milk and soya intolerance

[Charlie]

My 15 month old daughter is intolerant to lactose and soya, I have not however managed to get any tests done to confirm this.
Does anyone know how you go about hurrying these tests up as she is starting to show symptoms again and i am more than a little concerned.
She drinks hydrolised formula, SMA LF although I have discovered that this contains small amounts of soya. Ahny ideas? :unsure:

[Pam]

Hi Charlie, welcome to the site.

How far have you got with testing? Have you just had a doctor's referral or have you got as far as the hospital yet? If you haven't yet seen a consultant it may be possible to pay for your initial consultation privately and jump the queue, this would get you ahead a little but still may result in months of waiting for a slot for testing.

You could try contacting Allergy UK who will be able to put you in touch with specialists dealing with allergies, though I don't know how much you would have to pay for a consultation this way. It might be worth contacting them though.

Another option would be to have the tests done yourself via York Labs (endorsed by Allergy UK). Their web site http://www.allergy-testing.com/ has more information but prices range from £135 to £260 for the test depending how many products you want to be tested.

As for formula milk, you could ask for a hypo-allergenic formula such as nutramigen but I am told that this stuff is foul and she may well reject it. How good is her diet? At her age, with a good diet, she could probably thrive without formula if she eats well otherwise, but dieticians usually prefer to continue formula longer as it is nutritionally complete and where the diet is restricted it does at least ensure that the child is receiving a good balance of vitamins and minerals of sorts. If you haven't already been referred to a paediatric dietician you need to push for this (via your GP). The dietician can assess her intake and advise you accordingly.

If you have any questions just ask away, I'm sure someone will know the answer, though my knowledge of a soya free diet is very limited there are other people here who are dairy free and soya free so someone should be able to help.

[Bet]

My 4 yr old is also intolerant of both milk and soya - has a doctor actually agreed to do the tests? My experience has been that they say they will not carry out tests on children and that they are unreliable anyway - my local hospital certainly wasnt prepared to do them for me.

How long has your child been in tolerant for? There are lots of things I have found out have soya in which I didnt realise at first - bread being the main one - almost all supermarket breads have soya in - even Morrisons orange squash! you have to be so careful.

Also watch out for E322 which is soya lecithin, and E471 & E472 which have soya oil in - cant get an answer from anyone on last 2 E nos as to whether the oil is refined enough not to affect kids or not.

Good luck!

[Charlie]

thanks for the advise,
We have been reffered from the doctor and I have tried nagging constantly to hurry things up a bit. The onset of symptoms turned out to be illness ( croup) and not allergy so hopefully no further allergies.
We have seen the piadiatric dietician who is also pushing for the tests so hopefully should't be too long now. Need to keep her on the formula as she is a very faddy eater and goes off her food at the slightest sign of anything wrong.

[april_hippy]

Hi Charlie. I'm a Child Care and Education worker and in similar circumstances we have used rice milk and almond milk (Holland and Barrett do the nicest ones although large branches of Sainsuburys and Tescos also do the rice one). I have actually tried both of these and they are not bad at all and use them myself frequently. However, check the ingredients as a couple of brands of these are not suitable.
She should be fine without formula milk now but if you are worried look into baby/child vitamin and mineral supplements as these can be helpful, but again check as some products use lactose in them.
Keep talking to the doctor and pesturing as much as possible, it is worth it, eventually they HAVE to listen!
Good Luck and stay in touch!
xxSarahxx

[jack190403]

My 15 month old daughter is intolerant to lactose and soya, I have not however managed to get any tests done to confirm this.
Does anyone know how you go about hurrying these tests up as she is starting to show symptoms again and i am more than a little concerned.
She drinks hydrolised formula, SMA LF although I have discovered that this contains small amounts of soya. Ahny ideas? :unsure:
\


Try Nutramagin but this will have to be prescribed by a doctor.

[Lan]

Hi Jack,

My advice would be to go and see the Doctor and insist on seeing a dietician at the hospital. I became ill at 19 and was registered under a dietician.

I know that you can get pea, potato and rice milks, but unsure if these can be suitable for young children. If you need more information on these, please let me know.

I too am also lactose intolerant and take lactic acid tablets, which allow me to digest dairy with no after affects. Again you would need to speak to a doctor, as may not be useful for a young child.

Kind Regards,

Lan. :D

[kirstyh]

Hi I'm Kirsty and new to the list. My 11 month old is also milk intolerant, although as his brother had milk and soya intolerances we were told to treat him as allergic. He has been under the care of a paediatrician since he was 3 months old and there has been no mention at this stage of testing him for an actual allergy. We were however told to keep him off milk altogether until he was one, maybe they will review it then. As far as Nutramigen is concerned, it really tastes foul and your daughter may not like it. You can buy it over the counter at most pharmacists, although they may need to order it. If your daughter will drink it, ask your GP for a prescription it is expensive - about £11 for a small tin.

Kirsty

[cherylm]

Hello Charlie,

My son Ben is seven and has an intollerance to both milk and soya too, he is under GOSH in the care of Dr Elawad gastroenterologist, we have been advised that testing was a wast of time too (non conclusive as can be lots of triggers) Bens progress has been mapped by endoscopy with biopsy (sounds scary but not too bad) The advice of our dietician was to cut out all milk and soya products ( soya lecithin is ok however and is in some of the chocolate Ben has) Ben drinks Rice Dream with calcium (dietician gave me list of calcium content of foods with recommended level for Bens age and size and he now get more than enough from his milk) Ben loves tha RIce Dream and cant get enough of it (working out a bit expensive though as he prefers it to anything else and can drink 3lts a day @£1.69 per ltr. anyway my advice would be get a specialist and dietician on board and go from there.

Good luck

Cheryl

[Bet]

Cheryl

Am interested to hear that your child is OK with soya lecithin - my 4 yr old still seems to react to it even tho' I have been told that theres liitle protein left in the soya by the time it becomes lecithin.

Have you been told by a doctor its OK or is it that having tried it your son appears not to react to it?

Does your son eat bread yet? Interested to hear what you are able to give him as most supermarket bread has soya flour in it

[Mac]

I'm new and I'm just browsing through..... my son has been referred to a gastroentologist also, What actually happens at the appointment?

[Charlie]

Mac,
I am still not sure what happens at this appointment, but I will be able to let you know as after much pestering the doctor and health visitor we are going in two weeks. After reading the advice I would like to mention that my dietican said that rice milk was of absolultly no use as it is too low in calorie for a baby. This may be specific to my daughter though as she is very underweight.
Charlie

[Mac]

Thanks Charlie, that would be great if you could let me know what happens, our appointment hasn't come through yet, but we were told it should be toward the end of feb. I am so glad I found this site, I have found it really helpful since joining a couple of days ago, its great just to be able to share info and stories with other mums and dads.

[Bet]

Mac

My daughter was prescribed calcium sandoz by my doctor. It is prescribed in liquid form to children who are not getting enough calcium thru milk / food - she must have been about 3 when she was prescribed it - I'm not sure what age the doctors recommend it from. The dietician has always told me to try to get the calcium into my daughters diet by eating the appropriate foods with it in, but thats easier said than done with a picky eater like mine!

Good luck!

[cherylm]

The Consultant at GOSH and the dietician both said that Ben was fine with the soya lecithin and so he can have Elizabeth Shaw mints (you know the after dinner variety), as for bread have read the packet on nearly every bread produced in the country and yes they do put soya in most, have found a small soft farmhouse loaf (blue packaging) and morning rolls from M & S that are free from both, also some french bread is Ok but you must check (went t buy a loaf that was advertised as soya and milk free the other day at sainsbury from their bakery decided to check just in case and was told that they had run out of the french bread mix and so they had used crusty bread mix which is not ok).

Hope that helps