Dairy free breastfeeding

[lookout]

Have just been 4 weeks dairy free (VERY hard work!) to see if it made a difference to ds2's eczema. His skin does seem to have cleared but several other factors have appeared in these 4 weks sono way of knowing if i was the dairy or not. So I am eating dairy today (ah, blissful cereals with real milk) to see what happens but just wondered how long it ould take for the dairy to get into the breastmilk and therefore notice any differences?

I find there's at least a 24 hour lag before I see effects on DS's eczema if I eat nuts, to which he's allergic. I think it can vary a lot though, from much sooner to much longer.

The best way to test is to do a couple more trials IMO. It's hard to isolate the food from other factors. I've done a couple of gluten-free trials to see if it helps DS's eczema, but it's hard to be certain as he was getting a cold both times I reintroduced it, so it would normally get worse then anyway.

Dairy free does get easier when you get used to it though. :)

Two weeks for cows milk protein to completely clear out of your system so you need to do it for longer. What are the other factors?

I'm doing dairy and gluten free (and soya too) as DD has reflux. When I've had soya I noticed a reaction within 12 hours (both DD and DS).

Once you get going on dairy free it's actually not that bad. Gluten free however is a whole new ball game.

Yes, I think about 60% of children who have problems with dairy have issues with soya too.

Iggly - you have my sympathies, gluten free is miserable. I'm talking to the allergy consultant this week about testing DS for gluten problems and I really, really, hope he doesn't have any.

Good luck Angel!

I'm on gluten free as have read it can trigger reflux via BM and have had my suspicions. Also FIL gets reflux after eating bread.

I'm confused about whether it could just be wheat although can you avoid wheat but eat gluten?? Confused so must check.

I have been dairy and soya free for four weeks, so well over the time it takes for the proteins to leave the body.

The other things that were put in place at the same time were a new cream from the GP (Epaderm) and our water softener being refilled with salts after a long break. As these all happened alongside the dairy/soya free diet, it's hard to know which of them helped, hence the trying of dairy today.

Do I need to eat a lot of dairy to see a reaction (if indeed it is dairy causing the problem), or would just one portion do it?

Also, even after four weeks I have found dairy-free miserable. Tea with rice milk sucks, I miss cheese and yogurt and cream. But I can well understand that gluten free must be even worse!

Iggly, you can avoid wheat but still eat gluten e.g. you could eat normal oats then, or barley, but not wheat. I've cut out everything to be on the safe side, but I may need to do some more exclusion tests once the consultant has done tests.

OP, the best way to tell if dairy is a problem is to eats lots when you reintroduce it. That way you're most likely to see a result. If you only eat a bit, you may or may not see a change even if your DS is intolerant, depending on what levels he reacts to.

If necessary, exclude it and reintroduce it again.

You do have to make changes to your diet. I don't drink normal tea any more, although I was lucky that I didn't eat much cheese anyway (and now I know I'm lactose intolerant rather than dairy intolerant so I can eat lactose-free dairy). It is really tough in the first few weeks/months, but I was amazed how I got used to it. I used to hate non-milk chocolate, but now I quite like it. :)

Ok, I am officially pigging out on all the things I've been missing then

I don't mind dark chocolate but the dairy free milk chocolate I tried was rank. Ditto oat cream/milk, fake cheese, margarine. If it turns out to be the problem, I guess I would just jave to get used to it though.

AngelDog How did you find out you were lactose rather than dairy intolerant?

Thanks for the replies/advice.

I'd agree with others that 4 weeks is a bit short a timespan to notice any strong change. It takes 2 weeks to leave your system, then another 2 weeks to totally leave DC's system so you're kind of only just there. As for reintroducing it, if your child has symptoms of intolerance as well as skin issues I'd reckon on seeing the effects within 12-24 hours. I don't know about skin stuff though as DD doesn't tend to get those symptoms. Oh and I miss cheese too, but don't notice so much any more, and I'd drink tea black rather than add rice or oat milk. Can't wait til I can eat it all again one day!

Can anyone actually give me the symptoms of intolerance/allergies? The GP has not been very helpful, saying in not so many words that I was wasting my time going dairy free. Maybe she's right, but I had to try something!

The only sympton that I can really be sure of is the eczema, but does intolerance/allergy always involve other symptoms?

It has been 24 hours and I can't be 100% sure but his skin does look slightly worse this morning . I don't understand why the GP can't just refer me to an allergy clinic, get him tested and know once and for all!

I'm dairy and soya free while bfing DD2. She has reflux but not eczema. I am really missing cheese and milk, and chocolate. The only dairy and soya free chocolate I can find is 85% so really bitter. But it has been really good for my waistline as I can't pig out on chocolate/cheese/cake etc. It has been 3 months and I'm pretty used to it now so it doesn't bother me much.

It seems to take about 6 hours for things to get through me into her. Dairy is quicker than soya and it depends how much I have as to her reaction. Then it seems to take about 1 day for her to recover after stopping. Luckily she is now over 6 months so it is easier to trial her on solids rather than go through me.

Iggly you can buy gluten free oats. Most oats are procesesed in the same machines as wheat so aren't considered gluten free. If it is just an intollerance then normal oats are probably ok, but for an allergy you should stick to gluten free oats.

The bmj have a good article on the diagnosis and management of cmpi (cows milk protein intolerance) if anyone needs info on symptoms and how to manage them. It was my lifesaver when we first realised DD had issues as so many hcps don't know much about it. It was a relief to finally get good evidence based information! If you google you should find it. (sorry can't link as an on phone!)

Friends ds had eczema as his only sign of dairy intolerance.

If you are doing dairy and soya free (a nightmare I know as dd1 is dairy/saoya free. Have you been checking breads etc as they're aare very very few we can buy in the supermarket as they all use soya flour (I presume this is cheaper bullking). Also ditto the fake cheeses are normally soya based (and fairly bleurgh) DD3 whilst cows milk intolerant can tolerate goats cheese. It is a long slow process of exclusion inclusion to see what works. DD1 had allergy tests that show her not to be allergic (she's not she's intolerant and dairy / soya give her stomach cramps and constipation) so even with a referal to an allergist there is no guarantee that you will have a definite diagnosis.

Cantthink just reading that article - it is extremely helpful, thank you. I notice that they recommend also excluding egg, which I haven't done. I do think that he's had a reaction to dairy reintroduction, though. I am gonna carry on a few days to see if symptoms persist/get worse, then eliminate again.

Doris I haven't been checking breads, no. Which is stupid, because I ahve been checking everything else religiously! I've obviously not been doing this properly. It is a minefield.

camdancer i have definitely lost weight too! But have been doing a lot more baking to make sure I have dairy free cake in the house. Life without cake is not worth living imo

I feel like a bit of an arse, having been fobbed off by the GP, trying to go it alone and then obviously not doing this elimiation diet properly. Is my plan to carry on with dairy for a few days then reeliminate a good one? Or is there a better way to get to the bottom of this?

There are newish (a year old) NICE guidelines on food allergies in children which recommends that the first test should be exclusion diets, and tests like blood / skin tests should only be done after exclusion diets have been tried (or after there's been a reaction which is likely to have been caused by a particular foodstuf). That'll probably be why your GP is reluctant to refer you straight to an allergy clinic. Intolerances can't necessarily be tested for (and aren't covered by this guidance).

Kellymom has some useful info on food / dairy sensitivities in bf babies.

I discovered I had lactose intolerance rather than cow's milk protein intolerance because I tried lactose free milk and it didn't make me ill. It's very unusual for bf babies to be lactose intolerant though, as bm is full of lactose.

Often (but not always) if you stop eating something you're intolerant to (and which you eat plenty of), you get withdrawal symptoms - for adults, that's usually on day 4/5. Headaches, shaking, nausea are all common. I had that when I first gave up dairy.

And eczema flares seem to be the main symptom of DS's nut allergies, although he's recently had 2 reactions to some nuts (hives on his face). He has been eating the nuts to which he's allergic for about 18 months, though, and worsened eczema was the only symptom until recently.

Yes dairy, egg and soya often go hand in hand! Soya is put in lots of commercial bread products so it's easy to think the baby is reacting to wheat instead.
I've been where you are and i did the exclusion diet (but it takes time to read every label at first but it's ok when you get going) and for me the best thing was to find out what she was intolerant to (by basically existingf on rice, veg and turkey, and reintroducing new foods every few days) and avoid it in my diet whilst still bfing. I read that 10% (? It was a surprisingly high figure anyway) of intolerant babies can't even tolerate hypoallergenic formula because it is still based on cows milk or soya, whereas all but a teeny tiny minority thrive on allergen free bm. I didn't want to take that chance and find myself with no way of ensuring a happy healthy baby!
I've now been dairy, egg and soya free for almost 2 years, still bfing my DD. honestly it's not that hard once you get your head round it!

Well, I have been back on the dairy all week and ds2's skin has definitely got worse over the week, so I'm back off the dairy. I'm pretty sure it's not soya as I was unwittingly eating bread - full of soya flour - likewise eggs as I was baking a lot of dairy-free during my so-called exclusion period. So I'm pretty sure it's the dairy. I'm going back off completely then will try introducing stuff with obscure dairy ingredients ?(like salt and vinegar crisps! who'd have thought they needed whey powder in them?!) and see what happens. We'll be starting weaning in a couple weeks anyway so presumably we'll see directly then if there's a reaction.

Thanks for all the replies and info - you've all been really helpful.

Lookout, sorry to hear that. Don't know if this will help but I found kara coconut milk the least offensive alternative when it comes to tea and coffee.