cows milk intolerance, any tips?

[Stepmooster]

DD is 11 months old, doctor stopped her aptamil pepti as its expensive and she is on infasoy. All seems to be well there. We asked about seeing a dietician about re-introducing milk into her diet, as we did see one when we first started weaning. GP called me to say we don't need to see a dietician, that she rang them and they told her to tell us to just introduce milk slowly.

Now I'm one for googling everything, and I've read I should start with butter then move onto cheese?

Anyway DH and I have trialled DD and she has been ill, and developed nasty nappy rash. I think its time to stop and go back to the GP.

Anyone got any advice on re-introducing milk?

I am also pregnant with DC2 and I am just wondering whether I should quit dairy for 1 month before due date and just start feeding him dairy-free from day one. I just don't want to go through the first couple of weeks of his life like his big sister. She was so poorly and lost a lot of weight. Did anyone do this with their second babies?

Thanks for any advice anyone can give me.

My DD 19 months now had few episodes in the past with diary intolerance and we have been advised to introduce diary slowly. You have to start introducing it two days after her poo is normal. Begin with yoghurts, then cheese and butter and leave milk last. You could also dilute the milk with water at the beginning, but offer it as a drink not feed. My DD still gets soft poos when drinking cow's milk and she still have formula before bed. This was the advice we were given, but you should go to your GP and discuss your particular situation with him, do not hesitate to do it.

Hi there, I'm a GP and my ds1 also had cow's milk intolerance as a baby and was on Neocate formula. Basically, most of them grow out of it fairly soon so it is a case of try some in their diet, if they are fine with it you know that the intolerance has passed, if they aren't then continue with the dairy free for a bit longer, then another trial etc. Ds1 was a bit complicated as he also had severe feeding difficulties and didn't start solids till 15mo, and by then he seemed fine with dairy. So I can't say exactly when his intolerance settled. I didn't try the butter then cheese approach as he would hardly eat anything and all I could get into him was yoghurts. I think they suggest that just so you are giving them a small amount of dairy to start with, which you can also achieve by just giving a little cheese, or a small amount of yoghurt. Are you sure that your dd's symptoms have been related to the dairy and not a cold or isolated nappy rash?

I didn't keep off dairy with dd2 and she has been fine. She is now 7.5mo and has never had any problems with cow's milk. Personally I wouldn't go straight to dairy-free when you don't know that your baby will have any problems with cow's milk. We don't quite know that witholding something important from their diet might not then make them more likely to develop intolerance to it. Like the peanut butter to-give-or-not-to-give debate. Of course there is a small risk that your baby might have a cow's milk intolerance, but the odds are actually more likely that they won't. And you'll know what to look out for and be straight to the GP if you have any concerns along those lines. Hope that helps.

Just marking my place.
DS is breastfed and no reaction to dairy through my milk.
Added cows milk to food when weaning at 5 1/2 months and big reaction- stomach ache/bloating/really bad excema/scratching self.
I'm def not trying till much older and am experimenting with coconut milk and oat milk. He's fine with both so I'm trying these in our meals. Need to buy marg as we always have butter and I'm still to look into vegan cheese and yoghurt.

By much older I'm thinking 12-18 months. mummytobenji is that about right?

Marg is full of shit so I would steer clear of that.

Have any if you tried lactose free milk?

No didn't know it exists. Do you know any brand names?
We don't have marg for that reason but I need an alternative for baking/on bread etc

Hi mummy2benji, DD had been vomitting through the night as well as the bad nappy rash. That seems to have stopped now and DH and I have just asumed slightly runnier stools, nappy rash and vomitting were all because of the dairy. I guess it could be something else, but we are going to stop now and if she improves we'll maybe try again in a couple of months.

With respects to oat and rice milk, dietician told us not to give them to babies. I am not sure why, so we are sticking with soya.

Margarine actually has milk in it, so we use Pure spread which is vegetable and is not soya based either. As much as I love soya, when I was breastfeeding i got fed up of it! So we've just stuck with it.

Hmm my GP said just to read packs and choose one! They both said from 6 months. I avoided soy as read that 1/2 of cows milk intolerant babies are also intolerant of soy and it's poss not great for boys.
I wonder if dietician meant for younger babies as packs say as part of diet from 6 months. His main milk is breast milk.

I didn't want to try a nut milk yet so discounted those too.

Thanks for info re Pure.

Forgot to say DS was also being sick.
I stopped weaning for a week and symptoms cleared then came back even worse when started again so knew it was cow's milk.

DS's excema became infected so I'm in no rush to reintroduce.

Oh just realised you said rice milk- think it has arsenic in it.
We use coconut and oat.

Try Lactofree products maybe. I have a lactose intolerance and get bloated, diarrhoea and soreness around bottom from normal milk. Am currently pregnant and stupidly drank actimel drink for reflux and am now off work due to weakness and headache from effect has had on me!

You can get milk, soft and hard cheese, butter like spread and yogurts as well as ice cream and cream.

might not be lactose problem at all but is often not thought of in children.

Rose if he had a bad reaction then yes maybe wait 6 months and reintroduce with caution after 12mo. Some people mentioned soya milk - it's okay for girls but should be avoided in boys as there is a link between soya and male infertility.

Dd2 is cmpi. We use Oatly and have just started trying soya products and so far she's been ok. Get the calcium and vitamin enriched oatly in a blue carton. Dietician got gp to prescribe aptamil pepti but I have to disguise it well in food as it is so vile she won't knowingly have it. She reacted to Pure olive spread, don't know why, so we're trying vitalite at the mo. Stork block works well in bread and Trex in pastry.

We're also dairy and soy free at the moment although not quite hit weaning age yet! We've been til that it's the protein in the milk that they are intolerant to, not the carbohydrate so lactose free products are no good as they still have the protein in ( lactose is the carbohydrate bit of the milk). I did try the cheese made of pea protein 'cheezly' and would definitely recommend giving it a miss, it tasted like vomit unfortunately! I am resigned to avoiding cheese until we stop BFing now!

We've been Df/Sf since DD1 was 8 weeks old as she reacted to traces in my breast milk. After six months old weve used Oatley calcium enriched milk for a drink before bed and used oatley cream in cooking, we use Pure sunflower spread. We have never use rice milk due to the natural arsenic content.

Dd1 was BF until 27months, ww have done several trials with baking where the trace CMP has been cooked but she still reacts. I'm currently BFing DD2 and I'd be lying if I said I didn't worry about whether her evening screaming is associated with what I'm eating or drinking but for now we're not seeing the green diarrhoea which DD1 had.

Interestingly since I stopped feeding DD1 and was able to eat what I pleased I've found I can't eat cheese.

Goats milk is a good one to try if you don't want to use soya or rice milk.

DD was on neocate, I tried a spoonful of yoghurt every 2 months (advice from HV)...eventually she was fine at about 18months. I was dairy free whilst ebf for 6 months and now can't do dairy at all....have no answers for that! Good luck

We got a dietician appointment.
Formula or bm for milk drinks, but she was OK with us using Oatly, calcium enriched, for cooking with. We didn't have any formula tho - so ti was the only way to use "milk" in cooking.

DS2 has been fine - I'd start with BM or normal formula, and if there are issues, get moved over ASAP.

DS1 had grown out by 13 months.

Def try Oatly and go back to GP and demand a dietician appt. Getting calcium in their diet is really important and you should not be left on your own to sort it out.

Get proper advice from someone qualified on this stuff. They may never grow out of it and it may get much worse.

Please do not rely on the general public just yet - get proper advice first. On these things, GPs are usually quite inexperienced and not very up-to-date with their info.