Breastfeeding - dairy free help

[SendHelpAndGin]

Hi all

Bit of background - my 7 week old has symptoms of silent reflux (unsettled and frequently cries, knees up and back arching, fussy feeder, poor sleeper). Dr prescribed gaviscon, just seemed to send him on the road to constipation. Next we tried ranitidine - he started throwing up a lot and seemed even more unsettled, so we've just taken him off that over the weekend.

He had to have a bit of formula over the weekend when my parents were babysitting, and afterwards came out with a rash around his eye that seemed to be quite itchy for him (lots of rubbing). Dr has today said could be dairy allergy and prescribed dairy free formula as the best test of this - even times though I'm currently breastfeeding.

I'm reluctant to switch to formula until we know dairy is definitely an issue - is this really the best thing to do?! And from anyone who has previously eliminated dairy from their own diet and carried on breastfeeding, any tips? Good dairy free ranges or surprising things dairy is in which I'll need to avoid? It's going to be a challenge as I definitely eat more than my fair share of choc digestives and we're over reliant on convenience meals like a good old lasagne!

Thanks!

I’m pretty sure if your baby was “in agony” (which I realise she wasn’t, based on what you said!) you would probably have been more open to the idea, honestly if your baby is really suffering from silent reflux and other symptoms you would be willing to try anything.

I am completely addicted to chocolate and cake, an unhappy baby was literally the only thing that could ever have motivated me to give up! Of course I haven’t given it up completely, but I’ve drastically cut down as I can only have dairy-free chocolate and cake which is obviously harder to get.

Oh dear, ruby, I appear to have hit a nerve. I did not say you were a bad mother. I was concerned that you were giving poor advice to the OP.

The OP's GP has suggested her baby may be CMPI. She is not 'jumping on a bandwagon' or following a 'fad'. She is attempting to follow the medical advice she has been given, and asked for tips on how she could do that. She did not ask for unqualified randoms to start pooh-poohing the medical advice she had been given, and suggest she didn't bother, because cake tastes so good.

While you are correct that CMPI affects only a small proportion of babies, that doesn't mean the OP's baby cannot possibly have it. Nobody has 'diagnosed' the OP's baby as having it, all people have done is explain the process of finding that out. OP's baby is suffering with what sounds like pretty classic symptoms, and those of us who have had DC suffer similar feel sympathy, and wish to help if we can.

With regard to your assertions that kicking's DC can't have CMPI, that is incorrect also. There are two possibilities: a) that kicking's DC does not have a dairy intolerance. Reflux may be due to other factors, such as overly-floppy structures in the upper digestive system; and b) that her DC does in fact have a dairy intolerance, but also has other intolerance(s), and therefore cutting out dairy alone failed to eliminate the symptoms. It is not actually uncommon for children with CMPI to also have other intolerances, as I mentioned upthread.

I note you attempted to dismiss what I said by labelling me as 'virtue signalling'. I had previously noted this phrase creep into common usage on MN, sometimes used incorrectly. I usually otherwise associate it with gutter journalism in the likes of The Daily Mail, where it tends to be used in opinion pieces as a way of silencing critics and manipulating readers into dismissing what they say, rather than engage with the content. I view it as a cheap trick. I also feel quite dismayed that we live in a society where anybody who expresses concern for others is sneered at.

OP apologies if we have somewhat derailed your thread, but I feel it was important that incorrect advice did not go unchallenged. I hope your DC feels more comfortable very soon.