Lactose overload???

[stepmum]

Has anyone experience Lactose overload with their babies?

My LO has had nappy problems for the last couple of weeks now and we still haven't got to the bottom of it (excuse the pun) but I googled tonight as his nappies were smelling kind of like vinegar and I've read about lactose overload..baby is taking too much lactose through overfeeding (I feel awful at this statement) as he cannot indicate initially when he has had enough and then is having cramps from the lactose therefore seeking another feed before the last one has digested and so on, a viscious circle, His symptoms are all spot on

Frequent watery bowel motions (can often be green in color but not always)
Bowel motions often have a slightly to very offensive odor
Bowel motions could be frothy or 'explosive' (shoot out with force)
Bloating
Cramps
Excessive gas
Irritability/screaming
Sleeplessness or wakefulness
Baby appears to be constantly hungry
Baby gains large amounts of weight (which is not the case when a baby is lactose intolerant)
Baby is usually less than 3 months old, but this problem can continue to the age of 5 months

Appearing constantly hungry is an understatement, he's currently taking 9oz 5 times a day, I knew this was too much but all the meds told me to just keep upping it and he'll stop when he's full, he never stops!!

He was a preemie so I gather this hasn't helped matters either.

I'm gonna be in for a rough ride as I'm gonna have to drop his amount down to 6oz which is what he should be having, he's gonna "think" he's still hungry

If anyone has experience this did they get through it quickly??

 

[sapphire1]

I've never heard of lactose overload before. A lot of the symptoms you've described are symptoms of cows milk protein intolerance too. Holly had a lot of those, and she has CMPI. Google the symptoms and see what you think. She also had silent reflux as a result of the CMPI, which caused her to feed all the time. Have you been to the doctors about it? It's probably better to get a proper diagnosis before you start reducing LOs feeds. He could be going through a growth spurt and need the extra milk. x x

 

[stepmum]

I am going to try and take him the doctors tomorrow to see what he thinks as I definitely think the amount he drinks is far too much for his age, and I've thought this for a while and considered putting him on hungry baby milk. I'm just desperate to find out what exactly is the problem with him, he's on lactalose for his pooing so I need to check if it is this whether we need to stop this or not. I'll google the symptoms of CMPI now though. x

 

[sapphire1]

Holly needed lactulose too before she was on an appropriate formula. She only did a poo once a week, and that was with lactulose and suppositories. It was awful too, and she had the most horrendous smelling wind.

Does LO show signs of reflux? It's very common among preemies. It's also very common to be linked with a milk intolerance. x x

 

[stepmum]

He gets hiccups a lot, will not take naps, has irritable moments during the day so not sure if these could be reflux symptoms as he doesn't vomit or spit up or anything.

 

[XJessicaX]

yes, this is what my LO had but I presumed it was an intolerance to my abundant foremilk and I think she was getting enormous quantities of milk per feed. Some days she would be OK, others she would do everything you wrote. I breastfed for 15 weeks and then just couldn't take the sleepless nights any more (mainly because she was so irritable with lack of sleep) so I ended up having to express and put Colief in each feed and then introduced formula (Aptimel comfort) but I still express twice a day and use the colief. If I forget to use the colief or feed my LO with the breast milk past midday then my LO has a night of writhing around. NO idea what is going on there!

Does your LO have NO sensation of feeling full at all? 9oz in a feed is a huge amount of food! How much does he weigh now?

 

[sapphire1]

Hiccups can be a sign of reflux, Holly had them ALL the time. The other things also can. Holly didn't spit up - silent reflux is basically reflux without the vomiting.

 

[Josie]

It sounds like hes having difficulty in digesting, which is extremely common in formula milk because it has harder to digest casein curds which are hard on babys stomach and formula milk doesnt have any digestive enzymes. The leftover unabsorbed fats is what is making his poo really smelly, maybe if you changed over to soya milk, this would help? xxx

 

[stepmum]

yes, this is what my LO had but I presumed it was an intolerance to my abundant foremilk and I think she was getting enormous quantities of milk per feed. Some days she would be OK, others she would do everything you wrote. I breastfed for 15 weeks and then just couldn't take the sleepless nights any more (mainly because she was so irritable with lack of sleep) so I ended up having to express and put Colief in each feed and then introduced formula (Aptimel comfort) but I still express twice a day and use the colief. If I forget to use the colief or feed my LO with the breast milk past midday then my LO has a night of writhing around. NO idea what is going on there!

Does your LO have NO sensation of feeling full at all? 9oz in a feed is a huge amount of food! How much does he weigh now?

No, he drains bottles no matter how much is in it, he always seems hungry, he weighs 13lb now and was 4lb 13 when born, he's still only really short though so I'm imagining waking up one day to see a little round bowling ball instead of my little baby. We've been up the wall for ages trying to figure out what's up with him and trying different things, even the doctors were at a loss.

 

[stepmum]

Hiccups can be a sign of reflux, Holly had them ALL the time. The other things also can. Holly didn't spit up - silent reflux is basically reflux without the vomiting.

I'm going to mention this to the consultant when we go next week, I've heard of silent reflux but I thought it was reflux without the constant screaming but still vomiting. Thanks for suggesting this.

 

[charlotteb24]

Sounds to me like silent reflux, william used to have all the problems you listed about too until he was put onto cow and gate comfort milk which has helped greatly with his silent reflux and his colic and constipation. We were given gaviscon but it made him worse, i would say you need to see the doc as it could be that he has lactose intolerance, severe colic or reflux by the sounds of it x

 

[Debbie_23]

My baby was like this too and hv suggested it might be silent reflux but the doctor wasnt conviced it was as he is not too bad at sleeping at night (only cat naps during the day) and he is pretty happy lying on his back and doctor said generally reflux babies will be very uncomfortable flat on there back and will be very bad sleepers, day and night.

I bought colief which takes some of the lactose out of the milk prior to feeding and this helped sooooo much, the doctor said that it might not be that he is overfeeding but some babies just cant digest lactose very well when their young but will grow out of it. Unfortunatly it is quite expensive at £12 a bottle but if you premake bottles you only need 2 drops and the bottle lasts around 9 days.

My little boy is now 17 weeks and still has colef in his bottles but i am thinking of weaning him off it and see how we go. I have tonight started on hungry baby milk too as he is starting to seem that he is not satisfied on stage 1 anymore and i dont really want to wean him yet if i can help it. But colief might be the way to go, as i said my wee boy seemed to have horrible pain, awful smelly gas and was just grumpy 24/7 until i started with colief. The doctor called it temporary lactose intolerance and said he would be almost certain he would outgrow it as its very rare for a baby to have a true lactose intolerance.

 

[sapphire1]

Just wanted to say it's not unusual for LOs with silent reflux to be fine laying on their backs. In fact Holly always drank her milk while laying in her back, wouldn't have it any other way. She was better with ranitidine, so she defo had silent reflux. Her sleep wasn't affected by it either. I guess different babies have different symptoms...

 

[stepmum]

Just wanted to say it's not unusual for LOs with silent reflux to be fine laying on their backs. In fact Holly always drank her milk while laying in her back, wouldn't have it any other way. She was better with ranitidine, so she defo had silent reflux. Her sleep wasn't affected by it either. I guess different babies have different symptoms...

Oliver is also fine laying on his back but I'm definitely gonna check up on the possibility of silent reflux, would be nice to finally get to the bottom of it, for e and him