Lactose intolerant newborn

[MummyMellie]

DS was born really lactose intolerant, am about to have DC2 and am wondering if anyone knows if this one is likely to be as well? Would so love to BF this time round if I can!

AFAIK the chances are higher that it will be. I've had 2 with dairy allergy.

MummyMellie, I hope your DS is doing ok now. Lactose intolerance is really very rare in babies, although sometimes health care professionals confuse lactose intolerance with dairy intolerance. Have a look here and here for more information. If it was dairy intolerance then reducing or cutting out dairy in your diet should help.
If it was true lactose intolerance then a baby would show failure to thrive in the first days, and the drastic weight loss would be unmistakeable. Fingers crossed this is not the case!

Hi Joy, thanks so much for the links. I have to admit I am now even more confused! DS was born 5 weeks early, good weight at 6lb 4oz but became very jaundiced. Despite many hours of professional help I never managed to get him properly on the breast, he would attach briefly then pull away screaming and thrashing. He had the most horrendous reflux and vomiting, terrible stomach cramps and straining night and day with awful diarreah (sp?!) that was mainly mucous for 3 months! We went from specialist to specialist as although he wasn't doing badly he wasn't exactly thriving and was obviously in constant pain, it was finally another mums-netter who pointed us in the no lactose direction and he hasn't looked back since.
I am lactose intolerant (not sure if that is the right definition, but sadly it makes me throw up, bad tummy etc) so he wasn't getting any dairy through me while I was trying to feed him.
Would love to BF this next one, so any thoughts on how I might go about his would be very gratefully received.
Many thanks!

MummyMellie, sounds like you had a horrendous time. Your poor little boy!

It's not clear whether you are lactose intolerant or dairy intolerant yourself. If it's the former then it probably increases the likelyhood of your baby being so too, especially if it's something you had from your own infancy. What did you feed your DS on when he was weaned from the breast?

I have a friend who is dairy intolerant, as is her baby. Cutting out milk products was no problem really, but finding dairy-related ingredients in almost every processed food nearly did her head in. Her baby was very sensitive, and eventually she just made every blessed thing they ate herself. Her baby didn't exactly grow out of it (5 now), but can tolerate occasional processed foods which have milk products in. Not milk or butter etc yet.

I guess you won't know 'til the baby arrives.

Some really good info on getting breastfeeding started here-
www.kellymom.com/bf/start/index.html
Ideally if you can birth without intervention if possible (go into labour naturally, avoid drips, pain relief etc) think about a natural third stage (not have the injection for the placenta) have skin to skin straight away without baby being taken fronm you to be cleaned/weighed etc for the first couple of hours and hopefully baby will self attach in the first hour for a feed
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjDQN9keKQk
This might also help too
www.biologicalnurturing.com/
Selina

Lactose is a milk sugar. All milks contain it, human, cow, dromedary, platypus... Very very few people are really lactose intolerant as babies and within the first days of life it will be evident in very dramatic ways. More dramatic than you have described imho but I am not a HCP or a breastfeeding counsellor.

As we get older (past 5 or 6 yrs) most of us start to lose the ability to digest milk sugar properly so many become lactose intolerant.

A lot more babies are cow's milk protein intolerant and then have to go on specialist formulas if they are not breastfed.

Your first baby sounds like had other problems connected to difficulties in establishing breastfeeding. A word of caution, most specialists in the health care professions know far too little about how breastfeeding works so I am not surprised to hear that they never really helped you find out what was wrong with your baby.

A quick couple questions about your first experience if you don't mind: when your son pulled off thrashing and screaming, what was your milk flow like? Do you feel like you had 'enough' milk for him?

all three of ours have had this, so were breastfed, and used soya products if needed, dc1 grew out of it at about 3, dc2 is 4 and still has it, and dc3 is 2 she still has it! we thought dc3 was okay, but consultants said it was and once we took her off it, at 15 months she started to put weight on! from our experience, i would leave cows milk, for at least 1 year, and fingers crossed the baby will escape it! we knew dc2 had it at 5 days old, as he was breastfed, but i had lots of dairy for a few days!!

Hey all, thanks so much for your replies. Will have a look at all the links.
Foxy - my poor DS had such a rough time. As I could never get him on the breast I expressed constantly for the first three months so I could see what he was getting. At three months he was still being fed every 2hrs night and day and only managing around 30mls at each feed before he was in too much pain to carry on. Eventually we managed to get to see Claire Byam-Cook who was marvelous - told me there was nothing wrong with my milk supply, technique etc etc, but that there was definately something wrong with poor DS - and that we shouldn't take no for an answer from the GPs / Specialists etc etc - they had just kept telling me he was a fractious baby, colicky etc.
I found a thread from another Mums Netter who had been through something similar and I rushed out and got a tin of soy formula - the difference was amazing within about an hour! Went to GP and they prescribed a lactose free formula and we haven't looked back since!
Was so dissapointed when I realised I couldn't feed my wee boy, but felt awful that I had struggled on for so long when he was in such pain. Really hope that this time round will be a bit smoother, only a week or so to go now!