Any advice on introducing dairy back in to my diet?

[Feisty Fidget]

From 1 week old to 11.5 weeks old my sweet girl screamed constantly during the day and had a rock hard stomach with trapped wind. When we were at our wits end and fearing that the midwife/GP/Health Visitor diagnosis of colic was wrong we booked in with a chiropractor. After taking a full history of my diet, her symptoms and looking at a soiled nappy they strongly suggested a dairy sensitivity. I cut out dairy and within 3 days I had a completely different child, smiley, happy and most importantly pain free.

My LO is now officially 5 months and in a few weeks we will be starting baby led weaning. I know that I will still be her main source of food for quite some time yet, but I wonder if anyone has any experience on when would be best to start introducing dairy back into my diet?

The chiropractor explained that her digestive system meant she had issues with digesting the milk protein in my diet (she also seemed to have problems if I had beef or soy) and I know that by 6 months they are mature enough to handle solids, but I'm hesitant to put her at the risk of pain like before.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[noon_child]

I think most food allergies are gone by 18months but obviously thats a way off yet. There are quite a lot of foods that have small amounts of milk via an ingredient like whey etc. (as I'm sure you'll have realised as you went dairy free!), so maybe you could try with not excluding all those types of food and build up slowly to things like cheese and yoghurt. I'd do the same with LO to be honest and avoid dairy as a first food, as weaning even a child without allergies can cause horrible wind pain and unsettled sleep, and you want to know if its a passing phase or due to the intolerance.

 

[loeylo]

You really need to see a dietician. My LO is cmpa, we ff from birth and she had excessive wind and other issues from day 1 which we were fobbed off with until I (on the advice of my hv) demanded prescription formula. She was like a new baby within 1-2 feeds!

I went back to my GP again (off my own back) and they eventually referred me to the dietician who we saw last week.

It turns out that she should have been reintroduced to dairy after 4 weeks, and if her symptoms started again then that would be proof that she was cmp intolerant.

The dietician advised us to try her on standard formula now (8 months) and if her symptoms restarted then she should be dairy free until 1 year before attempting reintroduction.

Again, kt may be different as you didn't ff but even now that we have reintroduced small amounts of standard formula to her diet (less than 50/50 ratio) it seems her intolerance remains. She isn't as severe as before so we are in limbo.

Food wise she is still dairy free, we don't plan on introducing dairy until a year anyway but we use fortified dairy free replacement products such as cheezly, alpro soya, vita koko, flora dairy free spread. There are even special chocolate products, and some cakes and biscuits (including bourbons which surprised me!) so it isn't all doom and gloom!

 

[Feisty Fidget]

I think most food allergies are gone by 18months but obviously thats a way off yet. There are quite a lot of foods that have small amounts of milk via an ingredient like whey etc. (as I'm sure you'll have realised as you went dairy free!), so maybe you could try with not excluding all those types of food and build up slowly to things like cheese and yoghurt. I'd do the same with LO to be honest and avoid dairy as a first food, as weaning even a child without allergies can cause horrible wind pain and unsettled sleep, and you want to know if its a passing phase or due to the intolerance.

Oddly I can get away with the odd whey ingredient providing it isn't too much and I once even ate a minuscule amount of creme fraiche without any major problems. We were told that cooked dairy in tiny amounts would probably be fine for me to consume as she seems to be sensitive rather than intolerant, I'm just over cautious due to the hell of the early days lol. Thank you for the 18 month info, a definite help

You really need to see a dietician. My LO is cmpa, we ff from birth and she had excessive wind and other issues from day 1 which we were fobbed off with until I (on the advice of my hv) demanded prescription formula. She was like a new baby within 1-2 feeds!

I went back to my GP again (off my own back) and they eventually referred me to the dietician who we saw last week.

It turns out that she should have been reintroduced to dairy after 4 weeks, and if her symptoms started again then that would be proof that she was cmp intolerant.

The dietician advised us to try her on standard formula now (8 months) and if her symptoms restarted then she should be dairy free until 1 year before attempting reintroduction.

Again, kt may be different as you didn't ff but even now that we have reintroduced small amounts of standard formula to her diet (less than 50/50 ratio) it seems her intolerance remains. She isn't as severe as before so we are in limbo.

Food wise she is still dairy free, we don't plan on introducing dairy until a year anyway but we use fortified dairy free replacement products such as cheezly, alpro soya, vita koko, flora dairy free spread. There are even special chocolate products, and some cakes and biscuits (including bourbons which surprised me!) so it isn't all doom and gloom!

We were advised the 4 week rule too, but I declined trying dairy as I know it takes ages to get back out of your system and I didn't want to put her (or us!) through that again. The nurse practitioner did strongly suggest a nutritionalist for me as she was horrified I'd gone dairy free and seemed to think that it was impossible to survive without dairy lol. Sadly most of the dairy replacements contain soy which I try to avoid like the plague in large doses and large amounts seems to upset her too. I do love a milk free Oreo though and oatly has been my saviour! It's just the hassle if eating away from home and even not being able to enjoy a hot beverage of my choice if meeting friends for "coffee" etc.

Thank you both for your help.

 

[happynewmom1]

Our baby is sensitive to things with cows milk. It's almost exactly how you described.. She screamed so much the first few weeks and changed so much going off dairy I'm not sure when to go back to trying some. I was thinking about slowly adding things back in somewhere around 7 months. We want to do baby led weaning too. If you have Starbucks over there, I ask them to use coconut milk instead of regular and then keep it simple on flavor. I know they still have a little milk in some of their syrups but these don't seem to bother her at all.

I think when I do try reintroducing some things it will be a little butter or a little cheese here and there. Small amounts of things or not being quite as picky when looking at labels. Like you I try to keep from soy.. It's so frustrating it's in like... Everything. Good luck! I hope you update us on how it goes