Milk intolerance - is this a positive result? C'mon experts!!!!!!!!

[treedelivery]

Ok - so -

dd2 is 3 months and possesed by the colic demon. After many treatments, schemes, medications and so on, I have gone dairy free as she is bf. I have done 10 days of total non-dairy living.

So she seemed loads and loads better after 3 days. We figured this may be the dairy free mamma milk, but thought it was a bit quick tbh, so maybe coincidence and her age.

At wedding this weekend gone, so had 1 day doing dairy. Nothing dramatic, few sandwiches, 3 cups of tea and a slice of cake.

So today - 2 days later, she is starting to stiffen up, whine, loads of wind etc.

Is this a positive result for dairy intolerance, or have I not given it enough time and I'm reading too much into everything?

I'd say yes it is tbh.

Yes a positive?

Thanks for reading btw

Timing sounds about right -- DS was in Children's Hospital and when they wanted to take a sample, I reminded the consultant that he hadn't had any dairy for about 48 hours and had been nil by mouth for 24, so the sample wouldn't have any dairy in it, therefore would be inaccurate (as it needs to be present to detect something or other)

One of the Paediatricians said the main test is whether taking dairy out of the diet improves symptoms...

tree... try drinking a glass of milk and see what happens?
takes 4 hours to get into your milk is that right??

Hello Ilovemydog, sounds like my cup of tea is getting further and further away.....
Hope you and yours well. x

Hi EachPeach - thats what I don't know tbh. I guessed it would take a good while to clear cows milk proteins out of the system. But no idea really!

yes sounds like it. I went dairy free till ds was 12 moths, after he should signs of dairy intolerance. He's still bf at 14 mths, but i went back on dairy free and he seems pretty fine with it.

Oat milk with fortified calcium is great and also rice milk is ok in tea/coffee.

When you start weaning I recommend a great book - 'what should i feed my baby' by susannah olivier. She advocates that all babies should be dairy free for at least a year, so its very useful and has some great recipes.

Thank you for the book - will look it up. Does one get this sort of thing formally diagnosed or is it not a medical/gp 'thang'.

Are we on our own here [apart from mn that is. What do people without mn do?]

Diagnosis is by stool sample, but she will need to have cow milk in her diet to detect it.

well i had no help from doctors whatsoever, one told me to bf til he was two, would not refer me, another prescribed me soya formula which i was unhappy about using, then they prescribed lactose free which was obviously useless, i wanted to top up as i was planning on going back to work and ds was very skinny and wouldn't eat solids til ten months, i wanted a referral but because he wasn't majorly ill, (only projectile vomit and diarrea) they didn't.

they sent me round the twist actually, so i ended up selling my house, was signed off sick from work with pnd and am now still breastfeeding. This was the best option for me.

I have to say I don't regret keeping him off dairy, it was definately the best thing.

I also lost 2 stone.which was bad for me thats why i started back on dairy.

I found a onsultant in about 2 hours away, who does private and is paeds/allergies.

Do you think it's worth the trip/expense? Haven't seen you about in ages ilovemydog. How you doing?

Blimey kako12! Here's me pissed over not having a cuppa!

i know, its put me off docs for life. infact i'm sure the reason ds is dairy intolerant is because i was given anti biotics after the birth which weren't safe for bf and ds was really ill for weeks. the docs just kept offering me anti depressants, but wouldn't let me have hypo allergenic formula coz it was too expensive!

to the OP i also give bifidabacterium infantis , which is a probiotic powder for infants, from good health food shops. you can take it yourself to pass through the breast milk and should help with the colic.

I'm back on the dairy cream eclairs now - but i didn't miss them when i was dairy free

Dunno - having babies melts your brain. I have a pro biotic powder at great expense sat in fridge but have been a bit crap about giving it as its a bit of an arse. Never even thought of giving it to myself.

Dear Me.

Next medic to counsel me for pnd instead of trying to sort dd2's colic - which is why I have made appt. - will recieve Alex Fergusen hairdryer effect. It's really annoying becasue it implies there is no problem, there is only 'my mood' . Grrrraaaaahhhhh!!

Suppose they are trying to be helpful and extend a caring hand. But I may bite said hand.

dunno was meant to be do you know. Lordy.

Are you done with your book? It's hard to get hold of [as in Amazon don't have it] and I would buy it from you. Though if was me would probably hang on to it so no worries

i do want to hang on to it i'm afraid. i might even have another baby if i get a few hours sleep sometime.

my ds loves spoonfuls of the powder and he's a total refusenik. i also give him flax seed oil from about 7 months which he also loves. this heals the gut and also provides the essential fats which may be lacking from a df diet when you start weaning. green veg such as brocolli contains more calcium than milk btw.

I noticed a difference in my DS almost immediately after I went dairy free.

Took a while before things improved for us with dairy free, but that said I think he was really suffering with it - refusing feeds (acting as though in pain and prefering to suck his thumb instead of feed), blood in stools, no weight gain for 8 weeks (told by consultant gastroenterologist that this is typical for dairy allergic babies), eczema all over his body. On going dairy free he started to gain weight again and stopped getting scary nappies fairly quickly. His eczema then cleared up completely after about a month. When I ate a bit of dairy over Christmas his eczema flaired up again fairly quickly and when I ate something the other day with milk in by mistake I got a scary nappy again.

Colic - cranial osteopath helped ds hugely - might help?

Hi, yes we tried one. There wasn't much to do really, especially as she was a straight forward delivery.

S, my next question for those in the know - this milk intolerance, is it dose specific. If I have a bit of milk will it bother her less than if I have a load. Or will all milk be bad full stop, even tiny amounts in a biscuit, say.

Thanks for all your help people!

Ah, I know he answer to this

Yes, the amount is not an issue. Either one is intolerant or not. I had this argument debate with one of the consultants at Children's Hospital when DS was an in patient. They were pumping him full of cow's milk, and I pointed out that he wasn't used to the amount as possibly a reason why he was so ill. But I was assured that the amount wasn't the problem. So, he was nil by mouth, had a bit of little bit of breast milk and was violently ill

Personally, I wouldn't go private. There is treatment available on the NHS. DS has a roll call of specialists, dietician. Am really surprised when I hear about people with less than sympathetic consultants. Mine calls me, emails and is very communicative. DD even calls him Dr Feelgood

ha - I remember the Dr Feelgood, that is lovely.

Was considering private as the consultant I found was Paed with allergies as a speciality. Seemed a dream! Having said that I have asked GP for a paed referal so I guess I ought to give that a chance. I'm just concerned about the waiting lists etc, and also being referred to a 'jack of all trades' which ours are as the unit is tiny.

Your ds, is he intolerant or allergic? We have a [maybe] intolerance here, and have nothing like the nightmares you had.

My DD is intolerant to milk/soya too

Would also say the amount doesn't matter, just the fact they are intolerant iyswim.

DD (14mths) managed to grab a spoon off DS (3) last week and lick off the chocolate pudding he was eating and the poos that evening/next day were horrific

The diagnosis for us was by stool sample which someone mentioned earlier.

However our pead has been truly awful and we have had to fight for all tests/formula etc (as DD ff)

Be careful when having soya as I believe there is a higher chance your LO may have a problem with that too. Not saying she definately will though

i'm not an expert in scientific terms but my 3-year-old Sophie is lactose intolerant but instead of removing all milk from her diet, we're trying dairy stuff for lactose intolerant people, like lactofree's range.

it's a real plus b/c she doesnt have to suffer not having goodies from time to time, especially on hr birthdays. we prepare everything with recipes they have on their lactose intolerance page (link here in case u want to see 4 urself).

it's been gr8, and since her little friends don't even suspect it's not normal dairy products, they eat it with no prejudice! no one has ever complained. so maybe u should try that. of course organisms differ but u'll never know unless u try, i suppose.

Lactose intolerance and cows milk protein allergy or intolerance are very different things. Lactose intolerance is the inability to breakdown milk sugar, but lactose free stuff still has cows milk protein in and to give it to an allergic child would be very dangerous (as true allergic reactions can be life-threatening).

An allergy can also be tested for by skin prick test or blood test.

I understand that the stricter you are with removing all dairy, the better the chance they have of outgrowing the allergy later. You can also find that because allergic reactions get worse with repeated exposure that if you keep on giving food with small amounts of mik or keep a small amount of dairy in your diet whilst breastfeeding that you get a reaction to amounts which were OK previously.