Our sweet Lincoln was two weeks old when he was diagnosed with a milk protein allergy. I was surprised at the time, but looking back, I knew something was “off” just by how his skin looked.
I was scrolling through my phone deleting old photos over the weekend and I came upon the ones I took of his skin in those early days and it just broke my heart.
It’s very emotional to look back on these photos because his skin was so bad guys…so, so bad. I’ve never shared these photos because it still pains me to look at them.
I remember feeling panicked when his skin got this bad. I texted Kevin these photos and I had already booked an appointment with the pediatrician. This couldn’t be normal, right? It was far more than just “baby acne” and it was getting worse each day.
At our appointment, his diapers tested positive for blood and combined with his other symptoms (very gassy, overly fussy, bad-smelling diapers, etc), the doctor told me he had a milk protein allergy and that I should eliminate dairy from my diet if I wanted to continue breastfeeding.
The reason I’m sharing these photos now is because it’s truly amazing how much better he’s doing and I want to celebrate that. I also want to share a little bit about this journey of changing my diet and what kinds of foods I eat now.
It took a full eight weeks for the dairy to be completely out of my system and his. It was a long road to finally get good results, but with each passing week his symptoms improved. There were days I felt discouraged because he would have a bad diaper or was really gassy or fussy, but now at almost four months old, he’s doing well and is a happier baby overall, sleeps better and is growing perfectly.
I love to eat and I love cheese, lattes and butter. Changing my diet wasn’t easy, but breastfeeding is important to me and I wanted to provide my milk for a year like I did with Harper. Plus, hypoallergenic formulas are absolutely amazing, but they’re also incredibly expensive and often not covered or fully covered by insurance. I didn’t want to go that route if changing my diet could work, so I stopped eating dairy the day he was diagnosed.
Below are my tips if you’re also facing this as well as a little bit about what I eat.
GET SUPPORT
I immediately joined a Facebook group to connect with other moms who were also on the same diet for breastfeeding. It helped tremendously to feel encouraged and to see the progress so many of the babies had made. The group has over 3,000 members so it’s wonderful for getting feedback about symptoms, meal ideas and favorite snacks, etc.
Another way I have been incredibly supported is by my wonderful in-laws. They have truly been the most generous, incredible people (and they always are, but I’ve been really touched at how supportive they’ve been about this in particular). They immediately started looking into dairy-free meals and they cook a meal that we can all eat and make enough to last us almost a week. I cannot adequately express just how thankful I am for their support in this journey. Were it not for those meals they so lovingly make, I honestly would probably just eat the same thing every night. It’ so hard for us to cook after work now that we have two kids and Kevin no longer works from home, so having this ready-to-eat food here has been amazing, especially as we are adjusting to life as a family of four and me going back to work.
SUBSTITUTE
I love my lattes, so I make them with almond or coconut milk now. My Starbucks order is no a coconut milk latte with either vanilla or gingerbread syrup. I also found almond milk creamer for my coffee that I keep at work.
I haven’t found a substitute for cheese, but I eat a ton of humus and guacamole now as well as honey mustard on my sandwiches. For salads I use olive oil and balsamic vinegar or I buy the few that are dairy-free. Zoe’s Kitchen has an in-house dressing you can buy that is dairy free and delicious!
RESEARCH & READ LABELS
There are so many wonderful resources for dairy-free eating. I like Go Dairy Free and MSPI MAMA (Pinterest is a great place for recipes too!) I’ve also become a pro label reader and have this “hidden dairy” cheat sheet saved on my phone.
Anytime I eat out, I first google the name of the restaurant or fast food place and check out their allergy menu. Go Dairy Free has a good list here, but you can also just google “name of restaurant + allergy menu” and find out that way what’s safe to order.
EAT ALL THE OREOS!
How can “milk’s favorite cookie” be dairy free? I don’t know, but by some act of God, they are and they happen to be my favorite cookie so I basically binge-eat them. Did you know that Girl Scout Thin Mints are VEGAN? I may have ordered a few ten boxes.
REMEMBER YOUR CALORIC NEEDS
When you’re nursing or pumping, you need more calories to keep your supply up. I calculated that with the amount of ounces I produce, I burn about 800 calories a day just from pumping. So I need to make sure I’m eating often and enough to maintain my supply. That can be more difficult on a limited diet, but I have found it to be less limiting than I thought it was.
FOCUS ON THE GOOD
As I just said, going dairy-free was much easier than I imagined it would be. Yes, there is hidden dairy in a lot of things, but I eat a ton of salads with a protein and lots of veggies, Stacy’s pita chips with humus or guacamole, vegan or dairy free burritos (Amy’s makes good ones), UDI bread with turkey and honey mustard, fruit, peanut butter, nuts, many Kind brand bars are dairy free…basically I never feel deprived! (except when I see someone eat pizza or queso). Many flavors of the Kettle brand chips are dairy free so you can have treats too. I’m also obsessed with boom chicka pop popcorn (some flavors are vegan). Sure, you can’t eat milk, cheese, butter or yogurt, but there is a ton you CAN eat and I focus on that. We even make mashed potatoes with almond milk!
Seeing Lincoln improve so much over the last few months has been a blessing and though we still have some bumps in the road with some questionable diapers sometimes, he has come such a long way.
If you have any specific questions, please leave me a comment. If you’re a mom just starting out on this journey— just know that it gets easier and your baby will get better.
Great post. Wish I could have read something so encouraging a few years ago (my son had a dairy allergy and I had to eliminate while nursing). Have you ever had trader joes coconut creamer??? It’s so good in coffee, better than any other brand I’ve tried!
No I have not but I have a TJ near me so I will go and check it out 🙂 Thank you!
Lincoln’s skin looks amazing now! Such good info in this post! I’m sure a lot of mamas out there are so happy that you’re sharing this!! <3
Thank you so much 🙂
You mentioned you haven’t found a substitute for cheese? Have you tried almond cheese? I like shredded almond cheese when I make gluten free pizza. I’ve also used goat cheese which is so good. For nachos I used goat yogurt as my sour cream it’s amazing. And I would use either shredded goat cheese or almond for nachos too.
I haven’t— where do you find it? I didn’t realize goat’s milk was safe…a lot of the women on the support group say that babies can be sensitive to it as well. I don’t love goat’s cheese but I bet the yogurt is different. Thanks for the tip! 🙂
I live in California, so I ship for almond cheese and goat cheese at health food stores. Sometimes Sprouts has them. When I was on a gluten free diary free diet I ate both but I wasn’t nursing at the time so I don’t know about the goat cheese ask your doctor and if she gives you the go ahead you could try.
I was able to do Sheeps milk cheese. I also did cheese less pizza and just loaded it with toppings.
My little guy grew out of it at a little before a year
I’m so glad he is doing better and that the doctors could solve the problem quickly. I hand idea that an allergy from something in breastmilk could have such effects. Great lesson!
I had no idea either. It’s shocking to look back at how bad his skin really was. He had bad eczema patches too…poor baby.
Our little one also a dairy allergy (she had gas and mucusy poops that kept getting worse) and we cut out dairy and it made a huge difference. I went dairy free for about 15 months while we breastfed. Pretty much you can find great substitutes for everything except cheese (sorry). But just put guacamole on everything and it will be fine 😉 Our little one out-grew the allergy at 16 months. Hang in there, it’s worth it!!
Lincoln is lucky to have a mama so determined to make sure he gets the very best! Dairy was the devil for us too and along with other issues I stopped bf’ing and ended up on Neocate formula which is super expensive and not covered by insurance. Daiya is a dairy free soy free cheese (Whole Foods) that I found tolerable as a replacement for cheese.
Thanks so much for posting this! It is inspiring to see how you made it work and sacrificed so that you could keep breastfeeding. Thanks again for sharing.
Hi Veronika!
I have been reading your blog since you were pregnant with Harper and love it, even though I’m still a college student, I love your mommy and baby posts. I noticed that you said you haven’t found a substitute for cheese and I remembered a Shark Tank episode where the company “Heidi Ho” was featured and she makes a line of plant based cheeses that the sharks just loved. I believe you can find it at Whole Foods.
All the best to your beautiful family!
Thank you so much for this suggestion! I love the show “Shark Tank!” I appreciate you sharing!
I believe it would be good for you not to go back to dairies at all. In Italy I buy very good yoghurts in almost all supermarket. And plus, did you know that it has been proved by researchers that dairies create osteoporosis because being not natural to human kind, give inflammation and the body takes calcium from the bones to calm it down? A growing number of physicians are confirming it from long time Ciao ☺☺
If you are missing cheese there are a bunch of great dairy-less options you can make that aren’t time consuming! I make cheese with cashews and nutritional yeast and a little lemon and salt all the time and LOVE it. Just soak the cashew in water (overnight is best but I never remember to do that, a few hours is fine) then drain and blend with other ingredients mixing in a bit of water to make it creamy. It doesn’t taste exactly like cheese, true but if you can’t have dairy it can really satisfy a cheese craving. I use this in mac and cheese and my toddler gobbles it up!
E.C.: Soy milk yoghurts. Very happy to see your baby fine now. :-):-)
Those early pictures of Lincoln are so hard to see. But look at what a huge improvement he’s made. All because you kept at it, found the problem, and were on top of it – so way to go, Veronika. I am so happy that you guys are now ok!
Wow! I’m so glad your baby is doing so much better! My best friend has a casein allergy, and she uses duck fat butter as a sub for regular butter. I don’t think she goes anywhere special to get it – i think she gets it at your neighborhood Kroger (she’s in Houston too). I’ve tried it, and I think I like it better than regular butter.
You are such a good mamma! It is hard to work to give up something you love to eat, even for your own child. With my first we had acid reflux and the first thing my doctor had me do was give up dairy and soy. It was such a hard transition because dairy and soy are in everything! But you get used to it. I’m expecting baby no. 2 any day now and in preparation of the same experience I’m already moving to dairy/soy free. You can just equate it to giving up wine for the 10 months of pregnancy. Thanks for sharing and for all of the additional resources.
Best words I’ve read all day – Thin mints are vegan!!!! Thank you for the helpful info on hidden dairy and restaurants. My struggle has been eating out. At home I don’t struggle with giving up dairy. There are enough choices that I don’t feel deprived.
Thank you so much for sharing. My daughter just turned 2 and we have found 3 allergies so far. The reactions they get when they’re so little is terrifying. Changing my diet in the beginning was hard but got much easier. Also I just saw an article and that Ben and jerry’s is coming out with dairy free cookie dough ice creams!
If you are craving ice cream, there are some dairy free kinds made with coconut milk, and Ben and Jerry’s just released a dairy free vegan selection as well!
Thank you so much Veronika for sharing this post. I’m a FTM and have been reading your blog for inspiration for some time now. Really appreciate this.
Adelaide
I am now dairy-free while nursing my little boy also (went dairy-free when I nursed my daughter 2 years ago.) I agree that cheese is the hardest thing to find a supplement for. With both kids I could do a little goat or sheep cheese after about 10 months. And we still have my daughter on goat milk at 2.5 years. If she consumes too much cow dairy she has eczema and tummy aches. We hope she will eventually grow out of it. You are doing a great job mama!!
Walden Farms makes a fabulous creamer for coffee that is dairy free and its super yummy! it also comes in French vanilla which is my new obsession. Just some ideas 🙂
Poor Bud! My daughter was diagnosed with a beef bovine protein / egg allergy… We couldn’t have any kind of milk, eggs, cheese, beef…. We didn’t figure it out until 12 weeks; she wasn’t gassy or fussy – but looking at your pictures make me think that maybe her baby acne wasn’t actually acne after all. It wasn’t quite as severe, but I always felt like it was much worse than what I considered typical baby acne.
When we figured it out she had blood in her diaper, visible blood, and quite a bit. It happened quite a few times – our pedi was not supportive of nursing, and handed me a can of formula. I fought for 12 weeks to nurse my daughter pain free, so i didn’t stop nursing her, i just cut out a ton of stuff from my diet and she did well. We started introducing stuff back in around 10 months and never saw an more blood. I had read that babies can outgrow the allergies, so that’s what I assume happened.
It was super eye opening how much hidden milk there is in so many things!
I’m so happy that he’s doing better now! That’s so scary but I’m glad it was a quick diagnosis and a relatively quick fix. His skin is beautiful now and he looks like such a happy baby. Good job, momma! Great post too!
Thank you SO much for sharing these pictures. My son has a rash that I thought was beyond newborn acne and the ears is what tipped me off. His look just like your sons! I cut out dairy last week but now I’m confident it was the right move and we will stick it out and wait for some good results!
Sarah- I’m so glad our journey has been helpful for you! My son now eats dairy and drinks milk and is totally fine. I hope the same for you!
Hello!
My DS had been having rashes for a long time and they always said it is a baby acne and only now that the pedia said that he might have milk protein allergy. His rashes looks the same just like the pictures you posted. I wanna ask if you put some cream on his skin to lessen the “dryness and redness” of his skin. I’m now scared to use anything. I will now start to eliminate dairy on my diet. Hope it will work fine for us.
I used desitin diaper rash cream on his neck.
Hello
Thank you for writing this wonderful post. My son just turned 5 months old and around the time he was 2 months old I found blood in his stool. He was diagnosed with a a milk protein allergy. Unfortunately my body did not/could not produce much breast milk so we’ve gone down the specialized formula route. Yes it is expensive!! However now that we are getting into the stages of introducing foods to him I’m really quite nervous!! Do you have recommendations for foods that you provided for your little one?? We have also learned that he has a reaction to oatmeal based lotions which makes us question if he will have a gluten allergy. So far we’ve been successful with rice cereal, however, I am so scared to introduce anything new for fear of a reaction. I would love any advice on this or even resources to gather .
Thank you