Dairy intolerance and sleep (2 year old)

[Goingcrazyimsure]

Hi,
So my nearly 2 year old DD has always been a terrible sleeper and I am pretty broken!
Recently I have started to consider her diet and how this might impact sleep and I decided that she seems worse on the night her dad puts her to bed and she has cows milk rather than breast milk (I'm still feeding her) I did some googling and noticed a few other things:

• She had terrible eczema that coincided with having 2 weeks of formula as a newborn and again when she had formula for a month at the childminder's at 12 months. This has gone now though.
• she has a bad night cough/post nasal drip type thing which comes and goes in severity
• her nappies are often really grim

I have had her off dairy for a few days and sleep seems better although nappies are not. Could easily be a coincidence but yesterday her dad gave her a cheese toastie (🙄) and we had another bad night.

Anyone had any experiences with dairy and sleep?

Thanks! X

Bump at a more reasonable hour!

Anyone?!

How grim are the nappies? My daughter reacts similarly. I spoke to GP and we have been trialling dairy free for last two weeks and she is much better, it will take a while for her tummy to recover so you need to do more than a few days. I'm not breastfeeding anymore but we are giving alpro soya growing up milk before bed and she drinks it fine. She's sleeping much better too. Could be worth a try, then do the dairy ladder after she's been off it for a while but take a long time about doing each step to see where she reacts (i found it takes a least 3 days of dairy before my girls nappies go back to disgusting again - full of loose undigested food and mucus)

I would try eliminating dairy for a week/two and see.

my teen cut out dairy voluntarily as she read it can help bad skin. After a few weeks lightbulbs started going off all over the place as we realised the issues she’s always had with diarrhoea, constipation , bouts of vomiting, food avoidance, right back to the horrible reflux and terrible sleep as a baby were likely all dairy linked 😳. It had never occurred to me.

the difference is marked. She no longer constantly snacks on junk, Her diet has got better and more adventurous, and she says she just feels generally better, not so nauseous all the time.

so from someone who was previously sceptical about “intolerances”, I’d say it’s worth a try. Then reintroduce (slowly). If it does make a difference, GP.

I am an adult an still experience this if I eat dairy.
Try oat milk or something and maybe the fod map and see how you get on, I also get really wheezy if i eat dairy and stomach pains can be quite painful.
If you are eating something your body can't tolerate it will affect you in lots of different ways. X

@inthesky
Thank you that is really helpful. The are pretty gross! But yesterday's were definitely better. I think perhaps I'm on to something. I'll give this a few weeks and see 🤞 x

@newnamenewme23 that's amazing! I am thinking something similar about mine - reflux as a baby, dreadful sleep, bad nappies and skin etc. I'm definitely going to follow this up. I am still feeding so I wonder if I should drop the dairy too. Who knows - maybe that is why I'm so bloomin' knackered!! 🤣 X

@copperoliverbear
Thank you for this - really helpful. She gets this awful nasal drip thing and nihhh cough. I do wonder if that could be linked - lots of mucus etc.

Thank you all.
On reflection I went vegan for 18 months years ago and it completely regulated my cycle as I have PCOS. I wonder if I may have a bit of an intolerance too. All very interesting!
I will do this for a few weeks and see how it plays out.
Thank you for your responses x

Yes my daughter is 2.5yrs and has a cows milk allergy and if she reacts it impacts her sleep (she's a good sleeper most the time). Most of her symptoms are stomach related and gets mucusy nappies and a very sore bottom. It sounds like going dairy free for a while might be useful.

Meant to add, the nappies might take a while to improve as she'll need to get the dairy out her system and heal her gut
I'd also ask your gp for a dietician referral who can help with dairy free diets and reintroduction via the milk ladder when the times right.

I think it's definitely worth excluding dairy from both of your diets fit at least 2 weeks to see if she improves.