Question About Milk Allergy

Hi M., As a very experienced mother and grandmother, I suggest you try diluting the whole milk with a little water. Whole millk while very good for babies is just a little too strong to give some babies all at once. 2% milk does not have the butterfat content needed for babies to grow. I learned this from my pediatrician more than 35 years ago.

I have a little guy in my day care who is sensitive to milk. When we started to switch him to whole milk at age 1 the whole diarrhea thing started. We kept him on Stage 2 formula until he was 2 then switched him to Silk Soy and have had no problems. He does fine with cheeses and yogurt, it's just the milk that gives him problems.
Good luck......

Renee

It is probably not a milk allergy but perhaps lactose intolerance. Many children out grow this. Cheese and yogurt contain little to no lactose (I think it is destroyed during the process of making it). I would wait until his birthday to try milk again. If the problem occours again try lactose free/reduced whole milk for a couple months. Then try regular milk again.

M.,
Milk allergies are dairy allergies, he wouldn't be allergic to milk and not cheese. Milk allergies are very common, the only way to know for sure is a blood test, but you could try just eliminating all dairy for a while then slowly giving it back. Normal formulas are also whey(milk) based, so he would have had a reaction to the formula also. As far as the BRAT diet....oh my goodness DO NOT do this to your child. I was told by my daughter's pediatrician when she was young to do this also. We switched offices and the new doctor told us that this BRAT diet causes my harm than good. You are constipating the child, it is extremely hard on their guts, and can cause more problems than dealing with diarrhea. Google it for more info. But this is an ancient technique now. It's better for them to just get it all out of the system.

Yogurt is the best type of dairy to give your son. It is the easiest to digest, and has lots of benefits.

Good luck,
S.

M.,

It sounds like your son has a cow's milk intolerance or sensitivity.

My 13 month old son is in the same boat: was fine with milk-based formula, cheese, and butter, but give him straight cow's milk and he screams, arches his back, and sporadically vomits. (Oddly, yogurt and ice cream also bother my son.)

My parents gave him lactose-free cow's milk thinking lactose was the issue, but he broke out in hives all over his torso.

We give him goat's milk and he does just fine. Cow's milk is actually VERY hard for many people to digest, and nature made it with baby cows in mind, not little boys. ;-) I know some Rainbows and Cubs carry goat's milk, as does Lund's. We buy it at the co-op because it's cheapest there ($3.60/quart). If you are enrolled in WIC, they do give vouchers for goat's milk, you just have to ask for them.

Also, I see you're in Hugo. There is a goat farm in Scandia--Poplar Hills. You can buy milk directly from them for very cheap. We are planning to do that, just haven't gotten around to it.

If you go to the co-ops or Whole Foods, you will see all kinds of "milks": soy, rice, almond, hemp.

I've read a lot about when to introduce new foods to babies (on behalf of my own 11 month old, who actually gets hives from dairy products), and most things I've read say babies may not be able to digest cow's milk until after they're 12 months old. Their digestive systems are still developing in their first year. Something in the milk is different when processed in the form of yogurt, and probably cheeses, but actual whole milk can cause the things you mentioned. I know many babies who had cow's milk at 11 months or before, and they were just fine, but your little guy just might not be ready for it yet.

Maybe try again in a few weeks and see how it goes? By then you'll have his 12 month check-up and can run it by the doctor, too.