Advice needed on a diary free diet as a breastfeeding mummy

pixelation

Dairy intolerance (not lactose intolerance) is a big cause of colic.
So it is well worth removing the dairy. It is the cow's milk protein that causes the problem. Look on labels for whey protein and caseinate as well as milk.
Calcium is the main issue, but that is resolved with taking a calcium supplement or eating green leafy veg.
Good Luck,
Pixel
IBCLC

LittleTinker

Newborns can be intolerant of dairy because.......well, we are not cows are we?

However, this applies to a baby that is fed totally on cows milk....ie, formulae.

A breastfeeding Mum need not worry that her child might be intolerant of dairy.........as they are not giving their babies any dairy, only breast milk. The dairy that Mum consumes is insignificant.

Breastfed children, especially for the first 6 - 8 weeks, often need to be fed every 2 hours. Could it be that your baby is just hungry?

AbFab

I've just set up a not-for-profit website, so I hope it is ok to post details here, as I believe it could be what you are after.

https://www.veganparent.com lists lots of dairy-free recipes (https://www.veganparent.com/?q=node/9) and there is a list of where to get all your nutrients on a dairy- (and meat-) free diet here: https://www.veganparent.com/?q=node/66

There's also a section on breastfeeding: https://www.veganparent.com/?q=node/19

Still a work in progress, but hopefully it's something for you to go on.
Good luck!

Little_Miss_Penny_Less

I tried a dairy free diet when my LO (now 14 weeks) was about 5 weeks and suffering from silent reflux, which is often misdiagnosed as colic btw as there is little visible sick - inconsolable crying, bloated tummy, worse in evenings. Other symptons are arched neck and back, sucking fists, crying and fighting at the breast or refusing bottles, sometimes includes jerky movements (like moro reflex) - check out the babycentre silent relux board for more info.

The Dr put her on infant Gaviscon - which was a right faff to be honest but does seem to help in the short term, and I went on an elimination diet to try to get her better asap as it was terrible to watch her in pain. However once she was a bit better and I reintroduced dairy there was little change, so I think the Gaviscon helped more than the diet. Which was somewhat of a relief as I was reduced to eating rice, potatoes and chicken for three weeks - which drove me mental! Dairy is in practically EVERYTHING!

The thing that really helped, as a pp suggested was cranial osteopathy. After one session we were able to go down to 1 to 2 gaviscon a day (as opposed to 6 per day), after the second session we could stop the gaviscon altogether and our happy smiling baby was back! She's recently had a growth spurt and the reflux has reared its ugly head again... the osteopath warned us this may happen so we will be taking another trip to her next week.

Our osteopath sessions were £48 for the first hour long session, then £30 for each further session (we're in Oxfordshire by the way). In our opinion it was worth every penny. I think you can get it cheaper if you go to a college and allow a trainee to try. If you can afford it give it a try, I'm not 100% sure it was the osteopathy that helped so much, but if we have another child in the future I'll be taking the newborn within a couple of weeks of birth to try to counteract any problems before they start!

[Deleted User]

Both my children had reflux but my daughter was the worst, despite gaviscon and ranitadine, she was still uncomfortable and i could smell acid in her vomit when she refluxed, in the end a paedatrician prescribed omeprazole, which our GP surgery wasn't impressed with as its expensive, but within a few days different child, yes she still refluxed but it didn't burn her throat and her reflux didn't stink of acid anymore. She outgrew it about 12m, whereas son wasn't as bad and he was 8 months.

Good luck with your solutions, i agree it isn't an easy thing to live with for either of you.

pebbles88

Deleted_User wrote: »

Both my children had reflux but my daughter was the worst, despite gaviscon and ranitadine, she was still uncomfortable and i could smell acid in her vomit when she refluxed, in the end a paedatrician prescribed omeprazole, which our GP surgery wasn't impressed with as its expensive, but within a few days different child, yes she still refluxed but it didn't burn her throat and her reflux didn't stink of acid anymore. She outgrew it about 12m, whereas son wasn't as bad and he was 8 months.

Good luck with your solutions, i agree it isn't an easy thing to live with for either of you.

oh heck, im on omeprazole - but due to the pain relief i need to take daily and as a locum doc put it - you dont wanna be burning a hole thru that tummy do you..... :eek:

im 30 btw - my gp was more than happy to prescribe it - never ever mentioned cost? i wonder how much it costs then non prescription? ie, for them to prescribe it? its only 1 tablet a day!