Re-introducing dairy

[NJ*Doula]

My 8-month-old has had a milk protein allergy from birth. I cut all dairy out of my diet when he was about 6 weeks. A couple of weeks ago I ate something that we later realized had a lot of butter in it, but he didn't react to it at all. So, I've been slowly adding tiny bits of dairy back into my diet to see what happens. So far, so good.

Just to be safe, is there any particular order that I should follow? Is some dairy more likely to cause a reaction than other kinds? I've really missed dairy and I'm anxious to have it back in my diet again, but I want to make sure I'm doing the best thing for my son.

[kjbrown92]

Was it an allergy or an intolerance?
Personally I'd wait much longer to give his immune system a chance to heal more.

[NJ*Doula]

He never had an allergy test, so I suppose it could be either. I discovered it when we found out that his screaming was because of reflux. Research here and elsewhere online convinced me to try cutting out dairy. His reflux subsided and the rash he had all over his face and chest went away. He was on reflux meds for a long time, and now he's even off those.

[changingseasons]

I would also wait a lot longer to reintroduce dairy.

There is kind of an order for which things are most allergenic - things like fermented dairy [yogurt, hard cheese] are least likely to cause a reaction.

BUT- if you do it in stages like that, you might not even notice a reaction until it's really built up into something major. If you really want to trial dairy right now, this is what I would do (also recommended by Janice Joneja in her books)- drink a full glass of whole milk, at least 8 oz. Wait 4 hours (or a little longer, since it has to go through your breastmilk), then if no symptoms repeat, repeat, repeat. Seriously overload yourself with milk for a few days. That way, any symptoms should be obvious. Sometimes reactions take a week to build up- so I would not add dairy back into your diet until you've drank straight, whole milk (and a LOT of it) with no reactions for at least a week.

[NJ*Doula]

But in the past, even the tiniest bit of dairy caused a major reaction. I have accidentally eaten, for example, a slice of bread that had milk in the ingredient list, and had him break out in a terrible rash all over his face. This time though, I ate homemade BBQ sauce that was made with a load of butter, and nothing happened. If he was going to react, shouldn't that have caused something?

[WuWei]

Originally Posted by changingseasons

There is kind of an order for which things are most allergenic - things like fermented dairy [yogurt, hard cheese] are least likely to cause a reaction.

I think it is soft cheese which is less likely to cause a reaction. (well, I had to do a bit of searching to figure this out. Apparently, soft cheese is higher in lactose. Hard cheese is higher in casein. About 10x more casein than milk!!)
http://www.nationaldairycouncil.org/...heesePage5.htm

And we had a totally different tolerance to hard raw milk cheese than pasteurized cheese.


Pat

[changingseasons]

Oops- I knew it was one of those.

[WuWei]

Originally Posted by changingseasons

Oops- I knew it was one of those.

I loved the search! It sent me on about an hour's worth of looking, as I kept seeing both: hard cheese and soft cheese. I was so confused. I'm delighted you mentioned it, cause I wanted to understand.

Pat