Snakes and Ladders: Oat Milk update

In my last post (here), I mentioned that we were going to try Piglet on Oat Milk as the first of hopefully many steps of reintroducing foods he had previously had reactions to (‘climbing the ladder’). That was three days ago and…

…Drum roll please…

I think, if a little inconclusively, that there have been no adverse reactions.

The good news is that there certainly wasn’t any strong, quick reaction. His tummy appears not to have given him any discomfort and he’s actually slept through the night for the last three nights. (Not quite a miracle, but certainly a good sign if anything).

It’s difficult because he was less than a year old when he was regularly having reactions to different things and his communication and understanding of pain have changed considerably since then. He’s had reactions since and, when it’s most obvious, you can tell that something is wrong. But for more mild reactions, I’m not even 100% sure what I’m looking for in a pre-schooler.

He’s been cranky the last few days and this could be down to any number of things; most notably the very hot bank holiday weather, a lack of sleep (later nights, despite sleeping well) and the sheer disruption of having mummy take him to nursery again rather than daddy. There was one evening where I was convinced his lack of ability to lie still and just go to sleep was reminiscent of his days of soya reactions when he just seemed to go manic and writhe around (in pain, I suspect). However, my wife is less convinced and I have to admit that as the days have gone past (he drank an entire carton of the stuff over the last few days) it does seem like the timing is a bit off and a lack of any other symptoms struggle to back it up.

What I want to avoid is being blind to the symptoms and continuing to up the dose (or intensity, I should say) of the allergen despite him being uncomfortable until it’s crystal clear he’s struggling with it. There were minor warning signs to me in the first few months of Piglet getting milk that I dismissed but wish I’d reconsidered earlier. On the other hand, I don’t want to create excuses for reactions when there’s nothing there and miss a chance to successfully reintroduce a food into his diet.

For now, I think its safe to assume that there’s no critical need to keep Piglet away from Oat milk. Next is probably a weak form of soya (probably soybean oil which isn’t actually a registered allergen) but that will have to wait as Piglet is having his immunisations tomorrow and I don’t think that will make for a good control comparison.