My 18Month Old Is Allergic to Milk!!! What Do I Do???

I have two sons both of whom were allergic to cow's milk. After I stopped breast feeding them, I gave them goat's milk and they drank that for years, and did just fine with it. I hope this helps you.

My 21 month old is allergic to milk, soy, eggs, and wheat. We had her allergy tested (its a blood test). We give her enriched rice milk that she likes. Good luck! I know how you feel!

My husband was very allergic to cows milk when he was young and his parents gave him goats milk. Also, my ped. said that any milk (rice milk, etc.) that is enriched with calcium is fine for children that are sensitive to cows milk. My daughter also cannot have cows milk due to a sensitivity.

HI W.,
I have issues with milk as well, and use almond milk has my replacement. There is only 20% calcium in it, but it does have a small amount.
As for ways for her to get calcium, give her plenty of steamed leafy green veggies. They are very high in calcium. Also, water has lots of calcium if you just use a simple filter such as the Brita filter. Finally, I believe many of the health food stores carry "whole food" vitamins that are from plant sources instead of dairy. You'll just have to do some label reading.
You are wise to stay away from soy. It's a phytoestrogen and consuming this product could force your daughter into early puberty.

How bad is the allergy? Did you get the blood tests that confirm the allergy? Do you HAVE to eliminate milk/dairy? Does your daughter have issues with it, or just a runny nose
?
My 9 month old daughter is allergic to cow's milk. We have her on a special formula (Neocate) that is expensive. It is hypo-allergenic (no soy/no milk). They have a toddler formula/drink with all of the vitamins they need. I'm not sure what your insurance covers....from the sounds of it, probably not much! There are vitamin drops or even a multi-tablet WITH iron. I would start giving her food/snacks high in iron (Cheerios, various snacks for toddlers, meat, etc).

My son is moderately allergic to milk, but we haven't eliminated dairy from his diet. It has never been a problem with him.

It is a challenge making sure they get what they need, because alot of things contain milk. Good luck, it will get better when you figure it out :)

We too dealt with a milk allergy with our now 38 year old son. I realize that there are a lot of changes since then, but we did use a soy based formula for our son. When talking to our pediatrician about his needs, we were told that he should eat plenty of his fruits, vegetables and meats and should get plenty of protein through those. You may also qualify for WIC and can get your formulas through there. She may or may not be able to use formula at this age, but again, you can just make sure that she is getting the protein through her other foods. Good luck.

Hi, I have an 18 month old who is not allergic, but just decided one day he doesn't like it anymore. He absolutly refuses to drink it. So we have replaced the vitamins he needs with other items such as cheese, and yougart. We buy the yogart that comes in a squeeze tube for the kids and freeze them. He loves it. Ice cream is also a great source of calcium but some can be high in sugar. Look for kids juices and snacks a lot of them come with added calcium. If all dairy is a problem and not just milk there are plenty of other foods that are high in calcium like black beans, nanvy beans, corn tortillas, orange juice, tofu, some cereals, salmon, and some leafy green veggies like kale and spinach. Soy is also high in calcium. Our pediatrician told us not to worry about him not drinking milk, the doctor said also that if he would not take the other things to give him a childrens vitamin. They have ones that are chewable and also ones that look like fruit snacks or gummy bears.

There are many Ped's that take Medi-cal, you need to contact Medi-cal to get the name of Ped's on their list.

We are not a "dairy" family and not one of my four children have ever had cows milk and not one of my four children have ever had a problem with getting the vitamins/nutrients thye need. If you are feeding your daughter whole foods, fresh veggies, fruits, real meats, etc. then she will get her majority of vitamins/nutrients from that. Green veggies give great sources of iron and calcium. You are right though, SOy is not the best choice. I have my children on Rice Milk and it has never given us a problem. I can honestly say that my kids are doing great! They are off the charts with growth and developement, my two oldest are both excelling in school beyond their grades levels, etc. Cows produce milk for baby cows, we are the only species that will continue to drink milk once weened from our mother's, besides a cat that will drink milk all day, but that is a different story! So, just do your research on the best whole foods that you can give her and try her on Rice Mil, it is great!

W. :)

I am right there with you. I have a daughter that did not like the taste of milk what I found is that the formula Step 2 is for the children that are 18-24 months and I was giving my daughter that and the doctor stated that as long as I am also giving her vitimans along with the formula than she should be getting enough of everything that she needs. You might want to try the formula that is for 18-24 month olds. I am not sure of where you live but you might want to check in on the WIC program in your area they help out on formula and other things for the family. Good Luck and God Bless. Thank you for all of your service to our country.
M.

Have you had her allergy tested? We thought our little one had a milk protein allergy and it ended up that she just had problems digesting it. After weaning her slowly onto milk, she has been fine with it. Also, yogurt and cheese is a little easier to digest and provides them with the calcium and vitamins. If she can't have milk products at all...maybe just a well rounded diet and a multivitamin? Ask your ped.

PS I have a Siena too :)Great name!

oh man she needs a pediatrician quick. where do you live if its in so cal get on iehp for her thats a great health plan (my daughter is on it). for the milk my niece is also allergic to milk and is drinking soy milk. she takes a vitamin everyday poly vi sol by enfamil. there are some long term affects soy can do because of the estrogen in it. but if shes only drinking the milk and eating some soy yogurt and cheese here and there then she should be ok. you can look up ways to get the needed vitamins in her. good luck.

Hi W.,
My son is allergic to the protein in milk also. I used soy formula (prosoybe) until he was about 2 years old. Then I switched to Soy Milk - vanilla flavored - with added calcium and vitamins. I buy it from Trader Joes. My son is 16 and still has this allergy. but he is doing great - he's over 6 ' tall. Soy milk is readily available from grocery stores now - back then it was a little more difficult to find. Also read labels, milk
and whey is found in many products including cereals and bread. He can tolerate a small amount - for example he can eat 3 oreo cookies, but if he sneaks a 4th one, he will be sick. I hope your child outgrows this allergy. They often do.
Best of luck,
Linda

As a baby, I was allergic to milk also and my mom found I could drink goat's milk, so I was raised on that. Somewhere in my toddler years, I outgrew my allergy and began drinking cow's milk. I am still mildly lactose intolerant, but thankfully, not allergic. I was also allergic to egg yolks (not the whites) and outgrew that as well. Good Luck.

I know you've seen many responses regarding the milk. I just wanted to suggest that perhaps you look into Healthy Families program, very very low cost health insurance for children and much better than medi-cal. Depending on your income, monthly premiums can be around $10/month with $5 office visits and emergency. Many options to choose from (Kaiser, Blue Cross, Health Net...etc), I'm on that for 3 of my children as my employer does not cover insurance for family. I've got a great peditrican in Torrance who accepts that insurance. For more info, please do a search under Healthy Families of California.

Hi W.,

No lecturing here, no telling you what not to or what to definitely do. Unfortunately that happens a lot on this site and it makes me angry for the women who post. All I will provide is my personal experience.

My nearly 4 year old is allergic to milk confirmed by blood tests when she was only 2 months old. Her allergy was so severe she was unable to take in even enough breast milk to gain weight properly as an infant. At a check up at 2 months old she was no longer on the growth chart in the negative direction for weight. We switched her to soy formula and she thrived. Within a month she was in the 50%ile for weight and since then has consistently been in the 75th%ile to the 90th%ile. When she was a year and it was time to move from formula, we switched to soy milk. I have concerns about soy products since soy is a natural estrogen, but after about 6 months (at 18 months) she started taking in less and I'm less concerned. My daughter eats lots of vegetables. The darker the vegetable the better the nutrients. Beans can also be a good natural source of vitamins and nutrients and we are lucky she likes those too. She also drinks four ounces of fortified orange juice a day. It's the only juice she's allowed so she enjoys it and it gives me peace of mind regarding calcium intake.

My experience with yogurt and cheese is, since she truly is allergic to milk and doesn't have just a sensitivity or a lactose intolerance, we have to use milk free products with that too. She eats tofutti cheese and soy yogurt. (Some veggie cheeses have milk in them). Again, because my daughter is actually allergic, she can't even eat baked goods with milk.

Good luck. It gets easier after you find a group of staple foods that provide the nutrients we all worry about. My daughter is a good eater who enjoys many foods non-allergy kids usually won't eat. She's smart, beautiful, and on track with all the growth and development milestones.

My baby sister was alergic to milk..often time they do outgrow it... There are formulas made with soy that are the same as regular fomulas..one I recall was "soylac" I am sure there are others out there. My is was also alergic to chocolate......well she is 40 now..and that definately is NOT an problem any more..LOL

Good luck, CR

I don't have an answer to your daughter's milk allergy. I just wanted to say i'm sorry. After you and your husband served this country I really think you deserve better than medi-cal. Good luck finding your answer.

My son is allergic to both dairy and soy. I give him hypoallergenic formula. I get Similac Alimentum and I order it by the case from www.i-medica.com I save about $10 a can doing it that way. It isn't an inexpensive option but it works. Just in general, when you wean a child from breastmilk or formula, you aren't supposed to wean them to cow's milk or soy milk. You are supposed to wean them to a balanced diet with cow's milk or soy milk as a beverage. BUT, not every 1 year old is ready for that (mine certainly wasn't and cow or soy milk was out of the question). You can certainly get calcium, protein and fat (and other nutrients) from other sources but it is difficult to do it without some "milk" source and that is why I went to the hypoallergenic formula (he was breastfed until 18 months - and I had to be completely dairy and soy free until he weaned). If she was tolerating formula before, I'd suggest putting her back on whatever she was drinking or a follow up formula.

There are obviously other types of milks you can give a child. We tried rice milk but it doesn't have a lot of nutrients, not much protein or fat and it constipated my son. Oat milk tastes like cardboard and he wouldn't touch it (and has the same issues as rice milk). My son didn't tolerate goats milk either (cow, goat and soy milk all have very similar protein structures and it isn't unusual for a child who doesn't tolerate one to not be able to tolerate the others). At least with the formula I know he's getting a good balance of the nutrients I want him to have. And that is nice. He's a good eater, eats healthy and all that. But no toddler eats a balanced diet every day. It is nice to have a "milk" source to help round out their diet.

:-)T.

My son was allergic to milk, and I used rice milk.
I discovered this around 15 months, and it was confirmed with tests. Anyway, we used rice milk from that time, and he still drinks it today even though he has since outgrown the allergy. He'll be four in two weeks.
Rice milk is fortified with calcium, but you may also want to look on line for other non-dairy foods that offer calcium as well. Good luck!

J.

My little sister had a similar reaction to milk when she was a baby and we ended up giving her goat's milk. I'm not sure if the goat's milk contains all of the nutrients your daughter needs but it's definitely something to look into. Best of luck!

My son could was also alergic to gluten (wheat protein) and casein (milk protein), it's not as uncommon as you may think. We used rice milk. Many mom's I know with the same situation also used alond milk. He did eventually grow out of it after seven years, sounds like a long time but it's really not. Careful of the soy as that can have a lot of alergies as well. There use to be some good groups on Yahoo with lots of support.

Well to start off there is Lactaid that is a milk product but has lactaid in it so kids who are allergic can have this milk and get all vitiamins needed.

Also I have dealt with medi-cal and Healthy families. so email me at ____@____.com and we can talk about it all.

Medical has changed as of Jan 1 2009 so the only doctors really available are clinics that see a mass of people everyday. So really all you can do is on your own is get the list of doctors from medical and start calling and finding only the peds drs and then seeing which one fits your family best. good luck.

Hello there. I was told that my 18 month old was also allergic to milk. Its not dairy either its the protein that you find in milk. Soy still have the same milk protein and will conterreact with the allergy. In this being said I was told to give my son Rice Milk and he is doing SOOO much better. He is more active more talkative and most important he's not congested and sick all the time. It was hard in the beginning thinking I had to cut out all dairy but that wasn't the case. Also orange juice or just a vitamin could also boost the vitamins your child may need. I myself need to get my son on some vitamins but choosing which ones is the question. Maybe I should post that question next. Take care and hope all is well!

W.,

Wise mom to be asking for help on this. Soy is not a good alternative but there are others for when you want a milk like beverage: rice, almond, hemp (surprisingly this is the best alternative as it has more calcium, protein, and other needed things). Most of the families that I know with this problem that are still using formula will use Neocate. Great for those with allergies.

On another note that is probably related is what to do about vaccinations especially if you are not seeing a pediatrician. You have the right to vaccinate or not to vaccinate your child. You also never want to have any shots when she is sick, on antibiotics, or to catch up and get multiple shots. These shots could be causing food allergies because they stir up the immune system to attack what is in the shot, which sometimes has egg, dairy, wheat in the culture. You will get resistance from a doctor and they will even try to make you feel like you are doing the wrong thing, but please, do the research, know what you are injecting into your baby. In the military there is an even higher rate of autism, asthma, food allergies, and may have to do (I have a stronger opinion than this but trying to be pc about it) with vaccinations and record keeping.

For starting your own research on this:

www.909shot.org
www.tacanow.org (go to Vaccine section on left)
www.generationrescue.com

The Vaccine Book, by Dr. Robert Sears
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Childhood Vaccinations, by Dr. Stephanie Cave
Harm of Evidence, by David Kirby

Both of my boys are allergic to milk (and all dairy products)yes, the protein. We have always used soy milk, (after they turned 1 year that is). Before the age of 12 months, yes, soy milk does not have the nutritional needs, (Nor does cow milk) they still need breast milk or formula. But at 18 months, soy milk is fine. It has the same amount of calcium and vitamin D as cow's milk. You just have to make sure you are buying the fortified soy milk. The only thing they are not getting that they would get from whole milk is the FAT. So you will need to make sure she is getting healthy fats from another source, that is good for brain growth. My boys are now 8 and 5 and they have thrived on soy milk all along. Look for WestSoy brand, it is a healthy one. It is on the shelf, not in the refrigerated section. There are some out there that have a lot of additives that are not good so check the labels. And again, make sure you get the calcium fortified version. Also someone mentioned rice milk, that is good too just look for the one w/ added calcium. We get the vanilla version (soy and rice milk has that) it's good.

There might be something in the milk that your child is allergic to. Try goats milk. (Aphodopholis). My cousin was on it, and had no problems at all. When they moved out of state, he was able to drink milk. Something to think about.

J.

First of all, I'm not a pediatrician, but I do know that goats milk, rice, almond milk are great substitutes for cows milk. Having said that, I also know that the almond and rice milk don't provide enough nutrients and vitamins. Having said THAT, if she's eating a balanced diet with plenty of fruits, veggies, proteins, and grains, she should be ok. I'm assuming she's also allergic to cheese, what about yogurt?-www.weelicious.com

rice or almond milk
soy products aren't all processed like soy milk
my son loves tofu, soy beans
many veg have calcium

I hope this will be of use to you, however it won't be cheap. I breast fed my daughter until she was 15 months old, after that tried to give her milk, which made her very sick. We tried all kinds of formula including soy, no luck. She got to the point that the doctor wanted to hospitalize her. Finally, he told me to give her goat's milk, which is sold in the market.... it worked and my daughter thrived and drank it until she was 10 years old. It costs twice as much as milk, but it was the right thing for her. Try it for a few weeks, and make sure your baby is getting infant vitamins also. Good luck, my daughter is now a healthy adult and is pregnant. I also could not drink milk as a baby,I was diagnosed with 'Celiac' disease and lived on cottage cheese and bananas until I was 4. Research that one, and watch for wheat gluten intolerance also. I was able to drink lowfat milk later in life, but still have to watch wheat and dairy together. I react with a stuffy nose, which is not good for a singer (which is my profession). My daughter is planning to breast feed as she expects that her baby will have a problem as both of us did. Good luck to you.

I am not sure about the vitamins but you should look into the list of foods that have calcium.
What I do know is I give my son all goat mill products which have smaller molecules and are much more digestable- goat cheese, goat yogurt and there is goat milk but it is harder to find. Also I agree on the down side of Soy and give my 19 month old rice milk and almond milk. Good luck!

W.,

It's okay...take a deep breath. I am a single Mom and it is greatly stressful when you lose your medical. Have you tried applying for Medi-Cal? There is an office in Lancaster:
http://dpss.lacounty.gov/dpss/offices/34-lancaster.cfm

Even if you don't qualify your child should, and they cover ALL pediatric expenses...I used this for my son for the year I was unemployed without reliable insurance. They can help you find a pediatrician in your area and it's fairly easy, just have a whole day to dedicate to the process because it is lenghty.

Also, my son takes a multi-vitamin by enfamil that comes with or without iron and I put it in his water and that is something our Pedi recommended at one year when he started eating finger foods, and jarred foods.

As for the milk allergy, there are alternatives to dairy that can be great. Rice Milk, Almond Milk and others check out:

http://www.tastethedream.com/products/rice_dream.php

http://www.mcrh.org/Milk-Allergy/

http://www.webmd.com/allergies/guide/milk-allergy

The best thing to do is to find a good diet plan that keeps dairy out of your baby's diet without comprimising protein. Please don't hesitate to get assistance for your son so he gets proper medical care...my son had serious breathing development issues and Medi-Cal helped immensely.

Best of Luck!

My son is allergic to milk as well. I give him in the soy milk. I also give him polyvisol vitamins. I am very careful to make sure that he eats enough fruits and veggies. I give him avocados so he gets some of the good fats he would have gotten in the whole milk. I also give him soy yogurt and vegan cheeses. This helps him get some of the nutrients he would have gotten in normal diary items. Henry's and whole foods are good places to shop for diary free items. They also carry diary free bread.

First, don't worry. There are plenty of other ways to get calcium. MANY people are intolerant. You could try NAET it is an allergy elimination technique and it has done wonders for us and many others. Check it out...www.naet.com

good luck!

Hi W.,
I don't know the extent of your daughter's allergy, but I'll just give the information that was helpful to me.
If the allergy is just milk and not all dairy, then you could give her yogurt. Yogurt actually has more calcium than milk, plus it has lots of friendly bacteria and protein as well. Yogurt can often times be tolerated when milk cannot. This is because of the organisms in yogurt that actually sort of predigest the protein, making it more tolerable. My son had milk sensitivities, so I gave him lots of plain yogurt with fresh fruit and he did great. I wish I could remember the info a little better, but that's the gist of it.
I wish you well.
M.

Do some research online, there are tons of other ways to get vitimans & nutrients including calcium besides cows milk. In fact, cows milk isnt even really necessary as part of any human's diet.
Check out askdrsears.com and drjaygordon.com, both have great alternatives to cows milk.

I give my two girls, who HATE milk and yogurt, a calcium supplement. They LOVE the ones from Costco, which look and taste like gummy bears, but they are sour (they are not sour, they are just called that, I tasted them a bunch of times, and they are covered in sugar and no sourness at all) and they can have two a day. I couldn't get my 2 year old to chew the flinstone thingys, and then when I found out they loved these, it was a win-win. Good luck.

If she's dairy allergic there's a good chance she might be allergic to soy as well. So that might your bigger culprit. Not only do you need a pediatrician, get an allergist and get a battery of tests run. And then see a nutritionist who can give you some ideas on things to get her to eat. You need to find out if she's allergic to just cow's milk because you might be able to substitute goats milk which is gentler on the stomach but harder to find and more expensive.

Minute Maid OJ makes one the has calcium in it, just make sure you shake the bottle real well before you pour it. I drink it because I'm lactose intolerant and get a nasty case of cramps when I've had too much dairy
Citacal has a nice chart of things with calcium in in:
http://www.citracal.com/Calcium/Foods/Vegetables.aspx

With vitamins, make sure you read the label for milk by-products to prevent a reaction.

You might also want to look through various allergy and food allergy websites to get some good ideas and network:
http://www.foodallergy.org/
http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/

there are also websites that are dedicated for providing access to allergen free foods:
http://allergygrocer.com/

Best of luck on getting help!
D.