Severe diaper rash as indicator of allergy? Update #24 - Page 2

[DevaMajka]

What a relief, that you have at least one clear culprit! (I can't wait until that day for us! lol)

Interesting about beef- we've upped our beef (because we took out other suspected culprits for eczema) and J's sleep is horrid. I know it could be anything, but I've halfway suspected it. I'll probably be a little more suspicious of it now!

[Koalamom]

Life without beef on a grain free diet is tough.  Ds reacted to lamb the other night but that is easy to leave behind.  I assume you eat grass fed as that is better tahn feed lot beef.

[Brendalee]

     Quote:

Originally Posted by cristeen 

Yes, he reacted to raw cow's milk.  He was up that entire night screaming from what I presumed to be stomach cramps.  The first time he reacted to milk was actually (homemade) tapioca pudding that I shared with him.  He can tolerate butter, cream and fermented milk (yogurt), and small amounts of cheese (I limit him to 1 oz/day of mozzarella or cheddar).  Any more than that and we see reactions - 2 oz of cheese caused severe constipation with screaming.  The tapioca caused a burn on his butt.

Perhaps this is oversimplistic of me, or maybe there's something health-wise that I'm not aware of, but is there any reason you can't just switch him to fermented milk (yogurt or kefir - or both)?  You can easily make the yogurt at home, using raw milk as the base if you wanted (raw milk is only available directly from the farm in my area, so I know exactly what's in the milk & that it wasn't homogenized or (ultra)pasturized prior to getting it); homemade yogurt is often "runnier" than store-bought & can easily be mixed with a spoon to be drinkable consistency. Or you could make kefir, or make both & mix them.  Perhaps an adaptation of one of the homemade formulas from WAPF (using fermented milk instead of raw) if you're concerned about the other "good stuff" that he would otherwise be getting from BM/formula?  Maybe the probiotics from using yogurt and/or kefir would also help his gut in general?  Needless to say, you could make yogurt/kefir out of any other kind of milk as well (goat, sheep, water buffalo, even coconut), if they're tolerated better.

Is there some reason I'm missing that an older baby couldn't just switch to fermented milks?  Lots of babies are switched to straight cow's milk at 1yo, even pasturized versions.  I would think fermented milks would be a step up.  ??

Congrats on healing butts!!  Gosh, that has to be SOOOO painful, open sores in a diaper?  Thank goodness it's (finally!) getting better!!  :)

[cristeen]

Well, the open sores are back, I'm afraid.  We trialed goat's milk, and the first couple days he was fine (small amounts each day).  Today I made pancakes with goat's milk and he had a fair amount of them, and some goat cheddar for lunch - and tonight the open sores are back on his butt.  And this morning he also had hives across his forehead (not sure if that was the milk or the nuts... I thought we had trialed all the nuts, but I may have been mistaken about almonds). 

As for why I don't just switch him to fermented milks - I still need to do a significant trial of them.  So far any amounts of them he's had have been fairly small.  We're still on a formula that he tolerates, but we're fast running out (IIRC, I have about 2 weeks worth left, since he's been refusing BM).  I wanted to test goat's milk first, which apparently was a great big fail.  Thankfully he's starting to demand more and more solids every day... but figuring out what is easy to feed him that doesn't include dairy has been difficult for me.  It doesn't help that the kefirs that I have access to all seem to have fillers in them.  I don't have a problem making my own yogurt, but I've never done kefir - but trialing a kefir with fillers seems a bit foolhardy, and I don't want to buy kefir grains if he doesn't tolerate it.