Lactose Free Milk & Soya Milk Advice Please

[MrsBlk]

Hi All

I have tried a few different milks with my little girl, now 8 weeks old. Gone from Aptamil Stage 1, to Aptamil Comfort, to Cow & Gate Infasoy and now SMA LF.

There was a positive change when started the Infasoy but it made her a bit constipated and her stools were hard, so tried the SMA LF. Got a positive change again, stool back to 'chicken korma' like, but the last 24 - 48 hours they have started to go hard again!

HV said soya milk is known to cause constipation and that LF was better.

Not really wanting to change her milk AGAIN.... any ideas???

thank you all x

p.s. she is due her baby check & imms at Docs on Monday, at which I will be asking for a lactose tolerance test and to get her milk on prescription.

Does anyone else get their little one's milk on script???

Really soy milks aren't recommended unless your pediatrician says otherwise. If your baby has an allergy this would usually be to cow's milk proteins (and plenty of cmp allergic children react to soya too).

Much less likely that your baby has lactose intolerance which would anyway just be a temporary problem after a tummy bug. The inability to digest lactose would,be diagnosed within days of birth and would have made your baby very poorly and in need of special care.

Generally babies with a temp lactose issue get the runs rather than get constipated.

Have you seen a pediatrician?

I have read that a lot of the early issues are due to them not having developed enough on the enzyme needed to break down the lactose and that they grow out of this, which is what I'm hoping for. She was 2 1/2 weeks early and apparently this enzyme develops more at the end of the third trimester.

Her initial symptoms were daily crying / screaming, lots of trumping which made her scream, occasional discomfort with passing stools and bright green runny poos. The changes of milk type were made between myself and the Health Visitor.

As soon as she went on the Soya milk she stopped trumping so much, was loads calmer during the day and much more alert, she had been a very sleepy baby till then. Her poos stopped being green, but became hard. The only time she showed discomfort was when passing these solid stools, hence the change then to LF milk, which removed the issue to start with.

Not yet seen a paed, just waiting to talk to baby doc on Monday, will see what she suggests. Definitely getting a lactose tolerance test, been chatting to a lady who's little boy was similar and got tested at 17 weeks which was positive, she said he just cried a lot until then, and he is completely lactose intolerant!

Premmies don't have problems with lactose ordinarily, a term baby would usually be fine.

If your baby is low on lactase then coleif would be a more usual hv suggestion, soy formulas should only be prescribed by Gp or paed. The nhs site will confirm this.

There are other and better formulas with cmp fully broken down and lactose free.

Oops posted before had finished. I would speak to your Gp...could post on breast and bottle board too. Prob get more responses there.

Doc said they can only prescribe Colief if she is tested and found to be lactose intolerant. I wanted to try Colief before changing to comfort milk but the HV said to try the comfort milk first. In fact she suggested using infacol, which I had already started using.

She is now on the SMA Lactose Free milk and is doing really well apart from this sudden bout of solid stool.

Is there a better milk available to buy or are they prescription only milks?

Shouldn't soy milks be taken off the shelf if they are not always beneficial to baby

Speak to your Dr.

When my DS2 was 1yr old ( and no longer BF) and discovered he had milk protein and lactose issues, the consultant opted for Neocate that is available on prescription.

The least reactive milks are prescription only, if you may need these they warrant a discussion with a Gp.

Soy is right for some but again after consultation, there is no benefit to soy, comfort, night time, follow on ... they are all about marketing.