could my LO have a milk allergy??

[clairebear79]

Not sure if this is in the right place so please feel free to move it if needed.

DS is 7 months old & is FF on Aptamil Hungry Milk.  He also has solids 3x/day.

We are in the midst of a very long period of EW's at 4-5am (its been going on for 2 months now)  I am exhausted & probably over-analysing everything, but having tried all sorts of different things already, I'm trying to consider every possible cause.  He's having around 9.5 - 11hrs sleep a night.  If I'm lucky he'll do 3hrs day sleep too.

He can be such a happy smiley boy at times but he cries & whinges A LOT too.  I love him with all my heart but he is such hard work sometimes.  I keep being told he's just a very demanding/whingy baby (he's touchy)

Sometimes though I can't help wondering if there's more to his crying than just OT or teething.  He spits up quite frequently & I questioned reflux with the GP when he was younger as he was taking massive volumes of feed, fussing, squirming & arching his back during feeds.  He's never had an issue with weight gain & the volume of spit up isnt enormous, but I'd say its 4-5times after each feed, sometimes several hours after a feed and he always whinges like he's in pain.  My GP gave us Gaviscon & said he'd grow out of it once on solids.  We still use this in every feed but he still spits up a fair bit (even though he's on solids) & it makes him constipated too.

He's also got eczema on his arms, legs & torso & his scalp is covered in severely dry & flaky skin. (I think this is eczema too).  He's currently got numerous cuts across his tummy from scratching & he has a new rash on his forehead or cheeks almost every day.  Everytime his skin is exposed to the air he is scratching.  My GP has prescribed hydro-cortisone & emollients to lather him in 3xday but he still itches.

It has crossed my mind that with reflux symptoms & eczema maybe he could have some sort of milk intolerance.  GP did say it was a possibility but didn't want to switch his milk as he might reject it.  Any thoughts???  If he was allergic/intolerant would he have other symptoms too???  And is this something that could be causing him to wake at night?  He generally sleeps fairly well until the EW but will not resettle.

I'm going to see the GP again tomorrow & I plan to ask again if we can try a hypo-allergenic milk.  Is this the best thing to do at this stage???  Or is there a way they can test to see if he has an intolerance?

[Buntybear]

Hi,

Reflux and eczema can be symptoms of MPI. I will ask one of the reflux mods to come over with regards the reflux issue as they are more qualifeid than me to advise.

I would say that yes it is worth trying a hypo allergenic milk. It certainly won't hurt!

Re the EWs have you tried posting on the EASY board? It could be a routine tweak. Have you dropped the catnap yet?

xx

[mmom]

I would think a HAF would be worth a try too.  Yes, he may not love the taste, but it would be worth a shot if it would help your LO.  It would take a few weeks to really notice if it is helping though.

[clairebear79]

Buntybear - I've got an EW post on the sleep boards ATM.  Its been going on so long that I'm just trying to rule out every possible cause as I've tried many, many routine tweaks already.

Kara - you say he may not love the taste of the hypo allergenic formula - do lots of LO's have trouble with this?  This is one of the reasons my GP didn't want to change his milk last time I went as he said at this stage he'd probably reject it.

[Buntybear]

The HA formulas don't taste good. You may well have to introduce it slowly and dilute it with his current milk.

[clairebear79]

thanks.  that's food for thought.  Don't want him going off his food, but by the same token dont want him feeling uncomfortable if he doesn't need to.  I will ask GP again & see what he says.

[~Sarah~]

Can you get a second opinion from another Dr???  I personally would not be happy with the answers I am getting. It sounds to me like your LO is in quite a bit of discomfort and that is leading to loads of issues.   I couldn't nap/sleep properly if I was all itchy and had an upset stomach either.

I think you need to trust your mommy instinct and go with that.  Your GP isn't the one who is pulling his hair out trying to make your lo comfy. 

Just my opinion

[clairebear79]

I don't have a lot of confidence in my mummy instinct  I'm a first time mum & a lot of the time feel like I have no idea what I'm doing

The trouble is, I have no idea if he has a milk intolerance as he has no other obvious symptoms really except the eczema & rashes.  His poos are quite explosive if he's not on the gaviscon but never mucousy or bloody.  He's just so whingey such a lot of the time & together with all the EW's its really taking its toll on me.  I'm feeling like I'm struggling to cope with looking after him.

To add to that I have family members telling me that hes 'just a difficult baby' & that all babies cry & that I should just leave him to cry & he will learn.  It makes me doubt myself as they're all parents already & have experience that I'm lacking.  But both myself and DH agree on 1 thing - we are NOT happy to leave him to cry.  Esp if we don't know if he's in pain.  He's crying to communicate with us right?

I had to cancel my doc appt today as DS went down for his nap much later than he has been doing & he's been so OT lately I didn't want to have to disturb him.  Can't see doc again until next week but I'm going to see if he'll refer me to a pead if he's not keen on doing anything more. 

I understand my GP's reluctance to try a change in milk in case he rejects it, & esp as he's at a stage now where his milk intake is going to start reducing as he heads towards 12 months, but I'm not happy with the thought that my LO could be in discomfort for several more months to come. 

I'm wondering if he'd be more receptive to changing onto something like Aptamil Easy Digest - at least thats the same brand so should taste similar?  Does anyone have any knowledge of this milk & whether its suitable or not?

[Buntybear]

You could try Aptamil Pepti - that is for MPI as I understand it.

I am not sure that all babies cry is quite accurate. A healthy baby should not cry a lot surely? I think the fact that you are posting here and going to your doctor is a doing that you are listening to your instinct and that you feel something is wrong. 

Olly's only real symptoms of his allergies were crying at night and eczema and look at how many he has!

[mmom]

((HUGS))) Honestly, even if you feel like something is wrong, it probably is. Everyone told me it was just colic and to ride it out.  We didn't switch to a HAF until my LO was 10.5 months.  I didn't dilute it or anything.  He just drank it.  I know that is not the norm, but it worked for us.  It didn't take too long for us to see a difference either!

[clairebear79]

thanks ladies.  It really helps to know that you have been there & got through the other side.

I'm going to re-book an appt for next week & stick to my guns.  DS was very very whingy after his brekkie this morning, he kept burping & spitting up & the only thing that would stop him is to hold him against our chests with his legs dangling down so he was completely upright.  We both agreed it seemed like discomfort, though he was also tired from waking at 5am.

[~Sarah~]

Good call!  I know he sounds grumpy to you, and he may be, but I know with my DD I was certain she was touchy until I got her milk/soy intolerance squared away.  She turned into a completely different baby!!!  She is happy and smiley and very excited about life (ok maybe a lot she is spirited for real) but I would never have thought any of those things about her for the first 4mo of her life!!  I didn't think she would ever be happy.

Also, healthy lo's don't just cry for no reason.  That is old school thinking by people who did not have the resources to figure something else out.  Medicine has changed so much over the last 20-30 yrs and we know so much more about lo and their pain.  We know now that things cause it whereas before they didn't even know about reflux or intolerance.  Like my Dr said to me with my #1 when she first told me about reflux...she said "not that long ago infants had the chance of dying from having reflux" simply put if it hurts too much to eat you don't eat.  Now that is hard to imagine, but I know from experience how hard it can be for a little body to deal with something so simple as food.  My nephew had reflux and intolerance 10yr ago and even just 10yrs ago they did not treat reflux the same as they do now.  He had strong food aversions until he was over 2 and just now at 10 is starting to do better with food.

Sorry that is such a ramble..too early in the morning I guess.  The point I was making is you can tell your baby is hurting and there is nothing wrong with wanting to protect them from feeling pain so tell anyone who has another opinion to go fly a kite!

[my3girlsjde]

I wanted to drop off some support and {{{HUGS}}}.

I think your gut may have been right all along with it being reflux. Gaviscon can sometimes help but your lo may need something more. There are many safe drugs out there that can make a huge difference. It's a school of thought with many gp's that they outgrow reflux when they're on solids but none of mine did.

Many lo's take to new formula no problem. You can also do this gradually so that the taste doesn't throw them off. There are many good hypo allergenic formulas (HAF) that do a great job with these lo's. I'd strongly suggest bringing this up with your gp as it may be all that's needed to do the trick. Aptimil Pepti may be something you could look into.

If your gut is telling you that he's in pain, he very well may be. I'd suggest going back to your gp and taking a list of written symptoms but caution against focusing mostly on sleep disturbances. Personally, that never got us anywhere. Focusing on behaviour like you had said about the back arching, squirming, seeming like he's in pain etc.

Don't worry about your instinct not being correct. I felt the same my first time around and made to feel that I was simply overwhelmed with having twins. Yes I was overwhelmed, but there was more going on and it wasn't diagnosed until the twins were 14 months old.

Stick to your guns. I think you're on to something and it sounds all to familiar to me. Sometimes eczema and fussiness are the only symptoms of mpi and the mpi could very well be causing the reflux. My gut is telling me reflux just reading this. Yes all babies cry to an extent, but not constantly and exhibiting behaviour indicating pain.

I hope this helps some. You're doing a great job, and your lo will thank you for not giving up.

[Buntybear]

I agree with Sarah and Vicki about pushing reflux with your GP and maybe trying some new meds. Olly didn't have reflux but I would say that a 7 month old spitting up after eating doesn't sound right to me. Hopefully the right meds will show some improvement 

[clairebear79]

Its been a while getting back to posting about this but also wanted to say huge thanks Sarah, Vicki & Buntybear for the extra reassurance.  I've been feeling very low as we have had days & days of whinging/crying - not all day long but for a good part of it & something just tells me this is not how its meant to be.

I had to cancel last week's appt with the GP but got there to see him today.

Initially he said that PND can make all the crying etc seem a lot worse than it really is & I thought I was going to be fobbed off. 

But when I told him about him still spitting up so many times a day & that he seems uncomfortable with it, whinging/crying a lot, eczema, face rashes etc etc he seemed to pay more attention.  I took my digital camera with me to show him some photos of a rash on his face that appeared yesterday & he also checked him over as he's still rashy today. 

He said it could be milk intolerance.

I told him I'd wondered if it could be the milk too & feel like I have to at least give it a try at changing onto a hypo-allergenic or reflux formula soon, as we can't go on like we are.  Its really getting me down.  He mentioned trying soy milk but that DS might not like it, so I asked about Aptamil Pepti (thanks for the suggestion Vicki) or something equivalent as I've heard many babies who are milk intolerant also struggle with soy.

He didnt prescribe anything there & then as he wants the health visiting team to come in & assess the feeding & make the recommendation as to which milk is the best option.  Apparently they know more about it than he does. 

He's arranging an urgent appt with the HV & says if they dont make a recommendation then he will prescribe something for us to try within the week & will prob arrange a referral to a pediatrician. I feel so relieved that he actually listened to me.

Does anyone know if Aptamil Pepti will deal with the reflux symptoms or would he need reflux meds as well?  I really want to get him off the Gaviscon if I can.