Give cow's milk to an infant and he is going to grow healthy and strong. Is it true or false?? This is a good question. Humans are the only mammals on the planet who keep consuming milk after the weaning from the mother. Furthermore, humans eat milk products that come from other mammals like cows and goats. This is food for thought. As a parent, how to find out that your infant has milk allergy and/or milk protein intolerance and how to help him. This article will answer your questions.
There are a lot of infants and adults with cow's milk allergy. Following are some statistics:
-In 2007, there were 3 million children under the age of 18 who have had food or digestive allergy in the previous 12 months. 1
-Food allergy among children under the age of 18 has increased by 18% from 1997 to 2007. 1
-About 3 million children in the U.S. have food allergies. One in 17 children under the age of 3 has food allergy.
-Milk allergy is the most common food allergy during childhood, affecting 2.5% of the children under the age of 3 in the U.S. 2 The tendency is: as the child gets older, the incidence of milk allergy is reduced.
The statistics talk by themselves. Parents must be aware of the food that nourish children.
Milk allergy is a more serious problematic than milk protein intolerance. Milk allergy is a food allergy. It affects different systems: respiratory, digestive and dermatological. With the respiratory system, the most common affections for infants are: sinusitis, bronchitis, pneumonia and even otitis. The digestive system is more related with colic pain, reflux and gas. For the dermatological system, your infant can have exzema and skin rash. With a severe milk allergy, the clinical disorders are worse: anaphylactic reactions, severe dermatitis, oesophagitis and constipation. Milk protein intolerance produces a range of symptoms very similar to milk allergy symptoms. It can include blood and/or mucus in the feces. Treatment for milk protein intolerance is the same as milk allergy.
The best way to help an infant is simple. If you breast feed your baby, you may stop all dairy products including cheese and yoghurt for at least 1 week. You will see a big improvement of the different symptoms of your child if he has milk allergy. If your infant continues to have discomforts, the idea should be to stop eating beef as well for at least another week. As we saw before, the child can have milk intolerance protein and it is the protein of milk and meat.
If your baby is formula fed, there are hypoallergenic formulas on the market that have hydrolysed proteins and are easy to digest.
There are different substitutes to dairy products:
-Rice milk
-Oat milk
-Almond milk
-Coconut milk
-Soy milk
-Goat milk
Some children and adults can have an allergy to soy and/or goat products. Be aware of the reaction of your infant. You will have to read the ingredients on the different products that you buy. Cow's milk is an excellent source of calcium. As well, green vegetables (broccoli, spinach, green pepper...) and salmon are fantastic substitutes.
It is possible and easy to live a healthy life without cow or goat products. For a specific diet, please ask a dietician.
1-(Branum AM, Lukacs SL. Food allergy among U.S. children: Trends in prevalence and hospitalizations. NCHS data brief, no 10. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2008.)
2-(Sicherer SH, Sampson HA. Food allergy. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2006;117:S470-5. )
