- My Baby Won’t Stop Crying!
What’s Wrong?
 (ARA)
– No parent wants to see their baby suffer from “colic,”
a term for when a baby cries almost all of the time but the doctor
doesn’t know why. Excessive crying is something a baby should
outgrow, but it can be a sign of something more serious: milk
protein allergy.
A milk protein allergy is difficult
to diagnose because the symptoms often look like the typical
rashes, vomiting and diarrhea that babies get from time to time.
Because a milk protein allergy
requires special treatment, it is important that it is correctly
diagnosed. If left undiagnosed, a baby can become miserable and
malnourished.
|
So How do You Identify Milk
Protein Allergy?
Dr. John Moissidis, a board certified
pediatric allergist at The Asthma Allergy Clinic in Shreveport,
La., says to look for the following signs.
1. Diarrhea is common in babies, but if it happens
an average of two to four times a day for more than five to seven
days and/or if there is blood in the stool, it could signal a
milk protein allergy.
2. Many babies spit up bits of food, but frequent
vomiting is not normal. Reflux symptoms, like spit-up and difficulty
swallowing, can also be symptoms of a milk protein allergy. |
|
3. There are many reasons infants get skin rashes
like eczema. A milk protein allergy is one possible cause, especially
if the rash occurs along with some of these other symptoms.
4. Every baby cries, but crying continuously and
inconsolably for long time periods is abnormal. Sometimes this
extreme fussiness is actually caused by the proteins found in
milk.
5. Most infants double their weight by six months
and triple it by 12 months. But when babies are not getting the
nutrition they need due to frequent diarrhea and vomiting, they
can experience low or no weight gain.
6. All babies have gas, but if it happens along
with several of these other symptoms, it can also signal an allergy
to milk proteins.
7. Colds are common for infants, but wheezing, struggling
to breathe and excess mucus in the nose and throat are more serious
respiratory problems. And sometimes they can be the baby’s
reaction to the protein found in milk.
8. Babies with a milk protein allergy often don’t
get the nutrition they need, causing dehydration, loss of appetite
and lack of energy. This overall failure to thrive is usually
the result of the other symptoms effect on the infant’s
body.
What Causes all these Painful
Symptoms?
“Babies with a milk protein
allergy cannot process the complex protein chains found in milk-based
baby formula. And many also react to soy-based formulas,”
says Dr. Moissidis.
What can be Done to Treat
the Problem?
A milk protein allergy is treated
by either eliminating the milk proteins from the nursing mother’s
diet, or by replacing the regular formula with an amino acid-based
formula.
“An amino acid-based formula
is safe for babies with milk and soy allergies because it is
made up of non-allergenic amino acids, the building blocks of
protein, instead of partial or complete protein chains found
in other formulas,” says Sarah O’Brien, nutrition specialist
for Nutricia North America, the manufacturer of amino acid-based
formula Neocate.
This specialized formula does
not require a prescription, but infants taking it should be under
the care of a physician. |
