Starting to worry

[VTmamadownsouth]

This is my first post to this subforum, so forgive me if I don't use abreviations.

My son is 14 months old. When he was about 8 months old it seemed like he was still spitting up an awful lot, and I finally realized it was especially true after I'd had dairy (and nursed him). I cut dairy out of my diet, and never gave him any, and the spitting up has totally improved. I asked his pediatrician about it and he said to try goat's milk products and not to worry about it, that maybe he'd grow out of it. The other day I tried something with cow's milk cheese on it just to see, and he spit up, so I guess he hasn't grown out of it yet.

I'd love to get people's thoughts on this. Should I be worried about a long-term allergy or is this something that's common and babies grow out it? Does a sensativity to dairy necessarily mean I should be concerned about other food sesativities? Are there other things I should watch out for?

Also, just today I noticed the tinest little bumps all over DS's neck and throat. They're not red, they're just little rough bumps. Can't even really see them. An hour or so before I noticed them we were at a store where he put a rubber toy snake in his mouth. He immediately got a reddish mark above his lip, but at the time i thought maybe it was just a scrape of some sort. Now I'm wondering if he could have some kind of reaction to the toy.

Maybe I seem totally paranoid here, but never having had a child before this, I just want to make sure I'm taking good care of him. I also want to be prepared and do any research I need to before his 15 month checkup so that I can be a good advocate for him (since his Dr. seemed pretty dismissive of the dairy thing).

Thanks!

[lil_miss_understood]

You're not paranoid. You're a good mama.
It does sound like he may have reacted to the toy, although it is possible a child before him had dairy on his/her hands and was handling the toy.
I can only tell you that we're in the Allergies forum and the ladies you meet here are still dealing with active allergies... and I've yet to meet one whose child has outgrown a dairy allergy. Sometimes the symptoms have changed but...

[VTmamadownsouth]

So, where do I start?

I've been trying to cram in as much allergie info as possible over the past few hours, and I'm starting to think I have every reason to worry.

I probably didn't do anything right in terms of introducing solids. I thought I was doing it "by the book", but from what I'm reading here at MDC, I probably made lots of mistakes.

In a nutshell, here's what I'm concerned about:
- I introduced solids at 6 months because DS was smacking while watching us eat, and grabbing the fork out of our mouths. I'd have to look at our journal to see what the exact foods were, but I'm sure it included organic brown rice cereal, bananas, and avocados.
- DS was a pretty fussy infant, and is still not a great sleeper. We've worked very hard, and he finally is down to only waking up about 3 times a night to nurse, but sometimes he is awake for several hours in the middle of the night. He's very irritable at times.
- Now that he's older, we've let him try all kinds of things including soy, wheat, eggs (he loves eggs), all kinds of fruits and vegetables. Fortunately, I haven't given him any nuts yet.
- Now and then after he's eaten he will get red patches on his face. Sometimes he also rubs his nose.
- He's a little on the skinny side. Not off the charts small, but below the 50th percentile. I'm also a little too skinny. I try to eat a lot, but even so I can't seem to put on weight.

I know I need to start taking all of these signs seriously, but I'm not sure where to start. Is there an "method" to eliminating? I'm sure there are resources out there for how to determine problem foods, can anyone point them out to me? Is there any concern that he or I will lose weight or have a hard time meeting our nutritional needs? Should I ask his pediatrician to test him for allergies? In the meantime, is there anything I can do for him? I give him probiotic powder almost dialy already, or at least I try.

I'm sorry for asking so many J.V. questions here. You all seem so knowlegeable and impressive, I'm hoping I can learn from you. I'm just so thankful to have a place to go with all these questions because I get the feeling his Dr. won't help me get to the bottom of what's going on.

Feel free to tell me that I need to read up for myself! I'm pouring through this forum as we speak, and I'd love suggestions for articles, books, and threads that will help me know where to start. My biggest problem is that I feel so overwhelemed by all the info out there, I don't know who/what to believe. All this on top of learning good activities to do with a one-year-old and how to gently discipline. Whew!

TIA

[kjbrown92]

Start keeping a food journal with everything DS is eating/drink and everything you are eating/drinking, supplements, and all symptoms. Hopefully you'll start noticing a trend. The top ones are dairy, gluten, soy, corn, if you want to try the best sellers first.

[jenfl]

One thing to know is that there are traditional allergies and there are intolerances/sensitivities/local-IgE reactions. If you haven't noticed hives or skin rashes, just GI reactions, it's likely your DS has an intolerance.

This means that traditional allergy tests won't show anything. Allergists have no resources for you. The only thing to do is to avoid the offending food.

It's not uncommon. The studies I've read have about 70% of kids growing out of it at 1 year, 80% at 2 years, and 90% at 3 years. My daughter is 22 months and still reacts, but we have hope it'll clear up soon and challenge every 6 months or so (at the advice of an allergist).

If you're worried about other reactions, you might want to start by removing soy, since that goes along with dairy most commonly.

Good luck!

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by jenfl

It's not uncommon. The studies I've read have about 70% of kids growing out of it at 1 year, 80% at 2 years, and 90% at 3 years. My daughter is 22 months and still reacts, but we have hope it'll clear up soon and challenge every 6 months or so (at the advice of an allergist).

I'd love to meet one of those 70-90%!

[VTmamadownsouth]

Duh! Antibiotics!

Would a course of antibiotics increase existing food sensativities or perhaps cause new ones to arrise? Or could a mild reaction to the abx themselves cause similar symptoms?

Just dawned on me that DS is on amoxicillin for what we thought was a persistant ear infection. Starting to doubt that diagnosis, but I'll go ahead and kick myself for letting him go on abx offline.

[lil_miss_understood]

Originally Posted by kjbrown92

I'd love to meet one of those 70-90%!

I was thinking the same thing. I'd love, even more, to BE one of them.

Originally Posted by VTmamadownsouth

Would a course of antibiotics increase existing food sensativities or perhaps cause new ones to arrise? Or could a mild reaction to the abx themselves cause similar symptoms?

Just dawned on me that DS is on amoxicillin for what we thought was a persistant ear infection. Starting to doubt that diagnosis, but I'll go ahead and kick myself for letting him go on abx offline.

I wouldn't put it out of the realm of possibility for abx to exacerbate pre-existing food sensitivities/intolerances.
Dairy is often found to be the "culprit" behind persistant ear infections. I'm sure other intolerances are as well, but the most common in those cases are usually dairy.