Dairy causing toddler's runny poop?

[Haz1516]

Good morning and apologies for starting a new thread on the subject of poop! However, this isn't something I want to bother the GP with currently, and was wondering if MN had any experience.

My little boy will be 2 in June, and has probably done about 5 solidish poops ever in his life. He generally only goes once a day so it's not like chronic diarrhoea, but his poo is always runny and disgusting. Sometimes it is like the texture of a thick hummus, but that's the best we get. He loves his food, and is never bothered or in pain when he needs to go. He has only ever had nappy rash when teething, generally sleeps through the night, and aside from toddler tantrums is happy.

Out of curiosity and a bit of internet reading, I recently tried him for a few days without cow's milk (using oat milk instead) and no dairy. His poop was straight away much more solid. However, I also know that oat milk doesn't have as much nutrition as cow's milk, so am reluctant to swap unnecessarily. Does it sound like he has some kind of intolerance? I'm also thinking ahead to when we start potty training and how hard it could be currently. The only other thing to mention is that he was a very grumpy and colicky baby, but got better at around 12 weeks and then better still and generally happy from around 6 months when he could sit up; he was breastfed until about 1, but could it all have been to do with dairy?

Thanks for any advice.

It does rather sound like dairy intolerance. I can’t tolerate a lot of dairy milk as milk, but if it’s fermented it’s ok - so hard cheese and yoghurt is fine. This only really came on as a adult, and I have mostly used soya milk ever since (about 15 years). Alpro do a child’s soya milk which has added nutrients. Alpro.

When I saw my GP to say I thought I had a dairy intolerance, his advice was to experiment with eliminating milk etc from my diet, but to give it 2 weeks to be sure.

Sounds like dairy intolerance to me, especially as he wasacolicky baby. My DS was the same. I cut out the dairy and I make a strong effort to ensure he has vitamin supplements (Wellbaby) and eats very nutritious food.

Dairy or lactose intolerance is incredibly rare in babies and children. It sounds like none iGE cow milk protein allergy. That is an allergy as it’s immune system reacting but it’s not an immediate reaction and should not lead to anaphylaxis. Approximately 10% of babies have CMPA. Many children out grow it normally after the age of 3 years but if a child still has it at 7 years it is likely but not definitely going to remain an issue for life. The only way to test for it is to remove all dairy from his diet by checking all labels and then after 6 weeks reintroducing dairy and observing his symptoms.

Good alternative milks are alpro growing up soya milk or Oatley barista milk. At his age he needs 350mg of calcium a day, fortified bread is a good source of calcium. All children under 6 should be taking a multivitamin which contains vitamin D. Between 40 to 50% of babies who have CMPA are also allergic to soya so some people like to exclude dairy and soya for 6 week and try to reintroduce each one separately.

Thank you for the advice everyone! I know a couple of other little ones with cmpa and they all have or have had other issues like slow weight gain, eczema/rashes, or really unsettled after being fed dairy - which he has none of. So, just surprised I suppose that his only sign is gross poop.

I will try and get hold of some of the milk substitutes suggested. At the moment he has a cup of milk when he wakes up, a cup before bed and usually some with cereal in the morning, so I will try just replacing those first before cutting out cheese and yoghurt as well.

It sounds like toddler diarrhoea to me, my DD2.6 has it. Apparently it happens when their diet contains more fibre than their digestive system can cope with, DD loves fruit and veg, especially raw veg. Dr Google tells me she should grow out of it by the time she is 4 or 5, my GP thought she would grow out of it at 2 or 3 so I hope he's right as I'm really hoping she grows out of it before I need to toilet train her. We could look at changing her diet if needs be, but she eats so well and healthily, I don't want to change that for a less healthy diet. The only time she's had a solid poo in recent times was a day she ate a bagel for breakfast and then a Happy Meal for lunch so I don't really want to make that her regular diet! She's a healthy child, never ill, so I'm happy that she is still getting the nutrients she needs from her food, even when its moving through her pretty quickly.
Coincidentally she is dairy intolerant; she had mild excema which cleared up completely once we took the dairy out of her diet, but dairy doesn't seem to have any impact on her poos when we let her have a little so she isn't left out of treats etc.

@Haz1516 How has it been OP? Your story sounded so similar to mine(years ago)Breast fed then cows milk. I do recall the colour of dc poop being a green tint. I remember cutting out liquid milk but keeping cheese and yogurt. The difference was overnight.