Milk protien allergy....need info asap

[mamabens]

DH has a friend at work who just found out her son has a milk protien allergy & the pediatrition put him on Alemintum (sp) formula. ANyone have any suggestions for her. What are your experiences with using this formula? She said she started him on it yesterday evening & he's a different child already. Am I wrong or isn't that a bit too soon to really notice results? Any help you can give me on this would be great. I'll print it out & give it to her since she doesn't have access to a computer. Thanks ~~ MIranda

[cat19]

It's not too soon for some kids.

I BF and did an elim diet instead of formula, but the basics are the same:

1) avoid all contact with dairy (this mean he can't get dairy on him or in him), Some kids even become senstive enough to need not to be touched or kissed by anyone with tarce amounts of dairy on theitr hands or mouth; watch to see if he is (or becomes) one of those kids

2) ask your ped/allergist about whether an epi-pen jr is appropriate. Some experts recommend them for any kid with a food allergy as you never know when a new reaction could become serious enough to need it);

3) keep children's Benadryl in the house AND with you in case of accidental exposures (this is independent of needing or not needing epi-pens);

4) don't experiment with feeding him anything with dairy in it in a month, or two months, of because you run out of safe dairy-free bread; wait until your allergist gives you the okay (usually after testing, and often not for a year or two or three--or, sometimes more) to trial and get directions on how to do that safely.

5) avoid all nuts (treenuts and peanuts) and fish/shellfish until at least preschool age as he is now officially a kid prone to developing allergies, and you don't want him to develpon one of those which are generally lifelong and lifethreatening.

6) now that while not all dairy reactions are lifethreatening, SOME can be, and she needs to learn enough to decide if her son couel have one of those reactions. if he had skin symptoms, for example, or vomiting, he probably has a traditional IgE-mediated allergy and those can result in lifethreatenting anaphylatcic reactions. That doesn't mean it will, but that she needs to know that to be ready to keep him safe. If his reaction are more poop reactions, that may *not* be the case; an allergist should be able to tell her.

7) both kidswithfoodallergies.org and foodallergy.org (FAAN) are fabulous websites worth making computer time for, if not by her than by her husband or a family member or a friend like you, even at the library.

8) her son should get a Medicalert bracelet, as she wants to make sure that anyone who treats him medically would always now that he is allergic to dairy. Thsi is even if she's sure she'll always be with him; if he ever got lost or they were in an accident and mom coudln't speak, he needs that bracelt. It will also eliminate lots of the annoying questioning by family that might not take it seriously. Medicalert is the best of the services as it also stores all your child's contact info, dr's info, etc, and you can update it online or over the phone.

9) if she doesn't yet have an allergist, she shoudl ask for a referral to one who handles lots of kids with food allergies

Tell her it's scary at first but it gets MUCH easier and her son is lucky to have been diagnosed so soon and to be improving so much.

[stacey0402]

Originally Posted by cat19

7) both kidswithfoodallergies.org and foodallergy.org (FAAN) are fabulous websites worth making computer time for, if not by her than by her husband or a family member or a friend like you, even at the library.

I just found kidswithfoodallergies.org and I love it! My son is probably also allergic to milk protein so I have spent a lot of time talking with anybody I can get my hands on. I talked with a parent whose child had milk protein allergy and she said her daughter was totally different within a couple days of switching to Alimentum. Getting the allergens out of breastmilk can take a bit longer, so the results are not usually immediate.

[hades]

where can we buy those Medicalert bracelets? seems a good idea to have.