Many mums ask me how I discovered my daughter Emily had allergies. When Emily was about 4 months, she was feeding every hour in the night. One night, I tried to top her up with a bottle of baby formula. She only took 10ml and went back to bed. The next time I breastfed her she vomited back the whole feed. At the same time she had reflux symptoms and eczema. The vomiting made me suspect that she hadn’t liked the bottle.
At 6 months I confirmed the milk allergy by trying her again with formula and baby rice. This time she came up with hives on her face and hands within a minute. A short time later she vomited everything she had eaten.
I went to my GP and told her what had happened. She said it sounded like Emily was allergic to milk and referred me to an allergist. From then, I avoided giving her anything with dairy.
I discovered my daughters allergies at 6 months when giving her her first feed of formula she got hives around the mouth and started swelling … I should have picked it up earlier as from breastfeeding she would wake up after naps with hives which I thought were bed bugs (bit naive I know) … I had a hard time breast feeding and she has been on reflux medication from 3 months (she is 18 months now) … Thanks heaps for your cookbook and blog – look forward to trying the chocolate mudcake 😉