Cow's Milk Allergy

My 7 months old has cow's milk allergy. Wanna hear from parents on how to handle this allergy. What is recommended? Thanks.

Our now very healthy 8 year old had the same problem as a baby. P'n'S and Wellcome both have a soya milk formula for babies which he took to no problem. (Although no prizes for guessing it's more expensive than the regular formula!).

My son has a severe cow's milk allergy. First time he tried formula at 4 months he had 1 sip and we ended up in emergency and spent the night in hospital!! Not fun!


He has a special hypo-allergenic formula that the Dr at the allergy clinic (in Sydney) prescribed him which we give him on his cereal or when I am not around but to be safe (and save our precious formula) I am still breast feeding him.

It's a constant worry, checking everything we buy for dairy. We also have adrenalin for him in case we have another emergency but hopefully we'll never have to use it.


We have found dairy free margarine which is great on his toast and sandwiches etc. Next time we go back to Aust I will get him retested and hopefully he will have grown out of it. He's now 14 months. His sister also had milk allergy and she has grow out of it now (hers was not anywhere near as bad tho). My daughter had a reaction to milk and ice cream but was able to eat yoghurt and cheese. Have you tried these for a reaction??


Not sure if i've helped any.....

My daugter has an allergic reaction to cow's milk and so she has rice milk, i was warned off soy due to the 'possible' links with cancer.


Again it's available at Taste, Citysuper and some Wellcomes for about $17 per litre.

On the issue of coping . . . the main thing is to make sure there's adequate nutrition. You need to replace calcium, protein, and oil soluble vitamins that are found in milk. Learn about nutrition and use alternate sources. Calcium is a biggie and hard to replace enough, but you can give it in chewable form. For general table foods that the family will enjoy (e.g. gravies, milk for cereal), substitute oat, rice, almond and soy milk according to taste. Sorry to say, I've only found oat milk in the big City Super and Oliver's in HK. Those stores also have the rice and soy cheese (rice tastes better). Mother's Choice is a brand of non-dairy margarine you cna find in normal stores (read the label as always, don't take anyone's word for it!). I think I saw some rice milk recently at Aussino's. Check the expat stores.


I'd advise don't push the dairy! I made the mistake of trying to push dairy on my child who was allergic. (Doctors kept telling me she wasn't allergic because it didn't show up on skin testing, so they said it was just lactose intolerance; then oops, she's hospitalized and all of the sudden they tell me that skin testing is not reliable and it must be allergy after all, I felt like going ballistic!) Anyway, I suspect the small quantities I exposed her to over the years made the allergies worse. I'd advise not pushing dairy at all! Just eliminate it for several years and see if maybe the child will desensitize over time? Anyway, that's not scientific.

PS Your child doesn't have the same taste buds you and I do because they haven't been trained yet -- For example, she may be quite happy with dry toast or toast spread with something else, same with many foods made with dairy and cheese.

My son was intolerant to dairy milk, soya milk, and goats and sheeps milk as a baby. For several years he had a hypo allergenic formula called pregestamil. Disgusting and expensive, but luckily our local health authority paid for it in the UK. After that he switched to Rice Milk, which was only available in 1 shop when we first came out here. Luckily its now readily available. He has outgrown his intolerance now, and eats the same as us, even if i make something with cream or milk, but he still drinks rice milk as his main drink.

First of all, check the diagnosis with a knowledgeable doctor. There are many who quickly say this without backup. Is it an allergy per se or a sensitivity? How was the diagnosis made? Is your wife still breastfeeding? If so, then this will be So much better/easier for your little girl and for Mum too.



There is SO much info on the internet. Google it and be amazed!