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Home › Articles › Toddler Nutrition › Dairy Diaries

Dairy Diaries

Recognizing Your Toddler's Milk Allergy

By Laura Cone

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Dr. Rapp says some studies have linked milk to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), which is another reason to wait until after 1 year of age before introducing cow's milk to a child.

While most parents would not connect the "terrible twos" with a milk allergy, Dr. Rapp says a milk allergy can cause a toddler to have temper tantrums. As part of her research, she created a video in which she shows how putting a drop of milk under some children's tongues can cause them to become completely out of control.

All in the Family
When it comes to milk allergies, usually the problem is not isolated to one person in a family, according to Dr. Rapp. "It's never a milk problem in one individual," she says. "It's usually a milk problem in the entire family. One person might get hyperactive, and another gets tired and another wets the bed and another has asthma and another has hay fever and it's all milk." She says whey and casein are the two main components in cow's milk that cause problems.

Casein accounts for most of the protein in milk. Whey consists of two main allergenic proteins, alpha-lactalbumin and beta-lactagobulin. "Now there are a lot of chemicals in milk," Dr. Rapp says. "All milk problems are not related to allergy. You can have a lactose intolerance, which is characterized by diarrhea. You can easily figure that one out. If your toddler drinks regular milk he has diarrhea but if he eats lactase-treated milk in which the sugar lactose has been digested, then the child can tolerate the milk without any problem."


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