Cow’s Milk Protein Allergy- Our Journey up the milk ladder – Stage 2 to 4

Inside: Our own experiences with the first stage of the milk ladder.

My youngest daughter was born with a cow’s milk allergy. Not that we knew it at the time – I just began life with a newborn as any mum would.

For the first 2 weeks of her life all was well besides a complete inability to latch on, which we would later discover was down to tongue-tie. But it then became very obvious (due to my previous experience of my first child having lactose intolerance) that someone wasn’t right.

She was screaming in pain about 20 minutes after a feed (delayed reactions are common) and would develop mild hives all over her body. The doctors didn’t have a clue and because they weren’t instant or severe reactions, they brushed it off as nothing.

But I knew and persisted until someone listened to me.

Of course, if you are dealing with a severe allergic reaction then head to A&E where a health professional will be able to give you immediate help.

Did you miss part 1? Or want to see the whole series? 

If you have been following the series, you will know that we started my daughter on the milk ladder challenge and she successfully completed the first step: malted biscuits. You can find my malted milk biscuit recipe here.

Click here for all of the recipes in my milk ladder series.

Stage 2 of the Milk Ladder – Digestive Biscuits

Stage 2 is not dissimilar to stage one in that it is a biscuit but instead of using malted milk as the ingredient it uses dried skimmed milk powder. Unlike stage 1, where we had to make our own biscuits, this stage can use store-bought biscuits.

TIP: When shopping for Digestives, be sure to check the ingredients. Top brands seem to be dairy-free now, so you might have more luck with shop-own variations.

How did she get on?

We started off with a pea-sized piece of digestive and each day doubled the amount until she was eating a whole biscuit. Starting with small amounts ensures you don’t overload the immune system and increases the chance of success.

She didn’t even have a mild reaction, with no gastrointestinal symptoms or rashes on her skin, which I was so relieved about. I was always paranoid that we were going to have a night from hell but she was always fine thank goodness. This then meant I could move her on to stage 3 which is muffins/cupcakes.

Success!! 

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Stage 3 of the Milk Ladder – Muffins

The next step on the ladder is muffins/ cupcakes but this time you will need to make these yourself to make sure they have the exact amount of dairy products needed.

Here is the recipe for 8 muffins:

Ingredients

132g flour

40g cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

100g soft brown sugar

40ml oil (any)

70ml apple puree

200ml milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

It’s a simple one! Hurrah!

– Mix all of the dry ingredients in one bowl: flour, cocoa powder, sugar and bicarb.

– Mix all of the wet ingredients in another bowl: oil, apple puree, milk and vanilla.

– Combine the two mixtures together, put a big dollop in each muffin case and bake for 20 mins at 180ºC. The mixture is quite runny but they do rise nicely. 

How did she get on?

She had no reaction to the cakes, even eating a whole one near the end of the day (I always try to give new things in the morning so any possible reactions happen before bedtime). I couldn’t believe she had something containing milk – I’d felt so nervous adding it into the mixture!

Success!! 

This marked the end of the baked milk challenge for us – moving on to ‘cooked milk’ and more obvious forms of milk as we continue up the ladder.

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Stage 4 of the Milk Ladder – Scotch Pancakes

We are now at the scotch pancake stage – not the most common foods you’d think of but obviously a necessary rung of the ladder as the milk is pan-fried within the mixture.

We started with half a pancake, probably the size of her hand, just to be sure to take it slowly. Then increased by a half each day until she was happily eating 2 pancakes for breakfast.

We bought shop ones but here is the recipe to make 18 pancakes:

Ingredients

120g self-raising flour

pinch of salt

30g caster sugar

1 egg

144ml milk

Method

– Sift the flour and add the salt into a bowl.

– Crack the egg into the milk and whisk together in a jug.

– Combine the wet and dry ingredients into the jug so that you can pour the mix into the pan.

– Heat the pan and test it is hot enough by placing a small bit of batter to check. When the surface of the batter is covered in bubbles it is time to flip the pancake.

How did she get on?

Once again she had no issues. The fact that the milk was pan-fried rather than baked had made me nervous but she aced it!

Success!! 

Head over to part 3 of our milk ladder journey >>>