5 month old with possible lactose intolerance?

[LittleMissSnowShine]

Hi ladies!

Hoping for some help with this one.

DS2 is 5 and a half months and he was mostly breastfed until about 4 weeks ago, when I started to introduce some very simple weaning foods and began to introduce some formula.

He is a big baby (born 10lbs3oz) and always hungry!

He has always had some digestive issues, even only on breastmilk, with problems like bad trapped wind, flatulence, only pooing every few days and it always being a diarrhea type of nappy when he did, a bit spew-y etc. It wasn't exactly ideal but nothing too major either.

Solid foods don't seem to have phased him either, so that's fine, he seems to like what he has had so far and largely keeps them down.

But formula seems to be a problem. He used to take tiny amount, an ounce or two, here or there when he was newborn but he started refusing bottle at 5 weeks and I just gave up on trying until recently. I started on Aptamil 1 but found that he threw up a lot and still seemed very unsettled, so I tried Aptamil 2, thinking that maybe heavier milk would prevent him throwing up as much. It hasn't, there is still copious vomiting, he is even more unsettled, bad wind, seems to have stomach cramps and an excema like rash all over his forehead.

I was away for 2 days just over the weekend and I left the DSs with my mum. Up until that point DS2 had only been having maybe 2 or 3 small bottles of formula a day and the rest was breastmilk so the digestive type issues were there but they weren't too serious, he could be a bit spwe-y and windy but largely slept ok and was happy on solids.

But since yesterday the problems seem a lot more pronounced - maybe over exposure to "too much" formula has really set them off?

I'm seeing GP tomorrow morning and as you can imagine I don't want to get fobbed off. DS is a big, very healthy looking child so I can see that on first impression the Dr might think I am being over cautious but he has gone from being just a bit windy to being very unsettled, in obvious discomfort and throwing up any formula we try to give him.

Does this sound like lactose intolerance? Does it make sense that formula would make the symptoms worse than they are with breastmilk? He does have some issues even with breastmilk but it's obvious formula is making them a lot worse. Could there be any other explanations?

Thank you

It's more likely to be cow's milk intolerance than lactose intolerance - LI is pretty rare in babies and he'd have reacted to your breastmilk and been very ill from birth.

Have you tried a different formula brand?

I had such a horrendous time getting DS to take a bottle again full stop and an even trickier time getting him to move from only expressed milk to formula that I have been very reluctant to try another formula since he has just about decided to like the taste of Aptamil. Though, of course, if that seems to be a solution of course I will try SMA or something.

Yes, I'd read lactose intolerance was pretty rare, didn't realise there was such a thing as cow's milk intolerance or more that I didn't realise it was something separate to lactose intolerance.

But I've just googled the symptoms and DS does have - eczema rash on his forehead, frequent diarrhoea when he is drinking formula, occasional constipation, wheezing and vomiting/Reflux so sounds like this could have hit the nail on the head!!

But don't all formula milks contain cows milk?

You can get non-cow's milk formula - either based on soya (although lots of children who are intolerant to cow's milk are intolerant to soya too!) or prescription formulas where the cow's milk protein has been fiddled with enough to be tolerated.

Lactose is just milk sugar so is present in all animal milks, including human milk. It's made in your body. There is lots of confusion between lactose intolerance and cow's milk protein intolerance though, with even some GPs and HVs not understanding the difference.

I'd try a different formula first in case it is something as straight forward as that.

Agree, he could well be Cows Milk Protein Intolerance, although some of the things you say could be perfectly normal like pooing every few days and runny poos.

Have a read of kellymom and allergy uk for some more info

It's really the extreme showers of puke we are seeing now that is a real worry and how unsettled and fussy DS is, and all of this has only really become an issue since he started getting formula. His digestive system was kind of ok, few wee issues here and there, when it was exclusively breastmilk but formula seems to really disagree with him.

He has been especially cross after breakfast the last few days and he has been having Hipp Organic porridge so I don't think it is the fact that it is Aptamil that has been causing the problem. I think formula fullstop is just not agreeing with him and it has been 4 weeks now so he has had more than enough time to get used to it. Poor wee thing!

Sounds like we are going to be trying to strange prescription formula to see if that works out

thanks everyone!

Basically insist on testing. My DD was LI for 4.5 years (one of 3 kids I knew, so not that rare!) And it was picked up by a reducing sugars test on a stool sample.

Have to say it sounds more like some other intolerance. DD was pooing 4 or 5 times a day, and it was like cooked spinach. Majorly threw up daily. Screamed from 4pm til midnight, every night. Was ebf add wouldn't entertain formula until we got dairy free stuff on prescription.

Good luck!