Is anyone else dairy free and breastfeeding?

[banana87]

I've decided to go dairy free to see if it helps DDs silent reflux. I've heard I need to supplement with calcium if I'm breastfeeding. Has anyone else had to eliminate dairy from their diet for breastfeeding? Any tips or words of wisdom?

I had to eliminate all dairy from my diet while I bf DS.
He didn't have silent reflux though. His was more like projectile vomiting after every feed.
I stopped dairy on the advice of a friend and he stopped vomiting within 24 hours. The difference was remarkable.
I then found that if I ate dairy he would vomit an amount that tallied directly with how much I'd eaten.

Cutting it out isn't hard.
Personally, I relied heavily on Alpro soya goods. Soya milk, (as well as rice milk etc) soya milk yogurts etc.
You can also safely eat sheep and goat milk cheese, which is great to help with any of those cravings.

In my DS's case, he was not allergic, but was intolerant. He was able to take dairy directly himself by the age of 1 year, having grown out of it.

Yes, though don't swap dairy for soya, since the overlap between both intolerance and allergy to dairy and soya is high.

Although dairy does not supply much calcium (although it contains a lot it is not very bioavailable), it is very hard to provide all you need from otehr food sources. Your ingestion of calcium is your baby's only source; you will probably be fine without much, but its not good for her.

I used fortified Oatly (for hot chocolate, mostly!) and took a calcium supplement.

Thanks for that! I'm hoping DD is just intolerant too. I'm really craving cheese do its good to know there are some varieties I can have!!

I couldn't eat goat, sheep, or indeed the cheese (or product of milk) of any other mammal when I was dairy free with DS2 (for the same reason).

Soya also was a problem.

I love rice milk and used it a lot, but I give him oat milk to drink now (at 18 months) if he's having a "milky" drink from a cup, ie not boob as he's still only on my milk for his actual milk intake. Rice milk is not suitable for children under about 4 years due to (relatively) high arsenic levels.

He can now have processed cow's milk products (meaning yoghurt, cheese etc) but not cow's milk itself. Apparently the protein is broken down in the processing. So it doesn't necessarily mean yours will be dairy free forever. :) I was able to start to re-introduce some dairy into my diet when he was about 6-8 months old.

I didn't supplement with calcium but I generally chose oat or rice milk with added calcium, and have/had a diet high in calcium-rich veg.

I am, but I'm vegan DD 21 months has turned out to lacto and soy intolerant which makes the veganism fun (although I am also but pushed through the discomfort of a few soy things). Unfortunately UK doesn't do non soy mock meat that well.

When older, rice milk is not recommended for babies/small children asorganic said so DD was weaned onto oat milk for breakfast cereal.

I supplement in the early months with same vitamins I used for pregnancy, not for any particular reason as I am confident in my diet, more just to cover my back.

For some confidence I'd recommend a plant based or vegan diet nutrition book from your library to set your mind at ease and read more than calcium etc (especially if you need to counter skeptical family members who believe that cows milk is essential for a heavy diet ).

The most important thing for you is to know you can get soy and dairy free chocolate and there are loads of easy vegan cake recipes.

Yes, although for myself (I'm lactose intolerant). I cut out soy too when I did a dairy-free trial to see if it helped with DS's eczema (it didn't, but I discovered I had LI myself). I think something like 60% of children with cows' milk protein allergy are also allergic/intolerant to soya.

Oat milk is okay, especially on cereal / porridge.

I found it really hard going dairy-free at first, but now I'm used to it, except that none of the dairy free chocolates taste anything like Cadbury's Dairy Milk.

Oh chocolate - sorry - yes - I (or rather wonderful DH) found Booja Booja. Take out a second mortgage and enjoy!!

OCC, luckily for me, I'm intolerant rather than allergic so Dairy Milk + lactase tablets work. I think I know what I'll be getting for Christmas - and cheap too.

So if she improves with me cutting dairy do I need to avoid giving her dairy when I wean? What about formula (I think with DD1 I introduced at 6 months for day feeds as I was back working part time).

I cut it out on advice of GP as DT2 had silent reflux. I was taking a multi vit supp (pregnacare) anyway so didn't add any extra. I ate a bit of tinned salmon (think its aa good source but haven't double checked) and kept up the green leafy veg. I tried dairy a couple of times and the reflux got worse until about 5 months when I was able to have some without a noticeable reaction. So when we started solids I went easy on the dairy but he was ok. Cheese, pastry, nice biscuits and cake were the hardest things for me to cut out!

you need to confirm it is dairy by reintroducing after a few weeks - just to rule out any improvements being a co-incidence.

At 6 months they can survive without feeds in the day if you're happy to cluster feed them at night or accept some reverse cycling. Alternatively build up a frozen stock so DD can have a bottle in the day.

I'm going to remove dairy only for 4 weeks then reintroduce to see if I notice a difference. If I do then I think we will see a gastro for ongoing advice.

I was dairy free for 6 months earlier this year. Ds had eczema and cutting out dairy cured it. He is now fine eating it and no eczema.

I liked Kara a coconut based milk replacement. I also cut out all goat sheep cheese. I think you have to live without cheese, I found the replacements grim. I lice cheese but found it all much much easier than I had expected. And I lost weight too! Need to check labels carefully as milk in lots of unexpected stuff and my ds was incredibly sensitive to traces of dairy. He ate lots of rice/lentils/peas.

I found eating out hard as I'm veggie so needed vegan food and v little around. Also the older dc love pizza but had to have s break from it whilst I was d free.

Ditto - it really helped DD's eczema and wasn't too difficult to do.
I really recommend swedish glace ice cream with asda dark chocolate spread and crunchy peanut butter.