Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

So I am terrified of my next DC having a dairy protein intolerance like my first has. It made breastfeeding for the year much less enjoyable and is still an issue for him at 2 years old!
It seems every other kid I know has a dairy protein intolerance....what gives?
Do I have a shot with my next one to not have dairy issues???

So did your DC have a dairy protein intolerance (at any point during the 1st year of life)? and did you find out while
a. breastfeeding or b. formula feeding?
Whenever I ask people of my parents generation they say none of their babies had dairy protein intolerances and many/most were formula fed dairy based formulas. Today almost everyone I know has a baby who is either dairy free breastfeeding or on Alimentum /nutramigen or other hydrolyzed protein formula.

Message edited 1/17/2015 9:45:44 PM.

Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

My son has a dairy protein allergy. He was on breast milk for the first 8 weeks ( I pumped because he was in NICU for 44 days, he is a preemie )
He started to show signs when he was around 1 month old adjusted age.
He is on Elecare formula. He is now 4 months old adjusted.
My daughter who is almost six, didn't have an issue with formula. She was on similac sensitive. But she does have eczema . And I noticed when she would drink a glass of cow's milk her eczema would flare up. She can eat things with milk in it. Just can't drink it straight.

Message edited 1/17/2015 10:45:53 PM.

Re: Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

I have heard different theories such as our changing gut microbiome, the pasteurization process and milk coming from A1 cows all may be reasons why more people are developing dairy intolerance/allergies. I hope scientists can pinpoint it soon!

Eta: and I agree with you, my mom mentioned that in her generation children did not have eczema or issues with milk.

Message edited 1/17/2015 11:03:35 PM.

Re: Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

My first son had it. I breastfeed and cut out all dairy and hidden dairy for 9 months. He outgrew it around then and has been on grass fed organic cows milk since, totally fine. I was paranoid about my second son having it. I cut out all dairy 3 weeks prior to him being born. After 3 weeks I introduced dairy back into my diet and he was fine. He is now 6 months and I supplement with formula. No reactions whatsoever. I did a ton of research and allthough some pointed to all siblings having it, I didn't have that experience :)

Message edited 1/18/2015 12:07:16 PM.

Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

My 3.5 month old son has it among other food intolerances that I haven't quite been able to isolate yet :( I am still breastfeeding but choosing meals hasn't been easy. I'm currently dairy, soy, egg and wheat free and he STILL has a ton of mucus with each dirty diaper. Very disheartening but he is growing and doesn't seem bothered by them anymore so we shall see. I go back to work on Tuesday so we'll see how long I'm able to keep up breastfeeding

Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

My dd had it... she still cant drink reg milk she drinks almond milk. Shes fine with yogurt or cheese just no milk

My mom said my brother and i couldnt digest milk... we were on special formula...
i agree with pp that most babies back then were considered colic and a combination of all the hormones, antibiotics and harmful methods of farming that exist today that didnt back then.

My dr is actually happy my dd is on almond milk he advises most of his patients to try an avoid cows milk. Especially those with boys.

Message edited 1/18/2015 1:26:57 PM.

Re: Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

My son did, he was EBF - i cut out all dairy from my diet.

He is 15 months now, and he drinks hemp milk, but he can tolerate cheese now. He doesn't have a lot of it though.

Re: Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

Ok, I'm not a medical professional, but I have a theory on this. Also, you can look up "open gut" in infants and see.

My DD had dairy intolerance. I didn't catch it until 9 weeks, and then cut dairy. I EBF and was very strict with my diet. She couldn't tolerate dairy until 15 months.

My DS started showing signs (mucousy diapers) around 4 weeks and I immediately cut all dairy. I also was trying to take it easy with the dairy from the beginning because I suspected he would also have the intolerance (my DH and I and all of my siblings all had it as babies). Around 7 months I stopped being so strict and 8 months I stopped my dairy free diet and he had NO reactions. My theory is that I caught his intolerance early enough before too much intestinal damage was done, and then it healed much quicker so now he's fine. So many babies have this bc IMO, human babies digestive systems are not meant for cows milk proteins. Since the babies have an "open gut" for the first 6 months, this makes them very sensitive to high allergen foods, like cows milk.

I may be out in left field with this theory, but if I have another child, I will cut cows milk, cheese, and yogurt from my diet immediately after giving birth and see if the baby reacts to other "hidden" milk proteins.

Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

I figured my DD had a dairy intolerance around 5 weeks. She was EBF and while I always thought she cried a lot, there was one day where she was so inconsolable that even my friend who is a pediatric nurse said "sometimg isn't right here." It also turned out that that same day, her poop turned like, grass green, was filled with stringy mucous (a little tmi), her face broke out with terrible eczema and she had the worse diaper rash. I immediately thought "dairy" and cut it from my diet completely, even hidden dairy. Within a week, she was a different baby. I think it reintroduced dairy into my diet when she was approx 5-6 mo old and she did fine, however she she started eating real food, she broke out in hives the few times she had dairy. In the end, she's allergic (she was tested around 8-9mo). She's not just over 2 and hasn't grown out of it yet, but it's a mild allergy. She still can't eat dairy cheese or yogurt or drink dairy milk, but she's fine with cooked dairy. We are hoping she will eventually grow out of it, but we kinda thought she would have by now.

We are one and done so I have no clue if this would have been an issue for us a second time, but I probably would've cut dairy out of my diet before having a second, just in case. It was a rough 5 wks when DD was born and I wouldn't want to repeat that again.

Re: Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

First child girl: no allergy
Second child boy: didn't realize until about 5 months and he was projectile vomiting. Put on nutrigamen until about 15 months and then w as tolerating all dairy by 18 months.
Twins boys: by 6 weeks noticed allergy. Nutramigen did not work. They had severe blood in their stool. Both still on elecare at 9 months.

Neither me or my husband had issues with dairy as babies nor do we have any allergies as adults. All my babies were formula fed before I knew of the allergies.

Message edited 1/18/2015 10:37:27 PM.

Re: Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

I agree with some PPs about their open gut related theory. I don't believe that babies, or anyone, (I'm vegan) should drink cow milk. Our bodies just aren't designed to digest it properly- primarily because cow milk is meant for calves, not people. Though I do think some people are better equipped than others to handle dairy. Anyway, if you are going to drink milk, it should be goat because it's closer in make up to human milk. Cows are 5x our size, how on earth are we suppose to digest the enzymes in their milk??!

Sorry for the rant, but if you are a little hesitant about dairy being the issue I would definitely avoid it. There are lots of other sources for calcium, vitamin d, and good fats.

ETA: to answer your question, I BF with occasional foula supplementation for the first 3 months and DD would have the occasional vomit session. Not sure if that was related to the dairy in the formula or not.

Message edited 1/18/2015 11:28:00 PM.

Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

I have 3 kids. My 1st and 3rd had it, but not my second. All were EBF. Still going through it with my youngest, as she's only 8 months. I know a few people who have had babies with milk protein allergy, but not a ton. Out of the 7 kids on my side of our family, my 2 were the only ones. When I was pregnant with my second, I asked our ped if there was an increased chance that my second would have it since my first did. She said there was an increased chance of food sensitivity in general, but not specifically to milk protein.

Re: Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

My 16 month old son is allergic to dairy, eggs and almonds and he was breastfed. My 4 year old daughter has no allergies and was formula fed.

Re: Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

Re: Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

My DS had an intolerance to dairy protein. He was formula fed from day 1. He started showing signs almost immediately (within the first week home) with projectile vomiting, colic, gas issues, mucus in the stool, etc. But it literally took almost 3 or 4 months before doctors were able to officially diagnose him (I STILL cant believe it took that long). After trying everything else (Nutrimigen, Neocate, Alimentum) he was finally switched to Elecare and was like a different baby.

At around 15 months old we began to wean him onto cow's mix and he had no reaction! He'd now 5 years old and has no allergy to dairy.

Re: Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

Well It's nice to hear not everyone in the world has a protein intolerance. The leaky gut thing is an interesting thought especially since for most the milk protein intolerance isn't a true allergy (IgE based anaphalxis type of reaction) but a reaction to the protein itself that causes colitis with continued exposure. I am wondering if I should consider cutting back on dairy (or cutting it all out) intiially and trying when my new DC's gut is a bit mature. I was always under the impression with true allergies small amts of exposure at a young age was good but it makes some sense being that the milk protein intolerance is a different type of reaction that waiting till the gut matures and then introducing it may help stop the initial sensitization and inflammation that occurs when its introduced at a very young age before the gut matures.

Hmmmm i'll have to bring it up to my pedi and see what he thinks. I could care less about drinking "milk" but it gets really tough for meals when you can't have any cooked or hidden dairy. (at least for this cheese loving / mostly vegetarian hehe)

Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

My DS had it (caught it at 4 weeks old) and still cannot drink milk or have anything that contains milk and is not very processed (he can get away with cookies or other processed foods). H drinks almond milk. He is still a "3" on the scale of 0-6 when we did the blood test at age 3. My DD also has it (caught it at 3 weeks with blood in stool) and we will test her at age 1. I agree about the leaky gut and I'm into the paleo diet now so I don't think he needs dairy anyway.

Frequency of dairy protein intolerance/Poll

Ds1---formula fed from day 1. Found the protein sensitivity early. Switched to alimentum by 2 months. We introduced yogurt at 9 or 10 months and he was fine. Normal gradual switch to whole milk at age 1. No reactions. He drinks a ton of milk now.

DS2---noticed it by 1 month. Switched to Alimentum. No relief. Took to GI. Still blood in stool. Switched to Neocate. Seemingly better then a turn for the worse. Turned out he had Pyloric Stenosis. Surgery at 7 weeks.

Tried regular formula and Alimentum again since thy suspected blood was from the stenosis. No good. Back on Neocate. He's now almost 5 months. Plan is to try yogurt at 10 months.

Message edited 1/20/2015 4:19:55 AM.