Your baby’s immune system is designed to protect them from harmful invaders. But at times, the immune system wrongly recognises a food protein as being one of these harmful invaders and tries to eliminate them, thus causing an allergy. The same thing happens in a cow’s milk allergy. While it is best to introduce cow’s milk after a year, many babies may accept it after 6 months without any fuss or allergic reactions. Nevertheless, you must know that close to 7% of the babies do experience an ailment known as milk allergy. This is because their digestive and immune system has not yet developed fully to accept the strong proteins, vitamins, minerals, and lactose present in the cow’s milk.
Symptoms of milk allergy
The symptoms of milk allergy can be divided into two types – immediate and delayed. Even if don’t notice any allergic reaction in your baby after feeding him cow’s milk, we recommend you to wait for 2 hours to about 2 days to see if he is showing any signs of discomfort. Some of the symptoms that you can watch out for are:
- Vomiting and diarrhoea (sometimes, your baby can experience a delayed onset of diarrhoea 2 days after drinking cow’s milk)
- Skin problems (itches, rashes, redness, hives, and eczema)
- Respiratory problems such as wheezing and noisy breathing
- Stomach pain
- Swelling in the body or any body part (a rare symptom that need immediate medical help)
To confirm if your baby is allergic to cow’s milk, you could note down these symptoms, whenever they occur and have a detailed discussion with your paediatrician about the same. They would then conduct certain tests such as blood tests and skin prick tests to confirm the allergy.
Managing your child’s milk allergy
If you are breastfeeding
- If you consume cow’s milk, it could pass on to your baby while you are nursing him. Therefore, it is important that you eliminate cow milk-related products from your diet right away to see if there is a positive change in your baby’s allergic reaction.
If your baby is formula fed.
- The doctor may suggest a specialised formula milk, in which the protein is broken down into tiny pieces so it isn’t recognised by your baby’s immune system.
If you suspect your baby is suffering from cow’s milk allergy, it is best to consult your paediatrician and follow their advice on the same.
