stela

We have diagnosed in my daughter cow milk allergy at 8 months of age after two months of evolving skin rash. We have stopped any cow milk products (including me eating any, as I was nursing at the time). In addition, she was on hypoallergenic formula until the age of 14 months and it worked for her. At 14-15 months I have started to introduce slowly cow milk products: butter cheese and sour cream mostly and switched to a usual formula for toddlers beyond one year. No reactions at all, but I still did not give her cow milk. A month ago while being on travel in Switzerland I have bought a different formula from the same producer (Nestle) and I guess it triggered new allergy - slowly progressing skin rash. I have switched back to hypoallergenic formula, but it does not work any more.
So, my question, is what to do now? To switch to soy milk formula? She still drinks formula in the evening and once during the night, so I cannot just stop giving her milk at all.

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nele

Hi,

I suggest you stop trying to give any dairy products until you did the allergy test over and it shows completely clear of cow milk allergy. Sometimes if there's just a bit of the allergy left in the body, it might be triggered again even after several tries of different dairy products.
Same with my son's allergy to peanuts, he's now clear of peanut allergy but the doctor still advises not to feed him any peanut products for another year or so, just to avoid to trigger his allergy again. And a peanut allergy can be potentially very dangerous.
Cow milk allergy isn't usually as dangerous, so don't worry too much about that. When it shows clear in the blood, it should be safe :)
I suggest you try different hypo-allergenic formula's until you find the right one for your child. Ask advice in the pharmacy/drugstore, they schould know whatever is available and perhaps they can give you some samples to try. Don't try soy formula yet, many children with cow milk allergy easily develop soy allergy as well, so avoid triggering that. Soy protein looks like cow milk protein, and the body of an allergic child might be "confused" and react to soy, and then a soy allergy has developed. It doesn't always happen, but there's always the risk.
I don't know much about formula's, I never used any on my son. I always breastfed him until the age of 2, and his cow milk and soy allergies have disappeared in that time.

Anyway, good luck to you and your little girl :)

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stela

Thanks Nele,
I have already stopped any dairy for about 3 weeks but the hypoallergenic formula. It means that if soy and hypoallergenic formula does not work, I cannot give her milk to drink at all. And this is a problem, since she still drinks milk before bedtime and during the night and nothing else. And then there's the problem of food substitutes for proper Calcium intake etc...

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nele

Hi,

If nothing hypo-allergenic works, there is also rice milk and such. Usually you can find that in health food stores where they sell a lot of biologically produced products. Just go trough the products and find something safe with added calcium.
I don't know what's available where you live, but where I live (Belgium), there is a small range of products made out of rice. Rice custard with vanilla or chocolate flavour, rice milk, and a few other things I can't remember right now. All dairy and soy free and most with added calcium :)
There's also almond milk, but with allergic children, be careful with giving nuts. Make an allergy test for nuts first (if possible), and ask your doctor for advice. My son used to have an allergy for nuts except for almonds, very strange but he could eat only that type of nuts without any problems.

Good luck!

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Alfred

My daughter had that problem as well during her infant years. She developed eczema on her foot and we tried various kinds of formula for her. The problem did not disappear until I met a local pharmacist. He recommended goat's milk for my daughter. The eczema problem gone with his recommendation.

You can get more information from The Goat Milk Nutritional Strength at http://www.101health.org/nutrition/milk-goat-nutritional-strength.php

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