Just a bit of background:

DD has been exclusively BF until she started solids just after she was 5 months old. After she was born I eliminated dairy (and other things like citrus, eggs, etc.) from my diet after she was about 6 weeks old as she was having problems with her digestion - bad wind, colicky behaviour and very unsettled, and constantly straining to use her bowels. This definitely helped and I remained off dairy until we started solids. I challenged it a couple of times in the intervening time - each time I did she would return to being very unsettled and windy and struggling to use her bowels again (thought still having normal BF poos). A few weeks after she started solids, I thought I would try and introduce dairy back into my diet to see if she would handle it better with her digestion starting to mature whilst on solids. She seemed fine with me having it in my diet again, which I was really pleased with.

After a few weeks of that, I thought I would try and see how she would go with it in her diet. So a couple of weeks ago (she was about 6.5 months old at this stage) I introduced a small amount of organic yoghurt into her diet. She didn't like it very much, but she seemed to tolerate it well - I thought "Great!". So about a week after starting a little bit of yoghurt I tried some organic cheddar cheese mixed with some vegetables at lunchtime. She didn't seem to react to this (no vomiting etc.) and seemed to enjoy it. Only I noticed after a couple of days after starting the cheese she got really badly constipated. In retrospect, I can say that after I started her on the yoghurt her poos were getting more and more formed and she was starting to strain more and more to use her bowels. The constipation got quite bad, so I stopped the dairy and started giving her more BFs and a little more fruit and this cleared the constipation, although I think she remained quite backed up for about a week or so.

Come to today, and she's been off dairy again for well over a week (but I'm still having it in my diet and that seems fine) and her poos have gone back to be being quite wet and sticky, not very formed, although it took time for this to happen. She's spent the last week not eating very much solids at all - I don't know if this was because of being backed up, perhaps having a touch of a stomach bug both myself and DH had, or whether it's her teething, or even her tummy recovering from the dairy but she has started eating a little more again yesterday and today. We are only having fruit and veggies now.

So... it seems that DD has a clear sensitivity to dairy. After explaining her situation above (thanks for reading it all!), I just thought I would ask who else has been through a similar situation with their baby?

Did the dairy sensitivity resolve itself eventually? When did you try and see whether they were able to tolerate it again? My MCHN has advised not trying again until at least 12 months old but I would like to know of other's experiences at reintroducing it again. What did you do for their diet instead of using dairy? Did you find they were sensitive to other foods as well?

I'm now reluctant to try and introduce protein and soy into her diet, however we've had some organic biscuit that's got wheat in it and so far gluten seems to be ok... I just need ideas for how to make her diet varied and interesting with the use of dairy as she gets older. I use EBM for cereal, and I guess I can continue with that, but I think I would find it hard to boost my supply more now just for EBM for cooking. I get anywhere from 1-4oz a day ATM depending on how much milk DD is taking, and it took me weeks of expressing after most feeds to get to a point where I could have that much extra for her. I really don't like expressing (I hand express as for me it's much quicker and more effective than pumping) but will continue to do so as long as I need to for extra milk for cooking for DD as needed.

Just keen to hear what other mum's have been through with the babies and what you did when your baby was sensitive to dairy.

Thanks heaps