Can anyone tell me more about lactose intolerance in babies?

Beatrix_Kiddo

Hi,

My little man had a complicated route to finding out he couldn't tolerate milk / lactose. As a very wee man he was on SMA but got horribly constipated and colicky on it, so swapped him to Aptamil Comfort (which I found out later from the dietitian has the milk proteins partially broken down already to make it easier to digest - should you consider trying this route, you need to get wide-teat / stage three as it is quite textured).

He did OK on this, and then when he was about 6 months I swapped him onto whatever stage Aptamil he was supposed to be on at that point, following which he would, about every 3 - 4 weeks have absolutely explosive diarrhoea; the nursery and I used to call them nappy-busters, truly it was in his hair and socks.

The first few times this happened I put it down to bugs, teething etc, but after a while I was getting concerned. All this time he was putting on weight and meeting all his milestones, if not exceeding them, but this just wasn't right - and the clothes he was ruining, and the cleaning up.....

Luckily my HV was the best in the world, and referred us to the community dietitian. She said his symptoms were not typical, but that it was worth trying a month on the Aptamil Pepti prescription formula (which tasted vile) and Oat Milk to see if it made a difference.

Well, it was amazing. No more nappy-busters, the nipper had tons more energy (a good thing ) where he had seemed to have plenty already He had about 9 months on this diet with reviews over the phone with the dietitian (who was also ace).

He is now back on cow's milk, with no ill effects. The dietitian said he may well have developed an intolerance following an actual GI infection, and his system needed a rest from the milk proteins.

Seem to have gone on a bit there. Sorry, I think the salient points are:

1. Try Aptamil Comfort to see if that helps.

2. Push for dietitian referral either via HV or GP.

3. Good Luck x

What are your little one's symptoms?

Dainty1976

I went through hell with this problem.

My DS was Lactose intolerant but it wasn't really dealt with until he went to cows milk at 12 months old. He would constantly vomit up whole milk feeds and then just take another whole feed straight away, he had extreme colic and constipation - it was really distressing for both me and him but as he was gaining weight and was actually weighing in at around the 85th centile all the time, the HV and GP wouldnt do anything. Eventually when he went to cows milk he got diarheoa, terrible wind, hives etc the GP suggested goats milk. She said she didnt like soya milk for babies as it can clog them up inside and lead to other intolerances and it worked a treat (turns out both of mine are also allergic to soya - go figure!!!). I have since tried him on Cows milk and as he still gets tummy ache, constipation and hives (aged 5yrs now) I have reverted back to Goats milk.

My DD on the other hand was so allergic to protein in general that she ended up in hospital for 5 days and nearly died when she was 2 months old! She has been on different special formulas via the hospital dietician since she was 6 months old and recently made her own mind up (aged 2.5) that she doesnt want it anymore (I totally understand why - they are all vile) and I now use Goats milk with her too - tolerates it very well. Apparently there is a different type of protein in GM thats way easier to digest and gentler on the gut! Well it works for us anyways!

I would by no means say that you should try it without consulting a professional first and perhaps contact your local Health Visitor/baby clinic team and ask for a home visit (then you can truly get your point across - cry if you have to sorta thing lol). The HV can refer to Dietician themselves and suggest different ways of working this out. Interestingly, the dietician we see says that most babies will grow out of lactose intolerance when they are around 18months old and although mine havent as yet, it is certainly less prolific than it was when they were very young - so rest assured, it should get easier!

Anyways, HTH's - all the best with finding out the best solution!

brians_daughter

SingleMumOf2 wrote: »

I have had so many people suggest this is why my baby could be so unhappy.. he has been an unhappy baby now since birth!!

But my gp refuses to test him or refer him to someone who can.

I just wondered if anyone knew the symptoms of lactose intolerance in babies? If anyone has any personal experiences and can tell me the symptoms experienced.. and how easy or hard it was to diagnose?

Thanks.

Hi there, I remember your post last week so thought i would respond.

With our ds2 he was originally breastfed, but we (i) found it impossible to continue so we switched to formula at about 12 weeks. Over a period of weeks he got worse and worse, thinking back he had always had some of the symptoms (below) but deffo go worse with formula.

We kept a diary and below is what it says in there..

Started with constapation, but sometimes really expolosive runny nappies, stomach pains, generally being unsettled, started to only feed a few oz at a time (but strangely never lost any weight) colic a lot of the time, crying and grizzling shortly after feeds, not sleeping for more than 10-20 mins at a time without crying in pain

We still (and hes 2.5yrs now) dont have an official diagnosis but we bought a few tims of lactose free milk from pharmacy and we saw a diff within 72 hours. The down side was it made his constipation worse (got given lactalouse (sp) for that and we used it for 10 days whilst his body got used to the new formula - can happen when you change formulas too)

When we put him on cows milk at 12 months his skin broke out in eczema in places and we went to see a dermatologist. In the lead up to the appointment i started to keep a food diary and within a week i oicked up the more milky stuff we fed him the worse his skin got (and he still had the poos, stomach cramps etc) So i simply switched to lactose free milk or gaots milk - whatever the shop has when we go really....we limited yogurts and cheeses initially and again within 72 hours we saw a massive diff with him. The dermatologist said to us that it did point to lactose problems but he wouldnt test him as we had it under control.

We still occassionally give him normal milk (1/2 normal 1/2 lactose free) to see if he still reacts and he does. Hes ok with the odd yogurt or chunk of cheese but more than 1 food with milky consistancy a day and hes back to how he was.

There are tests that can be done but it involves the child blowing into bags to test certian levels and is hard to do on children (or so i am told) They also can do poop tests. Our HV and GP wouldnt take us seriously until we had tried to exclude lactose ourselves..after that they were happy to prescribe lactose free milk on prescription

Sorry for the long post, but just wanted to share x

Also, just to add many babies will have temporary issues with lactose. If they have been unwell with an upset stomach it can cause teh stomach to be stripped of certian enzymes so the body cant cope with lactose until it re-builds its enzymes... this can take anything from days to months and months..hence why we still give our child a little normal milk every now and again to see how he copes.

Alpha47

Hi
I have had 2 babies allergic to milk. The first born weighing 9lb10oz. Projectile vomiting and screaming all the time. I took her to 12 doctors on the Island (we lived in Freeport Bahamas) . One Sunday after another very tricky night, I took my lovely daughter to another emergency doctor.

He told me, if this was his baby he would take her to Miami that day, he believed she might have a blockage, but was not too small because of high birth weight.

I took her to Miami the next day to specialist recommended. We were allowed into America with no Visa as she was an emergency.

What a difference a good expert doctor makes, we went straight to the doctors office, he watched her feed and examined her. Then sent me back to the motel with little bottles of soya formula, and some drops. My daughter spent her first night with no tears, no vomiting. I lay awake all night hardly able to believe this different baby.:j

We went back to the Bahamas a few days later, taking lots of bottles of the magic soya formula on the plane. Cost a fortune in tax.(We were not rich, my husband worked there) My daughter was lactose intolerant, that was all, she now became a very happy baby.

My son was born 13 years later in Scotland. Because of my experience with the first baby I worried when he had a lot of tummy ache and was quite unhappy. Never as bad as my first baby. It took me a couple of weeks to convince the doctor to prescribe soya formula, He did and the baby got better.


My only regret, leaving the Bahamas to come home to England, I missed the sunshine.


Good luck with your doctors.



Alpha