Milk Allergy Symptoms in Toddlers

Morethelikely it is a virus, it is that time of season (still) and may take awhile to work out of his system... the rash could also be from this.

Give it a few days to work out of his system... keep an eye on it and if it does not 'clear' up in a week then look into possiblity of allergy/intolerant to milk or something else.

I have a 3 year old in my day care who can not drink milk. He can have cheese and other dairy products but not milk. He was on milk based formula when he was a infant, but when we switched him to whole milk the nasty "blow out" diapers started, along with horrible diaper rash. We put him on Stage 2 formula for the next year and had no problems. Again when we switched him to regular milk the diarrhea started again. Our solution was soy milk. We have him on Silk Soy and have no problems....
Good luck

Honestly sounds like rotavirus... The smelliest nastiest diapers you'll ever change. I'm betting your husband and you had this but it's mild in adults and hits little one's alot harder.

My daughter is being tested for this right now. She's 4mo.old and has had diarreha for 11 days straight now. They did blood work and stool samples last week at the doctors. We got a prescription for a diaper rash called Poop Goop and boy does it work well. My daughter is happy too and all smiles but is pooping ALOT like pure liquid and at one point we were changing her 3-5X a hour.

I would doubt a milk allergy this far after switching to milk.

My opinion is that it is not an allergy. My 14month old has a milk and egg allergy and reacts with a spotty rash and puffy lips, not diarrhea. If it does have something to do with milk, I think it is more likely a milk intolerance. I also disagree with the person that said that milk protein comes through breast milk. I am still nursing my 14 month old that has a milk allergy and she does not react to my breast milk... and I drink/eat a lot of dairy myself.

It totally could be. The rash on his belly could be eczema. My son (who has a milk allergy) had a rash on his back and belly when it all first started...and he was only getting dairy through my breast milk. I showed it to the doctor...assuming she'd say, 'oh, that's heat rash'...because that is exactly how it looked...and she said that it was eczema. Evidentally, it looks very, very similar in the beginning. It takes a while for eczema to get crusty looking. You could try going off dairy for him for a few weeks (it takes a little while to be completely out of the system) and see how he does. The asthma and allergy clinic at Children's hospital has been a great resource for us. Good luck!

Yes, diarrhea can be a symptom of a food allergy/intolerance. I would switch him over to goat's milk and see if the symptoms go away. I live in MN, so I don't know where you can get it in Racine, but here, most of the grocery stores do carry it. If you have a co-op or natural food store, they would surely carry it.

It's possible he is not tolerating another food, so if this doesn't clear up w/goat's milk, keep a food journal and see if you notice a pattern.

My own son (13 months) screams and vomits when he drinks cow's milk or soy milk. This reaction is somewhat sporadic, but we just pulled him off of cow's milk completely, and now give him goat's milk. I recommended goat milk's--and not soy milk--for your son, because a lot of toddlers who can not tolerate cow's milk also can not tolerate soy. My son also tolerated milk-based formula and my breastmilk (I eat a lot of dairy) just fine.

I highly doubt its a milk allergy, it sounds like he has rotovirus, the abusurdly smelling diarrhea, rash. Take him to the doctor.

I would suggest taking him into the doctor. If the stinky diahhrea is beyond the normal stinkiness, he could have Rotovirus. There is really no special treatment for it, but it's nice to know as far as contagiousness.

He could be developing a temporary lactose intolerance. Whenever my son had diahhrea, he would develop this. He needed to go off dairy for several days and we would slowly reintroduce it. Meanwhile he would be on the BRAT diet.

It is possible that a lactose intolerance could be developing. Babies do not usually have it, but kids can develop it as they get older. This was the case with my son. He was on regular formula just fine. There are different degrees of the problem. Milk and ice cream are the most diffiult for them. We substitued his milk for Lactaid milk and he does very well. Yogurt, cheese, and cottage cheese do not seem to bother him unless he has a ton of it. Another child/person may not be able to tolerate any of it though. Whatever may be going on with your son, it's good to see the doctor and get the discussions rolling. Hopefully it's just a little bug that he'll recover from shortly. Good luck.

Just another thought - I never agreed with my MIL when she said that teething caused diarrhea. I thought it was an old wives' tale. It never happened for my son until he was older (like around your son's age). Then his diapers when teething were very similar to what you're describing. The smell was unlike anything I ever smelled before.

He also had a rash develop on his stomach, but that turned out to be eczema. Check with your doctor to be sure. But it is winter and eczema tends to flare up with dry weather. Check for red, dry patches behind his knees.

Good luck figuring out what it is!

Hi, my son has the same symptoms when he drinks milk but never when he eats it (in cakes, ice cream, yogurts, etc). It has something to do with the way our cow's milk is processed in the US that causes him problems when he drinks it but never when he "eats" it in foods.

yes, I think could be milk allergy. But just to be sure, why you don't ask a doctor about it.
Is any body in your family have no tolerance for milk???
Because is also genetic.
If I have this problem, I'll go to the doctor.
good luck.

Hi C.,
I know you have already spoken to the Dr. but I just wanted to let you know what happened to us. I have 3 boys 12, 3 and 17 mo. Our 3 yr old is allergic to milk (and eggs). Our 17 month old just had the same thing your child had and then got the rash on his belly. He then got extremely constipated! So watch for that.
If your child had a milk allergy you would know by eczema, itching, bloody or mucusy stools. I think you are safe! Good luck to you.

If your son hasn't had any issues with Milk products in the past I don't believe that there is an issue. You say he has a rash on his tummy. A rash and diaherra could be signs of an infection. My oldest son had the same symptoms and it turned out to be the beginning of scarlet fever. I would recommend that you take your son to the Dr as soon possible. The lack of fever does not mean that he doesnn't have an infection. Neither one of my kids ever ran a fever other then when they got the DPT or MMR shot.

Call your doctor. i really doubt he has a cow's milk allergy. If he had a milk protein sensitivity you would have had a fussy baby while you breastfed because milk protein goes thru the breastmilk. It causes stomach gas and cramping, so kids generally have "collic" and cry a lot. If he were developing a lactose intolerance, I would have thought you would have seen it already. How much regular milk (and other dairy products) is he getting each day? if you want to see without testing, cut it all out (dairy - milk, cheese, yogurt, icecream, and other obvious forms of it). Keep him off of it for a week or so and see if it goes away. If it does, you could slowly reinstroduce it (SLOWLY!!!) and see if it returns. But if flu is going around he could just have some bacteria in there that isn't normlaly there.

but I would call, especially on the rash!
Good luck!