Baby/toddler bowel problems

[Turningamumagain]

So since my just turned 1 year old has been born she has suffered with her bowel movements. She was ok for the first 6 weeks while I breast fed but once I moved her to formula we could see she was lactose intolerant. We started using colife drops up until I weaned her onto food. I expected her stools to turn hard once we started weaning like my older Children’s did but they remained loose. A few months ago 2 of her nails randomly fell off and I took her to the drs he told me it was normal for babies to
Lose their nails and wasn’t concerned about her stools being soft 🤷🏻‍♀️ when she was coming up to turning 12 months I swapped her morning and night bottle to cows milk and she had horrendous reaction really bad diarrhoea and sore bum. So I changed her to a lactose free diet. For a few days her stools changed to solid but unfortunately they went back loose. last weekend she had 4 days of really bad diarrhoea but was fine in herself no sign of it being a bug. For the last 4 days I’ve cut out lactose and gluten as I’m coeliac but her stools are still always changing. Today she’s done 2 solid 1 loose and they have all been yellow. She is at the Doctors again tomorrow to hopefully get some answers but I just wondered if anyone else had experienced this with their little ones? She is teething at the min also. Any advice will be appreciated.

TIA ❤️

Very few babies are lactose intolerant, they are usually cows milk protein intolerant. As your little one is 12 months, you can move onto oat milk, Alpro does a good 1-3yr growing up oat milk. Also cut out all other dairy and soya and see what happens x

Thank you. So at the minute she has like an 8/9 oz bottle in a morning and at night with SMA lactose free milk will I be ok swapping that to oak milk? Will that not give her belly ache?

You could try mixing 50/50 so she gets used to the taste but oat milk is sweet and yummy so it should go down well. Try a 4oz in the morning and give it a few hours before giving more. Then if there is no instant tummy ache, see how it goes over a few days and then weeks. My little one took to oat milk without problems and the nappies finally started thickening up..! I was so envious of other mums who could do ‘poop flip’ in the toilet at nappy changes from 6months as weaning started 😂

I remember doing that with the other two haha! I just know it’s not normal what she’s been going through. It’s like her food isn’t digesting and sometimes really mucusy. I had bought the Alpro soya 1-3 years in for her cereal would you not recommend that? I’ve also got some almond milk in too. Just thinking for her bottle in the morning. Will definitely pick the oat milk up tomorrow x

Cows milk and soy apparently have very similar protein so the intolerance may carry through. My little one can’t do soya either! Almond milk should be fine but the growing up mills have move vitamins added so saves on remembering daily vitamins dose..! It’s such a trial and error finding what works best x

Absolutely agree with Crazyegg. If there is an issue with dairy, it will be with the protein in it, not the sugar. Often going dairy (and soya) free for a while will let the guts recover. Oat milk is the recommended alternative for over 12 months round here.

At a year old she doesnt have to have any kind of milk to drink. Just make sure she eats a very varied diet

Thank you so much. This has been really helpful. I will give the almond tomorrow morning then get some Alpro oat milk ☺️ X

Thank you 😊

So last night we gave her a bottle with oat milk. She loved it but woke up at 6am with belly ache and ended up doing two yellow very loose nappies 😭 do you think it could have been that? Doctors have told me to keep a food and stool diary for 4 weeks. I am not confused as to if it's an intolerance or another bowel issue? Don't know what to do for the best. I am going to try and not give her a bottle tonight but she does like it for comfort. X

Oh no!!! Food diary it is, it’s such hard work. We tried a few different oat milks because some of them gave my little one a rash but no diarrhoea.
Do you suspect anything else she may irritate her belly, maybe bananas or tomatoes?
Was she ok with oat milk in the morning?

I've been reading into things online and as she's had full dairy and gluten free diet the last few days and still been having the loose nappies I feel like she just has a sensitive bowel. Apparently this can be normal for some babies/toddlers and it just takes their bowel some time to become less sensitive to certain foods. I think at this stage I'm going to put her back onto everything and just keep a strict diary on what's she's eaten and what her stools have been like then we know which foods trigger it. As she's gaining weight and healthy in herself apparently it's nothing to worry about 🤷🏻‍♀️ x

Definitely keep a food diary.
It took my sons tummy a good week or so after changing to oat milk to settle. We went from cows milk to soya - wrong move. He was just as bad on soya so then we went to oat and it was life changing after a week or so!
Keep persisting.
My son is now 7 and too much dairy and he gets an upset tummy, its almost like he has to know his limits because to an extent he's fine on it! Xx

Thank you. It's so hard knowing what to do for the best. Was it lactose intolerance your son had or cows milk allergy? Did he have any other symptoms or just loose stools? X

@Turningamumagain he was lactose intolerant. Gradually as he got older we could introduce things again but we had to do it in small amounts. I remember one day, he must of been about 1.5/2. He had his first pack of quavers - almost immediately he came up in hives ALL over his body. Safe to say I didn't rush back to him having quavers again any time soon. But now he can manage a pack fine. If he has too much cheese at his age now, he can either be sick (like a one off sudden bout but hes completely fine in himself before and after the single episode) or gets belly ache. He could also be quite gassy too! X

Aww what a shame. I really don't think it's that what she's got. She does have a coconut allergy and came out in hives instantly after drinking coconut water. Last night we gave her a normal bottle of follow on milk that is made with cows milk and so far she's been fine. I really do just think she has a sensitive bowel. I'm just going to keep her on a full normal diet and keep a diary to see which foods upset her. Thank you xx