Dairy allergy?

[Bunny2607]

Hi everyone
i started a thread recently about constipation in my DD age 3 (4 in january). She was complaining of belly ache and was doing lots of little poos. We’ve gone backwards in potty training, she was out of nappies and fully trained but is now back in nappies as she is doing 6/7 poo’s a day and won’t go on the toilet.
the GP told us she was constipated and the reason she was doing so many was because there was old poo stuck and new poo was leaking round it. I wasn’t convinced of this but we went with the laxatives and it hasn’t made a difference one way or the other. She still stayed the same with the number of poos a day. Several GPs examined her and all said her tummy was soft and not impacted so i don’t understand how they say she can be constipated.
i’m now wondering if its a dairy or food allergy and wondered if anyone has any experience of the symptoms or how it manifested in your children? She did have CMPA as a baby and was on prescription formula, but she had grown out of it or so i thought, and we completed the milk ladder. Is it possible for it to come back? The last 12-18 months she has complained of belly ache, and i have mentioned it to the GP every time we go. The problem is she is prone to ear infections, had grommets twice and adenoids out, so each time we have been its usually about the ears so the GP has dismissed the belly ache as being caused by the infection.
its now to the point where she is having calpol every day and its impacting our day to day life. She was sick last night, and has been grumpy today. Its almost like she has IBS symptoms with the pain and upset stomach.
i have asked the GP to test for allergies but they won’t, so i am going to go private though my healthcare at work but just wondered if anyone else had any experience in the meantime. Thank you

edited to add she does also have abit of excema which again makes me wonder about dairy.

We discovered our dd's dairy allergy when she was 5 and she started her on laxatives to deal with the build-up. We were advised that when this happens, generally the child needs to take laxatives for the same amount of time that they had the undiagnosed issue for. 5 years of laxatives later and her gut was sorted.

Sorry your little girl is suffering. My little boy has chronic constipation for a different reason and had a stoma as a baby so is on movicol and suppositories daily. He also always complains of tummy ache and when he is constipated like your daughter he does lots of small poos a day. One thing I would say is not to take a soft tummy as the only sign she’s not impacted because my little boy had a soft tummy too and only an xray showed the extent of his constipation. We then had to do a disimpactation protocol of increasing amounts of movicol to clear him. I’d push for further investigation if I were you. Hope you get it sorted as it’s really uncomfortable for them

With my DD, a tell tale sign that an upset tummy was due to eating an allergen was that the poo had a distinct smell - almost acidic.

There'd be no harm in stopping dairy for a a few days to see if this makes a difference. If it does make a difference, you could look at doing the milk ladder to reintroduce it slowly. I did this with my DD and she got to the top of the ladder and eats/drinks dairy no problem now where as it used to bring her out in a rash and with frequent toilet trips like you're describing.

Wow five years 🥹🥹🥹 i’m glad your little one got sorted in the end but wow what a long time.
she has been complaining of belly ache on and off for over a year now, but poos were normal up until she had her 3 year vaccinations in april/may of this year. She changed at this point, and at first i thought it was the vaccinations that had caused it. Its only as time has gone on I’ve realised there is something else going on. Its just so hard it’s consuming our lives atm as she is so grumpy and literally pooing 7/8 times a day so we can’t go longer than an hour without needing to change her nappy. I can’t see a way through it at the moment tbh, the GP just keeps fobbing me off with laxatives but i don’t think she is constipated, i think its an intolerance giving her IBS symptoms. It wouldn’t be so bad if she would poo on the toilet, i think i feel worse because she is back in nappies and we had been doing so well

I’m going to speak to the GP again tomorrow, i feel like they’ve just thrown laxatives at me and sent us away. But i want to know whether this is actually what the problem is, if they did an xray and could show that she’s constipated fine but how do they know its not an intolerance to food. She is no different symptom and poo wise whether i give the laxatives or not so i feel at a loss what to do

Thank you. Her poo does absolutely stink, to the point we have to open windows after we have changed her nappy. I just feel like my gut is telling me its dairy.
when she was 3 weeks old we were admitted to hospital as she was screaming in pain and struggling to feed. They fobbed me off then and said it was constipation and gave her a suppository then when she exploded they sent us home but no sooner had we got home she was screaming again after a bottle so we went back. I knew it was a milk allergy but the first doctor wouldn’t have it, i insisted on a second opinion and thankfully a lovely paediatrician trusted me and said lets give prescription formula a go and it worked. He actually said to me you can’t dismiss a mother’s instinct as its so powerful.

Go with your gut and cut out dairy. You need to eliminate dairy for 8 weeks as it takes 5 weeks for dairy to leave the system and then 3+ weeks after that to see if there’s a significant improvement.

I'm on the cmpa Facebook groups and this happens so many times. Parents thinking that they've outgrown it but usually the symptoms just become more subtle until they're hit with the constipation or eczema years down the line.

I'd cut out dairy. Nothing to lose really.