Cow Milk Protein Allergy

• 12-01-2008 6:07 PM

  northidahogurl Joined on 10-31-2007 **William 7/27/2006** **Colin 8/07/2008** Posts 481

  Cow Milk Protein Allergy Reply Contact UGH! I have no problems with adjusting my diet for my baby...but what the heck am I supposed to eat!! I swear - EVERYTHING has milk in it!! I'm a picky eater, so that means pretty much everything that I like to eat is off limits. Any suggestions on what foods I CAN eat? I hate soy anything...so don't even go there! Plus, I hear that soy makes babies gassy too. I guess this is one way to lose the last of my baby weight, huh? Colin used to be VERY fussy, but we just thought colic so I cut back on dairy. His fussiness lessened, so I started having dairy again. His first couple poopy diapers of the day are normal seedy yellow ones. Every one thereafter is green and seedy. Sometimes he has mucus in his poop and a few times over the weekend he had small streaks of blood. Then he started developing a rash on his chin that we first thought was a drool rash, but it has since spread up his face. That ruled out drool rash and we concluded that it is eczema. After putting two and two together, we're pretty sure it's a cow milk protein allergy. He has quite a few of the symptoms now. He's growing well. He's almost 17 lbs @ 16 weeks. Is anybody dealing with this too?

• 12-01-2008 8:20 PM

  In reply to

  ChristieBFAP Joined on 02-09-2004 www.SweetPeaRingSlings.com Posts 1,373

  Re: Cow Milk Protein Allergy Reply Contact  I went through it with 3 and yes it does suck finding something to eat!  With the first it was really hard for me.  I stayed away from BIG dairy culprits, like milk, yogurt, cheese, dips, stuff like that.  I only did it for 6 months too... around 6 months their intestines are more fully developed and they can handle it alot better. With my 3rd, I found probiotics and could actually eat a bit of dairy without him crying all night.  The probiotics put healthy bacteria back into your digestive system.  Most of our immune system is in our digestive system too so I also never got sick while taking them!  The probiotics help break down the large animal proteins found in cows milk.  Our adult bodies cannot even break them down so they pass through the milk to our baby who really cannot handle it.    So anyway, I recommend 1000% that all bf moms take them!  I wish I would of found them sooner.   http://www.evitaminstore.com/catalog/BioBeads-Probiotic-Acidophilus-9791.html   My youngest is 16 months now so I can't even remember what I ate!  lol  I did not read the backs of packages though... I just avoided major dairy culprits.   Good luck!  it is over so fast, I promise!

• 12-01-2008 11:11 PM

  In reply to

  northidahogurl Joined on 10-31-2007 **William 7/27/2006** **Colin 8/07/2008** Posts 481

  Re: Cow Milk Protein Allergy Reply Contact Thank you Christie! I think I'll start by eliminating the obvious dairy and see how that pans out. I ate a PB & J sandwich today and didn't realize until after I ate it that the bread may have had milk in it - and it did. That's probably such a small amount though. I also have some probiotic acidophilus so I'll start taking that. Did any of your children have any of the symptoms that my little guy has? Did you know that they had this allergy soon after birth? Do they still have it? I'm pretty sure Colin has had it from day one. I just never made the connection and neither did his pediatrician. I feel like an awful mom that it's gotten this bad. I read on kellymom that it can take up to 6 weeks for it to be out of his system! Since I've consumed dairy - like forever - it's built up in my system too. It takes a few weeks for it to be out of my body and then a few more for him. He'll be 4 months on Sunday and by the time we're done filtering out the dairy in our bodies, he'll be almost 6 months and may just be okay with having it. I hope I don't have to cut out dairy the whole time I breastfeed him! If I have to, I will.

• 12-02-2008 4:49 PM

  In reply to

  ChristieBFAP Joined on 02-09-2004 www.SweetPeaRingSlings.com Posts 1,373

  Re: Cow Milk Protein Allergy Reply Contact  My first had colic for 6 weeks... he screamed everynight and my mom came to visit and suggested that I stop eating dairy and the next night, no colic!  I was a miracle!  I did not post online then, so I had no idea to cut it out.  He was fine unless I ate dairy..like slipped... and then he'd cry all night again.  Really made me watch what I snacked on at parties and stuff.  When he was 6  mnths, I slowly added the dairy back and he was fine.  I just seemed to go away.    My second was the worst.  He had issues with lunch meat too... and juices or soda.  He still has skin issues... very dry in the winter and he had really bad acne as a baby.  I added dairy back at 6 months with him as well and he seemed okay, besides the skin issues.     I don't remember too much about their poops.    But after learning about cutting it out and the animal proteins and all that stuff, I was really grossed out by cows milk so all of my boys drink rice milk.  They do have milkshakes occaisionally and might have runnier poop the next day.  But sooo many people have issues with cows milk.  We are not meant to digest it.  A calf has 4 stomachs to digest its mothers milk.  We are much smaller and only have one stomach.  Most of us grew up on dairy (big money campaign to promote dairy to our parents) so our bodies just got used to digesting it.   As long as I stayed away from the dairy, my babies hardly ever cried nor were they 'gassy' or anything like that.  I 99% believe that all colic is cause by dairy proteins.

• 12-03-2008 7:01 AM

  In reply to

  Chamelyan Joined on 10-30-2007 Midwest Posts 68

  Re: Cow Milk Protein Allergy Reply Contact  If you have the time to make a lot of your own foods instead of packaged foods, you can substitute the cow's milk with goat's milk in your recipes.  It's similar to breast milk, only differs by 2 enzymes if I remember correctly.  Most people who can't tolerate the cow's milk do very well with goat's milk.  It's more expensive, though  :(  I would get the powder form and just make it one serving at a time.

• 12-03-2008 5:36 PM

  In reply to

  northidahogurl Joined on 10-31-2007 **William 7/27/2006** **Colin 8/07/2008** Posts 481

  Re: Cow Milk Protein Allergy Reply Contact Chamelyan:  If you have the time to make a lot of your own foods instead of packaged foods, you can substitute the cow's milk with goat's milk in your recipes.  It's similar to breast milk, only differs by 2 enzymes if I remember correctly.  Most people who can't tolerate the cow's milk do very well with goat's milk.  It's more expensive, though  :(  I would get the powder form and just make it one serving at a time. I was thinking about that. When I was around a year old, my mom had to feed me goat's milk because I would throw up cow's milk and lost a couple pounds because of it. I'm not sure how long my mom had to give me goat's milk. I have no problems with cow's milk now.

• 12-03-2008 5:45 PM

  In reply to

  northidahogurl Joined on 10-31-2007 **William 7/27/2006** **Colin 8/07/2008** Posts 481	Re: Cow Milk Protein Allergy Reply Contact I brought DS to pedi today. She wanted to see him since he had the bloody/mucousy stools on Saturday. I got advice for my diet, his skin, etc. and was told in what order to reintroduce dairy when I do. I'll just wait until he's 6 months to do so. Thank you again Christie!