Prominent for its nutritious value milk can trigger be allergic to few among us, check the list of foods to avoid with dairy allergy.
Dairy allergy triggers when milk or other dairy related products are treated harmful by immune system. To detect proteins in milk products, your immune system produces antibodies, which signals back to release histamines.
Histamines react with protein substances to result adverse allergic symptoms. According to American Academy, Asthma and Immunology, 80 percent of children with this allergy will outgrow when they reach the age group of 16. Approximately 2.5 percent of infants below the age of 3 are hypersensitive to milk.
One of the best ways to avoid dairy allergy is to avoid foods that include milk products. Few processed products contain milk extracted items for their nutritional value and flavor, even these must be avoided.
Symptoms of milk allergy
Just like any other allergies, the symptoms of dairy allergy show its effects either right away or hours after drinking milk or milk products. Some of the common milk allergy symptoms are:
- Trouble in breathing
- Coughing
- Nasal congestion
- Runny nose
- Swelling of different parts of the body such as eyes, face, lips, throat, and tongue
- Mild to severe reactions on the skin such as rash, hives, eczema, red and itchy skin
- Vomiting
- Nausea
- Flatulence
- Stomach cramps
These dairy allergy symptoms can turn out to be life-threatening in some rare cases.
People who suffer from lactose intolerance tend to suffer from stomach cramps, gas, diarrhea, and vomiting. However, rash, hives, coughing, and swelling are not the symptoms of lactose intolerance.
Foods to Avoid with Dairy Allergy
As soon as you experience symptoms of dairy allergy, you must consult allergist for diagnosis. He/she will conduct necessary test and accordingly prescribe medication.
Unfortunately, these medicines can’t treat allergy permanently. If you ingest or come in contact with hypersensitive foods, then allergy triggers again.
So, one of the best way to treat them is to avoid foods that incorporate milk products or products derived from milk.
#1 Bread and Baked Foods
Lactalbumin, lactoglobulin or casein labeled prepackaged foods is derived from milk proteins. Parve or pareve label indicates that product doesn’t contain meat or dairy items. “K” with a circle or alone, “U” followed by “D” or “DE” indicates that it contains dairy products.
Breads, crackers and baked goods contain milk, butter and milk proteins, which must be avoided.
#2 Candy and Snack Foods
Milk chocolate, caramels, nougat and candies include milk products that can elicit dairy allergy symptoms. There are few other products which contain whey, casein and butter that can provoke allergy signs.
#3 Commercial Fried Foods
Breads, fried foods like chicken and fish are coated with breaded foods. When they are ingested, histamines react with dairy items and results in allergic reaction.
According to Journal of American College of Nutrition, people who’re hypersensitive to cow’s milk can be allergic to dairy products.
Allergic reaction is normally triggered due to proteins, if foods you eat include milk proteins then it will result in allergic symptoms. Milk in all forms like skim, reduced fat, condensed, flavored and evaporated includes protein allergens.
Apart from this discuss with experts to know about the foods to avoid with a dairy allergy.
Some tips to live comfortably with a Milk Allergy
Finding other ways to get the required vitamins and minerals
Milk and dairy products are one of the important sources of calcium, B12, protein, and vitamins. In case, you and your child havea milk allergy, then add foods such as soy products, spinach, and broccoli to fill the void. Qualified and skilled dietician helps you to develop a well-balanced diet.
Add dairy substitute in your life
- Soy
- Rice
- Almond milk
- Look for non-dairy yogurt, cheese, ice cream, and chocolate
These are some of the food items that are filled with calcium and vitamin D.
Always careful with kosher products
Some of the food items might contain milk protein, even when they are labeled as ‘’pareve’’ that are considered as milk-free under kosher guidelines.
Consult your pediatrician about a safe formula for your baby
Every baby needs proper nutrition at the initial stages. Depriving an infant of milk can lead to serious health issues. In case, your baby is milk allergy or milk intolerance, then your pediatrician suggests you formula that is appropriate for your baby.
Avoid milk-containingitems
Before buying anything make sure to check the labelson cosmetics, creams, and ointment to check whether they contain cow’s milk in any form. Some of the medicines that are used for various purposes contain whey that is made up of milk.
Diagnosing a milk allergy in newborns
Dairy allergy in babies is not very common; however, a few mothers have to face this problem. The moment you see that your baby has the symptoms of either dairy allergy or dairy intolerance, immediately see your pediatrician. The doctor will ask a few important questions and run a few teststo determine the seriousness of the allergy or intolerance.
In case, your doctor informs you that your baby is suffering from a milk allergy you’ll have to eliminate milk from your diet, only if you are breastfeeding. On the other hand, you can always switch to the prescribed formula to see whether your baby infant symptoms improve or not.
Treat an infant with milk allergy
A baby with dairy allergy usually outgrowsthe milk allergy by the time he or he is around one year old. In the majority of the cases, babies with milk allergy tend to outgrow the condition by the time they reach three.
However, in the meantime:
If you fed formula to your baby
If your baby is formula-fed, then your pediatricianwill suggest you to keep on switching to different formulas. One of the main reasonsfor switching the formula is that many babies who are allergic to milk are also allergic to soy and goat’s milk. Your pediatrician might suggest a hypoallergenic formula that contains hydrolysate protein that has milk proteins. The milk proteins in such a formula are already partially broken down, leading to a lesser chance of causing a reaction.
If you are breastfeeding your baby
In case, you are breastfeeding and your baby shows symptoms to dairy allergy, then your pediatrician is likely to recommend you to eliminate dairy products from your diet. Eliminating dairy from your diet is one of the ways to see whether it makes a difference to your baby or not. For sure, making such a major change in your diet is probably the last thing you wish to think when you handle your newborn baby. However, once you eliminate dairy from your diet, ask your doctors about the necessary alternatives, or substitute to maintain the nutrition level in your body.