Hi everyone
So D had his 1 year checkup this week, and his doctor gave us the go ahead to try to give him some dairy. He still has a pretty severe contact reaction (hives) but may be able to tolerate it digestively. (I think Amelia1227 told me that first!
) Because he gets hives so easily (any contact with milk, even mouthing a toy that was last mouthed by a recently formula fed baby) I don't intend to make dairy a huge part of his diet. It would just be nice not to have to read every ingredient label, kwim? If I knew that he could handle it, I could ignore trace dairy in foods, maybe give him some hard cheese once in a while, etc.
His doctor suggested giving him a couple tablespoons of whole milk in a medicine syringe and seeing what happens. Just wanted to know if anyone had any other ideas on how I could introduce it? Or is this really the best way? It just seems strange to me to be doing this... What should I be looking for in a reaction (besides the obvious hives, vomiting, etc.)? What changes might be normal when newly introducing dairy? How long should I wait to see a reaction before giving him more?
He also has eczema. The very first time he had dairy (at abour 5.5mo old, skim milk powder in baby cereal) his eczema flared horribly. However, I cut dairy out of my diet for a month and saw no improvement in his skin, and reintroduced it very suddenly with no ill effects. The dozen-ish times he's come into contact with dairy since then have given him hives, but have not affected his eczema. I will obviously though watch for a flare. However, if he flares with straight milk, should I still try trace dairy to see if that has an effect?
Thanks for any advice and information you can give!
Vikki