape of my life - lost all the baby weight and then some!

Good luck...

You do have to cut it all out, however there are so many alternatives, you definitely won't go without, promise! My son is 7 and has a milk allergy but here are his favorite products:

Hempmilk
So Delicious coconut beverage
So Decadent coconut milk ice-creams
So Delicious coconut milk yogurts
Earth Balance butter
Justin's organic dark chocolate peanut butter cups (these are expensive at around $2 each but man they are awesome!!)
Dayia cheese (melts just like real cheese!)

If you need more help navigating the "no dairy" world, I've been doing this for 3 years now and I can make everything under the sun! You will never be deprived, ever! Send me a PM if you want more advice:)

There are MANY things you can do. Vegans have macaroni & cheese alternatives, there is goat cheese and milks you can try, milk free cheeses at health food stores, rice milk, coconut milk, soy milk, almond milk, soy milk, etc. Eat dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate... try soy yogurts. Eat more fruits and veggies... make some new favorites!

It depends on how serious your son's allergy is, I believe. You will likely have to cut out all obvious dairy items (milk, cheese, cream, butter), but may be able to continue to eat things like crackers that have just a bit of dairy, whey or casein in them. Only trial and error will tell. You should cut out ALL dairy for 2-4 weeks to see how he does. Then you can try introducing things like a piece of bread with trace milk in it to see if it's okay.

I will say that the people I know who've cut out dairy often ended up sticki9ng with it after the baby weaned because they felt great, lost weight and were generally healthier than ever before. So you might end up being really happy to have cut it out!

My daughter also had blood in the stool, and I was told that it was likely due to a milk protein allergy, but there was no way to test without doing a biopsy of her intestines. I cut out all dairy for a few weeks, and for the remainder months she was breastfeeding I kept it very limited - an occasional chocolate for example. Now that she is older, she does not seem to have any allergy to dairy at all - loves milk and cheese with no adverse affects. So either she outgrew the allergy or it was a different allergy entirely. Not sure if you are in a similar situation. Good luck.

We found out about our son's allergy when he was 8 months old, and he's almost 3 years old now. I don't know if your child still has a milk allergy, but I know it can be very limiting. Our son has an allergy to casein specifically, and he can tolerate at least some amounts of whey.

Here are some of his favorite foods:
--Eggo mini waffles and french toast sticks (only have whey in them)
--unfrosted Pop Tarts
--Earth's Best mini meatballs
--chicken nuggets (Earth's Best, Banquet, Perdue Simply Smart, Great Value, etc. (check labels for other brands))
--kidney beans (yep, plain kidney beans)
--honey-roasted peanuts
--popcorn
--chips
--vanilla wafers
--fish sticks (check ingredients)
--Nature's Bakery fig bars (best value is at Sam's Club)
--raisins
--Annie's graham bunnies
--fruit snacks (I usually buy Mott's Medley's (made with fruit and veggie juice))
--graham crackers
--Lance whole grain cracker and peanut butter sandwiches
--different kinds of crackers
--Veggie Sticks (the crunchy kind you can find near chips at Walmart, local grocery stores, at Sam's Club, etc.)
--Great Value honey buns (just the glazed ones)
--cereal (usually give him off-brand cheerios)
--oatmeal
--yogurt (Silk yogurt and So Delicious yogurt)
--fries
--hamburgers
--fruit (grapes and clementines especially)

I haven't bought any for him yet, but Oreos are all milk-free.

If you're struggling with veggies, try fruit and veggie smoothies (banana, frozen fruit, spinach, a spoonful of orange juice concentrate, and a nut-based milk (or rice milk))

I agree with Heather. Plus with all the evidence that we should all be avoiding dairy, you will be doing yourself a favor also.

Cutting dairy is a lot more involved than you think - it goes way beyond the dairy aisle.

My son has a severe (off the charts high) milk protein allergy and can't have any foods at all that contain milk, whey, casein or any form of any of those as an ingredient. This means many types of crackers, some breads, all baked goods containing butter, etc are off limits to him.

If you go dairy free to breastfeed, you have to do it 100%. There are a lot of vegan options out there that aren't too bad, though they aren't as good as the real thing that you're used to eating.

Earth Balance makes the best non-dairy margarine. Nucoa is good too. Tofutti sliced cheese is ok; Follow Your Heart brand cheese is best for when you want to melt it. NOTE: Many soy cheeses still contain milk protein, so be very careful when reading the labels. These two brands do not.

Ghiradelli brand chocolate chips are dairy free. I have really yummy recipes for chocolate chip cookies and cake - seriously, they are so good that people who can eat dairy ask me for them all the time. Oreos are also dairy free. I'm happy to send you info if you want, just send me a private message with your email and any questions you have.

Good luck! Hopefully she will outgrow it quickly.

It feels overwhelming to wrap your head around all the changes your family will have to make once you learn that your infant has food allergies. You should begin cutting out ALL dairy, including foods that contain dairy--you will need to become obsessive about reading food labels. Maybe you can find a doctor who will condone trying to SLOWLY introduce a few processed dairies (like yogurt and hard cheeses) back into your diet, but your baby will have to be monitored closely to see if it is having any effect on her. It turned out that I could eat everything while exclusively breastfeeding my daughter even though she had multiple life-threatening food allergies. Our first doctor wanted to restrict my diet, but I eventually found a doctor who supported me to try to increase my diet. After a while, once you figure out a new diet for you/her, it will all become second nature.... yes, always inconvenient when you are eating out in restaurants or eating with friends, but much less of a big deal. Fortunately, most infants will eventually outgrow a milk allergy. There are a lot of books and cookbooks about children's food allergies. Good luck!

You got lots of great advice so far. Allergy groups are quite helpful as is La Leche League. Im sure there is one close to you. I had a lot of "issues" with nursing my first one, mostly from a milk allergy (which did go away!) and the Dr. suggested I stop BFing as the whole allergy thing was overwhelming to me as a first time mom (and the Dr. was of no help). My biggest advice is that if you truly want to continue to BF do everything in your power to go dairy free for the first few months (at least) and dont give up from what will most likely be a bump in the road in her long life ahead. It really is such a short time and sacrifice to make and your breastmilk will help her immune system tremendously!

sometimes we have to sacrifice things for our children.Try soy milk .or just google recipes for things without using milk

Mac and cheese can be bought vegan and made with margarine and soymilk... Some chocolate had no milk as well, can't buy Hershey but it can be done.

I would ask your doctor. Your doctors office should have a hotline of sorts.