CMPA: Cow's Milk Protein Allergy
Luca's CMPA Journey...
When I was pregnant with Luca, I really wasn't sure how I was going to feed him. As I approached the end of my pregnancy, I decided that I'd like to try breastfeeding again after a failed breastfeeding journey with my first baby, Ru. Once Luca arrived, everything just came so naturally and our feeding journey was so lovely and wildly different from my first breastfeeding experience. As the weeks went by, we hit a couple of bumps in the road here and there but overall things were absolutely fine and I really enjoyed being able to nurse my baby. He would be weighed regularly by midwives and health visitors and there were no signs of any problems and he was gaining weight well.
Dropping centiles
Eventually, we were discharged from the midwife and the health visitor would stop coming so regularly and we went about a month without a weigh in. I decided to self-weigh him at home, by weighing myself, then adding him on and subtracting it from my weight. Not the most accurate way to do it but it's more or less there. I logged his weight and it seemed quite low for his age. I think he was around 3 months old at this point. I had a quick google and found my nearest weigh in clinic and popped him down for a proper weigh in. I ended up getting the wrong day, but there was a lovely health visitor on duty there and she came and let me weigh Luca anyway. She stayed with me, logged it in his red book and told me not to worry, and that she'd come to my house in two weeks time to see his weight gain over the two weeks.
It got to the visit and she turned up at my door with her scales and weighed him, and essentially told me that he had barely gained anything at all and that she was going to refer us to the paediatrician due to him dropping so many centiles. She said that he had dropped centiles when I came to get him weighed two weeks before, but she didn't want to worry me until totally necessary, and that's why she'd arranged to come and see me to weigh him again. She was so lovely and sweet, encouraging me to continue breastfeeding Luca and wanting me to call her with any worries, and getting straight on the ball to get us seen by a paediatrician at the hospital. She told me that she wasn't qualified to diagnose Luca, but in her years of experience as a health visitor, despite him having none of the typical CMPA symptoms, that it was most likely a milk allergy and to drop dairy and soya from my diet.
Being seen by the paediatrician
It was awful before there was an official diagnosis, as there was no official reason for Luca not gaining weight and I felt like I was failing him breastfeeding. We had to go via the GP before our paediatrician referral, and the GP we saw was extremely doubtful of Luca having a milk allergy and told me to give him formula. I'm so glad I ignored this rubbish advice, despite Luca being combination fed before, giving him more formula made from dairy milk most likely would have made him even more poorly than he already was. We saw the paediatrician not long after this, obviously due to Luca dropping so many centiles and being below the 2nd centile, the whole situation was taken very seriously and I'm grateful for that as some milk allergy babes have to wait so long for a diagnosis.
At our hospital appointment with the paediatrician, Luca had multiple blood tests and urine tests, and I was advised officially to drop dairy and soya. He was also prescribed a dairy free formula that I was advised to give him for some top ups just to help him put weight on a little faster. I was never told to stop breastfeeding by our paediatrician which was a huge relief, as that was not something I was willing to do without any evidence whatsoever that my milk was the problem. We just gave him the odd formula bottle alongside his normal breastfeeds for a couple of weeks, until his weight gain was stable, and then we went back to exclusive breastfeeding as he absolutely hated the formula and would refuse to drink it.
Symptoms
Luca had none of the typical CMPA symptoms, however I do feel like we were failed again and again by health professionals. He was a very windy baby from newborn which nobody could have known was down to a milk allergy, he would pass wind a lot and often it was really smelly. I remember posting in baby groups on Facebook asking if it was normal for my baby to be producing such foul smelling gas and lots of mums would say it was. He'd occasionally suffer with a bit of an upset tummy too, but overall was a happy baby so we didn't think much of it. Then, at around a month old, he stopped pooing regularly. Up until that point, he had normal yellow & seedy breastfed baby poo and would go pretty much daily.
From a month old, he suddenly started going about two weeks without pooing and the consistency when he would finally go, was really dark and runny, like pure liquid. I kept flagging this with doctors and health visitors. I remember taking him to the GP a couple of times and flagging it that he just wouldn't poo and all I would be told was that it was normal for a breastfed baby to go a while between dirty nappies. Except it wasn't normal at all, and his poo consistency was mucusy which is the common sign of an allergy - I just wish I'd known that at the time. I trusted what the professionals told me, as I had no experience whatsoever with an allergy baby. He also had a rash around his face that just wouldn't disappear and I kept being told that it was down to teething. Until he stopped gaining weight, none of these symptoms were taken seriously by anyone.
The light at the end of the tunnel
Four weeks after I cut dairy from my diet, despite him never being ultra poorly with diarrhoea and sickness like most CMPA babies, Luca was like a completely different child. His poos were back to normal, yellow and seedy like they should be and he was pooing every day again. This was huge, before he'd go up to 15 days without a single dirty nappy and now he was going every single day again. He was piling the weight on, and his "teething" rash had completely disappeared. He was also a much happier baby, he was no longer windy or unsettled and the foul smelling gas had disappeared too! It was honestly such a relief after all these weeks of being so worried about him and wondering what was wrong.
He was seeing the paediatrician regularly up until last Christmas, but I'm happy to say that he is back up the centile chart where he should be, and he is very close to being discharged from the paediatrician at the hospital pending another blood test next week (which is not even related to his milk allergy!). We are happily breastfeeding alongside weaning which we started at 6 months. Weaning is proving to be pretty easy so far, as I have been on a dairy free diet for so long now, that I know exactly what I can and can't feed Luca.
So, that's it. That's Luca's CMPA journey so far. I am really hopeful that he will outgrow his milk allergy by age one as I can't tell you how much I miss takeaways, chocolate and cheese... but what will be, will be. He's 7 months currently, so it's less than 6 months until we attempt to climb the milk ladder. I'm a little nervous about that so any tips welcome!
