Dairy intolerance in bf baby - help please

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Ds2 is 9.5 months & has had silent reflux to a greater or lesser degree since around 2 weeks old. He had a posterior tt snipped at 14 weeks & a course of cranial osteopathy & was off the reflux medication within a week or so.

When we introduced solids at 6 months he quickly became severely constipated & the reflux has flared right back to a greater or lesser degree since.

We hit crisis point at the end of November when the reflux flared horrendously & I saw yet again every hour of the night with only bf settling & calming him. Dh arranged an emergency appointment with the hv who suggested cutting out dairy to see if this had an effect on the reflux.

Long story short we're pretty confident dairy is having an impact on the reflux & we're waiting for an appointment with a paediatrician (waiting list a month to 6 weeks) & a paediatric dietician (waiting list 12 weeks).

Dh took ds to the GP's today & has told them about the waiting list & also told them our concerns about being dairy free with no support in the mean time as it's such a huge part of a lo's diet to cut out with the calcium etc (although still bf & trying to include other source's of calcium). She has prescribed Nutramigen for us to use as a supplement (put on cereal etc).

I'm just wondering if it would be worth me trying to express bm to do this but my concern about doing that is there is a very real possibility that I will have to return to work full time (11 hr days) at the end of March so in theory should be dropping feeds as don't want to return to work with a massive supply & end up with mastitis. Or should I try this story term to build a stash?

Does anyone else have experience with this, tips or advice welcome please add I feel very lost & not sure what to do for the best. Thanks

Thanks for the reply. I'm thinking trying to get him used to the taste of Nutramigen is the way to go, even if it means hiding it in cooking for him.

He eats houmous & broccoli so I'll keep encouraging that & see how creative my cooking skills can get!

Have you cut dairy out of your diet too?

DS was BF and diagnosed with dairy intolerance at 10m. We were prescribed Neocate but he never really took to it, nor was he keen on drinking from a bottle or sippy cup.

I was advised to cut all dairy from my diet and continue BF until at least age 2. I went back to work when DS was 12m, but continued to give him a morning, early evening and bedtime BF. Your supply will adjust if you want to cut down the feeds.

At about 18m the dietician suggested that we gave up on Neocate as DS was rejecting foods such as cereal with Neocate. We've used oatly oat milk ever since. I continued to BF until age 4 (DS's choice, not entirely mine), and DS is finally showing signs of outgrowing the allergy at nearly 5. I worry a bit about calcium but the blue oatly is calcium enriched and I try to give loads of non dairy foods with calcium.

I've tried cutting dairy out of my diet too but tbh I don't think that's bothered him too much as he had a decent settled period from 17 weeks to 6 months (barring illness & teething). Is that something that could have changed though?

Any tips on calcium rich food would be appreciated, I'm using the blue oatley for cereal & cooking,broccoli, kale, dried figs, houmous, chic peas, beans, tesco dairy free fruit smoothies instead of yoghurt as they're calcium enriched. Dairy is just in bloody everything!

It is hard to be dairy free, and 50% of kids that have a problem with dairy will also have a problem with soya....

Our LO is on Oatley milk (calcium enriched) we also give a multivitamin which has calcium and iron. Is there any chance you could see a paed who's a specialist in allergies privately? it might cost around £150, check your local private hospitals or the portland if your in London.

Also check out the littlerefluxers forum, allergies can be very complicated and they were really helpful for us.

Sorry - just had a thought, is your little one on Ranitidine? if not go back to the gp until you can see a specialist, reflux can be treated by ranitidine until LO grows out of it - personally i found the HV totally useless.