Lactose Intolerance in pregnancy

[HLSalter]

Wondering if anyone has been through the same thing and could give me some advice.

I'm 21+2 weeks pregnant with my first and have just found out I'm lactose intolerant.

Dairy products have never really agreed with me but I don't have a lot so it's never bothered me. However now a kit kat and a cup of tea is enough to (sorry TMI alert) have me running to the toilet within about 5 minutes.

Spoke to my MW as I thought I may be poorly and she eventually told me that I was lactose intolerant.

Did this effect your baby in any way? Also did you go back to normal after giving birth?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

I have a milk protein allergy so not the same thing but I can give you advise about a milk-free diet.

Firstly, soya yoghurts are lovely. Alpro ones are the best, they are easily as nice as normal yoghurts. My DH eats them by choice!

I use Alpro Light soya milk but keep trying different ones until you find one you like. Try sweetened and unsweetened ones. I think it's important to get some soya milk or at least find another way of being sure you are getting enough calcium. I find my nails are a give away, if they flake or tear easily I know I need to up my intake.

I don't like soya cheese but lactofree is okay. It's totally personal taste. Don't give up on things too soon, on the rare occasions I accept tea with skimmed milk it tastes really fatty to me. Early on normal milk tasted, well, normal and soya milk tasted chalky.

I find soya cream chalky and not nice but the alpro vanilla and chocolate desserts (in the Free From section, not chilled) lovely.

If you don't get on with soya milk then you could try almond and oat milk. You're likely to be intolerant to goats milk but its worth a go to find out. I find red bush tea is nice without milk, or drink herbal teas. Some cereals are nice with soya yoghurt or apple juice rather than milk.

I think the only way it could effect the baby is if you became calcium deficient. I'm not sure about the other brands just because I don't buy them but Alpro is fortified.

Sorry, that's a bit of an epic. PM me if you want any more advice though.

Thank you very much for the reply.

As for as eating a dairy free diet, I don't particularly eat a lot of dairy at the moment. I normally have milk with my tea but I can bulk up the sugar and drink without milk now.

I'm on supplements now so am not too worried about my actual calcium intake. I just really wanted to make sure that a) this wouldn't affect the baby and b) I wondered if he would be lactose intolerant too?

Hi i had a dairy intolerance until i got pregnant and it seems to have left me! im hoping it doesnt come back.

But it was manageable before if i didnt do mad and eata tub of ice cream- u really do get used to soya milk and ive gave it to so many people in their tea and they never noticed. Tesco does a good free from range btw.

I don't see how it can affect the baby, other than the potential for deficiencies which you['re taking supplements for anyway.

There's no guarantee that your baby won't be lactose intolerant but given this has only happened to you in pregnancy I would think it extremely unlikely.

Hilltop try Swedish Glace soya ice cream if you haven't already. It's better than the normal stuff, especially the chocolate flavour!

Just out of interest, don't you have to have blood tests etc to find that out? Im not disputing what you are told, just maybe she shouldn't have said it without a doctor confirming it.
I have really bad IBS so don't eat/drink dairy but babies have always been ok.

Hi there!

I'm lactose intolerant and from a country where it's extremely common (about 90% of the people there have it). When I was diagnosed there years back, the doctor told me that it's a condition that sort of "comes and goes" in that you will find that sometimes you can tolerate a diet with plenty of fresh dairy products and sometimes just looking at milk will give you diarrhoea. Just before I was diagnosed I had been suffering horribly with the condition and I basically looked like I was 5 months pregnant all the time with my bloated tummy. Oh, by the way, I presume they actually did a lactose tolerance test on you to diagnose the condition..?

The doctor advised me to cut out all dairy products from my diet completely for a few months, as I was so sensitive to them at that moment and to then slowly introduce small amounts and different products bit by bit until I would find out which products I could tolerate. He said that typically people who are lactose intolerant can have e.g. hard cheese and dairy yoghurts, but cannot tolerate fresh milk and ice cream for example. That's exactly how it turned out to be for me as well, and after the initial horrible phase when I couldn't even eat cheese, I can now have moderate amounts of cheese and normal dairy yoghurt.

In my country you can buy tablets, which neutralise the lactose in the food, so any time you want to have ice cream or something you know your body cannot tolerate, you simply take a tablet before having it. I normally take these tablets before having ice cream and last time I was back home I asked a doctor if these were ok to take during pregnancy and he confirmed they were perfectly safe, as the tablets simply help your body to process the lactose in the food, so it's not some kind of a supplement or something otherwise harmful for the baby.

As they unfortunately don't sell these tablets here in the UK, and as I do tend to drink at least a glass of milk daily now that I'm pregnant to make sure I'm getting enough calcium, I buy the Lactofree milk, which like the name suggests is lactose free. Unlike soya or rice milk, the lactofree milk tastes just like normal milk, which is what it is, just that lactose has been removed from it.. Hope this helps and trust me it will get better eventually even though it can make you feel really uncomfortable until you find the balance with it.

Thank you for all the replies.

Obviously I've been to the doctors and had all relevant tests to confirm my MW's suspicions. I'm currently waiting for an appointment with a dietician and just wanted some info until my appointment.

Again, Thank you very much for all the help

Hey there again,

Just realised that I forgot to mention, that I've had a few appointments with a dietician during my pregnancy due to some other issues and I actually asked her if they sell these tablets I spoke about in the UK. She actually said she had heard about them but in a liquid form and that I should ask my GP for a prescription. Unfortunately she couldn't remember the name of the product and so when I asked my GP, he didn't know what it was.. But perhaps it might be worth it to ask your dietician.. Best of luck !

I have given up dairy as I used to get a lot of problems - particulrly after cream!

I have soya milk - tesco own brand unsweetened (not the value stuf just own brand) and asda smart price are nice - I find alpro to soya-y!!

Spanish Manchego cheese (sheeps milk) is lovely - asda sells it.

OTher than that I try to stay away from the obvious culprits (tea black etc), however, bizarrely I have craved ice cream on occasion through my pregnancy. I tend to find as long as I'm good for a while I can have a bot of cream/ice cream as a treat.

good luck with it, its esier than you think-i gave it up big style to start with and found a lot of nausea etc i had been getting went away straight away. you kind of get used to the different taste of things and its not all bad. alpro dark chocloate desserts are lush. also dark chocolate products - check the labels you migh tbe able to have them.

hilltop - I have dairy intolerance that diappears when pregnant too!!! I can't take milk protein generally, but when pregnant and for about 4 months after giving birth, I can tolerate dairy products. When pregnant with my dd I even craved chocolate milk, (the soya variety just didn't cut it for me!!!). The intolerance has left me for each of my three pregnancies, it is great.

HLSalter - in answer to your question on whether it goes back to normal after giving birth, I had the reverse of losing my dairy intolerance and it returned about 4 months after the birth, so I would hope that you will lose your intolerance after giving birth too. However the dairy-free diet is not so bad once you get use to it.