Baby- milk protein allergy?

[Nursingmama]

Hi, my month old daughter has some signs that I think may be caused by a milk protein allergy, and so I think she is reacting to milk proteins passing into my milk. Im more than happy to cut out dairy especially since having done a little reading online I am starting to recognise the same sort of symptoms in myself, my son, my sister and my mum. Certainly not very severe, but nonetheless bothersome.
My daughters symptoms are wind (both ends and very loud, though it doesn't seem to cause too much pain), possible silent reflux -she retches but doesnt vomit, sweating, she i sometimes very very red (people comment and ask of shes ok) unexplained rashes, constantly blocked and runny nose, sneezing, cough, hiccups, mucous in her stools. These all are there to some degree all of the time but seem to be notably more pronounced following me consuming more dairy than I usually do. The mucous poo especially, we get lots off poos and all jelly-like consistency sometimes and it all seems to start a few hours after I eat dairy and continue for about 24 hours, maybe up to 48 before going back to their normal levels. Does this sound like an allergy? Some of the symptoms (like hiccups and sweating and redness etc) I hadn't really thought much of until I read a la leche league article today on allergies in breastfed babies and it listed them as symptoms. It's the mucous poos that got me thinking at first.
I have heard that doctors are not always very helpful when you say you think your baby might be allergic so I want to get as much info as possible in case they try to fob me off as they did with my sons eczema and asthma.

That's very long, sorry!

[Copper]

Welcome to the site.

Wind is something those with lactose (natural sugar in milk) intolerance suffer along with feeling bloated. Some of us feel or are indeed sick too. Eventually the lactose passes through the system which means a trip or two to the loo. There are three generations of lactose intolerance sufferers in my family.

Swelling and rashes tend to indicate an allergy.

One can be lactose intolerant and dairy protein intolerant (a double whammy!)

My baby screamed for about two hours after being breast fed, produced nasty nappies. When she was about 10 weeks old it all stopped. This was 30 years ago so the dark ages and nobody ever found out what her problem was. Now we have all realised that she and I were born lactose intolerant and now later in life it has come back to haunt us. I am totally lactose intolerant now.

Allergies need to be diagnosed as they can be life threatening. Intolerances make you feel ill but are not life threatening. You do need to get a diagnosis for your baby because when you reach the weaning stage you may well need a prescription milk.

You could try a dairy free diet and see if this improves things for your baby. This will then be something you can tell the GP as proof that there is a problem. All mammals milk contains lactose so this includes us too.

It sounds like your son needs to try a dairy free diet too. In his case you need to keep a food dairy and write down any symptoms as this will be proof to show the GP.

If you need help with dairy free alternative foods please ask and we will do our best to help.