Our CMPA Journey

At eight months old, after never settling, and many other symptoms, Freyja was diagnosed with CMPA. The difference was amazing from the second we removed cow’s milk from her diet.

Freyja had always been a fussy baby. At least that’s what we told ourselves as she continued to scream and cry herself to sleep every night. There was no amount of cuddling, rocking, bouncing or even colic remedies that could soothe her. It was at a point where I even knew to expect her to be this way in public. Many times at different baby groups other mums and group leaders tried and failed to settle Freyja, who just kept on crying.

This wasn’t to say we didn’t think there was something wrong - we did. I had been saying from around two months old that I believed it could be a milk allergy, but getting someone to take this seriously was not easy. My health visitor is amazing, and she did listen, but we decided to try treating her ‘reflux’ first. Little did we know she was having this as she was vomiting post-feed. She was gaining weight well and was otherwise thriving, so she didn’t have any of the usual ‘red flags’ for a milk allergy. She had tried various kinds of milk, from Aptamil, to comfort milk then Kendamil. Niklaus thrived so much more on Kendamil while Freyja seemed to only be getting worse.

At six months we were told weaning would help her symptoms, as she had been diagnosed as a colicky baby with reflux. So we weaned her as normal alongside Niklaus. She LOVED the food! She still does now, but her issues continued and seemed to be getting worse again. Most weaning parents know that you don’t give cows milk as a drink until one, but you can use it in cooking, as you can cheese, butter, and yoghurt. We’d been using it in her porridge, on toast and trying different yoghurts. Finally one day during a massage class, the class leader said Freyja was showing all the signs of a dairy allergy, which she recognised from her years working with children. She also knew I had a feeling this was what was going on with our little woman. She told me to ring our GP and see if we could get anywhere with them.

So the next day we called the GP for an appointment. I went in with Freyja the same day, which we only managed because of her age which was at this point 6.5 months. The doctor examined her and said they would do a referral to the Paediatric department but Freyja was healthy and normal. She had no signs of an allergy and we should change her reflux medication. So we tried the new medication, and in the end, it made her reflux worse. We still don’t know why, but due to this, I was back at the same doctor 10 days later. She said again that nothing was wrong, she was healthy and normal and to keep trying.

At this stage, I felt fully defeated. I’d asked for help so many times and I just kept being knocked back. I decided to try going through my health visitor, as she was always a brilliant source of advice, and she knew what we meant when we said Freyja had issues. She got us an appointment with a different GP, and when I attended this one, I knew what I wanted the outcome to be. After some persuading, as she also believed Freyja was fine, I managed to get her allergy milk. we were told to try it for 2 weeks, then o confirm an allergy we were to reintroduce her previous milk and look for a reaction.

Those first two weeks Freyja was like a new baby. The endless crying stopped, she was having better nappies, her reflux was gone and she finally didn’t pull her legs up to her tummy as often. The change made it obvious that there had been an allergy. When it came to reintroducing her old milk to confirm the allergy, she failed the reintroduction on day one, with an immediate return of symptoms. From that point, Freyja was deemed to have a cow’s milk allergy. Most people wouldn’t wish any allergy on their child, but knowing I had not been wrong for all this time and knowing I knew she needed help it honestly brought me some joy.

She got seen by Peadatrics in September 2022, and during the appointment, the first thing I was asked was ‘Is your child on dairy-free milk yet?’. This cemented to me that we were right in seeking help for her symptoms. That doctor asked how she was getting on with it, whether we were happy with the changes and whether there are any other concerns. He was happy to sign her off that day, as she was being transferred to the dieticians team. We met the dieticians a month later, who advised beginning the milk ladder with Freyja.

I could honestly do a whole other post on our milk ladder experience so far. In short, she is no longer on it, and we’re awaiting our next appointment to discuss the next steps. Sadly we cannot even pass step one on the ladder, a malted milk biscuit, as this now results in vomiting, screaming and other symptoms. I am just unwilling to put her through all of this again, as she has attempted it a few times and each resulted in a fail. I am hopeful that someday she’ll be able to digest cow’s milk, and she’ll get to enjoy all the same foods as her brother, but for now, she loves her oat milk and is obsessed with anything from the NoMo chocolates range!

The main reason I wanted to create this post was to make sure parents know they can keep going back if they do not believe that they have been fully listened to by their doctors. I kept fighting for Freyja and advocating for her, and this is why she’s now a more settled and content baby. Milk allergies are incredibly common in under 4’s, and the symptoms can vary so much from child to child. If anyone else has been told their colicky baby is fine, but they have symptoms similar to Freyja, please do consider asking to try a milk challenge! It can help bring other issues to light and help you in helping your little one!

Bronagh x