what are the main symptoms of milk intolerance or lactose intolerance?

[firststeps]

trying to rule this out for ds2 who is now 20 weeks but has been windy/colicky since birth. He is fed on Cow and Gate Comfort and has infacol before every feed.
His symptoms are:

• excessive wind from both ends day and night -usually waking him up at least once but usually a couple of times a night

• rumbling tummy - if you put your hand on his tummy you can literally feel it bubbling away

• has red eczema type patches on both his cheeks

• usually brings milk back when he burps

• sometimes struggles to drink more than a couple of punces at a feed - but seems like he wants more but can't fit it in?

these symptoms have got worse over the last few weeks coinciding with his second 5 in 1 jab and a very heavy cold and I wondered if it could be a temporary lactose intolerance?

sounds like it. my DS had a lot of these symptoms, red patches, and intermittently the shits actually, at around 5 months. We swapped to Goats milk for a while til it settled down / his immune system got back on track from the flu. The only thing about Goats milk is its less hunger fulfilling, so they can tend to drink more of it.

I talked to my pharmascist about it, who was very helpful.

My breastfed DD had colitis caused by cows' milk protein intolerance so had blood and mucous in poo. It started just after her second set of jabs at 15 weeks.

Luckily it seems to have cleared up (she's 32 weeks now) - typically by the time we got the appt to see the gastro specialist at the hospital.

www.emedicine.com/ped/topic1908.htm

Have you ruled out reflux?

we 'self-diagnosed' DS, so this might not be reliable, but his symptoms were tummy pain & wind, bad enough to wake him frequently, and resolving when we replaced cow's milk products with goat's. Chances are he has mild lactose intolerance as he tolerates yougurt OK, cooked cheese in tiny amounts and milk not at all.