secondary lactose intolerance after tummy bug. HV doesn't seem to know what I'm on about...

[redybrek]

I've been doing me research. Ds has had hideous gastroentritis. He's fine 'in himself' now, but pukes after milk and has awful diarroea, still, two weeks later. Looks like the bug may have destroyed enzyme producing structures in his intestine making him temporarily unable to digest lactose. I suggested this to the HV and wanted their opinion on using lactose free or soya based formula for the time being. She looked at me blankly and told me its best just to 'wait it out'. I'm not prepared to allow him to become malnourished while the intestine repairs itself, which can take up to 8 weeks apparently! Nor am I particularly keen on changing the poor lambs clothes 4 times a day when his explosive poos go everywhere which is very often. He is also in discomfort with the wind it causes. Nor do I want to give up milk while I 'wait it out'

Does anyone, ANYONE, have any experience of this or of soy/lactose free formulas????

how old is he?

oh and if HV is no use then see a GP. although IME many are reluctant to admit that intolerances even exist, but you might get more sense out of one than you did out of your HV

we used farleys soya formula for ds2 - he was bf until 10mo then went on to the soy formula til he was 2.6. Is fine, fit and healthy 5yo now
What sort of info do you need?

don;t use soya without medical advice

ask your doc to send off a poo sample for testing

this was done for DD after the smae thing happened after severe bout of gastro

it did pass

Yes, my niece got the gastro bug that was going round last year and developed a cows milk intolerance afterwards. She too had terrible diarrhoea for weeks and lost weight until they worked out the cause.
She was put onto soya formula and has been fine since.

The same thing happened to a friend of mine's DS aged 4 months, although her HV got so concerned at his lack of weight gain that she referred them to a paediatrician. She's now on a dairy free diet (he's BF) and he's much better. They didn't seem to be clued up at all on the whole subject of gastroenteritis and secondary lactose intolerance though - they never even mentioned it to my friend!

I don't think waiting it out is an option really - maybe go and see your GP? She wanted to keep BF so hasn't used any of the soya formula, but said it tasted horrible, sorry.

bear in mind as well that soya formula, which really, really isn't recommended, may not be necessary, there are "hypoallergenic" formulas that although they're made from cow's milk have been changed enough to suit babies with intolerances.
ie, nutramigen.

I think. am willing to be told otherwise though. but that would be preferable to soy

sorry forgot tosay, he's 9 months and has lost a full pound in weight he's never lost weight at a weigh in before.

poo sample - good idea. Those of you who've used it, why did you use it, how long for, what brand, any info you can give me really. thanks guys

This happened to dd aged about 6 months. Our GP advised us to give her nothing but Dioralyte in her bottle for 24 hours. I was extremely sceptical but gave it a go anyway, and it seemed to work almost instantly.

consult gp and dietician, you can get whatever they think best on prescription

btw, all three of my dc are cows milk protein intolerant, and all bf then each had a different formula - but each on medical advice.
No logic to it but it really has worked.

what do they do when they test a poo sample?

i don;t know, i had to provide a bit of poo in a little tray and take it straight to local hospital lab. i left it with them

This happened to my ds but he was 2 by that point and we were (are) still breastfeeding.

He is only now, a year later, able to take tiny quantities of cows milk without it upsetting everything. In the meantime, we used rice milk, oat milk, soya milk and later on goats milk, but of course it is different for a younger child.

I hope you are able to get it sorted and your DS is better soon. Repeated vomitting/diarrhoea could prevent the gut healing, so best to try to avoid it if you possibly can.

Really? did it appear after a tummy bug or do you think he has always been intolerant?

Was that question to me?

If so, then yes it was after a particularly nasty tummy bug. In hindsight, I think he had been slightly intolerent from a previous bug 6 months before, but it was the second bug that really made it come to the fore.

My 10 year old had a bug in the summer. She seemed to get over it then 2 days later was sick again. This went on every 2 days for about a fortnight. The dr we saw told us about the temporary lactose thing which is quite common after a bug and we cut all dairy out including the slightest amount of lactose from all foods including bread.

Did this for about a week and then slowly introduced small amounts of lactose back into her diet.

SHe has never suffered from lactose intolerance before and is fine now. I know your dcis much younger but wanted to answer some posters who seem surprised that this can be the effect of a bug.