Anyone have a LO with milk protien allergies and having a hard time with solids?

[Servant4Christ]

so sorry you're going through this, mama.

i personally have a milk protein allergy and had to take food-based prenatals and supplements when bf'ing in order to make sure ds got proper nutrients since i could not eat many foods bc of my allergies. his immune system and reactions to food were identical to mine until he was weaned..... so far, he doesn't show any signs of having my allergies, thankfully.
i'll pray for you to find answers, soon.
fyi- i have heard of making your own formula, milk-free.... a friend has a milk-allergic son. she said the ingredients are pricey but she'd do it if she had to formula-feed full time.

God Bless!

[2L2R2luv]

Originally Posted by wendow Um, yeah, I've BTDT My ds1 (who is now almost 3 1/2) STILL has a very severe milk protein allergy/intolerance. I say intolerance b/c he does not test positive to milk on an allergy test (skin or blood). As a baby, he tolerated nothing...no bm, no milk formula, no soy formula, no hypoallergenic formula, no goat's milk, no nothing....he drank an amino acid-based, elemental formula. He also did not tolerate solids. None of them. We also began trying at about 5mos with him. We tried cereals, several veggies and fruits. By 9mos, we gave up and did not try any more food until 1 year which he still could not eat. Tried again at about 14mos, fail. At 16mos, he finally tolerated his very first food and it was corn. After that, he gradually began being able to eat more foods. I think he had around 6-8 foods when he turned 2. Now, he eats everything but dairy (cannot be in a food at all) and obvious soy. He eats everything else though. It's actually so amazing to look back at how far he has come. He had gut reactions to everything and also skin reactions (eczema). I will say that if I could go back and redo how we did things with my ds, I'd have quit trying foods earlier. I had never seen anything like it...this was baby #3 for me...and no one we knew had seen anything like it. SO, sometimes I wondered if I was imagining it or that he would get better if he just kept trying it. I think his gut was so messed up from the early milk reactions he had, that it just needed some significant time to heal. It wasn't until we finally backed off, that he did begin to heal and finally was able to eat some foods.

Thank you for this, it makes me feel not so alone. My DS is 7 months and the same experience as you, I have managed to limit his reactions so am still able to BF, but I had to eliminate every allergen (except gluten, strange) plus like a dozen other random foods (pineapple, oranges, cucumber, broccoli, etc). Every doctor we see I get the feeling thinks I am making this up! We are just now trying to decide what solids to start, he tries to grab off our plate, but doesn't really put it in his mouth yet. We have decided to just let him decide when to start and hope he starts to grow out of his intolerances.

[wendow]

Originally Posted by Leocaligirl Ironically I also have a friend going through the same thing except her son seems to be tolerating things a lot better than my son. He has even been introduced to yogurt and cheese and is handling them well (he is 15 mod now). She has a different GI Dr. than we do but they both told us the same thing about the Neocate and Elecare. WHat he said is that They are so new to the market, so man made, so broken down in a lab and there is just not enough long term research on them. He knows that with Nutramigen children can become DR.'s but they just don't know enough long term about the others. I feel so caught in the middle. I do believe that we would see some results if we switched our DS to an elemental but we hearing that from 2 well know DR.'s out here I just am afraid what if in 5-10-20 years they realize something with the formula and I did not listen. You know what I mean. If I would have had the support of all of our Dr.'s than I would have switched him. The insurance we had last year would have even helped pay for it. Not sure if our new insurance will or not. And even though I am sure it is nothing compared to the feeding bills you have experienced with your LO we are paying $250/month for Nutramigen and my 7 month old is only taking 4 oz. bottles. So any help from insurance would be lovely.

Well, I can certainly see why you would have those sort of fears since that is what docs are telling you. I am surprised by it cause Neocate isn't really a new product at all. I think mid-80's our GI said. Not sure when they developed hypoallergenic formulas. I do agree though that it is all man-made and that is concerning. Concerned me as well. For us though, it simply had to happen. But that is only something your family and your docs can decide

I know, the cost is just awful. My ds already drank his college fund away

[wendow]

Originally Posted by 2L2R2luv Thank you for this, it makes me feel not so alone. My DS is 7 months and the same experience as you, I have managed to limit his reactions so am still able to BF, but I had to eliminate every allergen (except gluten, strange) plus like a dozen other random foods (pineapple, oranges, cucumber, broccoli, etc). Every doctor we see I get the feeling thinks I am making this up! We are just now trying to decide what solids to start, he tries to grab off our plate, but doesn't really put it in his mouth yet. We have decided to just let him decide when to start and hope he starts to grow out of his intolerances.

I was frequently made to feel that I was making it up. Many in my own family made me feel that way. Thank God my dh saw exactly what I saw.

I hope your ds does well with solids. Such a hard road But it does get better!!

[Leocaligirl]

Originally Posted by wendow Well, I can certainly see why you would have those sort of fears since that is what docs are telling you. I am surprised by it cause Neocate isn't really a new product at all. I think mid-80's our GI said. Not sure when they developed hypoallergenic formulas. I do agree though that it is all man-made and that is concerning. Concerned me as well. For us though, it simply had to happen. But that is only something your family and your docs can decide Thank you for wording this the way you. Sometimes I feel like others while trying to be helpful almost force their opinions/ways upon you. Although I do feel like things are very, very difficult with my son I still feel like what we are doing is the best choice for him. I do not feel yet like we have no alternative but to switch to the Elementals. I do have that thought always in the back of my head. I think if things were to be/get worse that I would have no choice but to make that decision. I know, the cost is just awful. My ds already drank his college fund away

Sad but true.

[Leocaligirl]

Originally Posted by Servant4Christ so sorry you're going through this, mama. i personally have a milk protein allergy and had to take food-based prenatals and supplements when bf'ing in order to make sure ds got proper nutrients since i could not eat many foods bc of my allergies. his immune system and reactions to food were identical to mine until he was weaned..... so far, he doesn't show any signs of having my allergies, thankfully. i'll pray for you to find answers, soon. fyi- i have heard of making your own formula, milk-free.... a friend has a milk-allergic son. she said the ingredients are pricey but she'd do it if she had to formula-feed full time. God Bless!

Thank you for your encouraging words. I have been told that many children do grow out of this allergy. I must say I do hope this is true for my DS. Although here at home it would not pose as to big of a problem, my fear is for him in the real world with friends and "normal" childhood experiences. It must be tough having this allergy as an adult. I am sure you are used to it and all by now.

Glad to hear your LO is not showing any signs of your allergies anymore. I have considered making my own formula. As far as BFing I stopped at 5 months for a few reason but I had to supplement since day 1 for other reasons. I wish I could only BF. I did have to go Vegan (because I am already a vegetarian) while BFing but it was worth it.

[amy_rn]

I learned so much by reading this thread! Thanks for posting! (My twin girls have a lot of milk-protein intolerance symptoms and I've been dairy free for 4 weeks now)

[Leocaligirl]

Originally Posted by amy_rn I learned so much by reading this thread! Thanks for posting! (My twin girls have a lot of milk-protein intolerance symptoms and I've been dairy free for 4 weeks now)

I am glad you found this useful. The last 8 months have been very difficult on me. It has been a long journey learning and understanding all of the things that affect my son. I wish you luck Mama.

[k_apple]

Reading this makes me feel like I went back into time to our life three months ago. I am so sorry you are going through this. Our dd is almost 7 months now, she also had milk protein intolerance (lack of white blood cells in her stool sample told us it isn't a true allergy but an intolerance) and reflux. I have been bf since she was a day old. Long story short, we were guilt tripped into trying multiple formulas. She wouldn't drink nutramigen, reluctantly drank neocate only to throw it all up, and drank alimentum willingly then threw it all up. I also did the total elimination diet for a couple months. Up until last week I have slowly added everything back into my diet, except dairy. I would suggest giving your baby probiotics, we chose biogaia because they have research to prove it helps. I really think this helped her tummy mature and we still give it to her when she acts like she has an upset tummy. Then after some time I would also recommend an elemental formula, even if it is temporarily. I think what helped my dd was laying off the irritants for some time to let her tummy heal. And since her mood improved (ability to be content) I started adding things back into my diet. If she reacted I tried again later. Because of this, I have a better idea of what irritates her tummy when I started solids. I know that info won't help since you do formula, but maybe a bf'ing mama might find this thread.

I tried cereal at around 5 months but that really upset her tummy, never tried it again. But my GI dr did say target carries one with a probiotic, I think the name was happy belly. I saw little value in pursuing this route since there is little nutritional content. I started doing BLW just after 6 mos. she has done fine with everything. Since I am doing BLW she may not be eating much of her food though. I didn't do all veggies before fruit either, figured she already knows the two from breast-milk.

I would say be cautious of what doctors say unless they are actively following peer reviewed research. If you try something and it doesn't work, give it time and try again later, unless the reaction was really bad. And relax, things will get better with time.

I hope something I said was of help!