Hi, i'm just after some advice as me and my husband are thinking about moving back to Switzerland from Australia with our son (20 mths) who has a milk and egg allergy.

He currently drinks a prescription formula called Karicare Aptamil Pepti Junior which is a extensively hydrolysed formula. He is still on formula at the dr's request due to his low weight etc.

My question is does Switzerland have this type of formula or something similar? and if so what are the costs.

Also does anyone know anything about whether they have allergists and how one would go to see them?

I've checked Coop online and luckily they have soy milk & yoghurts available which are half the price of what we pay here! Plus the Vergusto cheese is half the price too YEY!

Our daughter is also allergic to eggs, and about 20 other foodstuffs. As a baby it was a NIGHTMARE, as it was only truly discovered after several emergency visits to hospitals...the egg part was very strong, which made her very ill, quite often. But, that started 26 years ago...

Fortunately, today one knows much more and there are excellent websites and professionals dealing with these issues. And it sounds like you are far more advanced than me 26 years ago! That is good!

In Zurich, we visited:

Dr. med. Francis Levy, Facharzt FMH für Pädiatrie sowie Allergologie u. klinische Immunologie
Löwenstrasse 42, Zürich
044 716 10 16


He is married to an American, speaks perfect English, and is quite helpful.


Best of luck in Switzerland, with your child.

My husband visited the Allergy clinic at the Inselspital in Berne last year. They were very knowledgable, helped him figure out a cross over allergy that he did not realize he has, and he has been feeling much better since.

Migros (the other main Swiss supermarket) also has products which are egg-free and milk-free. See here. The products under "ohne Milch" (without milk) are milk-free and the ones under "ohne Ei" (without egg) are egg-free.

The Soja Line milk, whipping cream and yogurts
should be milk and egg free.

I don't know about formula though. Good luck!

Hi,

My daughter appears on initial tests to be allergic to dairy and eggs. I have been told I can get the formula on the health insurance and the doctor will provide me this on prescription. I am not sure upto what age this applies to though. As for allergists - The childrens hospital in the uni spital have a clinic for allergies.

The large Coop (e.g Sihlcity) sell The best range of Soya milk with added Calcium etc... Migros and Coop sell Rice milk. The health food stores also sell other types.

The Apotheke have the special types of formula. I found some soy formula for my son there and I recall seeing the hydrolyzed stuff as well. I have also been pleasantly surprised to see sheep and goat milk yogurt in most of the grocery stores. I have not been very impressed by the baby food selections, most of the ones with veggies seem to include some sort of wheat product. The Reformhaus has veggie baby food but it is expensive (~2.60 CHF). Some bigger Coops have a few with potatoes or rice. I found a second hand stick blender and have just been grinding up our veggies.

Aptamil is a very popular brand here so I am quite sure you will be able to get the product you need. If you are currently in Switzerland then just find and 'apotheke' in German, not sure what it is called in French, which is the pharmacy, and ask. It might help if you just take a package from your curren product and they can look it up on their system.

I would expect that it would be subsidized, similar to Australia, but I am sure the pharmacist would know if the cost can be covered by the Swiss health insurance on prescription.

Also, doctors here are allowed to dispense medication, so it might be that they would simply provide you with the product and bill it to the health insurance...

Thank you everyone for your replies.

I will try and take as many tins with me as I can and get him to see a Doc when we arrive. He's fine with soy so if we get stuck he can always have soy milk. I'm excited to see the dairy and egg free ranges available as we don't have many options here. E.g two types of soy yogurt (vanilla & blueberry), coconut yogurt (which I hope they have in CH as well). I also saw that there is an egg free mayo which doesn't have milk in it - all our mayo's have milk in them except one which is based on soy

Hi, I found some more mayonnaises which are egg and milk free: here

The soyana site seems to sell many products (tofu, rice milk, almond spread etc.) which are plant based and therefore milk and egg free. Take a look! I bet you can send them an email to ask questions if you'd like to.
I'm not affiliated with them in any way.