Milk intolernace? Allergy???

katoo

Looking for wisdom/insight from anyone who has experience with either. Background: kiddo has been combo fed with a dairy based formula since birth, and my breastmilk was definitely not dairy free either. He has been on solids since 6 months, and we introduced yogurt and cheese right away. He has had no obvious issues with dairy. He is now 13 months and we transitioned him to whole milk 3ish weeks ago. We have had 3 incidents where he has "spit up" after drinking 4 oz of milk on an empty stomach. The spit up smelled like vomit, but on each occasion it was a smallish amount, and was just milk. This morning he woke up and drank 4 ounces of milk. He had a diaper change, flopped around in our bed a bit, and rode his rody (bouncy horse thing) for maybe 30 seconds, and then barfed. Definitely not spit up this time--there were two waves of heaving, and the entire bottle came up. He was very upset--it was the saddest thing. We bathed him, and he's had some water and crackers, as well as a dose of antibiotic and has been fine since. In addition to the spitting up/vomit, we've had a a rash around his mouth since we started the milk. We started the milk at the end of a bout of hand foot mouth, and he's getting molars, so at first I thought it was related to drool irritating already irritated skin. Last Monday one of his teachers told me it looked like impetigo, and another said she thought it might be eczema. I took him to the doctor on Tuesday, and she said it looked like early impetigo or eczema with the beginnings of impetigo (there were satellite lesions), hence the antibiotic. So anyhow, do you all agree there is something fishy going on with my kid and milk? I know allergies tend to be related to eczema, and yet we've never had this issue before despite 13 months of other types of dairy exposure. I've heard lactose issues don't develop until later, but I also know some lactose intolerant folks who only have issues with certain types of dairy products. Maybe none of this stuff is related and I'm just freaking out for nothing???

jajumommy2000

My son had odd allergies when he was little too. He couldn't drink milk, yet he was fine with cheese, ice cream and yogurt. The good thing is he is now almost 20 and while he doesnt like milk, he no longer has issues when he does drink it.

old mama

My son and I both have milk allergies. Mine I have always had stomach aches, bloating and diarrhea. My son has terrible outbreaks of eczema all over his body. I do believe his foster mother told me that he did get some around his mouth when he was very young when he drank milk. We both can have small amts. of dairy products like cheese, yogurt and ice cream. As I get older the amt. I tolerate is getting smaller. But I have a disabled daughter who drools a lot and she easily gets impetigo very easily so it could really be that if he is teething.

Shanny

Kate has food sensitivities (versus true allergies) which is what this sounds like. Her sensitivities have changed but she can generally tolerate small amounts of even her most serious sensitivities. It's important to keep track of it so I've always just told her school she couldn't have whatever it was that way I was able to know everything she ingested that might cause problems. We drank rice milk for a long time but she developed a sensitivity to that so she drinks almond milk now. Really just for cereal with an occasional glass if she's in the mood. I'd say to stop straight milk for a while and see if these episodes stop. At 18 months you can have intolerance tested with a blood test. He may have others and it could be a combination that is resulting in the times he is sick enough to vomit.

K&H

I have a recently developed milk intolerance. It sucks, because I used to be the person who drank two glasses of milk with every meal and now I can't stand the stuff. I can eat hard cheese, cottage cheese, and usually ice cream, but milk, butter, and sour cream are instant terrible pain.

Every so often I'll think that it's all in my head and have butter on something, or be really stupid like this weekend and have milk based hot cocoa, sour cream on a potato, and a small ice cream... bad, bad, bad plan.

Anyway, my point is, it's odd, but I can have some dairy and not other dairy. I don't know why. I track what makes me sick and avoid it and assume that if it doesn't make me sick I can keep having it. (Although that is changing over time as well) This has all developed in the past two years. I haven't eaten yogurt in almost a year and a half and I would never drink a glass of milk now. I agree with others that you should try just cutting out the plain milk and see what happens. E never drank plain cow's milk as a drink until she was around 3. Try coconut or almond milk instead.

katoo

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

Shanny

K&H - have you had testing done?

kelleymel

My daughter has a dairy protein allergy. She has lower GI bleeding if she consumes even a tiny amount of anything dairy.