Children's Allergies

Hi Angie,

I suggest that you keep an open mind to the notion that milk could be causing at least some of your DS' problems.  Has your son had complete allergy testing?

My DS had a speech delay and I had long suspected that my DS might possibly be having some problems with milk. Like your DS, he lived on milk and I couldn't imagine life without milk.  I had tried substituting soy milk for cow's milk with DS when he was 2ish. At first I was seeing an improvement, then before long, I saw none.  Once we finally got both IGe (vinegar, tuna and shrimp and tons of environmental allergies) and IGg (16 foods including dairy, soy, wheat, citrus, yeast, etc) allergy testing done, DS was 6. By that point we had done tons of speech therapy, and lots of evaluations.  DS who once had been very strong and physically advanced was by that point delayed in fine motor skills and had low muscle tone. He also was delayed in reading and had been diagnosed with auditory processing disorder,  dyslexia and ADD. I totally believe that these delays were related to his food sensitivites. 

That was almost 1 year ago and my DS has come a very long way in the past year. He's now 7 and is a great student. He's finally beginning to gain some weight and I can tell he's getting stronger.  Another problem that DS had was that he was a very picky eater.  Once we finally knew what DS was allergic to and what not to feed him, he began to accept new foods. 

So my advice is to make sure your DS gets complete allergy testing. Lots of kids who are allergic to dairy is also allergic to soy. Other milk alternatives are rice, almond and hemp.  My DS is still in speech therapy for articulation and I really wish I had've been more open to the thought that some of DS' problems were caused by food allergies.  The theory as to how this affects speech especially is that a milk allergy causes fluid in the ear which affects auditory processing. 

Chloe