I will be the first to put my hand up and admit that when I was younger I had little tolerance for those children with 'allergies'. I thought it was over sensitive parents looking for something to fuss about for the little one. Since becoming a parent, I have quickly realised how ignorant I had been. Having a son or daughter with any kind of allergy or intolerance can be very difficult.
A short list of foods account for about 90 per cent of food allergies: milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy and wheat. Our story is about Milk.
In our situations, I had been ebf for almost 6 months, then with the decision to introduce a formula feed once a day we quickly realised somehing was a miss. Vomiting EVERYWHERE within 15 minutes of swallowing the cows milk based formula feed, made me quicky realise we had a problem.So next day we brought our son to the GP and were told it was just a co-incidence he vomited and told it was just a tummy bug, and keep going with the introduction of formula. When the vomiting continued later that day and again on the same feed the following day, it was a case of back to the GP. This time we met an out of hours doctor who we had not met before. He was very helpful and suggested it may be an allergy and so prescribed a non cows milk based formula. From then on we have been advised many things by many people; some in the medical profession, some from a homeopathic background, other mums, and then everyone else who likes to share their tupennny's worth.
Overall I found, and still find it a really difficult task to get assistance and information. I realise milk intolerance or allergy is not any way as serious as other allergies and here in lies the descripiencies. Reseach and Professionals cannot seem to agree. This has confirmed in my heart that, like everything about a child, each child is unique and individual. Its a mothers instinct that knows not to take the first bit of advice. It can be a lonely journey and sometimes i'm questioning my sanity; maybe i'm that fussy parent looking for something to fuss about? But No, when my son is struggling to breath at night due to a spoon of yogurt earlier that day, I know to stop. I know that this gentle introduction of dairy, called the The Oral Food Challenge (http://ifan.ie/milk/oral-food-challenges/) is not working so we were back to square one.
It's been a tricky journey but here's what we do: Avoid ALL dairy! Yes ALL. We have become experts at finding subsitutes for all the typical, and even non typical dairy food your child may enjoy.
The symptions our son gets if even the smallest bit of daiy has accidently gotten into his diet that day: begins with a runny nose and by bed time his beathing gets very shallow. One time we woke him from his sleep, afraid he was not going to take his next breath.
The diagnosis: Having seen homeopaths and a few GP's and then a pediatric consultant that yes, he thinks its an allergy and we are now waiting to see a paediatric allergy specialist in the new Year. However, despite the outcome of this day, I know dairy does not like our son, and our son doesn't like dairy. Its that simple really.
The solution: We ensure dairy is excluded from his diet. We have swapped cows milk for coconut or almond milk (luckily we found fresh almond milk), butter for cocount oil or sunflower butter and chocolate for Dairy free chocloate. After that we make sure products do not contain dairy and that's it. The hardest part was educating other adults our son may be with if we are not, such as Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, Childminders or Babysitters. Everyone means well but there have been some mistakes, these have been tough but once addressed it becomes clear that he is being punished not treated by giving him dairy.
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| Our favourite dairy free Ice-cream 'No bó' (No Cow) |
Personally I find following blogs and getting advice from other parents with similiar experiences is what has helped our family adjust. Dairy Free Kids is a blog I religiously follow and find brilliant. There are so many myths and old wives tales out there. My advice to any parent unsure about whether your son or daughter has an allergy or intolerance is to stick to your gut feeling. Avoid the food and note any differences. This way you have evidence of differences in your childs health or behaviuor and you will not question yourself when asked by a health care professional.
With our son now 3 1/2 it has taken 3 years for us to figure the whole thing out, or some part at least. And with preschool, school, friends, birthday parties etc all around the corner God only knows how we'll cope! Deep breaths, deep breath......it'll be grand! He loves strawberries......of course he will say no thank you to ice-cream, chocolate and tayto's at birthday parties.....wont he!!!
In the meantime I'm bursting my backside making and baking dairy free alternatives! Keep an eye on 'Country Cooking' tab in the blog for recipes.
Don't forget you can keep up to date with both us countryside mums on facebook and instagram. We'd love you to drop by and say hi x
Until next time,
Kerri and Orla xx
Some helpfull websites and blogs on allergies and Dairy Free:
