Hi, I'm afraid that this is going to be another long post but I'm hoping that it will help and reassure a lot of mothers out there who are worried that there baby is lactose intolerant. This may not necessarily be the case and there are other things you can try before you decide to stop b/f or look for a lactose free formula.

My baby had the symptoms of lactose intolerance when solely b/f, but fortunately I didn't even know I had lactose in my boobie milk otherwise I'd have probably switched to a lactose free formula there and then!! I had done some research (I do a lot of that!) and her symptoms matched what I found to be described in some indelicate terms as 'forced-poo' caused by her getting too much fore-milk.

The graphic bit: Freyja's poo was like normal new-born b/f poo at first, but within a couple of weeks she'd developed what we called 'exploda-poo' after one incident when my hubbie was changing her and it shot out of her bum like she was a water pistol. This left my hubbie in laughing hysterically and me with a poo stain over a meter long across the carpet (which was typically a nice light coloured one) and up the door.

After the exploda-poo calmed down, I was getting the hang of feeding a bit more so her poo went back to normal. However, we would occassionally get some bright green watery poo and I knew that she was getting too much fore-milk, so would just ensure she fed on one breast for much longer until it went back to normal. Soon her poo was much less frequent, down to twice a week in fact, and had the consistency of play-dough (sorry!).

Now my baby is mostly bottle-fed with boobie top ups. Being new to formula and not having had anyone to ask advice off, or internet again until lately, I was following the instructions on the can to the letter. It says I should feed her a 250ml bottle 4-5 times a day. Mostly she gets it 4 times, but depending on how awake she's been I've tried to squeeze in that extra one, thinking she'd need it because it's what the can said.

Within a day she was clearly in a lot of discomfort when feeding, twisting away, crying, screaming even, passing what seemed like really painful wind and pooing a lot. She always wanted more food and seemed extra hungry compared to before. She was also putting on weight faster than before. Occassionally, she'd be okay when feeding and other times it would be horrendous. She's also changed from being such a loving, playful, attentive, active and happy little girl to a grumpy monster who also wakes me up a million times a night (she was sleeping through). Sometimes she wakes up screaming with a sore tummy and she has also started being sick, which she never has before. Plus, I can actually hear the milk sloshing around in her tummy when I'm moving her!

The hunger and weight gain I thought were due to a growth spurt and convinced myself she was lactose intolerant. So, off I went to get some soya formula to try. Unfortunately, after a week, her symptoms remained the same - clearly not a case of lactose intolerance then!

Having done yet more research (told you didn't I?), I've realised that her initial symptoms when both b/f and later with lactose formula were both as a result of lactose overload and that the reason for the overload with formula is because of a simple case of overfeeding. That is why the symptoms have continued whilst she's been on the soya formula. Her formula is soooo much thicker than the breast milk she was used to and instead of my previous attitude to feeding (ie when I remembered she hadn't been fed for quite a while!), she's been being offered food every 3 hours whilst awake in an attempt at fitting all these feeds in.

Anyways, whilst looking all this up I realised that a lot of people who have posted saying their babies were lactose intolerant showed the same symptoms and thought it might help others if I posted my experience and what I've found out.

I figured I better put it in another post seeing as this one is already gigantic, so if none of what I've said here sounds familiar, then there's no need to read on is there?

So, here goes!