What to Do Next with Baby That Had a Milk Allergy?

Hi, my son is 18mos. and he was diagnosed with milk allergy at 7mos. along with a whole bunch of stuff. I had himm tested with an allergist. He is still sensitive to the milk cause his eczema gets worse when I try dairy products, so I have him on neocate and I add a little rice milk to it. My allergist says he requires 16oz of milk still so once I reach this number I just sub with rice milk as neocate is very expensive. another thing about rice milk my allergist said it does not have the fat that is required for baby so you will have to find alternatives.
good luck.
D.

My son is 2.5. We have had to avoid all dairy as he has been unable to tolerate milk in any form due to the severity of his allergy. We have been able to find more than adequate substitutes for cow's milk. Please talk to your doctor at his 1 year visit to determine your best course. Milk allergies can be quite serious.

Both of my kids have food allergies and the youngest one has had anaphylactic reactions to milk products. If your son truly has an allergy vs. an intolerance, then I would definitely avoid giving him whole milk in any amount. My kiddo went straight to soy milk, soy cheese, etc. I think a lot of the doctors in this town are resistant to referring a young child on for allergy testing, but I would push for at least a blood test to confirm/deny the allergy. I already had one child with an allergy so they were more willing to test my younger one earlier.

My younger brother had milk allergy as well but he was able to drink goat milk once he was a little older. My Mom found a goat farm and got the milk fresh from them, and it really did not taste much different.

Also, I don't know if you would be willing to continue, but there is no reason why you can't continue nursing past a year...esp with a milk allergy I would think it would be the healthiest thing to do. At this point they don't nurse often anyway...maybe once or twice a day? That way you can make sure he gets the nutrition he needs still. Breast milk continues to be just as beneficial to him past one as it is before 1. They let you know when they are done with it!

I have a 10 month old in the same situation. His GI doctor told us to first try things like yogurt, cheese, and baked goods around 10 months, to see how he reacts. They advised us to introduce things slowly; start with small amounts of baked goods, as there is such a low amount of dairy in them. Then try yogurt and cheese, and see how he does. If he tolerates that well, at 1 year we are supposed to go to whole milk. if he doesn't, he has to stay on the special formula, and try it again at 1.5 years old, and then again at 2 if we have the same issues. I actually just talked with the GI doctor yesterday and got the info with regards to trying the baked goods. She said to watch out for the signs of the allergy - diarrhea, rash, congestion, and if we see them at the introduction at 10 months, wait til 11 months; if signs at 11, try again at 12. Good luck! Let me know how it goes as we are right behind you on this!

My son had a milk allergy, and I didn't give him whole milk until he was closer to 18 months. Prior to that, I introduced other dairy products slowly - first I started with things with milk in them - baked goods, etc, then yogurt, milk, cheese - and watched for a reaction. He would break out into big hives with his allergy. If I saw no reaction, I continued to give him the same thing for a while, before I introduced something new. By 18 months, he was drinking whole milk, and didn't react. Although, I will say, even at 3.5, if he eats or drinks too much with milk in it, he will have looser stools, so while the reaction isn't there as severely, his body doesn't quite process dairy correctly either.

Anyway, hope this helped and good luck!

I had the same problem as my daughter approaches one. I've been starting with rice milk it is gentle in the stomach and system. However, I've been doing 2oz of rice milk and 2oz of her nutragimen formula mixed together. I was only able to breastfeed until 10m, then she self-weened. Swiss cheese is a good first choice of cheese's it is lactose-free, mild white cheddar is another option if you wish to start with cheese. My daughter threw up her yo baby yogurt and have not tried it since. I drink rice milk too and will be keeping her on rice milk altogether. When you line it up, rice milk actually has a tad more nutrients and more iron. You can always add coconut oil to give it the fat it needs, good for the brain. Good luck!

Have you seen an allergist yet? You should probably do that to determine the level of his allergy. My son (16 months) is allergic to dairy and egg. At one year we started him on enriched rice milk. He is doing great and may be outgrowing the allergy (as he has inadvertantly eaten some baked goods with milk and egg with no reaction), but we still avoid dairy and egg as it can't hurt at this point. Since rice milk does not have a lot of fat in it, you could cook his food with olive oil, avocado oil, canola oil, etc. to add good fats to his diet.