Lactose intollerent?

[gems12345]

My 8 week old baby has been suffering from terrible colic to the point where we took her to hospital because she was in so much pain. We have tried everything from colief to infacol, dentinox, gripe water, gaviscon, dr browns bottles, nothing seems to work. One dr told me to stop breastfeeding, saying that it was causing the problem! Being a first time mum, I listened and stopped for 24 hours but cried the whole time because I didnt want to gove up. I have started again but my milk supply has almost dried up so I am giving her formula as well. We took her to the doctors yesterday and they suggested that she might be lactose intollerant so they gave me som lactose free formula and suggested that I give up dairy products as well, which I have. I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this or has any advise. Im just so fed up with seeing her in pain, not to mention exhausted from lack of sleep because she won't let me put her down. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[RunningOutOfIdeas]

Giving up dairy products yourself is good advice, but telling you to stop breastfeeding is ridiculous!

If you post this question in the breast and bottle feeding topic you should get some good advice on getting feeding re-established. I am no expert at this, but I do know that you need to let the baby feed from you as much as possible. It is their suckling that stimulates supply. Giving bottles of formula will reduce your supply.

I think intolerance to cows milk protein is actually more common in young babies than lactose intolerance. The problem is that so many doctors do not know anything about it. If you give up dairy, it will take a few weeks for the proteins to be fully out of you, so it can take that long to see an improvement in the baby.

Finally, are you sure it is colic and not reflux? There is a useful thread, also in the breast and bottle feeding topic about this.

[beammeupscotty]

Definitly try giving up milk products for a few weeks (colic stops at 3 months generally) watch out for 'hidden' milk protein, its in lots of things eg biscuits. so read labels. Supplement with calcium tablets if nec. Lots of extra sucking and reducing the formula will re establis bf. That GP is a twat. If your baby is still colicky after 3 mo. it may be reflux, meanwhile keeps saying the mantra 'three months, three months...'

[gems12345]

Thanks for the replys :)
She was so bad yesterday we took her to hospital again, she didnt sleep for 15 hours! It was awful! Took her to see hv today and asked for tests to be done on her stools to see if she is lactose intollerant. They are also going to send someone out to me to help me re-establish breastfeeding. She has been so much more settled today, I don't know why, im just keeping my fingers crossed it lasts. I dont think it will though. xxx

[neverlookback]

my ds finally got diagnosed lactose into at 4.5 months, i went to the doctor 5 times saying i thought it was lactose into until they finally tested a sample of his poo and finally we were prescribed the lactose free formula and overnight he was a different baby, so if your breastfeeding then yes give up dairy yourself, my ds is now 21 months and is totally weaned back onto dairy and is fine, we started weaning him back on when he was 12 months and it took 5 months to do it, very very slowly. good luck i feel for you x

[moragbellingham]

I would read another thread called "what's the matter with my 8 week old baby?"

Check out the link by Seona about oversupply.

My locum GP thought DD1 was lactose intolerant but no tests were done. We tried Colief drops before feeds and that helped.

To this day I'm not sure if DD1 had reflux/colic/lactose intolerance or oversupply.