Lactose intolerant?

[happycupcake]

Our little boy is one month old today and I have exclusively breastfed from birth. I don’t have much dairy in my diet, except for a splash of milk in my one mug of tea first thing. For a handful of days I fancied some Babybels and cheese portions so I had a couple for a few days but during that time lo started to become really fussy and seemed to have a lot more trapped (ridiculously trapped!) wind. He also seemed to find it harder to poo too. It was the only change in my diet so I stopped eating cheese (but continued with my splash of milk with my one mug of tea a day) and he is sleeping more soundly, staying settled longer and settling easier and generally seems happier and his wind easier to get rid of, so I wondered if this is a lactose intolerance? I’m not sure it could be if the splash of milk isn’t hurting him?

 

[Take2]

My third bub did not tolerate me eating dairy while breastfeeding so I had to give it up. I didn’t have any at all for about 9 months then slowly reintroduced it to my diet than slowly introduced it to hers. She’s almost 3 now and eats and drinks all dairy like it’s going out of fashion and has completely grown out of her intolerance!

 

[happycupcake]

How did you know it was dairy? Was it a case of cutting it out to see what happened? Sorry, silly questions but I have been awake all night so I have become a simpleton lol

 

[Take2]

My GP suggested cutting out dairy to see if it helped, she thought her symptoms suggested dairy intolerance. Pretty much from the moment she was born she screamed, drew her legs up indicating tummy pain, approximately 10 poo nappies a day (literally in one end and out the other) and really bad acne (not just your regular newborn pimples) within 3-4 days of me being off dairy all of these had improved and were 90% gone

 

[happycupcake]

Wow. Poor little thing! It’s strange how you can grow out of it. I couldn’t have dairy when I was little but was fine after a while

 

[Babybump87]

I was also going to suggest ( CMPA) cows milk protein allergy. As the title says it’s the proteins in the milk rather than the sugars. These proteins are harder for some babies / adults to digest so their body’s start attacking them which in turn gives them a reaction like PP said hives , bad skin , loose stools.

My DD2 went undiagnosed until she was 9 months just kept getting told it was reflux we tried to many different milks until we seen a GP who actually knew what he was talking about and advised coconut milk ! She still cannot have hard cheese or any kind of cows milk . It’s been a long road .

 

[happycupcake]

From what age can they have coconut milk? I’m assuming six months?
We bought some Colief which seems to be helpful, which would suggest lactose intolerance as that’s what it does, breaks down the lactose in your milk

 

[Babybump87]

I think it’s from age 1 onwards same as cows milk etc .
I’m glad you’ve found something that’s helping x

 

[noon_child]

As you say there is Lactose in human milk (regardless of whether you yourself have any dairy) so if he was truly Lactose intolerant he would have symptoms regardless of your diet. Lactose intolerance is extremely rare in babies (as babies have evolved alongside breastmilk and we wouldn't survive if babies were commonly lactose intolerant). However Cow's milk protein intolerance, CMPI, is more common as cows milk was introduced to human diets relatively recently. The cow's milk protein is small enough to enter human milk but some babies are only sensitive to large quantities, while others can't handle any at all. It can be genetic, so the fact that you had a sensitivity that you grew out of suggests that he may be the same.