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“…milk should be taken since a baby. And no matter how old you are, don’t forget to take a glass of milk in the morning and before you sleep.”

Those words were noted on my previous article about milk. Yup, I haven’t realized that not everyone can enjoy not even a glass of milk in the morning. Why? Because recently I’ve found what people call as “milk allergy”. What is that? Well, as you know, allergy occurs with many kinds symptoms to your body because your body resists to some food or stuff. Now, let’s talk about milk allergy.

Milk allergic is a food allergy, an adverse immune reaction to a food protein that is normally harmless to the non-allergic individual. Lactose intolerance is a non-allergic food sensitivity, and comes from a lack of production of the enzyme lactase, required to digest the predominant sugar in milk. Lactose intolerance is not actually a disease or malady; indeed, 70% of the world’s population is lactose-intolerant.

Milk allergy is caused when the immune system (IS) reacts against one or more of the proteins found in milk. This happens due to the lack of the IS to learn to recognize milk proteins as being harmless. Hence every time milk is ingested in a subject, the IS is falsely alerted that a harmful body has entered the body and tries to eliminate it as if it were a bacteria, or a virus or a harmful chemical. Cow’s milk contains over 25 different molecules, which have the potential to elicit an allergic reaction. No wonder milk is repeatedly ranked among the top eight offenders for food allergies!

So, how do you know when you have an allergic reaction to milk? Well, there are so many symptom when your body resists when you drink or eat something contains milk, especially cow’s. Milk allergic can directly shows on 3 main parts of body system.

• Skin: red-skin and feel itchy and skin rashes.
• Digest system: vomiting, gagging, refusing food, , irritability or colic, and bloody diarrhea
• Breathing system: wet nose, itchy, wheezing, cough etc

Typically, a milk allergy goes away on its own by the time a child is 3 to 5 years old, but some kids never outgrow it. Regarding so many benefit we can get by drinking or eating so something contains milk, so what can we do?

If you suspect that your infant is allergic to milk, call your doctor, and he or she will ask about any family history of allergies or food intolerance and then do a physical exam. Nowadays, there’s still no lab test to accurately diagnose a milk allergy, so your doctor might conduct several tests to make the diagnosis.

If your infant has a milk allergy and you are breastfeeding, you better restrict the amount of dairy products that you ingest because the milk protein causing the allergic reaction can cross into your breast milk. It is good to you and your baby to consult it to a dietician about finding alternative sources of calcium and other vital nutrients to replace what you were getting from dairy products. However, if you’re formula-feeding, you better switch it to a soy protein-based formula. Another alternative is switch to a hypoallergenic formula.

Two major types of hypoallergenic formulas are available:

• Extensively hydrolyzed formulas have cow’s milk proteins that are broken down into small particles so they’re less allergenic than the whole proteins in regular formulas. Most infants who have a milk allergy can tolerate these formulas, but in some cases, they still provoke allergic reactions.
• Amino acid-based infant formulas, which contain protein in its simplest form (amino acids are the building blocks of proteins). This may be recommended if your baby’s condition doesn’t improve even after a switch to a hydrolyzed formula.

So, now you don’t have to be worried whenever your kiddo has an allergenic symptom when drinking milk. There are many better alternatives to get the benefit of calcium in milk.

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