Weaning a baby thats lactose intollerant - advice please!

[june09]

Mia's not far off 4 months now, and I've been speaking to my hv and she suggests Mia may need to be an early weaner because she's not gaining weight that much on milk, and she's hungry but will just not take any more milk as she's just not interested in it. She's lactose intollerent though, and I have been told to try her on some foods with lactose in as she's weaning to see if it's something that still affects her, which I think it might as it's not been long since we were told she was lactose intollerant after months of visiting the doctors. Anyway I was just wondering as anyone got any advice on what things haven't got lactose in them for when I do start weaning her. I know she wont just be starting on everything straight away, but just want to know in advance so I know what kind of thing to be looking for. So if anyone else has weaned their baby who is lactose intollerant any advice on what you gave them would be much appreciated, I know to look for things without that in but just wondered if someone could point me in the right direction of what to buy so i know what to look for rather than having to read every single thing in the shop!

Thanks

 

[bex]

My son was lactose intollerant. You should be ok at first as you'll probably only be giving small amounts of fruit or veg puree's its when they get older that things become a little more tricky. Alot of the ready made baby foods have milk in so you will have to check the labels. You'd also be suprised at the things that contain lactose but you will get used to what you can use and not use.
We saw a dietician at the hospital who gave us advice on Kian's diet so you could maybe get a referral when Mia is a little older. Kian is now able to tolerate semi skimmed milk and low fat dairy products. He has had a relapse this week which is the first time in over a year but he had been having more milk than usual.
It will be just trial and error on introducing dairy foods but if i was you i'd wait till Mia is settled into weaning before you give her any.

 

[louise1302]

archie is lactose intolerant and we were fine weaning him onto veg and fruit but ill admit it has got trickier as hes gotten older, i gave up on purees and followed blw though
the hippp organic jars are good because it says on them if they are lactose free as do the cow and gate ones, some others might too but tbh i very rarely gave jars
archie still cant tolerate any dairy except small amounts of yoghurt but the dietician did tell me they can outgrow it at any age
im here if you need any more help hun x

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Yeah, I second that you should be able to go to a dietician.
I don't think early weaning is good for babies with allergies, from what I have read recently? Such a lot of confliciting advice out there.
We've got to be careful with eggs and cheese as OH was intolerant when he was younger, so we've been advised to give dairy products one at a time, and on their own, so we can isolate what is causing any reaction.
Also we've decided to wait until 8m until offering them. That was her system is more mature and more able to deal with the foods anyway, so less risk of allergy in the first place.

 

[june09]

Thanks for the advice guys! She does already see a dietician but isn't due to see him again until February and by that time she will be 8 months so might have to try see if I can get into see him before then.

I was unsure about weaning her early but my hv and gp say that for her weight issues it might be needed as really just is not interested in milk. plus they think it may help with another problem that she as with her nose, as they say with drinking milk the bottles in her mouth for a longer period of time than if she's feeding so it'll be easier for her as she can struggle to get oxygen when taking her milk, which personally i think is part of the reason she isn't interested in it much. I Dont have much confidence in my hv or gp for that matter though so think i may have to speaak to her dietician as suggested before i do anything, Though he did mention a while back that early weaning might be something needed in her case, with her problems but she wasn't found to be lactose intollerent when he said that so I didnt get to ask about that side of things, as she was seeing him about feeding issues due to her nose problem. Will have to phone up on monday and see if I can get into see him before february, as he did say if I have any problems before then that i should contact him.

Thanks though for the advice, at least I have an idea of what i'm looking for now for if I do have to wean her early. probably wont really use the jars anyway much so as people have said it probably wont be too difficult until shes a bit older and trying more things. Hopefully she could grow out of it anyway by then, as i know some do but will just have to wait and see.

Just gets so confusing of what to do for the best sometime when professionals out there all give such different advice that it makes me worry what is really for the best.

 

[kirsten1985]

We have a lot of intolerances in the family, milk, eggs, citrus, gluten and wheat. I will be waiting 'til at least 8 months to introduce these, perhaps even longer as Freya already has a tiny bit of eczema. I would suggest sticking to pure fruit and veg for a while.

 

[mommyof3co]

I don't get the whole weaning early for weight gain? The very little bit of stuff they take at that age have very little calories and almost no fat. If anything trying more formula and sticking with that longer, to me atleast, makes more sense it has more of what they need. If she's set on not eating more giving solids might actually make her take less milk...which could be worse for weight gain.

But Hayden was lactose intolerant too, it won't be an issue as a few others said at first because you do just fruits and veggies first so that won't have it in there you know? But once we got to stuff that had it in there we did hold off for awhile but since it wasn't a true allergy just an intolerance we were told to try a bit and if he reacted wait like 3mo and try again...eventually around 16mo he started to get better but could only have small amounts, but he's 2 now and can have most stuff now

 

[june09]

Its not just a case of giving her it for weight, it's a case of she has problems taking milk because of a problem she has and getting her to take anymore milk is really just impossible. And they think that giving her something other than milk will be an easier thing for her to do due to the problem she has. I can't explain the issue so that it makes sense really. But I get where they are coming from when they say she may benefit. And while they say they know it wont help her weight immediately, they say she will gain it sooner from that than she is with milk because she just can't take any more milk. It's not just them saying it for weight issues, it's for other health issues that she has. I have spoken to her dietician on the phone and he says he tends to agree with what they are saying, but have an appointment on friday now so will discuss it further then and see where to go. But I at least I have an idea of what i'm looking for if she does start weaning anytime soon, if not then at least I know for when she eventually does. But as the dietician said with some babies it's not really possible for them to be on just milk until the recommended weaning age of 6 months, and some do need it before and anything from 4 months is safe and is what some babies need, where others will benefit more from waiting that bit longer. Thanks fo the help.

 

[sublime_ivy]

We have a lot of intolerances in the family, milk, eggs, citrus, gluten and wheat. I will be waiting 'til at least 8 months to introduce these, perhaps even longer as Freya already has a tiny bit of eczema. I would suggest sticking to pure fruit and veg for a while.

We're the same here, I have every allergy and intolerance. eczema, hayfever , cats, dogs, lactose etc so defo gonna wait to give all of the above. Dex also has mild eczema which has pretty much gone away with the aid of some stuff from the docs. Ithink wait the weaning as long as possible but if you need to then do what us best for your family. People think I am mad waiting to wean but meh to them.

 

[june09]

Well we seen the dietician on friday and we went through all the pro's and con's of weaning early in this case and he agreed that for her health issues that she has she should be weaned now as soon as possible, We discussed her being lactose intollerent and I asked is it wise to wean early as i've heard its not if theres any kind of allergies and he said generally he wouldn't advise it but in this case her other issues are much greater than her being lactose intollerent as its not as if I have to give anything with lactose in anyway as theres plenty of options of what to give her. She's 17 weeks on monday so he said its up to me if i waited the few days to start on monday or start staight away as the few days really wouldnt make any difference, so Have tried her on some rice and she loved it and it was so good to actually feed her something and not have her screan the whole way through. Plus it also helped her take her bottle much better after it as the dietician said it might as having the rice will make her feel dry and make her feel like she needs a drink so she may take her milk better which she did. She didn't take loads but she's not likely to ever take much but she took it without screaming so that was a plus straight away. Not going to give her anything else just yet anyway just trying her out with the rice and see how things go but feel better about giving her things now that the dietician has agreed. Thanks for all the help everyone!