1 week dairy free...should i keep it up?

[kehliouise]

(long)so I'm not totally sure that ds has food allergies but here is a little history.

he is 3 months old. he has had reflux since about 2 weeks old, but it isn't that bad...he is not a spitter, he swallows it, so sometimes it is harder to notice when he is refluxing. from about 3 weeks to maybe 2 1/2 months he would have these crying spells. they weren't really like colic because they didn't last for hours or anything just for like 20 or 30 minutes. during these times nothing really calmed him down. at 1 month pediatrician said ds had dermatitis. It comes and goes. not sure what irritates it. at this point it was only on his chest. at 2 months his poo became really watery...no more seedy breast fed poos, just yellow water, sometime they would be yellowish green. then he got a runny nose. then one day he had a diaper that was poo and bloody mucus. we took him to the pediatrician the next day. pediatrician said that ds had a really bad ear infection, said this is what was causing the runny nose. he said sometimes ear infections can also cause watery poo. the blood probably came from an anul fissure, the was probably the result of ds having watery poo for so long. The pediatrician said he wouldn't totally rule about food allergies since food allergies can some times lead to ear infections, but that he wanted to get the ear infection under control and then see how things were. Well I went ahead and eliminated diary out of my diet anyway, just to see if that was a possible irritant. after a week of no dairy we have gone from watery poo to mucussy poo. Every single poo is like dark yellow snot. Should I consider that an improvement? Pediatrician said to eliminate dairy for 2 weeks before introducing it back in to challenge it, but he said that if there was no improvement after 1 week to discontinue. Does this sound right? Is moving from watery to mucussy an improvement? the same? worse? Ds's dermatitis is also spreading. It is no longer just on his chest but is now on his legs and and arms. Is dermatitis the same thing as eczema? dh and I both have eczema. Where should I go from here?

[changingseasons]

Did you replace your milk with something else- like soy milk? Just curious, because that's what I did and it ended up that DD was just as allergic to soy as she was to dairy. Eggs also turned out to be a huge allergy for DD too. (We have a long list of things that I can't eat now, but those were the first that we had to eliminate and the ones that cause the biggest reactions- including the bloody/mucus poos.)

[kehliouise]

I haven't really had to replace it anywhere except in two cups of coffee i had this week. It have eaten about the same amount of soy that I would have whether I was eating dairy or not. Or atleast I think I have.

Also we only had that one bloody poo and no more. We have been putting A and D ointment on the fissure. I'm hoping that that is where the blood came from, but that may not be the case.

[changingseasons]

You might want to cut out soy along with cutting out dairy. A good percentage of kids that are allergic to milk proteins will also be allergic to soy proteins.

[Chinese Pistache]

Did you give abx for the ear infection? If so, that could have exacerbated the problem. I would keep dairy out for the next week becasue poo takes longer to normalize than other allergic reactions (like skin), ime. I would also get him on a dairy-free probiotic and cut out soy as well. Have you eliminated even trace sources of dairy? If you're not, you won't see an improvement if it is indeed a dairy allergy. This site might be useful; scroll down to dairy allergies (and soy, if your'e inclined to cut it out also). http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/allergy.htm

[kjbrown92]

And you have to take out all dairy (and soy if you're doing it) as in look at the ingredients of EVERYTHING you eat.

[Alyantavid]

I'll just ditto everyone else. I'd give it some more time, take everything with any amount of milk out as well as soy.

You might start some probiotics as well to help his tummy.

[kehliouise]

no we didn't give him an antibiotic...we are treating it with garlic oil and chiropractic care. I have been very careful to read all labels and make sure that I am not eating any hidden dairy. I had started him on a probiotic a few weeks ago but i took him off of it when i started the dairy free diet because it was not a dairy free probiotic. i would like some recommendations on those if you guys have any. the one he was on was the maxi-babydophilus...it said it contained trace amounts of milk. dh is alergic to wheat and eggs, do specific allergies run in the family or just a tendency towards allergies.

[Meg_s]

I's day keep it up, a week isn't really long enough for much to happen. Also, gluten sensitivity tends to run in the family, so if your Dh can't tolerate wheat your baby might not be able to either, and gluten is in a lot more than just wheat.

[kjbrown92]

The tendency to any allergy is what is handed down. I have seasonal allergies (mold, dust mites) and DH has allergy induced asthma (cats, dogs, grass, oak). DD#1 is allergic to cats, dust mites. DD#2 is allergic to ragweed, and intolerant to milk, legumes, and nightshades. DD#3 is allergic to mold, and intolerant of dozens of foods. The doctor said we were an "atopic" family, prone to allergies of any kind.

I say 1 week would show you results if it was ONLY dairy. So it's either dairy AND ?? or something else entirely. Sorry. Could be corn, soy, tomatoes, anything. Trial and error. Elimination diet.

I make coconut milk yogurt to get probiotics in my family.

K

[matey]

I use solaray baby life probiotic, which is dairy free but I would love to know about this coconut milk yogurt.

[joybird]

coconut milk yogurt:

Heat 2 cans coconut milk to 185. Add 1 Tbsp honey, 2 tsp vanilla, 2 tsp gelatin.
Cool to 120. Add yogurt starter (I bought a dairy free one - I also add many different strains of whatever probiotics I have on hand). Pour into quart mason jar. Stir well.
Incubate at 110-115 for at least 10 hours - I usually let mine go for longer, maybe 20 hours because coco yogurt takes longer to get tart than milk yogurt and it will have more good bacteria in it.
You have to stir it again before refrigerating because it will separate while incubating, but if stirred it will set up perfectly in the fridge.

[kjbrown92]

I incubate my coconut yogurt for 24 hours, and I use 3 Tbs. tapioca starch instead of gelatin. I don't have any separation and the texture is very close to dairy yogurt. I use GI Progurt as my starter. I use it in baking, frosting, and smoothies (and my DD dips fruit in it).
K

[karin95]

Dairy takes at least 2 weeks to clear from your system, so 1 week is not enough to see results. Also, it takes a while after the allergen is cleared for the eczema to start looking better.

You might want to consider eliminating more than just dairy, because it's just as likely that he's reacting to any of the major allergens (or something else - my son's allergic to coconut, mushrooms and millet, as well!) And make sure that you're staying away from milk in all it's forms - read labels!

I woudln't reintroduce the dairy as quickly as your ped said to. You want to see some marked improvement in your son before you start testing foods again. We found it useful to get a blood test for the major allergens (food and environmental) for my son so we knew where to start with the food eliminations. He turned out to be allergic to milk, soy, egg, wheat, peanuts, most tree nuts, cats and dogs. It would have been very hard to determine that on our own!