Weaning/Allergy diaries

As you probably know from previous posts, weaning Livia and getting her to a stage where she can be left when I return to work is a major part of my life at the moment. Add to this her dairy allergy and having to start her on 'hydrolysed' formula (which smells/tastes rather weird) and it feels like a mammoth task. But we are starting to get there and I wanted to update you in case there is anyone who is going through/will go through the same. I'm going to include a lot of detail for this reason!

In the last week Livia had a dietician appointment and paediatrician appointment. The best thing my health visitor did for us in this situation was to get the dietician appointment as a matter of urgency. I have realised since that if we'd waited until after the paediatrician appointment, we would have joined a long waiting list and it would have probably been too late. So getting a dietician appointment as soon as possible would be my big tip for anyone who suspects allergies with their baby!

Both appointments confirmed the dairy allergy, through looking at photos and listening to a description (another tip would be to take photos of reactions). Livia then had a blood test which we haven't had the results for yet. This will look at how allergic she is to dairy. I'm really interested to know the results; it's hard to know how allergic she is as me eating dairy and transferring it to her via breast milk  has never been a problem. However if Chloe kisses her after having cow's milk, she instantly comes up in a rash around her mouth.

We have been prescribed Aptamil Pepti which is a hydrolysed formula made with cow's milk but the protein has been broken down so it is less likely to cause an allergic reaction. Livia has taken to it well, despite the fact that it smells horrible and I have heard stories of mums having to mix it with Nesquik or maple syrup to get their babies to drink it! At the moment we are mixing it with breast milk or using it in her cereal to gradually introduce it.

So am I any closer to being able to leave Livia for the day? We have managed to get her to drop her 4pm breast feed by replacing it with a cup of formula and breast milk (50:50 ratio at the moment). I don't express at this time so effectively I have dropped this feed and won't need to pump at work. The breast milk I use in this feed is from expressing just before I go to bed (as Livia sleeps 7-7 this is a good time to pump).

Livia is also making slow and steady process with solid food too. She hasn't taken as easily to weaning as I hoped; it takes a lot of persuasion to get her to try anything! But she will get the idea after a while, although she prefers sucking or licking from the spoon instead of opening her mouth. I can see her really enjoying finger food and I'm looking forward to trying this a bit more with her now she is almost 6 months.

So that's where we're at for now. Hopefully I can get her to replace her 10am feed next and then it will just be the lunch feed to go. I'm hoping by the time I go to work she will be able to have mainly formula, as I reeeeeally don't want to pump at school. We'll see how it goes.

I'm including a photo below of the reaction Livia had to formula which first alerted us to her allergy. It came up within 5 mins of having the milk but only lasted about half an hour with no other symptoms.