1 Yr Old DD Started on Cows Milk, Now Shes Been Having These "Night Terrors"

the night terrors might be a normal toddler thing but a milk allergy may be making them worse. Most think that food allergy only causes skin rashes or other more serious symtoms, but it can also cause behavior problem. Crankiness, sleeplessness, mood swings, and nightmares can be caused by an allergy. Allergies to food are tricky little boogers. The responce to the allergins can change and confuse a diagnosis. You can also have no symtoms for a long time and then... WAM!!!... it will kick you in the butt.

The milk protein in cows milk is a very common allergin. Switch to a soy based formula and see if there is a difference in her sleeping. Also it won't be a bad idea to get her an allergy test. Best of luck....

If she happens to have an allergy don't panic... Dairy allergies are fairly easy to maintain. Feel free to message me for more info on label reading and eating fastfood if you need to.

My son was breastfed and never really drank much milk. I used to put some cream though in his oatmeal up until about a little after 2. He was always irritable, had eczema, and constipation. Everything went away when I stopped cow's milk. 2 weeks ago I let him eat the cheese off 2 slices of pizza. He had night terrors (during the day) screamed constantly, and was the most difficult he had ever been in his entire life. It was like my sweet son was replaced by an angry, angry boy. So, give her coconut, rice, or soy milk and see how it goes. Yes, there is a correlation.

We switched our daughter to full fat milk at 1, and she did ok..not great...with it for a few weeks. Then all of a sudden she started throwing it up every time we gave it to her. She liked the taste, but just could not digest it very well.
Our dr thought it was just a stomach virus and not to worry, switch her to soy for a few weeks then put her back on full fat milk. Well we did that, and guess what, she started spitting it up again.
I had one of my RN friends ask the Dr she worked for and they said just stick with rice or soy for a while, and then start adding a few ounces of 2% cows milk mixed with the soy. He said it wasn't a big deal because my baby was good with cheese and yogurts etc, and she's getting fat from those.
We never did go back to full fat, and has been drinking 2% consistently without any problems (she also still likes soy and will drink skim milk).
Hope you find a solution!

The commonest cause of night terrors, if that's the problem here, is insufficient sleep. It's possible she's sleeping poorly because the cow's milk is causing some systemic upset that is disturbing your daughter's sleep, but the association may simply be coincidental.

Check out this wonderful and extremely informative page on children's sleep and various "parasomnias" (sleep disturbances). Your daughter could just be having nightmares – night terrors are usually extremely dramatic, with the child appearing to be awake, but unreachable. Scroll down the page to get to parasomnias: http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/sleep.htm

And here's one more site that discusses these sleep disturbances: http://www.evms.edu/evms-division-of-sleep-disorders/para...

omg as i read your subject question i thought i had posted it! my daughter turned one on the 16th and i switched her to whole milk and this whole last week she has had what i thought were night terrors as well... she is teething as well but ive put orajel on her gums and she still cries unconsolably... i never even thought the two could be linked.. im interested to see what kind of responses you get.. i kno these night terrors are frightening to us moms.. my lil one woke up screaming and didnt want me to pick her up like she didnt recognized me and i couldnt calm her down for 15 to an hr... msg me if youd like to talk more about it.. btw she was breastfed only for a about 2 months and im sorry your having to go thru this.. youre not alone!

We used rice milk from the time DD was 12 mos old -- she is milk allergic (in addition to egg, peanut and fish). It has been great for us -- she never had night terrors though :( Sorry to hear about that. It is worth a try!

Sorry your baby is having some sleep issues. If she seems to be half-asleep and not responding to you when she wakes up crying, it's probably a night terror, which can last 5-30 minutes. It's a state where the baby is half awake, half asleep, and the baby can be spooked by normal objects they see around them in this state - until them come out of this transition state. Night terrors typically happen because the baby is overtired, or has an ongoing sleep deficit. It could just be pain that is waking her up if she responds to you normally and is awake/alert, when you go to comfort her.

If you are still attempting to find a formula, my exclusively BFing baby wouldn't take any typical formulas, he would refuse it after one little taste and literally spit the nipple out and crying in protest - I'm sure he realized they tasted horrible with that metal flavor. Thankfully I found a great tasting, healthly, organic one (without nasty corn syrup) that he does take: try "Baby's Only Organic" formula available at diapers.com or amazon; it comes in both Dairy, or Lactose Free. It is the ONLY stuff my picky baby would take. Good luck!

I want to share my story hoping some of the things I have learned will be helpful to you. This is how milk affects my family.

I repeatedly talked to my doctor about my oldest son who would have emotional break downs often. Years later we just decided he was an emotional kid until we took milk out of his diet after hearing it could help with bed wetting. It did not so we reintroduced it but minutes later my husband and I looked at each other with amazement, he was weeping profusely. We had not realized but he had not cried like this since we had taken him off milk.
Fast forward two years, some friends suggested raw milk but I was afraid to try it. I had avoided milk, yogurt, and ice cream for years and any of these would cause him to be emotion (very understated) for days and it affected his school work. But finally, after trying to keep his calcium intake up with vitamins and kale every other calcium rich food I gave him raw milk. And... it did not make him emotional.

I started looking into the reason and found that pastured (regular store bought milk) has been cook above 141 degrees. After this temperature the enzymes you body uses to digest the milk start to die off and so do many of the vitamins like Omega 3's. Many people notice an unset stomach and some don't notice anything but your body is over working to digest the milk without the enzymes.

So what does this have to do with night terrors? Well, a year after starting my one son on raw milk I went to the doctor about my other son, he was 3 yrs. old and having at least three night terrors a night about 20 minutes each and I was exhausted. The doctor said sometimes night terrors go hand in hand with food allergies and suggested taking milk out of his diet. I instead change him over to a raw milk diet as and all night terrors stopped. I was not having the entire family drink raw milk previous because it had to be purchased out of state, I live in NC, and it is expensive.

Since we started the raw milk my son has had a few night terrors, but his schedule was really off and we were out of town and off our routine.

I know you wrote this a long time ago but I assume you still have struggles with this since my oldest has been struggling for years. I hope this can answer some of your questions or anyone else who is struggling with milk reactions.

I would just stop the milk and see what happens.

My son started biting around 8-9 months and we were able to put a stop to it pretty quickly by using a firm no and just telling him if he bit, the booboo would be taken away. He has done it accidentally while dozing off and clenching, but otherwise, a consistent reprimand like that worked over 2-3 months. Still nursing at 26 months, so we got past that!

I was leary of cow's milk because I am sensitive to it and my son was very colicy. The first few times I gave it to him, similar problems that you mention. We've dealt with the night terrors and such anytime he's teething or overly tired or stimulated. I think it's fairly normal, but if you start reading up on milk, dairy production-you'll get grossed out really quickly and see that milk can be the culprit of a lot of dietary and behavioral problems.

I give him Organic Soy and Almond milk. He tried soy once and loved it so much that we stuck with it. I know many people are concerned about soy and it's preferable to use organic soy to avoid any gmo ingredients. If you're continuing the breastfeeding, soy, almond, hemp, any organic milk alternative should provide enough nutrients and a fun alternative for sippy cup or bottle drinking when not nursing. I have a friend that get raw milk directly from an organic dairy, she swears by it-I haven't personally tried that.

I would try some milk alternatives and even small amounts of juice and water for other drinks.