Lactose intolerance?? CMPA info...help me please

[twinklebutt]

Hi all.
Background info: Little boy is 10 months old. He has always been formula-fed with Aptamil.
He has always been windy, gassy, and had tummy rumbles. He has also always had loose nappies, sometimes with mucus. He often has explosive nappy changes that require a change of clothes and a bath. 8/9 poos a day.
I wondered if this was normal and the HV said seems fine, no worries.

During weaning I expected to see some difference and maybe things firming up a little. However, we haven't. Nappies are always loose and he still cries out on occasion with what I assume is tummy pain.

I've visited the GP whom wasn't overly helpful but mentioned I could cut out dairy or lactose to self eliminate any issues.
I've purchased a lactose free apatmil formula (24 hours ago) and instantly his poo has changed!

Thej I've done some research and apparently little babies are very rarely lactose intolerant. So this has me wondering if I've got the wrong formula and I should be looking at CMPA instead.

The GP was useless. I feel like I dont have a clue what I'm meant to be trying. But I know that I just don't think his bowels are right!

Any advice xx

I'd probably try to eliminate lactose first as it's an element of dairy and there are lots of lactose free products where the lactose has been removed. You need to keep him on that milk and lactose free foods for a few weeks to see if there's any obvious difference. If overall there isn't a significant improvement you could then try dairy free for a while. The problem is if you go straight to dairy free then you'll never know if lactose is the problem or not as there is no lactose in dairy free either.

Thank you so much. I felt a little confused by the doctor and worried that I should have tried dairy free and not lactose free. However, even day 1 of lactose free seems to be making a difference! Will deffo keep at this for at least 4 weeks then see where we are at!

Thanks again x

The thing is if he has CMPA then months of having dairy will have damaged his gut and this can cause temporary secondary lactose intolerance.

Being cynical she probably wants you to try lactose free before cmpa because lactose formula you pay for a cmpa formula is prescribed!

Lactose intolerance is rarer but that doesn't mean it's not it. A friend of mine has been lactose intolerant since birth. A lot of the stats will be surrounding breastfed babies who get very poorly if lactose intolerant because human milk is higher in lactose than cows milk in formula

I would probably keep with the lactose free and hope it's that. I don't know about the lactose formulas but the cmpa formulas taste foul and you might struggle to get a 10 months old to accept it. My daughter has multiple food allergies and we managed to get her on a completely dairy free formula and her dietician was very surprised as they often reject it. Dairy free formulas come in 2 categories extensively hydrolysed where they still contain dairy but partially broken down so that a lot of babies don't recognise it as dairy and completely dairy free and made up of the building blocks of milk synthetically call amino acid formulas

Thank you so much!!

Oooh interesting!!
I'll be sure to think about this. Assuming lactose free milk still contains dairy.....he already seems so much better bowel wise. I'm guessing this wouldn't be the case if he had secondary intolerance from months of formula?

It could be. This happened with my eldest and she wasn’t diagnosed with cmpa until she was nearly one.

Either way your GP should refer you to a dietitian who will be more knowledge than your GP.