CMPA or lactose intolerance?

[Scullface]

(Poo picture attached) Baba not been well for a few weeks now… loose runny mucousy stools and very frequent diarrhoea. Sometimes as much as 10-12 times a day. It’s either bright yellow or swamp green in colour. She’s also had horrendous nappy rash where she’s been crying in pain. We’ve been to the docs and the hospital and waiting on a poo sample analysis to see if it’s an infection. However I’m starting to suspect a cows milk allergy or lactose intolerance instead. The colour and consistency of the stools along with the timings (formula goes right through her) and frequency - plus she’s irritable, not herself, not sleeping or napping, is sometimes wheezing when she feeds and is also tongue thrusting. Sensitive pic of poo attached. Does this look like CMPA to those of you that have been through this?

Yep, I'd definitely change her milk and give it a couple of weeks for the dairy to leave her system and see if there's an improvement. Does she scream as though she's in pain or seem uncomfortable after feeding at all?

We were sure my 9 month old had cmpa and we were told no over and over again, their reason was because she out weight on and was a happy baby. Went to A&E for an unrelated reason, between being seen at triage and seeing the doctor I gave her a bottle - doc took one look at her and declared allergy. She’s on allergy formula now and we’ve just started the milk ladder. She’s coping fine so think she’s grown out of it. We are now positive her big brother also had it. Again we were told he didn’t as he wasn’t miserable enough.

Her symptoms:

• red watery eyes after bottle
• runny foul smelling poo, once every 2-3 days. Lots of effort and screaming.
• spitting up after every bottle
• gas

No not after feeding just at nappy changes as her nappy rash is so sore 😔

im so sorry you’ve gone through this! She’s had a bit more spit up but no extra gas I don’t think. Just runny green watery poos - sometimes as many as 10 in 12 hours. It’s horrendous. And she goes all red in the face and strains beforehand.

It was frustrating not getting anywhere when we knew there was a problem, but it only took 4 days of aptamil and she was much better

Was this a prescribed dairy free Aptamil or did you just choose one yourself?

Looks like it to me. My youngest had it. In fact I remember breastfeeding her and being so worried as she had so many bowel movements a day, up to 12. The midwives told me how well I was doing at breastfeeding, but knowing what a low supply I'd had with my other children and how I couldn't successfully breastfeed previously, I was doubtful. She was admitted to hospital 3 days old with significant weight loss and presented with signs of infection. Symptoms were diarrhoea, rash on face and cold. They couldn't diagnose the infection and was put on IV antibiotics for a week. Due to the weight loss they put her straight onto formula and she projectiled it out of her nose and mouth. We'll never know if she did have an infection or if it was the cmpa that made her like that, but every time we tried to reintroduce dairy she had diarrhoea, got a rash on her face and a cold! She eventually passed the milk ladder age 4.

Ask the GP if you can try dairy free to see if it helps. It's far easier to get a GP to agree to that that agreeing that they have cmpa. Then once you have evidence you can go back to them.

Sorry should have said it was Aptimil pepti on prescription.

Thank you I’ve tried to chase GP today but being passed back and forth from them to the hospital so not getting anywhere. She’s 7 months old so I’m confused why she’s suddenly developing this. It could be related to weaning but she’s had no extra dairy for a good while now.

Look up your local authority's cmpa policy for referals, etc. Each area has their own process and if you know what yours it, it's easier to get somewhere.

Dairy intolerance can be something you're born with or develop. My daughter was born with it and outgrew it. I chose to go dairy free for a couple of years as I had stomach inflammation. When I started having dairy again, I couldn't tolerate it. It took me a while to build it up slowly. One of my other children developed a temporary intolerance after a d&v bug - can last for several months. People can randomly develop allergies - I can understand, though, why that feels so strange, I feel the same about it.

It might be that its not dairy. Keep a food diary and track what she's having and her bowel movements along with any other symptoms. It will help you to build a picture and support your case with the GP - or it might flag up another pattern.

My little girl has cmpa, for her it included the below

nappy rash started around 3/4 days old - had 3 different creams prescribed from the doctors which didn’t help at all.

lots of dirty nappy’s a day - the max was about 11 but averaged 8/9

mucus in stools and then blood

we were on aptamil pepti which was great for around 5 weeks and the nappy rash went, then the blood started, ended up being seen by a paediatrician who advised the pepti still contains cows milk protein so switched us to neocate - which has been great

Thank you so much - we all had a nasty d&v bug a little while ago and actually took us a little while to recover so maybe it’s taking her longer? We’re keeping a diary to see if we can spot patterns. Her first major blowout (through three layers of clothes into her stroller) was with egg. I don’t know what’s going on but will push doctors.