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I am not exactly a spring chicken but I do not consider my self as being old either. I am 54 years old by the way.
Any way, by now I would have thought that they would have a handle on all my little quarks but oh no. I recently found out I have CMA. This is an allergy to cows milk. This is still a new allergy and very little is known about it. Trust me to get an oddity as an allergy. Any way what little they do know is that it is more common then you may realise. What happens is that people of my generation and before, god that makes me sound old. Any way back when I was little if you were an awkward little sod and refused to breast feed the only alternative was cows milk as formula milk did not really exist back then. So as I was having trouble feeding my mother, see I knew it was her fault, had no alternative but to feed me cows milk. As I was little I had not developed a proper digestive system and could not deal with the cows milk. This led to me developing CMA.
Symptoms are amongst other things digestive issues and a persistent rash usually on the chest. There are others. Any way all my life I have had these issues and when my mother discovered that there was a thing called CMA and what the symptoms were. She started to wonder if that was what I had. She could tick off almost all the symptoms from when I was little.
A couple of years back I was in hospital for five weeks due to a major heart operation. During that time my liquid intake was severely limited. It mainly consisted of fresh fruit juice and water. No milk. The rash on my chest cleared up in a mater of weeks but we did not make the connection at the time. When I came out of hospital I started to drink milk again and over a month or so the rash returned. At times being a rather vivid red. As we were now into summer again I assumed, wrongly, this was down to my hayfever.
Since discovering I may have CMA about a month ago I am once again off milk. Or rather it is severely limited. Only one cup of coffee per day. My rash has once again disappeared so it looks like I really do have CMA.
In my quest to remove milk from my diet I have tried a couple of the so called milks that are available and they are for the most part disgusting. Soya milk … YUCK! Coconut milk … YUCK! and Almond milk … YUCK! These are all not cheap to buy. But I have found one thing I do like. I enjoy fruit yoghurt’s but of course these are off the menu now. But they do ones called Yopel. These are delicious but again costly.
What surprised my was how much milk there is that you consume with out really realising it. For example the “I can not believe it is butter” type of spread contains butter milk. Things like pastry, bread and biscuits also contain small amounts of milk.
The ideal for me would be a vegan diet with white meat, fish and eggs. I do not eat red meat very often. That option is out the question really as I do not like the milk alternatives on offer. I could I suppose try goats milk. At over three times the cost of cows milk I am not willing to waste that amount of money just to throw it away. Mind you we used to feed that to our dog when she was little so she may be willing to drink it.
If you suspect that you may also have CMA then do a little research you may be right.
Mayo Clinc – http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/milk-allergy/basics/symptoms/con-20032147
CMA Information – https://www.isitcowsmilkallergy.co.uk/en-gb/all-about-cma/symptoms
Anaphylaxis – https://www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Cows-Milk-2015v6.pdf
For more information try Google.
I have not been paid to mention any product or service named in this blog post. This blog post is written and published for information only.
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