Milk allergy question: How was your LO diagnosed?

PenelopePond

DS2 is not quite two weeks old.  In the hospital, they gave him the little bottles of Enfamil.  He was spitting up a lot.  More than spitting up, but not to the point of vomiting.  The pediatrician switched him to Soy formula.  Initially the spitting up seemed better (while we were in the hospital), but by the time of our first pediatrician appt it was back to what it was originally.  He was born on a Thursday and his first appt was the following Tuesday.  The dr immediately said milk allergy and gave us some Neutramigen.  We're trying it out for a couple weeks and then going back for a check up.  So far, I'm really not seeing improvement.  He's been on it a week.  I know it takes time, but I feel like the dr was quick to jump to milk allergy.  I would have thought there'd be more than just spitting up to signify a milk allergy.  I'm looking into it, and want to have as much info as possible before his next appt.  Does this seem like a quick diagnosis to anyone else?  Did your LO only have spitting up problems and it did end up being a milk allergy?

Thanks in advance!

imimahoney

Blood in stools is the number one sign of a milk allergy. That's how I knew my LO had one. 

If took 5 weeks to appear though. Before that he did spit up after a feeding but not a lot. He was also EXTREMELY fussy and colicky the first few weeks of life.  

SaranJonathan

Ditto blood in the stool. Spit up does not mean milk allergy. Is your LO spitting up bad? Could be pyloric stenosis. Also if not bad and gaining and growing well could be reflux.. 

shotzie

I just want to offer some clarification on milk allergy vs. milk intolerance. They are two different things. DD1 is allergic to milk, she gets hives if it touches her skin. We have to have an Epipen on hand in case she ever goes into anaphylaxis. DD2 is milk and soy protein intolerant. She can't digest the proteins in dairy or soy, so I am on a dairy and soy free diet and she's doing great. 

A lot of babies who are dairy intolerant are also soy intolerant, so if LO isn't improving on Nutramigen, I'd try something like Alimentum or Neocate. That said, there are usually other symptoms involved with a milk intolerance. DD2 was super gassy, colicky, and developed green, mucousy stools with occasional blood in them at around 2-3 weeks of age. After I'd been dairy and soy free for 5 wks, her stools went back to normal and her other symptoms cleared. However, she also has terrible silent reflux and it took a while to get that under control. She's on Prevacid solutabs and that works well for her reflux.  

If excessive spitting up is the only symptom, I'd try Zantac for a few weeks to see if that helps. If she develops other GI symptoms like I listed above, then I'd try the special formulas.   

PenelopePond

Thanks for the responses. Yes, spitting up was all he was doing. As of this morning, he's started projectile vomiting. I have a call into the pediatrician. I never thought it was a milk allergy (although as PP pointed out, it was probably intolerance not allergy that the dr meant).   My nephew had pyloric stenosis, so we're on the lookout for that. 

cubsies

I breast fed for 2 months. During that feedings were hard, he would pull of and scream during it...he wouldn't spit up a whole lot, but was super gassy and had moucusy poops. Doctors first suspected reflux. Put him on meds, it didn't help. Upped his dosage, it didn't help. Then they suspected a MSPI so we went on Alimentum at 2 months. We saw an IMMEDIATE improvement. Less colicky, he ate more at a feeding and eventually we weaned him off the reflux meds. However, at his 6 month appointment his weight gain become a concern. By 8 months he was diagnosed as Failure to Thrive and we started seeing many a specialist to rule one thing out after another. In the meantime we were adding oil to his baby foods. Around 8.5 months we gave him yogurt for the first time and he had hives all over and his lips swelled up immensly and he vomitted instantly and was gagging as if his throat was swollen. We went to the ER and shortly thereafter to an allergist where the milk allergy was confirmed. Apparently Alimentum has tiny trace amounts of milk protein that are fine for a MSPI baby, but for a sever allergy the body can still react to them...which is what happened in our case. They think his body was fighting so hard against the milk proteins that it was not absorbing any nutrients.

Long road to what seemed like a simple diagnosis. Once we cut all milk and milk product out he put on the weight and was a new kid.