BF & Dairy intolerance - advice needed on what the symptoms etc are for a mum who's tried everything else for unsettled baby

[monthlymayhem]

My LO is 9 weeks old and to be honest has been pretty miserable from the very start

I am excl BF him (which has been more difficult than I ever imagined) and he gulps back feeds in 5 minutes but twists, turns and cries off and often seems quite frantic when he comes off, only a dummy seems to comfort him.

Initially I thought it was a wind problem and have been through infacol, gripe water, colosinth crystals and chamomilla powders to no effect. We've also tried a couple of cranial osteopathy sessions and they've also had no effect. I've also tried one sided feeding incase a fast letdown/oversupply issue was to blame, but again no improvement.

During the first few weeks he often projectile vomited and so is on gaviscon which has stopped the sickness at least.

He is putting on good weight (11oz last week ), however still seems really unhappy most of the time.

I've noticed recently that he seems to be rubbing his eyes alot after feeds, and has always sneezed and coughed a fair bit.

SO, I've really got no idea what there is left to try and don't want to accept the 'crying baby' label until I've tried everything...and so wondered about a dairy intolerance. Any advice on what the symptoms are (if they match the above description) and how to test for it etc would be much appreciated!

[Annie75]

Poor you. That sounds familiar - my DD was v unsettled and 'colicky' for er (look away now), the first six months. Like you, I tried most things including cranial osteopathy. I think what finally helped was that she developed a better digestive system with time - I remember the first few weeks of weaning her at six months were particularly bad, then it suddenly got a lot better.

I tried excluding dairy from my diet, but found it very hard to stick to over several weeks (it feels like another thing to think about). I found the Kelly Mom website www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/food-sensitivity.html worth reading about suspected intolerances. I also demanded a referral to a paediatrician, although 10 months on, I've yet to get the appt.

Good luck - it will pass.

[wolfjane]

hi, my dd has a dairy intolerance and it was quite obvious,she was bf to start with but due to being prem she couldn,t suck and my milk dried up, anyway, she has been ff since, by the age of 7 weeks she was quite ill, she had profuse diarrhoea which was very mucusy, this is unusual in ff babies, she was in too much discomfort to feed at all in the end, due to stomach cramps, she also had a rash on her chest. the gp changed her on to soya and within 3 days was fine and a different baby. for bf mothers i think you would have to cut out dairy yourself to see if it helps. babies often rub their eyes when tired which they often are after a feed and it is also normal for newborns to sneeze alot, both mine did! it does sound like colic/ wind to me although i am not an expert on the subject! if you think it may be dairy intolerance it is probably best to speak to your gp who may be able to tell. i think the only way they test for it is by excludung it. I was told to try dairy again after 6 weeks, after 1 feed the symptoms came back so it was obvious. good luck anyway.

[monthlymayhem]

Thanks Ladies, will give anything a try at this stage!

[IAteRosemaryConleyForBreakfast]

Ooooh, familiar, familiar!

Look into baby massage, and invest in a wrap sling, like a Kari-Me or Moby or something. And make sure he's getting plenty of sleep (the sling will help with this).

Both these things helped me - the only thing which helped DS was time, I'm afraid (and I tried every exclusion diet imaginable). You'll get tons of support here though, so hang on in there

[GreenMonkies]

My DD2 is dairy free, her symptoms were very similar to the ones you list. Colic, crying, dry skin/excema, green poo with blood flecked mucous, stuffy nose, fussing and wanting very frequent feeds.

I cut dairy out of my diet and saw results within 10 days. DON'T expect instant results. It takes at least 10-14 days for all the cows milk protiens to clear your system and the babys. It is worth trying, I mean, whats 14 days if it doesn't work?

Try using rice milk on your cereal and in coffee (I found it tasted vile in tea!) I tried soya milk but it upset my stomach (but then I am slightly cows milk protien intolerant and soya protiens are very similar to cows milk protiens) and I couldn't stand the taste of it either. There are lots of dairy free alternatives available in most supermarkets, check the "free fom" section in Tesco's etc, you can even get chocolate and icecream now! The only thing I couldn't really replace was cheese, apart from a powdered parmasan style stuff.

If gaviscon is helping it could well be reflux, and 50% of babies with reflux improve or get better when cows milk is removed from thier diet, so it is well worth a try.

I stuck to the diet for 18 months (I lost buckets of weight too!!) and now she is no longer sensitive enough to pick it up in my milk, but hasn't yet grown out of it totally. In general they grow out of it by the time they are school age.

There is a lot of confusion between cows milk protien intolerance/allergy and lactose intolerance, if it is CMP intolerance then cutting dairy out ofyour diet will help, but even many healthcare professionals confuse the two, my HV wrote "lactose intolernace" in DD2's note and I had to correct her!

Hang in there, you'll sort it soon I'm sure!

Monkies

[miabl2]

I could have written this myself. My DS is 10 weeks and does exactly the same. I got SMA lactose free formula on prescription from my health visitor and colief drops again on prescription for my expressed breast milk. You can also give the colief in a little expressed milk before feeding yourself. They have worked wonders for my DS he is much happier still gets a build up of wind at night but feeding much better. All the above were given on prescription so it could be worth a shot.

[sophierosie]

Colief worked with ebm for dd - I didn't know she was allergic to dairy til I tried to wean her - when I look back she used to have a slight rash around her eyes immediately after a feed (which was obviously from the dairy through me- not that I knew then), terrible stomach pain, wind, explosive poo.

HV told me to test foods by putting small drop on her skin next to her mouth and seeing if it reacted - you could try doing this with some cows milk?