Milk and babies

Rosie had her allergy check up last week with the specialist. For the first two years of her life she was on a no dairy/wheat/nuts/soy/eggs diet. It was a bit challenging at first but once we got the hang of it it was fine. She's been on a prescription baby formula which is hypoallergenic and has never seen an animal of any kind. I like to call it Franken-formula.

It's been a year since her last check-up and in that time I've slowly introduced all of her allergens and she's fine with everything now except milk. She obviously has a threshold for it though because she has a yoghurt every morning and eats ice cream fine. She doesn't really like cheese though and if I put cow's milk in her bottle she gets an upset stomach. Lots of people are sensitive to cow's milk (including Nikki) so I'm not worried about that. My concern is that Rosie is 2 1/2 and still having a bottle because she won't drink her formula from a cup. She still has her formula plus a calcium supplement to make sure she gets all of the vitamins and minerals she needs.

So, off to the hospital we went on Friday. I was prepared for a long day of prick tests, blood tests, measuring, weighing and talking. In the end we were in and out in less than 30 minutes. I spoke to the consultant and he said that I seemed to have it all under control. He suggested I try to wean Rosie off of the prescription formula over the next six months and substitute it with calcium enriched soya milk or rice milk or, if I preferred, just keep Rosie on the forumla until I was happy to phase it out. They then suggested she be discharged from specialist care and that was that!

So, Rosie is no longer considered allergic, just milk-sensitive. I gave her a bottle of soya milk yesterday and she loved it but woke up in the night with a mucousy cough and brought up a lot of phlegm. It could just be a cold or her body adjusting to the soya. Watch this space...

Today Toby is home with a sore leg. He came home yesterday limping and was up in the night complaining that his leg was hurting. He gets a lot of growing pains so I put it down to that but this morning it was still bothering him so he's home for a day of rest. We're watching Philippa's little boy, Joe, today so Toby's 'rest' is consisting of running around playing with Joe. The kids are having a great time so I'm taking the opportunity to catch up on some laundry and chores around the house.

Lots of talk in the air about a third baby so today is good practice. Not sure I want to take that leap anytime soon but interesting to see the dynamic between three children. Toby is happily taking on the big boy role, reading to Joe and bringing him toys. Rosie is taking on the bossy-boots role, saying "No, that's mine!" a lot.