Link between Dairy and ear infections?

[nemosmum]

Hi

I started DS on Dairy recently (his 16 months but has had allergies so we have only just introduced certain things etc) and he had his first ear infection and has become very congested, phlemy and has a rattley chest. He started coughing alot and sounded very wheezy etc

I had some one tell me that Dairy can cause such a reaction and that by eliminating all dairy from their diet it can clear this problem up. I used to be asthmatic as a child and I couldnt drink alot of milk and stuff or I too would get sick.

Has anyone else had similar experiences? or heard the same thing? or have you heard the opposite????

We've put DS on Soy products now so hopefully we will see a big improvement :)

Thanks

[Lunar]

My DD has been on soy since 6wks old and we are now only starting to introduce dairy at 3 1/2yrs. I think that if he doesn't have those symptoms while on soy, he may have an intolerance to dairy. It won't do him any harm to be on soy for while, it may give his system a rest. My suggestion is to keep him on soy for a while to see if those symptoms come back, get worse etc. Can I ask what milk he has been drinking b4 you tried intrducing cow's milk??

[nemosmum]

Hi,

Yeah he was on breast milk LOL for 11 months then I had him on a prescription formula called Elecare up until a couple of weeks ago.

I think I will stick to the soy and see what happens, his paed. at the allergy clinic reccomended soy or goats milk if he started becoming congested or had a reaction etc. So I guess I just was curious about the whole ear infection being related to ear, nose and throat and congestion etc and if the dairy is a contributing factor.

Thanks
Sarah :)

[treightonsmum]

My son was and still is an ear, nose and throat baby and child. Over the last eleven years with him alot of specialists he has been to all say that its in the genes with Astma and ENT problems.

Dairy was the first thing that had been taken out of his diet as the specialists all say that it causes alot of mucous and is due in part to being allergic to it. It is very typical that a child that has a family history of Astma, allergies and ear, nose and throat problems will have an excess mucous problem when consuming dairy.

The mucous builds up in the nose and travels back through the sinus passages into the middle ear and causes infections. Grommets are a wonder piece of modern medicine and my son had them put in when he was two after 12 months of constant ear infections. He had them fall out when he was around four and hasnt had an ear infection since.

Soy is all he has known since he was 5 months old and is a very healthy strong boned 11 year old now. It didnt cure all of his problems by being on soy but the allergerns and mucous certainly have been greatly reduced.

I hope this has helped you in some way. Feel free to pm me for any more info on these issues. I have been around the mill a few times over with ent, astma and allergies and know how diffucult it can be. Best of luck. LOL and hugz... Kathy.

[nemosmum]

Thanks Cathy, thats exactly what I was actually looking to hear. It just all seemed to click when someone mentioned the dairy and the fact that he'd never had an ear infection before when he was bf and on the elecare formula etc.

So I am glad to hear your boy has done well on the soy products, its sounds like you can relate to the dramas that come along with having a child whose allergic to stuff LOL

Thanks again Cathy you've been really helpful :)

Sarah