Dairy-free diet

An allergy is quite different than an intolerance - when you have an allergy, the body's immune systems attacks a (food) substance in the body the way it would a virus etc. In intollerances, the immune system is not involved but it causes unpleesant reaction when the food is consumed. The other main diff is that with an allergy even the smallest amount of the item will cause a recation, while a small dose of the offending food is tolerated in an intollerance situation. Most blood tests only pick up allergies, not intollerances, as they pick up on the body's immune reaction to a substance.
As you may have guessed, I have a number of intolerances (some food related and some not). I went to the Akl allergy clinic to have those identified, after my ususal doc incorrectly thought I had wheat intollerance. I have the basic exclusion diet which I followed - it starts with a very limited number of foods that are knowns to be pretty safe and then add on others and note any reactions. The thing is I don't know how safe it would be for a child to follow this without med supervision. If you can afford it, I'd recommend going to the Akl allergy clinic - they really know what they are doing.
Feel free to PM me if you want to know more etc. (amongst my other intollerances, one is diary). Also note that soy is a dangerous substitute, together with milk it's in the top most common 8 allergens:
- milk
- eggs
- peanuts
- other nuts
- fish
- shellfish
- soy
- wheat

Good luck - I know it can be quite frustrating

hi nikki i was wondering if it was the same for james re with diary and i have found alot of docs dont relly take exama sersiours soooo i,m thinking of taking james of dairy but am alittle worried about what to replace it with

We supplemented Maya's calcium with Lifestream Calcium powder (added 1/2 a teaspoon to her first rice milk of the day) and bought the Rice Dream calci-enriched rice milk rather than the standard stuff. I am supposed to be taking the calcium powder now but it's icky and I won't drink rice milk so I haven't figured out what I can mix it with to make it easier to take.

Yummymummy is right that a true exclusion diet is quite tricky and you have to be so vigilant. Dairy is hidden in so many things, even shaved ham has lactose in the preserving process

I hope you get some answers from the exczema nurse. The problem with allergies is not that doctors don't want to be helpful, it's that there are so many variables that there are no clear cut answers and solutions. Plus in NZ there are a major shortage of paediatric allergists, here in Auckland we only have 3 in private practise and the waiting list to see the two that Maya sees (Jan Sinclair and Allen Liang) is up to 3 months, even longer for the public immunology outpatients clinic at Starship.

Good luck with Hannah's exczema Nikki. Maya's is bad atm, I'm not convinced it's not chocolate causing it...