Giving up dairy

[Travellingatthespeedoflight]

Help please.

Baby is 8 weeks old and ebf. Struggled with weight gain at first but I was confident she needed more time. 50th centile when born and before Christmas was on the 9th centile. Has maintained 9th centile at most recent weigh in last week.

In the last couple of weeks she has been very screamy and unsettled, even when being held. She had also only put on 10g when weighed from a wed to the following mon.

HV has suggested colief (sp?) and that I give up dairy to see if that helps. Does that sound sensible? Obviously I want to help her in any way I can, but selfishly after 18 weeks of gestational diabetes during pregnancy, I am reluctant to have a restrictive diet if not necessary.

Does it sound like giving up dairy would be a good idea? I’ve had 3 other bf babies and not had these issues before.

thank you!

The colief would break down lactose in the milk which is a sugar.
That is treating something different than removing dairy as that removes the cows milk protein.

Unfortunately giving up dairy and soya did help my dd2. I also had gestational diabetes, so I feel your pain!

Giving up dairy completely may work. Kellymom has some useful information on BFing and dairy here.

Has the HV or the MWs raised the possibility of Tongue Tie?

Giving up dairy and soy completely transformed my baby. Reflux and screaming, general discomfort, were the symptoms. Never had any eczema or blood in the stool but I knew something was wrong.

You do have to be very, very strict. Dairy protein accumulates in the system for weeks so a bit of dairy here and there will still cause discomfort. And it actually inflames the digestive system so symptoms can be quite bad even if you think you only had a bit of dairy.

Read labels in detail, cook everything from scratch, no takeaways or restaurant meals. Everything that is dairy free has soy to replace it so "vegan" stuff is not an option.

It took a week or 2 to get my head around it but it genuinely made an enormous difference and I suddenly had a happy baby!

Dairy free formula is a nightmare, thin, full of additives, causes reflux, so you have to medicate for reflux, which in turn causes constipation, so you end up medicating for that. And it tastes horrible so babies hate it. Wonderful that it exists if you cannot breastfeed but if you can, breastfeeding is the better choice for a CMPA baby.

How are things tonight @Travellingatthespeedoflight?