Rob Asc

Hi. What about persistent (and intense) crying? Is it a relevant symptom of cow’s milk allergy?

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Erin Burke

[:)] [:)] Hi: my name is Erin and our daughter Riley was diagnosed with her CMA when she was 6 months old. All seemed to be well at first but within 3 months she began to cry inconsolibly. We were told that she probably had colic because it began when she was 3 months old and that wouldn't be unusual. We tried changing her formula to a soy based but that did not seem to work. So we finally bit the bullet and bought Nutriamigen formula that was supposed to have no milk product in it. At 6 months old she reached into my bowl of cereal and grabbed a piece that had 2% milk on it. She fumbled it around her mouth and in every place where it touched she had a blister. We washed her down and called the doctor who said that it could be a one time deal. Shortly after, my husband was eating cheetos and she was running around in a diaper and almost fell so he reached out and grabbed her. Where he grabbed her with the cheese from the snack on her hand left fingerprint sized blisters on her skin. This time the doctor referred us that an allergist who then concluded after a prick test that she was allergic to milk and that all of the crying and sleepless nights could be attributed to this. The then did a blood test to see where her allergy level is at and Riley came back as a 4 (meaning 5 worse is airborn, 4 any contact with it) This gave us a baseline for the continuing tests that she needs to have yearly. Please bear in mind that children with milk allergies also have a higher chance of a peanut allergy and to avoid all peanuts / products completely. This is what our allergist told us. Riley's now 5 and starting kindergarten soon. As excited as she is, she feels weird because she will have to sit by herself at a milk-free table to eat and have snack. They tell us if we continue to keep her away from all parts of milk her chances of out growing this is excellent hopefully by the time she is 10; however, she will probably never want to try milk out of fear...which is okay by me. Keep on those labels; everything now a days has milk in it. Generic foods are your best bet. Hope this helps

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Tracy Reed

The persistant crying could be a sign. I do know that Nutramigen is not considered a milk free formula though. It still contains milk casein . Just that it is more broken down . Alot of children with colic do fine with Nutramigen and it gives their tummies a rest . But if they have a full fledge milk protein allergy this will not help . Neocate is the better formula because it is an amino based formula that contains no milk product in it at all .
My daughter was recently tested for allergies because of slow growth and weight gain ( she also has VACTERL Association as well so this complicates things a bit more too ) . Even though milk is the one product that sends her into hives , even if in contact with , it was a 2 on the milk allergy scale ( it goes from 0-6 with 0 no allergy to 6 life threatening . ) She was also diagnosed with soy ( 1) , wheat (3) and egg (3) allergies as well so far .

Things to look out for :
excessive fusiness, GERD , slow weight gain and growth , hives , dermatitis , eczema ,diarreaha and anaphylatic shock are all signs of allergies .
Now how they are rated depends . Even if it is a low allergen sometimes you can have the most reaction with it . Like Milk , even though it is a 2 for my daughter she just breaks out terrible with a rash and hives , it is bad . Even if you have touched something with milk in it ,, like one day I had a Cheeto , she was fussy , picked her up and changed her diaper , came out and my husband was like what did you do to her ?? She was broke out in hives because a little bit of the Cheeto dust had gone on my shirt and I didn't know it . Soy gives her diarreaha and a small rash , nothing like the rash she gets with milk . And the wheat and egg, well I don't know I haven't given her too much with wheat and egg in it because she is only a 1yr old. But never did see a reaction to it like I do with milk and soy .
So it just all depends on the child .

Hope some of that helps .

Tracy
Mom of 4 girls , Marilyn 9, Katie 7 , Hannah 4 and Maggie almost 1yr old - born with VACTERL Association and allergies to milk , wheat , eggs and soy so far .

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