UPDATE: possible dairy allergy
Nita14701
member
Update:I think this might be it. We started the nutramigen on monday and elimiated other sources of dairy. Since then as the week has gone on I'm noticing that she is not swatting at the bottle as much and is holding her latch on the bottle for a longer period of time and is drinking a little more at each feed. Last night when feeding her a puree she acutally was opening her mouth for the spoon. It was the first time she's done that! Very hopeful at the moment. Looks like I may be visiting this board more often to learn more tips.
I'm going to try not to ramble on too much with this post. LO was born premature. We've seen numerours specialists since he has been home from the NICU because of feeding and poor weight gain issues. They did bloodwork and rulled out a lot of things including celeac disease. Or diagnoses have progressed from Colic to Reflux to GERD. We've gone though a few med dosage changes. She's currenlty on Prilosec and Zantac. Yesterday at our appointment they mentioned going dairy free for a week- switching to Nutramigen formula and no baby yogurt (those are the only two sources of dairy she has been exposed to so far). I really don't think it's a dairy issue but willing to try if it it could possibly help. I'm doubtful because LO's skin looks great (no eczema or anything), no bloody stools diareah etc. But Dr. said that sometimes these cases of difficult to treat GERD end up being milk allergy. So we'll try and see what happens. She's 10 months old and I'm just frustrated we haven't been able to figure out what is going on.
The dr did not mention any tests for milk allergy. Are their any reliable tests out there or is an elimination diet usually how they diagnose this?
Re: UPDATE: possible dairy allergy
FWIW - DD did not have eczema and only had one bloody diaper. Our big keyes were LOTS of spit up, and the green mucousy poops. And it turned out she was both dairy and soy intolerant. I know it was 4 years ago, but we were told most allergy tests at that age weren't that reliable and elimination was the best way to go.
They say it takes about a week and a half to get all the dairy proteins out of your system, so I would try 2 weeks for formula, or at least 3 weeks if you are doing any breastfeeding. Good luck!
My 27-weeker has been down a similar path. I know how frustrating it is.
She did not have any of the typical signs of dairy allergy either but cutting dairy made a dramatic difference for her. Even now that she's 2, she doesn't tolerate dairy well. Instead of giving her bloody stool or diarrhea, she gets severely constipated. After several trials, we have just pulled her off dairy indefinitely and will proceed with the testing soon.
A lot of preemies have trouble digesting dairy but grow out of it in the first year (actual or adjusted depending on the kid) so it may not be a life-long thing for your family. Good luck!
Our precious girl, born at 27 weeks.