Need Advice on Milk Allergy

My first daughter (now 18months) was on nutramigen until she was one year old. We did try gentle ease sometime around 10/11 months and she completely broke out. We also tried half nutramigen and gentle ease (or any milk based formula) and I just don't have the heart to see her skin (eczema) break out all over...her face, back of her knees, arms...pitiful. So when she turned one we gave her rice milk and finally then went to a pediatric allergist (Dr. Vanwagner ~ near Plano Presby) he is awesome!!! We did a allergey test and she came out not allergic to milk...crazy...well my husband and I see what happens on it (Dr. said some just have a delayed reaction to milk too...like 2% of kids??)that he did not so we would not put her on regular milk(even though he advised that we should at that time) until about 15 months and she soon just grew out of it. I do have to tell you...we now have our second daughter (5months) and she is also on nutramigen..we could not believe it...this is for constipation reasons..we don't think milk allergy, but the cost$$ keeps continuing...it is just so expensive. I would seriously think about taking her to see Vanwagner...we also did a blood test too just to make sure...hope this helps.
L.

D. - how was she diagnosed for the allergy? Did they actually test her? Is she allergic to the milk protein or is it lactose intolerance? My son was diagnosed with an actual milk protein allergy at 1. He will turn 3 this month and is still on soy milk (he loves it, though). I have talked to my pedi about taking him off. In the first year, she told me not to try until he was around 2 - which at that time his system would have matured enough & he may have outgrown the allergy. We have tried several times in the past year and each time he gets really sick, so we go back to soy.

I'm not sure why your pedi would want you to switch now when she's still so young, unless he didn't do the actual tests for the allergy and just made a guess, as it's my understanding that kids don't start outgrowing allergies until 2 and up.

There is no harm in trying though, as long as you know what the symptoms of the allergy are. In my son, they were severe diarrhea and congestion and manifest within 24 hours.

Maybe try yogurt and cheese first to test the severity of the allergy. And then slowly move on to milk. Good luck!

Was this dr an allergist or just a pediatrician?

You know your child the best and if you are hesitant then I would wait. I really depends on the level of her allergies. Avoidance is the best way known to help little guys get over food allergies.

I went thru severe allergies with my first child. PM me with questiond. I went to Dr. Seshagiri Roa on the allergies.

If she reacts to the milk base formula, goat's milked worked wonders for us at 1 year. It is closer to cow's milk than soy or rice.

My daughter had a milk allergy also. I breastfed her until 6 months which meant no dairy for me. I supplemented her at 4 months with Nutramigen and once I stopped nursing she was on it until 7 months and then she was on soy formula and did fine. Her peditrician recommended that I keep her on soy milk until she turns 2 but she can eat foods made with milk, cheese, yogurt, etc. She's been doing fine so far.

FYI a cheaper way to get nutramigen EBAY. Good Luck!

I wish I could give you some good advice, but I've mostly had difficulty with trying to mix in milk-based formula with the Nutrmigen for my daughter (she's 14.5mo now). We started at about 10mo mixing in Nestle Good Start Supreme (half/half in one bottle for the first day, two bottles the next day, etc) and it seemed to go well at first - she accepted it just fine (never seemed to really notice the difference) but after about a week, her gas symptoms had increased to the point that she (and I!) weren't hardly getting any sleep. We put her back on Nutramigen only and within 3-4 days was a happy camper again. We waited until she was 12 mo and tried again... same results, but it took about 2.5 weeks to get really bad (can I just say here that I feel awful about using trial-and-error tactics on my daughter... but what else can you do?).

Soooo, we went back to the pedi again and this time he suggested trying whole milk, but boiling it first. If that didn't work, try boiling milk with cinnamon - it was supposed to help with breaking down of the proteins that are causing the problems. Well, we'll never know if the cinnamon thing would work or not because I could not slip that one past her lips. I did, however, try using whole milk for mixing in with her cereal, which she accepted fine... and, again, at first, all was well (well, maybe a little increased tooting right away, but nothing that seemed to be bothering her) and then, about 3 days into it - up all night!

So, we're back on nutramigen only again. Not sure what or when I will be trying a change again.

I do wish you the best of luck. I did read and was told by my pedi that the Nestle Good Start Supreme had the proteins more broken down than other milk-based formulas, just not as much as nutramigen.

Enfamil does have another formula called GentleEase that is supposed to be partially broken down as well... we might try that one next. (Enfamil Gentlease LIPIL formula combines partially broken down proteins and reduced lactose.* http://www.enfamil.com/app/iwp/Content.do?id=/HCP_Home/Pr...)

Again, best wishes for a smooth transition!

P.

My daughter too has an allergy to milk and since she was about 10 1/2 to 11 months old she has been on Soy milk. I started mixing it in with her formula until she was completely on the soy milk alone. She has done wonderful on it and is now 2 1/2 and starting to slowly adapt to skim milk. If you have any other questions please feel free to contact me.

S.

D.,
In our Pedi office we recommend either waiting until 1 year and then just switching to whole milk- if there is still a problem the child goes to Soy or Rice Milk. I had to do this with my 4th, by 2 y/o she was able to take whole milk. Some kiddos never do, and honestly that is fine. There are tons of ways to get calcium.
If you want to go with the formula you can mix up say 4 oz of milk based formula- make a 7 oz bottle of Nutramigen and add 1 oz milk based formula. If she does ok than the next day add 2 oz, keep going like that until she is on full milk based formula.
Many kids who can't drink milk can still tolerate cheese, yogurt and other solid milk sources. Which is fine. After 1 year old the reason for milk in the diet is calcium.

Hope this helps!

D.

my youngest was diagnosed w/acid reflux at 7 wks. I tried GentleEase which helped helped w/the colic he started having at 7 wks as well but did not help w/the projectile vomiting by all means. After all the trials what helped the most was Enfamil Soy formula. He had milk allergy until he was 19 months which caused him to vomit (projectile) and diarreah.
When he was almost 20 months he got better. He drinks milk fine and we try not to give him too much dairy.

I know what it's like what you are going through, I was all alone w/out any help from his dad and trying to go to school.
It was a very challenging year and a half but it does get better.
Good Luck and God Bless.
M.