MILK ALLERGIES + MULTIPLE CHILDREN

[JAMIE]

Aiden was born with a major milk allergy and come to find out that it was inherited from me! He's been on Enfamil Nutramagen since he was 3 weeks old - those first 3 weeks were awful and I don't want to live that all over again. Do I start this next baby on Nutramagen from the get go or go through the whole formula trials - I hear that chances are high this baby will also inherit my milk allergy that I outgrew when I was one year? Anyone else have this same scenario and if so did your 2nd child have a milk intolerance as well?

[texasred1]

Jamie - sorry can't be of much help, I'm working it out with just one. Mason developed his cow's milk allergy at week 7 and a trip to the ER after a bottle of formula. Since then he's been exclusively bf. I did take him to an allergist shortly there after the trip to the ER and they tested for other things too, but only cow's milk came up positive and the dr. told me to avoid dairy in my diet. After this whole experience I have learned that he got this wonderful allergy from my side of the family. The dr. told me to have him retested at 1 year, and that he'd probably outgrow it. My aunt (dad's sis) has 2 boys, 1 was allergic to cow's milk the other one was not. The one that is, still is today at almost age 30. :roll:
Can Aiden have soy formula?

[Preemienurse]

Aiden was born with a major milk allergy and come to find out that it was inherited from me! He's been on Enfamil Nutramagen since he was 3 weeks old - those first 3 weeks were awful and I don't want to live that all over again. Do I start this next baby on Nutramagen from the get go or go through the whole formula trials - I hear that chances are high this baby will also inherit my milk allergy that I outgrew when I was one year? Anyone else have this same scenario and if so did your 2nd child have a milk intolerance as well?

What were those first 3 weeks like, may I ask?

I had to change my girl to soy at 2 weeks because she was throwing up more and more, plus she was starting to scream during feeds and had horrible gas that didn't get better on gas drops. She's still very colicky on the soy though. She never had a rash or bloody stools, which are usually what they consider a milk allergy. Other symptoms are supposedly a milk intolerance which is a little different. So I just don't know what to do. The ped mentioned trying Nutramagen or Alimentum (sp?) soon...

[mara232]

Jaimie - you can also BF if you really wanted to and just follow the diet for milk protein allergies.

[JAMIE]

Preemie - your description sounds exactly like Aiden's first 3 weeks of life. He wouldn't sleep for more than 10 minutes and spent majority of his time just screaming. He was extremely gassy and vomited all over the place. Granted he also had a major reflux problem so that didn't help but when I tried breastmilk he would projectile vomit that so they had me try Enfamil Lipil and he did the same with that...imagine he cried b/c he wasn't full since he'd vomit everything up? Then we tried Enfamil Gentlease, then tried soy - all same things...ended up trying Enfamil Nutramagen and within 2 days I had a different baby!! It truely was remarkable the difference and he's been on it ever since - I'm soooo afraid to try cows milk at a year! His G.I. Dr. is going to have me try it b/c chances are he's outgrown it by then but I'm really nervous!!

Yes, Aiden is also allergic to soy - his allergy is so bad that he can't even have Gerber rice cereal b/c of the soy - he has to be on an organic whole wheat with no soy/milk products. I've also had to watch for any jar food that contains milk and he can't have those teething biscuits either. Thankfully the fruit puffs don't have any milk products b/c he LOVES them!

Mara - that's a good suggestion - I might try that.

[mara232]

It would take about 3-4 weeks to get it all totally out of your system - maybe less. I know I tried for 1-1.5 weeks with A and it was not helping so I did the formula route. My friend stuck to it for 3 weeks and the baby was okay after that. If you go to www.kellymom.com they have some stuff about milk allergies and the diet to follow. I also may have some links at home. I will look into it for you if you are contemplating BF.

[JAMIE]

Mara - I would love the info...thanks!

[texasred1]

Jamie - I've had to do the dairy free diet with Mason. Try this link:
http://www.kjsl.net/~beanmom/nomilk.html
Mason's pedi told me I didn't have to quit dairy, but the allergist did. I decided to quit dairy, afterall it wasn't going to hurt me to do it. Like Mara said after about 3 weeks of it being out of my system completly there was no more spitting up, no more fussiness.

[Preemienurse]

Preemie - your description sounds exactly like Aiden's first 3 weeks of life. He wouldn't sleep for more than 10 minutes and spent majority of his time just screaming. He was extremely gassy and vomited all over the place. Granted he also had a major reflux problem so that didn't help but when I tried breastmilk he would projectile vomit that so they had me try Enfamil Lipil and he did the same with that...imagine he cried b/c he wasn't full since he'd vomit everything up? Then we tried Enfamil Gentlease, then tried soy - all same things...ended up trying Enfamil Nutramagen and within 2 days I had a different baby!! It truely was remarkable the difference and he's been on it ever since - I'm soooo afraid to try cows milk at a year! His G.I. Dr. is going to have me try it b/c chances are he's outgrown it by then but I'm really nervous!!


I know my baby's health is the most important thing...but I really hope she doesn't need Nutramigen or Allimentum (same type of formula made by similac) because they're SO expensive!!! Wal-Mart makes Parent's Choice brand formula and we were about to switch to that (have been using Carnation Good Start regular and then soy) because it's 50% cheaper than name brands BUT it's by a real formula company - SMA. They bought out the company a few years back and renamed it but it remains a pharmaceutical company so it's not just like it's a generic whatever brand. They make almost everything Enfamil and Similac make - regular, toddler, soy, organic, and gentle. But no hyperallergenic one yet! I'm sure they'll come out with it the second our kids come off formula, LOL!

I've heard that if your baby needs a special formula like Nutramigen that you can get insurance to at least partially pay for it since it's a medical necessity. Have you tried this?

[JAMIE]

Preemie - truthfully no I didn't check into that - I contacted Enfamil to see if they would help out in any way - lol they sent me $1 coupons! I get a lot of free samples from his G.I. Dr. and they always give me $5 off coupons. Yes, it really is expensive - double the price but truthfully when I had gone 3 weeks with very little rest I would of paid $100 a can if it meant I could get some rest :D

[Preemienurse]

Preemie - truthfully no I didn't check into that - I contacted Enfamil to see if they would help out in any way - lol they sent me $1 coupons! I get a lot of free samples from his G.I. Dr. and they always give me $5 off coupons. Yes, it really is expensive - double the price but truthfully when I had gone 3 weeks with very little rest I would of paid $100 a can if it meant I could get some rest :D

I know, and I'd pay for it in full if I have to. But I don't think she needs those formulas - she sleeps very well at night and is good most of the time. She throws up once a day maybe, the rest are just spit ups. She is colicky in the evenings but it seems to be a combination of her being tired and needing to stool. She has been going every night but it seems to be getting harder and harder - both for her to stool AND the stool itself. I put in a call to my ped about the constipation - in the NICU we'd use prune juice (even in newborns, 1/2 ounce a day mixed with BM or formula) to increase motility or senna syrup to soften the stool. He isn't in the office today, so hopefully tomorrow he'll call me back...

[JAMIE]

Preemie - yeah every situation is different and for Aiden his allergy was awful and it made him such an unhappy baby so switching was well worth the $ but obviously if I didn't have to then I sure would love to pay regular prices for formula especially with how much he goes through now!
Aiden also had problems with bm's - I used to have to do these daily exercises with his legs (sort of like a bicycle movement) - I would do that every time I had him at the changing table to get things moving down there - it'd work most of the time but other times I'd have to give him suppositories to help him out. He still has that issue from time to time and gets extremely cranky if he hasn't gone twice a day.

[elsie]

My first ds had a dairy allergy he outgrew at about 18 mos ... we found out he was allergic when he broke out in hives from yogurt at about 9 mos. Ds2 has been fine, no problems :D

[tigergal]

Jamie--what you are going through sounds similar to the first few months with my DS. He is 4 now, but he has milk, egg, peanut, shellfish, and coconut allergies. He was allergic to soy but outgrew that when he turned 3. I was unable to bf so he was bottle fed right away. He was always sick: runny nose, vomit, spitting up, gas, etc. I thought he had colic. We went through formula, after formula. He was finally tested for allergies at 6 months. He didn't respond well to Nutramigen. He was on Alimentum until 1 year old.

He loves rice milk but it is so expensive. My DH and I have environmental allergies so DS was predestined to have problems. I developed a shellfish allergy last year. I have to get 2 allergy shots weekly. I read and was told my ENT that since both me and DH have allergy problems, that future children will be genetically predispositioned to have problems as well.

I am nervous about ttc another child because of the allergies. My only comfort is that I'm an expert at cooking for a child with food allergies and will know what to spot the next time around.

You may get lucky and your second child may not have allergies. At least you know how to handle milk allergies. Good luck! Everything will be fine.

[ahacker]

Willow also had problems with dairy while I was bf. I eliminated all dairy and after two weeks, s-l-o-w-l-y started to add some things back in. I mostly had to stay away from milk and only eat so many servings a week of cheese. Some babies are much worse though!

Good luck!

Amy