Is My Baby Lactose Intolerant?

It doesn't necessarily mean he's lactose intolerant. He can be allergic to dair (as my son is) or just sensitive to it (like my friend's baby.) She had him tested for dairy allergies and he wasn't allergic, but she swears when she eats dairy and then breastfeeds, he has a skin reaction or tummy ache. Good luck.

I am currently in the same boat and it is so frustrating. My daughter is 11 weeks old and at first, the Dr. said it was reflux... well, she was congested all the time as well as spitting up and in my gut I just knew it wasn't reflux. So, I took her off the zantac (which wasn't helping much anyway), took her off breastfeeding and put her on Soy formula and ALL the negative symptoms cleared up. So, I took a week off of breastfeeding to clear dairy out of my diet and started back breastfeeding once a day for a few days, then twice a day, and so on and everything seemed fine.

I only cut out milk and yogurt, but didn't really focus on eliminating cheese since it's in about everything we cook. I also didn't stop cooking with milk either. And, I thought maybe my daughter was just lactose intolerant but could handle small amounts of dairy. (that's how my son is, he can eat all the cheese pizza and ice cream he wants and be fine, but one glass of milk and he's got diarrhea for three days!)

But now, all of a sudden my daughter is having the same congestion issues again and i don't know if it's just environmental allergies (her dad has bad seasonal allergies) or if now I need to eliminate cheese too! So, I've once again taken her off the breast and I'm just pumping and dumping while I see if the soy formula clears up her symptoms. We just started today so too early to tell.

But the problem I'm also struggling with is how do I determine if it's a true milk allergy or just lactose intolerance? I'm afraid to introduce lactose free milk into my diet for fear of exacerbating her symptoms... but they may be something I have to try. My son's allergist said that allergy testing at this age is very inaccurate so there's no way to know.

it's so frustrating. i'm so dedicated to breastfeeding, I pumped extra milk and stored it for going back to work and now I won't even be able to use it! My mom, who's a pediatric nurse said that it could just be an immature digestive thing and she may grow out of it by around 3months..... I'm hoping that's it but deep down I don't think that's true. ugh :)

Trial and error I think is all you can do at this point. Let me know how it goes!

C.,

I urge you to relax. Your baby is very young and so is his little tummy. It takes a while for babies to get comfortable digesting anything. Eat a good solid balanced diet and drink plenty of non caffeine beverages and give it some time. If you still feel that he is not processing food properly, consult the doctor. Both my children were breastfed and had issues with digestion initially. It all leveled out at about one month and everything was fine. You may wish to limit your dairy intake as it is hard to digest. This may put unnecessary strain on his little system starting out. God's Blessings!

I nursed my son for 1 year, and for the first 4-5 months he had a problem with milk fat/dairy protien. It's not that he was "lactose intolerant" but the fat/protiens from the cow's milk upset his stomach, it took 3-4 weeks for us to figure this out, but when we realized it, yes I did have to cut dairy out of my diet. Not fun...but TOTALLY worth it, and as I said, by 5 months old he was over it and I could go back to ice cream! ;) It sounds as though your son may have a similar thing, so I would encourage you to try omitting dairy for three days(that's how long the lactation specialist recommended) to see if this helps him. Good Luck!! And, please don't give up on nursing! :) C.

My son had that same problem and we later learned he actually has a true allergy to the protein in dairy (and not just lactose intolerance which is just an inability to digest the sugar). Since I was breastfeeding (and consuming dairy), he was a very, very fussy baby. I didn't stop dairy until he was older when I thought I was lactose intolerant, but also later learned I had a true dairy allergy. I was not consuming dairy with my younger son and he was a very happy baby. We didn't learn about his dairy allergy until he was 10 when he other health issues. My younger son also has the dairy allergy, so he was very fortunate that I had stopped dairy by the time he was born. So, based on my experiences your son is likely reacting to the dairy in your diet and you would both benefit by your going dairy free. The doctor never suggested or mentioned that dairy could be the culprit in my son's fussiness, so we just endured it. There are plenty of dairy free alternatives and lots of other ways to get your calcium/protein/vitamin D.

Hi, C.!

Seems as if a LOT of us have had different issues with our babies spitting up (beyond "normal"). My 16-year-old was on Enfamil, and when he was between 3 and 6 weeks old, he started throwing it up VIOLENTLY (and it was a strange shade of green, too!). I had him in the hospital, because the dr didn't know if it was "just" an allergy, or if it was a symptom of a problem with his single kidney. I switched him to ProSobee, and he did ok on that....for a few weeks, then he started throwing that up. I switched him to Good Start, and he did GREAT the rest of the year! (He was OFF his bottle ON HIS OWN the week he turned a year old! No such luck with #2. LOL) He was funny when it came to being able to eat/drink dairy. He could eat any cheese, yogurt, frozen yogurt, or mac 'n cheese made with the cheese sauce (but not the powder that you mix with milk), but he could NOT drink milk, or eat pudding of any kind, or ice cream. Those items gave him INSTANT diarrhea that took "forever" to get cleared up.

My 2-year-old has had different issues....His vomiting wasn't nearly as projectile as my older son's was, but he was spitting up an awful lot, and he cried a lot more. We ended up trying 7 (that's right...SEVEN) different formulas for him! The one we ended up on wasn't the most expensive, either! (go figure that one...) Enfamil had just come out with their A.R. formula in the summer of '05, and that's the one that did best with my little one's stomach.

As far as questioning allergies and illnesses going around, the pollen counts are really high right now, so ask your pedi about starting your kids on something like Singulair and/or a nasal spray. Our pedi had the little one on Zyrtec, but our Ear Specialist said to quit giving it to him...He said Zyrtec is great for treating the allergies, but it also has a nasty tendency of messing up the kids' ears and their hearing. He sees a lot of this with his pediatric patients. I also have "outdoor" allergies, and they are really bad this year.

When your baby gets closer to being a year old, and you're ready to take him off his formula/breastmilk, you might want to consider alternatives like rice milk or potato milk. I'm reading a book on Autism spectrum (my son has PDD-NOS) that recommends these types of "milk" if you suspect a milk allergy or lactose intolerance. (Info just to let you know that there are alternative forms of "milk", besides soy.)

Congratulations on your new baby! Feel free to email me if you have any questions, and I hope I didn't scare you with our story.

My oldest son is allergic to milk, which is probably the case with your little one rather than lactose intolerance. Once he gets a little bit older I would ask your pedi to do a blood test to determine with certainty if he really is allergic to milk. I ate LOTS of dairy while I was breastfeeding with my son and he never had an issue until I began giving him dairy products. I would recommend possibly reducing your dairy intake, but it is VERY difficult when you are trying to eliminate it all together. Our family has had to radically change our diet due to my son's allergies (he is also allergic to eggs) and we do a LOT of shopping at Central Market because the regular grocery stores don't carry many dairy-free products(a lot of the ones that are soy based still have dairy in them.) Try not to stress too much...I knwo that it is hard, but honestly it is SO much better that you know now!

My daughter also had a lot of problems with formulas when she was a newborn. She either got really constipated or spit it all up. Her doctor also suggested Prosobee and it worked for us! It was like it was just the right balance, and we had no constipation and no excessive spitting up. When it came time to introduce milk, she never had a problem and still hasn't and she's 5 now. So I don't think that kind of reaction to formula always means lactose intolerance, but I would just keep a close eye when it's time to introduce milk to see if problems arise.

As to problems with eating dairy and breastfeeding, you got some good advice from the other moms. I didn't breastfeed so I won't try to give you advice on that. :)

My baby was both breast fed and formula fed. She would never spit up the breast milk...only the formula. We tried the Gentle Ease Formula which did nothing. We thought it was acid reflux and we were told to try Soy. The soy formula gave horible diarea so we quit using it. We then tried lactose free formula which worked! She still spit up every so often but it wasnt in the amount that she was.

You think it would of dawned on me because I am lactose intolerant and so is my father.

If this is the case for your baby when he turnes One they will try to get him on regular Milk. Which our doctor recomened - they say young babies lactose intol. sometimes is just a phase. Well...long story short she is on Lactate milk. She can eat yogurt and cheese with no prob. And she eats lactate cottage cheese.

Ask your Ped. what they think it could be other things other than Lactose.

Congrats on your new baby!

I have to say, go with your instincts! I'm a FTM too, and my little one would projectile vomit. While @ the hospital they gave him formula and he got diarhea (sp?) They actually told me it was probably my fault, something I was eating (it couldn't have been the formula). We threw the formula out when we got home. Anyway, long story short, what the doc thought was reflux was actually a dairy/soy allergy that was causing the reflux. Take out the dairy/soy, no more reflux/projectile vomiting! His pedi tested his poo for blood (a sign of a food allergy). I say he's allergic to soy too because his pedi said that most babies that are allergic to dairy are also allergic to soy, so it's best to cut out both. I've been dairy/soy free for 3 months now. I won't lie, it was hard to do at first, but then you get used to it and you realize that you're not doing it just for you, but for the health of your baby. On a postive note I've lost all my baby weight and then some! If you want tips on how to get started, etc, just send me a message! Congrats again!!

Hi C., my daughter is 3 months now and we finally have it figured out. She had all kinds of gas problems and it turned out to be lactose intolerance. I didnt realize that she could get this trhough my breast milk but it is very true. I had to get off of all dairy.
The doctor made told me to put her on a very expensive formula but I ended up getting her onto Similac Sensitive the orange can. She is doing great with it and it is a regular priced formula.
Also I had some advice from realitived that the doctor hadnt heard of but after much reluctance I tried it and I really beleive it worked. It is called Cat Nip tea. It is just a tea you can get at a healthfood store and you can give him 1 oz in a bottle. I did it 3 days in a row and started to see a big improvement. Of course doctors never recomend herbal treatment.I guess because they are not trained to.
Best of luck to you. It was one of the most trying times I have ever been through. Email me if you want any time.
A.
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He may be mildly intolerant or allergic. Sticking to breastfeeding would probably be easiest on your son's tummy. Personally, I breastfed both of mine and my son ended up having reflux as an infant. I had to be careful about my dairy intake (not drinking milk seemed to do the trick. Other dairy products didn't seem to bother him) and I cut out orange juice. He didn't spit up a single time after that. I would try gradually cutting back on your dairy and seeing what works for the both of you. My son now will not drink cow's milk and will gulp soy milk... Might keep that in mind for later.
Good luck!!

You can also read more about sensitivies through breastmilk here...
http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/food-sensitivity.html
Whether a baby is exclusively breastfed or fed a variety of formulas or fed (gasp) cows milk (liek many of us were in the 1970s) they can have a variety of unexplainable digestive upsets. Unless baby is not gaining weight, not making wet and poopy diapers and not projectile vomiting frequently, patience and observation is a good approach!
they can easily pass in and out of food sensitivities-to whatever source of food. Breastmilk is far and above the safest choice.
hang in there, new momma-you're doing a great job for your son.