Milk Protein Intolerance or Allergy?

[Indianamom2]

So Ds#2 has always had a milk protein issue. I avoided all dairy while nursing, and then, around 7-8 months, switched him to Enfamil GentleEase, which he seems to tolerate just fine.

He's now 14 months old. He's drinking the Enfagrow GentleEase and doing just fine on it...but something keeps giving him more frequent, icky looking/smelling/mucousy stools. I suppose it could be teething, which he is, but quite frankly, I'm thinking it might be milk. He's doing the same amount of formula (three bottles a day, usually around 18-20 oz. total) and he's fine. However, if we have a few days of more lax table food (like breaded chicken nuggets with milk in the breading) or something like that, the icky diapers start. He seems absolutely normal in every other way.

How do I know if he's got an allergy or intolerance? Is it worth getting tested with just this symptom? Could it be something else that I'm missing? He doesn't get any rashes, other than a little extra redness on his bottom if he's got a dirty diaper and I don't realize it right away, but it clears up ASAP without any real effort.

He's got a scheduled pedi appt. sometime in Oct. for his 15 month appt. Does he need to be seen before then?

Thanks.

Oh, FWIW, I'm fairly certain that I don't tolerate milk products super-well either, as I've always had gastro-intestinal issues with things like pizza and sometimes ice cream, but I can never pin-point exactly what it is that causes me tummy upset.

[egoldber]

Do the nuggets contain soy?

[chlobo]

My DH had never had homemade spaghetti sauce before he met me. Being Italian I made Italian food a lot. He always assumed that the spaghetti sauce gave him problems.

Turns out it wasn't the sauce at all. It was the wheat in the pasta/pizza crust/bread, etc.

If I were you I'd keep a journal of what your son eats and what the resulting symptoms are. That is really the only way to see the correlation. But its possible that your son might have a problem with gluten (wheat) and not milk, especially if the formula isn't bothering him.

If the symptoms are just digestive, I would think its more of an intolerance thing than an allergy thing.

[Indianamom2]

Do the nuggets contain soy?

Well, some do, some don't. I noticed that one package I bought had milk in the breading, and since he was having gastro issues, I found another brand that only had wheat and soy as allergens. I don't think he's had any issues with those. It's something to keep in mind though.

[Indianamom2]

My DH had never had homemade spaghetti sauce before he met me. Being Italian I made Italian food a lot. He always assumed that the spaghetti sauce gave him problems.

Turns out it wasn't the sauce at all. It was the wheat in the pasta/pizza crust/bread, etc.

If I were you I'd keep a journal of what your son eats and what the resulting symptoms are. That is really the only way to see the correlation. But its possible that your son might have a problem with gluten (wheat) and not milk, especially if the formula isn't bothering him.

If the symptoms are just digestive, I would think its more of an intolerance thing than an allergy thing.

Yeah, I'm more inclined to say intolerance as well. I've considered gluten, but I'm not really sure.