shobha

My 7-month old son has allergies to milk, peanuts and tree nuts (confirmed from a skin prick test a couple of weeks back). I am nursing him currently and have eliminated milk and nuts from my diet since the test result. I was asked by his pediatric allergist to stop nursing him and shift him to hypoallergenic formula. I am in the dilemma of whether I should continue nursing him or start weaning him to formula. I have heard that nursing him will help prevention of possible severe allergies and asthma later in life. His allergist thinks that 7 months is enough for him to develop all the immunity he needs. Should I get a second opinion on this or just start him on neocate?

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Judith

My youngest son also has milk allergy among other allergies, I´ve been breastfeeding him and now he is almost 16 months old. We tried nutramigen but it was upseting his stomach and he lost a lot of weight so I went back to breastfeeding him. Personally, I think is best for baby, it protects him from so many things now and later in life, I know is not easy but it´s worth it.
But do what you think it´s best, trust your mommy instint. The doctors know about medecine but you know your son best, plus many doctors don´t know much about breastfeeding or nutrition. I wish you and your little one the best. [;)]

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nele

Hi,

I know it's been 20 days since you posted your question, and I hope it's not too late, but I definitely suggest you keep breastfeeding your child.
I have a son who is almost 2 years old (his birthday is july 13), and he has also several food allergies. I will breastfeed him for the last time on july 12, the day before his 2nd birthday.
I am really happy that I breastfed him for so long, 2 years has always been my goal from before he was even born. The allergies were a really big obstacle but i just went on to eliminate all his allergens from my diet. That meant I couldn't eat dairy products, most nuts, wheat or any other grain which contains gluten, soy, potatoes, fish, eggs and orange. Sounds alot more difficult than just eliminating dairy huh? Well it was.

Around the age of 1,5 years he was tested again, but the doctor didn't have much hope for change yet, since allergies with children tend to just start going away around the age of 2.
Well we were all pleasently surprised (even the doctor) to see he was no longer allergic to soy, dairy, orange and fish! :)
And so my diet became much easier, and I continued breastfeeding my son.
Sometimes he accidently eats a cookie or something else with wheat, but I hardly see any allergic reaction, only something like a small mosquito bite on his cheek, which dissappears after a couple of hours, without medication. We have really good hopes for the next tests end of august.

So please do continue breastfeeding your son, it's really the best you can do to help him with fighting his allergies, but please be strict in your diet or the progress might not be so great.
I know the diet is not that easy, and please when you replace the dairy with soy products, do not use too many soy products because children with cow milk allergies easily develop soy allergy as well, like my son had.
I suggest you use soy only when neccesary, don't overdo it. There are many more other products like rice milk, oat milk, etc. you can use instead of soy. Rice milk tastes more watery and I didn't like it at first, but I got used to it and learned to like it. Now I can use normal milk again but when I tasted it I didn't like it any more and I wanted to continue using rice milk :) so keep a positive attitude towards new tastes and new products ;)

And if you need help or have any questions, feel free to ask, I have lots of experience and I'd like to share it with others who need it.

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