Colief/ Nutramigen for lactose intolerance?

[RubySlippers77]

My poor DS1 is (I think) lactose intolerant - he's 12 wo and has lots of the symptoms described on here - spots, grunting, tummy cramps etc. His twin brother is absolutely fine (touch wood!) but his father is lactose intolerant, hence why I suspect it could be that.

They've always been bottle fed and he has gained weight on Aptamil, but again not as much as his brother. Over Christmas it got so bad that he was refusing milk as he knew it would hurt his tummy :-( took him to the emergency GP who prescribed lactulose as he hadn't done a poo for a couple of days. The lactulose did get things moving but a bit too much, which frightens him - I'm only giving him one dose a day instead of two now.

We then went to the GP on Tuesday who prescribed Colief, it has improved things but not to a great extent. She's referred us to a paediatric dietician but couldn't give me any idea how long it would take for an appointment - she told me she couldn't prescribe any specialist milks such as Nutramigen, it would have to be done via the hospital.

Is there any point me buying some Nutramigen privately and seeing if it will help, or does Colief do the same job anyway? He has a slight tongue tie so I'm reluctant to try Aptamil Comfort, as apparently it's very thick and I think he would really struggle with it. Does anyone know what consistency Nutramigen has?

Any help much appreciated - I cried this morning looking at his sweet little face and feeling so helpless :-(

His twin brother seems absolutely fine by the way (touch wood!) hence why I don't think I'm being a hysterical mum... I think the GP wrote it off as colic but it only happens straight after having his milk, he doesn't cry for no reason.

We also had to see a dietician to discuss how we wean him. She's told us to do purees from 4m then finger food from 6m. We're going back to see her at 6m. He is not to have dairy til 12m, if he gets some accidentally then we need to keep an eye on him. He may or may not be ok with it

Thanks purple, that makes sense - hopefully the dietician can help you.

He wasn't too bad overnight, think he was just exhausted! This morning though he is refusing his milk :-( waiting to hear from the GP now...

The GP didn't phone till 1.30pm, by which time we'd given up and were at the hospital!

The doctor thought it likely that he does have lactose/ CMP intolerance, but also wanted to rule out reflux - she gave us some Gaviscon and said to keep going with the Colief as well.

OH went to the chemist, bought a big bottle of Colief and ordered some Nutramigen. He's convinced it's CMPI as the symptoms are the same as his, and is fed up waiting for any news on our referral!

Poor DS1 woke up half an hour ago with tummy cramps. It's around 6 hours since his last feed (which included Gaviscon and Colief) - he's had around half an ounce of milk and eventually fallen asleep again. Not sure what it means if he's in pain so long after a feed? Back to the GP for us tomorrow I think!

The poor little thing. Keep taking him back until he gets sorted out. If he does have reflux (my dd does) then it could be secondary to cmpi. Reflux is a symptom of cmpi so it could be once he's on the correct milk the reflux eases.

Gaviscon, IME is useless when it comes to reflux, all it does is make them constipated, that has been the experience of plenty others I have spoken too. Dd takes omeprazole for her reflux (still on it at 17.5 months), she was tried on gaviscon and ranitidine first but they didn't help.

I hope you get some answers soon, it's awful watching them suffer.

Today the GP finally prescribed Nutramigen!! The last one said they couldn't, today's said he was happy to do it... Who knows. Anyhow, he's just had his first bottle and done an enormous poo, so it seems to have sorted out his constipation from the Gaviscon if nothing else!

Our referral letter STILL hadn't been done, but this GP said he would mark it as urgent and fax it today, and also ask for us to see a paediatrician rather than a dietician.

Hopefully we are now making progress...! Thank you so much for everyone's help

That's great news! I hope the Nutramigen does the trick. Which one is he on? My Dd was put on Nutramigen Lipl 1 initially and was great for about 10 days but then started reacting again to the tiny amounts of cows milk protein in it so is now on Nutramigen Puramino which has no milk protein in it whatsoever, it's made with amino acids and and is great.

Hopefully your Ds will be fine on the first one but just wanted to let you know there is another one to try if he reacts to the traces of milk in it. Good luck!

Thanks Kim - he is on the Nutramigen 1 and seems to be ok so far, no tummy cramps to report! He did a big green poo but the run says that's normal?!

He's sleeping better too... I really hope we've now found out what's wrong and sorted it!