Not crazy!

We've been dealing with A.'s cow's milk protein intolerance (CMPI) for over a year now. It's been a rough trip. We're very lucky that A. has an intolerance, not an allergy -- her immune system isn't involved, so we don't have the danger of an allergic reaction. But because it's an intolerance, there's no way to clinically test for it. Blood and skin tests won't show a reaction. All we have to go on is the recurrence of symptoms after a challenge.

It's all very vague, and that makes me second-guess a lot. Allergies are a lot more researched and understood, and I felt like I had to be very defensive and assertive to get A.'s issue recognized.

So imagine my relief when I discovered a trove of medical papers relating to CMPI (look, I even have an acronym now!). I'm not crazy! Among the validations I found: a small but noticeable percentage of infants suffer from CMPI (3%). Intolerance is separate from allergy. Food challenges are the "gold standard" for diagnosis. Milk proteins do pass through breast milk and affect the kid. Treatment is the avoidance of CMP for some number of months (they suggest 6) and then a re-challenge.

Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of cow’s milk protein allergy in infants

The diagnosis and management of cow milk protein intolerance in the primary care setting

Cow's Milk Proteins Cause Infantile Colic in Breast-Fed Infants: A Double-Blind Crossover Study

I'm so very glad to have found support in the medical community and not just in the mother-to-mother forums online. I'm a Western medicine sort of girl, and to see A.'s problems scientifically researched and studied is such a weight off. I feel relieved that the approach JJ and I have taken is the right one, and I'm newly energized to keep doing this as long as we need to for A.'s health.