acquired lactose intolerance - 7mo baby

[Crosby]

Just want to see if there is anyone out there with any experience of this.

My lo has had a diarrhea for 2 weeks after which a pediatritian made a suggestion that she has had a stomach bug which led to ittitation of the gut and a so called secondary lactose intolerance. He also siggested that i may have given her too much solids too quickly (i am beating myself up about this every day)

We are now off solids and on soy formula for a week intil her stool normalises. Then another trip to doctors for a strict weaning schedule.

I am trying to establish what i fed her that may have caused it. I have been weaning her on veg for 2 weeks then gave her egg, yoghurt and chicken meat in a space of 2-4 days - possibly too quickly.

Anyway, it would be helpful to hear from anyone who experienced this.

TIA

 

[MindUtopia]

Acquired lactose intolerance is caused completely by a stomach bug. It would have nothing to do with anything you've fed her, especially if she's been formula fed and getting dairy all this time. It's literally just the action of a bacterial infection in the gut which wipes out the gut's ability to digest lactose. Nothing you could have done to prevent it and it's actually fairly common. I have two friends who it happened to as adults. In both cases, with time and I think maybe some probiotics, they were able to re-introduce dairy and are perfectly fine now. That said, actually it's also possible what your LO is experiencing is the knock-on effects of the stomach bug, maybe even mixed with teething. I know my daughter had horrible diarrhea around this age with awful, acidic poos that burned her bum and made her really miserable for several weeks. It's actually pretty typical around this time, especially if it coincides with starting solids (which it often does when it all happens around 6 months). So it really could be nothing at all and it might sort itself out anyway. I'd give it some time on the soy, but also consider re-introducing dairy with support of your doctor once she's better and seeing if there's any change. It might all just be coincidental after all. You might also look into trying to re-seed her gut. There are a number of probiotics for children out there, though I don't know from what age they'd be recommended, but worth looking into it.