To eat dairy even though my breastfed baby is lactose intolerant?

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I had a thread a couple of weeks ago about the baby having horrendous nappy rash and green, frothy poo. Went to the GP and had a stool sample done, so it's come back with a confirmed lactose intolerance.

But the only advice was to keep to an exclusion diet (I'd given up dairy thinking it was CMPA) and a link to what lactose intolerance is.

My dilemma is, I am a mammal, so I produce lactose. I have got some coleif lactose drops and they do seem to be helping. I have also pumped a few times and then fed from that boob (to get rid of the thin lactose heavy fore milk, or at least, that's my theory!).

But if the baby's not actually CMPA, then the advice seems to be that I don't need to follow an exclusion diet, and can have dairy.

My GP isn't very good with this stuff, I went in initially saying about lactose intolerance and was dismissed (so I feel a bit vindicated). They also insisted that lactose allergy and dairy intolerance were the same thing.

Anyone been through anything similar?

No kids and no experience, but a quick Google search shows you don't have to stop eating dairy. It doesn't make any difference.

https://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/resources/lactose-intolerance-and-breastfed-baby

Your GP seems a bit clueless. Have they made an urgent referal to a paediatric dietitian?

Hey,

I personally haven’t been through this myself but has it been this way since birth or is this a more recent development? I always found this Aussie website had good info on things I maybe it will help

https://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/resources/lactose-intolerance-and-breastfed-baby

Yeah, well, this anecdotal experience here is that what you eat goes to your baby. That includes gluten and dairy.

Neither dd nor I could manage cows milk for many years but we’re fine with sheep or goat cheese.

The baby isn't allergic to gluten or dairy though.

@TheSandgroper eating or not eating dairy wont affect the lactose content of breastmilk so the OP is free to eat dairy as it will not make any difference as breastmilk naturally contains lactose anyway

They have not. Literally got a text with the results and "if breastfeeding mum to use exclusion diet, lactose free formula is not available on prescription".

I've got the six week mum/baby check next week (with a different doctor) and I won't get an appointment before then so I was going to ask at this about dietician appointment. Because baby isn't "unwell" it seems to not be a massive priority.

Eating something that doesn’t agree with your baby certainly affects mum. If OP can breastfeed her baby with no reaction, all power to her, but if she does keep feeding and the reaction doesn’t stop, then a process of diet elimination will be needed.

As with so many things, books can say one thing but experience shows another.

If you’ve had to cut out dairy and are breastfeeding, the GP should have prescribed high dose calcium/vitamin D tablets for you.

(edited to add a comma so it didn’t read that you were breastfeeding the GP)

This, and various other Google's, is what I'm going off. That surely CMPA was tested for and ruled out, lactose intolerance was found, so I can go back on dairy.

They haven't done that either. I got some vitamin D tablets a couple of days ago. That might explain the mouth full of ulcers.

If your baby is lactose intolerant you’ll need a special formula, because breastmilk is loaded with lactose and cutting cows milk out of your diet won’t change that.

If your baby is cows milk protein allergic then it’s not going to be much fun for either of you if you don’t cut cows milk from your diet. Your baby will be in pain, may not gain weight very well and you’ll have a sad, fussy, unsettled baby to look after.

Going dairy free seems daunting, but it’s actually fairly easy, there’s so many vegan options now that you won’t miss out on much, but you will notice how much happier your baby will be.

Definitely call your GP back and insist on a pediatric dietician referral. They will be able to give you the most accurate information and that's who your baby should be seeing as they get to the stage of weaning etc

I have a child with an allergy. She was exclusively BF for 11 months. We first went to the GP at 4 months and without any testing it was suggested that we exclude dairy. So I did. Made no difference. She was 2 before we discovered the nature of the allergy (a non-dairy but highly allergenic food item which is an ingredient in other foods). I’d suggest seeking a consultation with an immunology consultant, who can refer you on to dietician if necessary. GPs generally don’t know much about this stuff.

I've got infant lactase drops which seems to have helped (but it's early days) and I don't want to formula feed if I can possibly help it. Baby has confirmed lactose intolerance but nothing about CMPA, so assuming no issues there which is why I'm keen to reintroduce dairy to my diet.

I cut dairy (and eggs) about three weeks ago on the advice of the GP and it's been a (miserable) challenge 😂 I'm already gluten free so my options become incredibly limited.

In my experience the GP will only prescribe once for vitamin D and then you have to source your own.

A stool sample has confirmed a lactose intolerance.
Lactose is the sugar in breastmilk. Mum's diet doesn't affect her body making lactose.

How have they tested for it? Unfortunately it's not uncommon for GPs to mix CMPA and lactose intolerance up. As far as I'm aware the only way to diagnose or rule out CMPA is to exclude dairy for 4-6 weeks then reintroduce it and see if it makes a difference.

Lactose intolerance is very rare in babies whereas CMPA is much more common. As previous poster said you need a really specalist formula if it is lactose intolerance as breastfeeding isn't possible.

Breast feeding with CMPA is possible and excluding dairy does get easier. Solidarity as I am also gluten free and breastfed my CMPA baby for 14 months.

I would definitely want a referral to someone who knows what they're talking about.
Lactose intolerance is often temporary, and if your baby isn't unwell I wouldn't want to risk stopping breastfeeding.

My partner is lactose intolerant so if you wanted to reintroduce dairy but not lactose you can get a pretty good variety of milk (Arla or Tesco / Supermarket own brands), Cheddar (Arla or Cathedral City does a good lactose free cheddar), soft cheese (Arla or Philadelphia do lactose free cream cheese), Yoghurt (Tesco does lovely lactose free greek yoghurt as do Morrisons). We also really like coconut colab vegan double cream, it isn't identical to dairy but actually I prefer it. I use the Yoghurt to make my own soft labneh with herbs and garlic.

I am not sure if that is or isn't necessary for your baby but if you aren't normally lactose free I thought maybe you weren't aware of some of the good alternatives available.

Ive had a few friends with BF babies who were lactose intolerant and it made a fucking ton of difference

A stool sample from prior to exclusion diet confirmed lactose intolerance. My eldest was the same though and I put that down to a tongue tie.

I had thought it was most likely to be lactose overload from too much foremilk but I don't know how the stool samples work. Baby was born via C-section so also thought that it could be an antibiotic response from birth.

Hmm I'd be wary of that to confirm lactose intolerance and dismiss CMPA. If it is CMPA then that can effect absorbance of food in the gut so undigested lactose could be present in the stool so could falsify the result.

I would keep dairy free for now and seek more advice. Also as another note CMPA and soya allergies often go together so don't replace dairy with soya as that may mask results as well.

Wow, that's really interesting. Thank you very much. I'll definitely be pushing for further investigation.

There is no test for cmpa, diagnosis is symptoms based. Allergy testing is unreliable until at least 3 due to babies immune systems being immature, and even then any tests don't pick up non ige cmpa, which is the much more common one.
True lactose intolerance in a baby is very rare and should be further investigated. Temporary - such as in premie babies and post stomach bugs is quite common.
Also suprised to hear that test came back positive on an exclusion diet - usually need to be having lactose for the test to be reliable. As previous poster said, I wouldn't be dismissing cmpa so quickly. From our experience most GPS don't have a clue about these things.