Milk allergy?

We (well, okay... I) decided that it was time to start supplementing Jake's milk w/ formula since he is now 6mo and drinking more than I can sometimes produce. So while I was at work, Hai gave him his first full bottle of Similac Advance thursday morning around 9a, and Jake seemed to take it just fine. However, when I got home, I noticed that the area around his eyes and mouth were a little red. As the afternoon progressed, the inside of his elbows and back of his knees developed what looked like a heat rash, so I decided to take him to the doctor's office before it closed, just to be on the safe side.

As I got him undressed in the patient room, I saw that his whole torso was splotchy red all over! The doctor (this was not his normal doctor) said it looked like hives, but it wasn't raised or bothering him, so I don't think so. I don't know what it was, except that it wasn't normal. She said it might be the beginnings of a viral infection and that it was purely coincidental that it coincided with the introduction of formula.... but I don't know about that. She also said that he may have strep throat and swabbed it for culture, but I don't think that's it either. As you may have guessed, I'm not totally confident in this doctor's evaluation, but she's what I get when his regular doc isn't in. Anyways, after all that, he was given some benadryl, a sample of some formula that doesn't contain milk or soy, and a requisition to get tested for food allergies.

So Hai took him the next morning for his blood draw, but they were unable to hit the vein. Imagine two big black guys holding you down and digging a needle into your arm. Needless to say, Jake was not happy. Mommy wasn't either when she was told that they were attempting a venipuncture to fill a 10mL tube w/ blood.

So I called another location when I got home from work and asked if they knew how to draw blood from a baby so he wouldn't have to go through another unnecessary stick. All I got was "We draw babies every day". That's better than the "We don't do babies often" Hai got from the first place, so we thought we'd give it another go. I don't know why the doctor's office didn't just draw it... will have to ask next time.

Anyways, here's a pic of him after the first (failed) attempt at LabCorp (see the gauze?):

















And this is the second (successful) attempt at a different LabCorp:

I would've taken a picture of the tourniquet tied around his tiny little arm and the butterfly filling the tube w/ blood, but I was busy holding down his shoulder so he wouldn't move while the needle was in his arm. I still can't believe they do actual venipunctures on babies... and take that much blood.

So anyways, this is something I hope we will never have to go through again!