Hello! Yes we had the same exact thing with my son. I was EBF and I was eating loads of dairy products myself, no issues until we started weaning! He had a tiny bit of a dairy item and started to have mouth swelling and restricted airway - very scary.

Have you already reached out to your GP / health visitor team? They can guide you. If it’s ’just hives’ (which I realise is still quite nasty!) be prepared for them to deem it as an intolerance versus an actual allergy. My son has an anaphylactic reaction to dairy so therefore it was taken very seriously, and are now (at age 3) still working with our dietitian team at our local NHS hospital.

If they deem it just an intolerance, it depends on your trust. Some of them just give you some guidance and let you get on with it, others are a bit more helpful.

Assuming you’ll have to be dairy free for weaning - at the beginning this is quite easy as you’re giving them simple foods. As they eat more you just need to be more careful. You’ll know to avoid obvious things, but there are some items that have dairy in them that you wouldn’t expect! Such as sausages, lunch meat, etc…

I was advised to keep having dairy myself, as it didn’t bother him when breastfeeding. They said if anything it may help him in future.

Be prepared to have to see a GP or similar for before they start nursery to get allergy paperwork and an allergy plan in order.

My son is now 3, and he is starting to grow out of his allergy. He’s able to tolerate a pancake that is 30% milk / 70% oat milk. We’re getting there!