Since Jake was born he has never taken to the milk given to him. He always seemed to bring back the majority of what he was drinking. At just a few days old we were advised to give him little and often. We did this it improved a few days but then he was like before. As well as this he was constipated and would often be in pain, similar to the symptoms of colic baby. Pulling up his legs and screaming with a very hard tummy.
Several weeks later the health visitor advised comfort milk explaining that it is easier to digest and may help him. Again this worked brilliantly for a few days but then symptoms were just like before, but with Jake putting on weight and maintaining his 50th percentile line nobody seemed to be concerned.
We decided after some research to change to Infasoy milk, he seemed to digest this better and keep it down. Although his skin seemed to be red and his ezcema seemed to worsen. He was a happy boy and gaining weight.
At four months Jake was weaned, early for some but his older brother was the same age. Jake was also now on the move and it was hard to stop him grabbing his older brothers food, who also didn’t understand why eh couldn’t share.
A few weeks into weaning Jake tried a jar of baby rice pudding. He then went down for a nap and I left him asleep with his Grandma whilst I visited a friend. Thirty minutes later I received a panicked phone call from my mum saying he has woken up, his body was swollen and covered in hives and the back of his head near a gland a swelling the size of a golf ball appeared. We rushed him to the emergency doctor who treated it as an allergic reaction. We were then scared to try him with foods. Slowly again I re-introduced him with small foods at a time as advised by my own doctor who told me they would not yet carry any tests out!
A few weeks later, Jake tried a fromage frais yoghurt. He was fine and I got him ready for bed and luckily he fell asleep on the settee, we decided he was fine there with us whilst his brother was in their room struggling to settle. I am so glad I did because, he stirred and as I went to settle him his face had swollen up again but this time his eyes were puffed out like he had been in a ten-round fight in a boxing ring!
I immediately gave him the medication we were given from the previous doctor but for over 24 hours his face remained the same.
As it was the weekend I had to wait to speak t our doctors, I chose to see a different doctor this time and supported by my health visitor I pushed for some help and support and was referred to a paediatrician.
This paediatrician was fab, understood and listened to all we had to say looked at photos we had taken of Jake and with the fact that I had an egg allergy as a child, asthma and suffered with eczema, as well as Mark having a nut allergy they decided it was highly likely he had an allergy and that we should test Jake for a Milk and Egg Allergy.
We were sent to the waiting room to read up some information about the Skin prick tests. It involved little pricks into Jakes arms with a little does of substances, he was tested for powdered milk, pure milk, egg yolk and egg white and it was found he was allergic to all!
We were advised to have prescription based milk where the protein had be broken down the body didn’t quite recognise as milk. If this didn’t work we were then told to try another option. Luckily he has taken to it. He has been given hydrocortisone cream for his severe eczema outbreaks. To keep his skin moisturised with diprobase cream and to always carry a bottle of piriton around with us for any emergencies.
The first few weeks were very hard, Jake vomited lots and we were not sure if it was the milk or foods we were introducing him to, so our local doctor suggested trying him back on the soya milk but his eczema and skin redness always seemed worse. Looking back now I think his body just didn’t get chance to clear out the stuff it disliked and have chance to get use to the new stuff.
Jake then got the dreaded Chicken Pox, quite severe and ended up in hospital. I will talk about that on another page, but from this and the food allergies he dropped in weight and to me, looked very fragile and weak. He was now down to the 25th percentile. One bonus about his time in hospital was that his body had a sort of detox, so he was then able to take his NEW milk better and it seemed to agree very well with him.
We also met with the dietician, who discussed with us his allergies, foods and their often disguised labels that we had to avoid. She also talked with us about Soya and we felt we were unsure if Soya was the reason for his eczema. She explained that it had the same protein make up as milk and that it could be and that she recommended cutting that from his diet and to see if it would improve. IT HAS!
It has been an interesting few months of finding out what foods he can have as well as what he likes and he still cannot tell us. We often think we have cracked it to find that one day we are covered in projectile vomit, but I feel we are nearly there and it has been a very interesting journey. We have to send him out with packed lunches if people are looking after him as they can be scared of what to feed him, but we are finding more and more things and everyone is getting more and more confident.
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