lactose intolerant baby

[niamh29]

At 6 weeks DD3 had chronic diarrhoea, the doc checked her out and said she was healthy but we could try her on a lactose free formula (she never tested her) she has been doing really well on the lf formula but recently she's been quite constipated and it was making her uncomfortable, we thought this might be a sign that she was ready to move back to the normal formula but after 24 hours on the normal formula the diarrhoea returned, we've gone back to the lf formula but I hate all this chopping and changing. Anyone have any advice on lactose intolerance or even how to deal with the constipation if it returns (she's 15 weeks now)

[RitaMorgan]

Is it definitely lactose intolerance and not cow's milk intolerance?

[Yesmynameis]

When dd had query lactose intolerance, I was told that this could be confirmed by testing a stool sample. At least that would confirm it one way or the other.

A friend of mine has a baby on lactose free formula and also found constipation to be an issue. She has found giving some water between feeds helped

If you are unsure of the diagnosis, push for a test to confirm

[niamh29]

Going to doc tomorrow and will try and get her to test her, sick of not knowing. She did recommend the lactose free formula but said she didn't think she was but said I could try it.

Thanks for the water tip, will try give her a bit more!

[RitaMorgan]

Cow's milk intolerance is quite common in babies, so maybe ask for a dairy free formula and see if that helps?

[simpson]

which formula is she on??

Agree with others you may need to try a different formula. My DD has been on neocate since she was 8mths old.

Also if she is on a soya formula it is common for the to develop a problem with that too sadly, although DD's pead did not tell us that

[chloeb2002]

As I understand to test for lactose intolerance is very hard. Once you remove lactose from a babies diet they reduce the amount of lactase they produce to digest lactose. So commonly when babies are returned to formula containing lactose they will show digestive difficulties until they again have enough lactase to digest normally. Babies often have very watery stools ... All bubs are different... Ds still has looser stools aged 3 .. ds aged 6 months on early solids has semi formed ones! Try not to be too worried ...I think there is s big ... Thing... At the moment about lactase ... Dairy... Intolerance.. there is loads of good research about dairy and excema ... But very little about much else hence your doctor pretty much saying do what ever ...