Is my child intolerant to dairy products?

[strawberry02]

Hi, I wondered if anyone can help me. My 16 month old son is showing some intolerance to dairy products. He vomits if I give him cows milk, and has recently started vomitting after giving him yogurt or fromage frais. He has also developed a rash on his face but it only comes up if I've given dairy. I'm not sure what to do. If you can , does anyone have any ideas on whether I should speak to my health visitor to arrange some sort of test for him. Thankyou.

[Copper]

It sounds like an intolerance or allergy to dairy to me. As he is so young you need to speak to somebody (health visitor? or GP?) as soon as possible. They will be able to sort out a milk replacement for him. When it comes to dairy free food - eg yoghurt replacements most of us here can help you.

Pam for example has a young daughter who is dairy free, so she will be very helpful. I am not much help as I am the dairy intolerant person in the house and I am over 50 :)

[Nic]

I'd just like to echo what Copper said - its important with such a young child to make sure that you get proper medical advice. Your GP may well not know much about food allergies / intolerances, but should be able to refer you to a dietician who can help you.

Good luck!

Nic

[Pam]

Has this problem only just started or has it been developing. Have you recently changed from breastfeeding or formula to normal cow's milk? If it is just a sudden problem the chances are that your son has had a stomach upset and his tummy needs a period of milk exclusion to heal itself and then milk might be slowly introduced without any further problems.

I would start off with the health visitor and perhaps the doctor too. They don't often test children and will probably just go by what you say about him being sick after eating anything with cow's milk in. You should really insist on an appointment with a dietician so that his intake of calories and calcium can be checked. My daughter suffered horrendous stomach pains after eating milk and the dietician recommended that she be prescribed Wysoy until she was 5 years old and she was supposed to drink a pint a day to ensure that she had all the nutrients she needed as she was quite a faddy eater anyway.

Current thinking is that replacing cow's milk with soya milk can cause a soya intolerance to develop so ideally you should use a variety of alternative milks. Unfortunately shop bought alternative milks tend to be low in fat and not ideal for young children. A dietician should be able to help you with the best way forward.

If you are looking for specific alternatives we can probably help you to find something suitable. Your best bet for now is to start reading food labels carefully and try to cut out milk for a while. Shopping will take you much longer and it all seems very difficult at first but you will soon get used to it.

[tigerlily]

A Health Visitor usually is not allowed to give you advice on allergy issues. Go see your GP and ask for a referral to see a Dietican (may take months, though) and for him to be seen in your local allergy clinic, which is run by pediatricans.
Mind you, I didn't find that very helpful: they did the R.A.S.T on Eden when she was 11 months old and it was a false-negative result. The dietician, on the other hand, will be able to send a request for a hypoallergenic (no dairy/no soya/lactose-free) formula to your GP - dieticians themselves are not allowed to issue prescriptions. These formulas are up to scratch with all the necessary vitamin levels etc. However, I can already tell you that they are "an acquired taste" (taste like cardboard!) and you may have to try one, two or even three to find one that he will accept. We had to try 2. Alpro Junior soya jogurts are for little ones 10M+. Eden has always loved them.
We've tried just about everything in the dairy-free foods for toddlers/babies department since Eden was 8 months old...please feel free to ask away!

Vanessa.

[tigerlily]

Coming to think of it, Eden once was put on WYSOY, and even though she is fine with all other soya products, WYSOY gave her all the usual allergy symptoms - esp. diarrhea. I would not recommend it. The hypoallergenic formulas are much safer allergy-wise.

Vanessa.

[Bet]

If your 16 mth old could live without milk / dairy products for 24 / 48 hrs I'm sure you would know pretty quickly if milk is definately to blame - that is if you have to wait a while for an appt to see HV / Dr. After all, if milk is the problem as it sounds then a short period without milk will only make him feel better and you will be a lot further down the line to sorting the problem out.