Cutting out dairy products while BFing

[RuthChan]

Ever since he was born my DS (now 3 months) has sounded quite wheezey when he breathes. Right now he sounds worse than usual because he has a bit of a cold. Today a mother at DD's preschool heard him and suggested that I could help him by cutting dairy products out of my diet. I eat a lot of dairy products, particularly for the calcium while BFing so cutting them out all together sounds quite tough. Would I have to cut them out altogether for it to have any effect, or would it help him to simply cut down? How far do I have to go? Milk in tea? Milk chocolate? Icecream...?

i would not do it at all, certainly not without talking to doc. dairy intolerance/allergy in baby would show mostly in intestinal problems not wheeziness. if he would drink cowsmilk himself it might make him feel more bunged up.

I think it depends on the baby - I cut out dairy when DD was about six weeks or so and it had a huge and instant effect on her sleeping and general happiness. I was still able to have a splash of milk in tea and the occasional bit of cheese, but I've heard some babies are so sensitive that their mums can't even eat beef without it having an effect.

DD is now 19 weeks and seems fine and I can drink pints of milk without any ill effects.

Thank you for your opinions.

Anglepoise:
What ill effects had you seen that were improved by your cutting out the dairy?
How could you tell when it was safe to reintroduce it?

Does anyone else have any comments to make?

I cut out ALL dairy and egg for ds2 and the improvement was dramatic, but he had quite severe symptoms. his included:

eczema
wheezing
bad nappies
colic (seriously badly, he would cry nearly all day)
being sick after feeds.

even the slightest bit of milk/egg I ate would set him off again so I stayed off it for over a year.
I have only started eating it again because he has virtually weaned due to my pregnancy.,

I have tried him with some dairy direct but he came out with eczema all round his mouth and terrible nappy troubles!

in your situation thouigh, I would maybe try cutting down a lot to see if it helps. dairy does make you mucousy so it certainly could be a factor.

Ruth - this is something you need to talk about with a professional interested in and informed about dietary links with symptoms. Cutting out dairy is a big step - hard to do, and if you are eating a lot, it's even harder. It's not much use cutting down - to be sure of whether it causes an effect or not, you have to cut it right out.

The evidence for dairy proteins affecting the breastmilk does exist, and in a few susceptible babies it appears to cause symptoms - but 'sounding quite wheezy' is nothing serious and is very common anyway (babies easily get a blocked nose just because of the shape and length of their nasal passages).

Maybe you can have a word with your GP or HV - I bet they would say that unless it's causing distress or it's alongside other health-affecting symptoms, there's no real concern.

I'm probably going to get told that I'm talking nonsense and I'm quite happy to accept I am, but it did seem to help us.

Main problem that I remember was that DD seemed incapable of sleeping on her back - she would make a strange grunting ugh ugh noise every time we put her down. She spent a few nights sleeping in her chair/car seat to keep her upright and I started a few threads over in sleep about it. I spent some time looking up symptoms of reflux so she must have been showing some of the signs of that too (trying to remember through a haze of sleep deprivation - sorry!).

I was having loads of dairy at the time as I love milk and DH is veggie, so I tend to rely on cheese to make meals more interesting. The day that I stopped eating it DD went down like a dream - no more weird grunting. The only time that we had a similar thing again was the night after I drank a large hot chocolate in a cafe without thinking. It is supposed to take weeks to get it out of your system though, so I may have added 2 + 2 and got 5.

Gradually I've just started having more dairy again and she seems fine, so I'm assuming some sort of gut-sealing or something has gone on - trial and error rather than anything scientific!

There are some pretty good substitutes for milk (soya or rice or oats). Not sure why but the organice ones usually don't have calcium added which makes them a bit useless as dairy replacements, I think. There's an icecream replacement made with soya called Swedish Glace in a black octagonal pot. Dark chocolate can be dairy-free though you need to check ingredients. My DS could tolerate me having goat butter and cheese when cow's made him vomit/wheeze/go scaly-skinned so that's worth a try. If not, there's a range of margarine - Pure - made without any dairy at all (most have some milk products in them).
He's almost 8m old and seems to be OK if I have small amounts of cow butter now. The GP suggested that butter and cream might be OK because being mainly fat, the protein levels are lower (though not zero).
Sadly his sleeping was and remains rubbish.

I cut out dairy when ds2 started wheezing and having leaky eyes at a few weeks old. It worked for us.

He's two now and we see the allergist and dietician regularly. We've introduced small amounts into his diet, butter in cakes and so on but he still can't have actual milk or yoghurt.

It's worth asking your gp about it but mine told me it cannot get through in to your milk. When we were referred to the consultant allergist she said it definitly can and dietician agreed.

I had to cut out dairy with dd until she outgrew her intolerance around 20 months, and am currently off it again as 4 month old ds is also intolerant. I don't find it that hard in the main, though would like to be able to cook with cheese sometimes.

Vitalite is another dairy free sub for butter, if you can't get Pure. Swedish Glace ice cream is actually quite nice. Use rice or oat milk or soya milk (a good number of milk intolerant babies also react to soya, so try not to go overboard with substituting soya for everything). Some dark chocs are dairy free. Don't buy 'cheezly' - it's universally accepted as being vile!