If you quit dairy for bfing, how long before you re- introduced?

[MeeWhoo]

I have an 8 week old breastfed dd, who used to be extremely gassy and colicky so around 10 days ago I quit dairy and within 2 days you could see a great improvement and she is now a lot more content.
I was wondering whether this means that she will always have trouble with cow's milk protein or whether it is just a temporary thing until her digestive system gets stronger.

I was thinking of slowly re-introducing milk into my diet once she hits the 3 month mark. I miss my dairy and not only have I stopped losing weight since I quit it, but I have actually put 1 kg back on, so I'm hoping this will be temporary (I bfed ds until he was a little over 2 and would like to do the same with dd if possible).

Is there hope for a butter and yoghurth scoffing bfing mom?

I don't know the answer but I'm also mostly dairy free as DD did awful green poos and had nappy rash until I cut out dairy. I had a soya latte yesterday and that caused the same problems. She's 15 weeks now. I hope someone else has some helpful advice.

Oh no! Sorry to hear you still have to go dairy ( and soya) free, especially given your username

I stayed dairy free for two years to keep feeding DS. And DS is still cows milk protein intolerant at age 5 - he's getting better and can have small amounts of dairy, but I'm not sure he will ever be able to eat normally.

I reintroduced small amounts after about 18 months but am still largely cows milk protein free. DS is now 30 months and still CMPI and breastfed.

I went dairy free when my DD was 10 weeks and reintroduced dairy at 6 months when she started weaning. She is now perfectly able to tolerate dairy.

I was told it takes 4-6 weeks to get dairy out of your system so its not always recommended by medics as often dairy intolerance is a fleeting thing in such small babies.

Good luck!

Oh dear...not what I was hoping to hear...

I got away with butter on toast - managed about 3 weeks without, but DS1 was older when we eliminated dairy.
Other things slowly crept in, but I'm not a big milk consumer anyway - I used to buy a pint of milk a week.
If you do want to reintroduce, think about what you'd most like to add to your diet, ideally processed (eg cooked or fermented), and take it very, very slowly. Its might be she can tolerate a small amount, or none, but its always worth a try.

DS1 was dairy free til about 13 months, and I was on trace dairy (butter, chocolate and occasional icecream) til I weaned at 12 months.

If you go for a calcium supplement, check it for dairy content.....

A year.

Oh Sunnyl thank you for that ray of hope, I think I might try that strategy and see how it goes for dd.

Following with interest as I cut out dairy for my 6 month old a couple of weeks ago. I can't believe the difference in him!
The first few days were hard but now I've found quite a few snacks I can eat and started to adapt to dairy free milk it doesn't seem too bad at all.
Does anybody else feel a hundred times better themselves?

Hello, my dd is 13 weeks and really struggling with colic and wind to the point where she'll pretty much only sleep in a sling or on my chest. Is cutting out dairy worth trying for this? I'm at the end of my tether so will try anything. Sorry to gate crash the thread.

Hello Betty, I would suggest giving it a try. At first I thought dd might be suffering from oversupply issues but after managing that (as I had to do with my older ds) she was not getting better and I had never seen a baby with so much gas. Much like in your case, after thefirst couple of weeks she would only sleep in the sling or on my chest as she would get a colick or gas otherwise and wake herself up every 10 minutes. The amount of farts coming out of such a small baby everytime I manoeuvered her out of the sling was unbelievable.

Even though she still has some gas and the odd greenish poo, she is a lot lot better and will now sleep in the pushchair when we go out and next to me, rather than on top of me for some of the night. Apparently if your baby is gassy and has green poos and it is due to something in your diet, in the vast majority of cases cow's milk protein is the culprit so you could give it a try as it won't do any ham and may be the answer to your prayers. I definitely saw an inmprovement after only 2 days

p.s. Do not substitute milk with soya products, at least at the beginning, as lots of babies don't tolerate it well either as illustrated by a previous poster.

Thank you I will definitely give it a go. I know what you mean out the fart/sling thing! Ha ha!

We reintroduced slowly from 12 months - starting with processed ie in biscuits and worked up to drinking milk etc - no problems at all and now at nearly 5 she loves milk/cheese etc!

I'm actually able to have small amounts of cheese or a bit of butter but not substantial amounts like the time I forgot and ate 3/4 of a tub of ice-cream - she had mucousy green poos all the next day and an immediate reappearance if her nappy rash. I suspect her intolerance isn't too bad.

Thank you everyone for your replies, it seems that experiences can vary quite a lot. I've had a look on Kellymom and it says that many babies outgrow their sensitivity between 6 and 18 months so I think I will slowly reintroduce at 6 months and if she reacts I'll wait another couple of months and so on.

Link to Kellymom info here: kellymom.com/health/baby-health/food-sensitivity/

As this may take longer than I anticipated I think I will look into taking a calcium supplement. If anyone cut out dairy on the advice of a HP, were you prescribed a supplement?

Sadly the HV I mentioned this to looked at me like I was mad so no prescription here. I take a multivitamin when I remember

Also the Alpro milks (hazelnut, almond) are all fortified with calcium.

tinned sardines and green leafy veg are great non dairy calcium sources.

No need to supplement with calcium as long as you're eating plenty of green veg, nuts, seeds, legumes. Remember that much of the world's population doesn't consume any dairy. It's not actually necessary.