9mo - dropping afternoon feed & diary intollerance

[happyfrogger]

My 9mo has 6 / 2.30 / 6.30 breastmilk and 3 good size meals a day. She has a good appetite but drinking water with meals is slow going, we have limited success with a doidy cup but we are persevering and we have a few sips each time. None of the sippy cups we've tried have been well received.

DH mixed her brekkie cereal with cows milk by mistake this morning (we'd suspected she was not reacting well to the few bits of milk and cheese she's had in cooking) but this seemed to be underlined today as the milk caused and sore tummy and diarrhoea.

In 2 months my DD will go to nursery (11 months) and I am unsure what to do about the afternoon feed. I plan to continue with the first and last of the day but don't know whether to aim to drop the afternoon feed by then or if it should be replaced with formula is cow's milk is going to be problematic? For various reasons I don't want to express for this feed (but I would prefer not to move to formula at this stage).

I would hope that by this point a drink of water should be enough with each meal.

Any advice? Thanks

I went back to work pt at this age and the DC were given cows milk on the days I was at work and I bf when I was there. If you think she is intolerant though, I would ask the GP for advice. A BFC will probably have some good information too. Have you got the bfing helpline nos?

We mOved Ds onto a combination of prescription formula and LactoFree fresh milk with good success, also using LactoFree yoghurts, cheeses etc. Maybe try and see if she'll tolerate that? I would check with GP as well though.
Is your diet dairy free? If not and she's happy on bm it might not be a very severe intolerance, similar to Ds at that age.

Either express or a prescription formula. You might find by 11 months that she drops the afternoon feed anyway but up until a year it should be BM or a formula. Many drs prescribe the formula til age two but your dietician should be able to tell you of suitable alternatives if yours won't. As she tolerates breast milk I would suspect its the protein in milk not the lactose as there is still lactose in BM. So it would definately have to be a formula as lactose free won't help with the protein issue.

Thanks everyone. I think it will be useful to get an allergy testing referral from the GP, I'll give this a go. Do I understand that I can get formula on prescription if she has a dairy intolerance? I'm sure I must have misunderstood that!

I wonder if I may have any success giving her a little very slowly to see if we can ramp up a tolerance, but I'm not sure if food intolerances work that way.

With regards to reintroduction it's probably best to go thru a dietician
As there is like a set way to do it. It starts off very slowly introducing small amounts of milk in processed form and eventually leads up to giving spoonfuls of milk in ever increasing amounts until child tolerates this easily. However many might suggest other ways. If you are breast feeding still then maybe a food diary? That way you can show the dr exactly what happens if u feed her after you have consumed dairy etc. some drs may just take your word for it and accept symptoms as you describe them ( I was very lucky as mine did and did t see point if upsetting her if she was happy on the prescription milk) but it can't hurt to have something to fall back as they may ask you to do this anyway and then go back. I'm not sure how allergy testing would work if it's an intolerance as opposed to
An allergy as skin contact is much different to ingesting.

You may also want to
Ask this to be moved to allergies as there are people far wiser than me to answer your questions :)

I don't find keeping my dd dairy free very hard as it's just something I'm so used to now that I don't give it a second thought and there fore probably not the best person to advise as I am
Lucky enough to not be dealing with an allergy which can be far more serious and I'm
Also in no hurry to re attempt introductions etc :)