Could this be lactose / dairy intolerance?

[themothership]

Dd (14 months) has never been a consistent eater, and in retrospect it seems that since we introduced cows milk into her diet (with her breakfast cereal at around 8 months), she's cycled in and out of ill health, where she'll have a run of two weeks or so where she'll be fine and eat relatively well, and then two weeks where she'll be really out of sorts and be off her food completely. We started supplementing with formula during the day about 2 months ago, when I went back to work (am still breastfeeding twice a day). She regularly has loose motions, and previously we'd put this down to protracted teething, but are increasingly beginning to think it's something in her diet. The only other symptoms are runny noses and congestion in the chest. Could this be Lactose Intolerence and should we try cutting out cow's milk/dairy? If so what should we substitute it with? Should she be on a Soya formula, or would goats' milk or soya milk be OK given that she's over 1 year?
The only other thing is she eats a lot of tofu, which is a recent addition to her diet. I realise this is a common allergen.

[vnmum]

i think runny noses and chest congestion can be a sign of intolerances/allergy but i am not too experienced on the intolerance side as DS as an immediate allergy to dairy and eggs. just thought id bump this for you till someone else with more experience comes along

[CADS]

Hi mothership

It is unlikely she is lactose intolerant because you would have noticed before introducing cow's milk, as breastmilk (has far as I remember) is high in lactose. There is a lot of confusion between lactose and cow's milk protein intolerance but lactose intolerance is more rare.

I would try cutting out dairy and she how she goes. We started ds on soya formula at 13mnths and he has done fine on it. We can give him small amounts of cheese but his system will not tolerant any cow's milk or cow's milk based formula. As you already know soya is a high allergen but we haven't experienced any problems with ds or dd. Also, some children are also intolerant to goat's milk as the protein structure is similar to cow's milk protein.

Really, the best thing is to look at the minerals, vits and fats between the two and decided for yourself which you feel you prefer. Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer and solution with intolerances and each child reacts differently.

HTH

[CADS]

Hi again

Have a look at this website and see if anything else seems to fall into place.

users.bigpond.net.au/allergydietitian/fi/foodintolerance.html

I had another good website but it doesn't seem to work.

(sorry, can't do links)

[themothership]

Hi there

Thanks for all the advice, and the link too CADs - very helpful. I think we are going to start a food and symptom diary and see whether there are any patterns. What soy formula would people recommend? We've used wysoy before (just from the chemists) although it tastes foul, and I doubt very much that dd will drink it as a drink during the day if it's not in her weetabix. She usually just has regular milk in her cereal, and then Hipp Growing Up milk during the day - she loves this because it tastes like vanilla. If I use just regular soya milk (supplemented with calcium) for her cereal and perhaps those sweetened soya drinks for milk whilst I'm at work, would that be okay? Sorry for sounding so naieve, I'm sure I've got it all horribly wrong, and wish I was at home so I just breastfeed and not have to worry about all this stuff.

[CADS]

HTH

www.babycenter.com/expert/baby/babyfeeding/1200425.html

Also, I found this on one website:

"If you introduce soy milk instead of cow's milk, make sure it's fortified with calcium and vitamins A and D. Look for brands with at least 10 percent of the daily value for vitamin A, 25 percent of the daily value for vitamin D and 30 percent of the daily value for calcium per cup."

We used Cow&Gate Infasoy and didn't have any problems with the taste. DS absolutely loves it. Also, soya milk is high in sugar so you have to be very diligent with brushing teeth.

Bye for now

[Note to self: really must learn how to do links]