To cut out cows milk and dairy for 17 month old?

[DonutSquishie]

My son is 17 month and really constipated. He hasn't pooped for over a week, before this he always went infrequently and it was usually hard. He was previously prescribed lactulose at around 6month.

I can't get an appointment with GP until next week and through my experience with my older child who has chronic constipation the GP's are useless when it comes to long term constipation and just prescribe Movicol and say eat more fruit and veg.

He has a well balanced diet, loves his fruit and veg. I've tried OJ, prune juice, pears etc. And it doesn't seem to be helping so was thinking of trying to cut out dairy. I know the general advice is whole cows milk until two so is it a wise idea to try cut out dairy and substitute calcium in other ways?

Lots of kids cant have dairy and theres loads of alternatives, direct alternatives are often fortified with calcium. Absolutely worth a try and surely better than medicating or letting him be in pain

Thank you for your reply. I m just a bit nervous of trying without medical guidance but as I say in my experience GP's don't try to get to the bottom of it and just prescribe the laxatives.

Try goats milk. It can be gentler on the stomach. Iv removed dairy from kids diet but one cant cope with soya or other milk substitutes but likes goats milk.

Thank you for your help. Is it best to just substitute the milk or go for dairy/soy free with everything?

I'd do it with everything then start introducing little by little once you know if it worked to start with. Like the milk pathway (think that's what its called) for children with cows milk protein allergies.

Dairy isn't essential and there's loads of yogurts and milk alternatives that have everything they need in.

We had to cut milk from one of our twins diet. They are 18mths old.
He has eczema and we found after removing milk hes been much better. He gets coconut milk. Loves it.
Plenty of other sources of calcium (nuts and seeds, green leaf veg etc) though i wouldnt attempt nuts just yet.

This question might sound a bit silly! But is dairy the thing I should be cutting out, or is general 'milk free' fine? Looking to do my supermarket shop and they have milk free and dairy free as well as lactose free so bit confused!

My DS is one of the relatively few people who don't outgrow cows milk allergy diagnosed in infancy so a dairy free diet has been the norm for us for over 15 years. It freaked me out initially as we are rather conditioned in our society to view dairy produce as essential for health. In fact with a bit of effort it is perfectly possible to provide a very healthy dairy free diet.
I can't see any real harm in you trying it for a short period anyway.I would think that it would e clear in a few weeks whetger it was helping or not. (I was told it woukd take about 2 weeks for dairy to get out of DS's system completely when he first went dairy free.) If you find that it does help and you want to stick with it then it might be wise to get advice from a dietician to make sure your son is getting everything he needs in his diet. Dairy produce is definitely not an essential part of the human diet but it is a very convenient source of a number of nutrients, especially calcium, and growing children do have quite high calcium requirements so you ned to be a bit careful. But yes, it definitely can be done, and constipation is a recognised effect of cows milk protein intolerance in some people, so it isn't an unreasonable idea.

Sorry, just saw your last question. You need to avoid anything containing milk, not just lactose. Lactose is the sugar in all animal milks. Lactose intolerance causes diarrhoea, not constipation. Cows milk protein is the component of milk that can cause constipation. Lactose free products typically just have the sugar removed but still contain the protein so are unlikely to help as its the protein you need to eliminate.

I don’t think YWBU to try an elimination diet in the future- but if your son already hasn’t gone for a week then I think you need to crack out the Movicol now before he becomes impacted. It takes a few days to work IME.

But certainly look at it for once he’s cleared out the current back “log”.

Dairy intolerance is really common. I read somewhere that it's about 60% of the world's population, with Asian and African ethnicities being most widely effected.

There are lots of non-dairy sources of calcium including plant milks. Children can have soy milk from 1YO +. I imagine it's the same with other plant milks too.

@Christ he hasn't been prescribed Movicol but I do have some left over from my older child. Would it be safe to give him until his GP appointment?