Baby having severe allergic reaction

[KR2105]

Is it possible for a baby to get allergic reaction from breast milk? Has anyone experienced this before? My 10 week old is severely allergic to something. His skin has these red swollen patches all over the face and body. We suspect it is either Aveeno baby soap that I have been using on him for 3 weeks or my breastmilk. Although neither of them have been introduced to him recently. But we can't think of anything different that could have caused this reaction.

[emmab178]

What about things you are eating? I've vaguely heard something about an acquaintances wife having to give up gluten whilst breastfeeding as the baby was allergic and feeding was causing a reaction.

Hope you get to the bottom of it x

[KR2105 in reply to emmab178]

I have not eaten anything different to what I have been eating since his birth. He did not react to my milk for 9 weeks. I tried hard to think if I ate something unusual but can't think of anything. At least I can't remember. I have been marking and freezing the breast milk and been feeding him previously frozen milk from few days ago. He is showing signs of improvement. Although I don't if that is because of not using soap or not feeding him directly from me. I will slowly start to feed again tomorrow and see if it changes his condition

[KellyTrip]

Have you changed washing powder or have you used something different on your skin as his face would be against you to feed?

[KR2105 in reply to KellyTrip]

No, I haven't changed either of them. Although I am now planning to get a non biological powder.

[Hidden]

It's worth giving this a read too cowsmilkallergy.co.uk/What-...

[claire16c]

If he's been fine for 9 weeks then it will be something else. That's not a reaction to breast milk.

I would stop using any type of soap on him. Water by its self is fine for baths etc

[KR2105 in reply to claire16c]

Thanks Claire16c. One of the GPs said it could be because of something I ate and must be passing to him through my milk but another GP said it is very unlikely for babies to get such allergic reaction from breast milk. In any case, I did not directly feed him all day yesterday and been giving frozen milk from few days ago. I will slowly start feeding from today

[claire16c in reply to KR2105]

If he had cmpa for example he would not have been ok this long. It sounds like he has a reaction to perhaps something external. Only a few foods proteins can pass through breastmilk. X

[emmab178]

I have severe allergies that all of a sudden I became allergic to unknown things. I was told by an immunologist that one day you can be fine with say 10mg of something and then another day eat 7mg and you get a reaction and they don't know why. No idea if this transfers to babies though.

If you are feeding previous milk and there is an improvement suggests it's something related to the recent milk.

I'd head to the gp as they must have seen this type of thing before and could suggest what to do for the next steps. Good luck x

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My baby is much older, but has suddenly started showing signs of grass allergies; same sort of thing; red swollen patches all over her body. I do think that seasonal changes should be considered; its not you doing anything different, but the environment changing around your baby. It may be pollen week for your local grassy areas or something like that? Hope that helps; it just struck a chord because my LO started showing allergies for the first time ever recently too. xx

[roxannacar]

You can definitely have an allergy to either. I'm not sure what you mean by severe... Severe allergic reactions require hospitalisation. It's probably easiest to stop

Any creams use water only to wash baby. Also make sure washing powder is not biological and doesn't use fabric conditioner on baby clothes. If things are not improving (it will take a few days) then see your doctor as it could be related to cow milk protein allergy via breast milk... But I'd tried the other things first