Dairy sensitivity/intolerance experiences

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 :)

My dad, me and now DS have dairy sensitivity. For us, goats milk is a good alternative. Goat milk, cheese, butter, yoghurt... all seem to work well. And Dad and I grew out of it. Well, Mum never tried me on goat's stuff and stuck to cow's and only noted that I had all the classic allergy/intolerance symptoms after I was convinced dairy wasn't doing any good for DS.

Next baby, I'll be on a goat-milk diet (I prefered goaty while pg anyway) for pg and BFing, just to help out that child. Even if the next one doesn't have a dairy problem it's quite easy for me.

Some children have a problem with goat milk as well as cow milk, so it may not work for you, but it is worth a try.

Hey there
one of my twins has a problem with some dairy- from what we can tell its a protein in dairy that is the problem. It seem to flare up with whole fat dairy and is more tolerable with low fat or not fat dairy products. Its more of a malabsorbtion than an allergy. She coughs until she vomits for days and days after she has a malabsorbtion.
She can handle a certain amount of dairy, but her body gets to a point that it cant tollerate the protein that causes the problem any more, and she gets sick. It is hard to tell what food has more of the protein that she has trouble with, so we just stick to what works and challenge her every now and then.
Does this sound similar to your child?
It has gotten a bit better since it started- which was when i weened them at 12 months she got gastro and it stripped her gut- it has never been the same. As she has gotten older she can tolerate a bit more dairy- can even have a bit of cows milk every now and then now- but we still have to be careful.
I was fortunate enough to get onto a natropath that dx this issue- i had previously seen several docs, peads and specialists who could not give me a solution to this problem. The natropath gave me a bottle of homeopathic drops that work on tightening the filters that allow this protein to go through to the body, hence stop the vommitting.

btw to tell if a child is going to react to a certain food, find their resting pulse by taking their pulse for a few weeks whilst they are eating and nice and calm to see what their resting average is. Make sure during this time you are not giving and of the suspected allergens. After their resting heartbeat has been established, challenge them with a little of the suspected culprit. Whilst they are eating take their heartbeat at 10sec, 30sec, 1min, 2min, 3mins, 5mins , 10mins , 15 mins to see if their heartrate changes and becomes accellerated whilst eating this food. If it goes up, then the body is reacting to the food!

HTH and good luck!

My DD continues to have digestive probs which she has had since birth but of the opposite nature to your child....runs and vomitting, being unsettled, colicky and distressed.I did think she was allergic to something in my diet but the tests were negative and I even changed her to formula because I was convinced that my milk was making her ill. I had tried eliminating certain food groups from my diet but this just made me unwell. When my DD started cows milk hypo allergenic formula she became constipated which I remedied as instructed by the CHN with a spoonful of sugar in a bottle of cooled boiled water. More recently in order to slow my DD`s gut motility after a bout of diarrhoea after determining that she did not have an infection a high fat diet was recommended by the paed. This worked well and eventually the runs stopped.
She has had more allergy tests done since starting solids which were again negative.
I began introduction of solids very, very cautiously but now I have relaxed and become much more confident.
I guess what I am saying is that I wondered if the constipating effect of dairy is due to it`s fat content and just takes a while for the body to adjust. I am no nearer to finding a solution to my DD`s probs but you may have just answered one of my questions.
I hope I have not offended you with this reply as I do know how hard it can be when your child is unwell and you just need to know how to help them.This is just our story and I don`t assume that it`s the same as yours all of our children are so very different.

Nearly my whole family had lastose intolerence when we were babies (and we came from a dairy farm) so we got lactose free milk, rice milk, goats milk or soy milk.

Bubble was intolerent too but have found she could have everything but straight milk. She now drinks lite milk (no more than 300ml oer day) without getting sick so she grew out of it like the rest of us.

Some advice if you use soy milk- look at the actual soy content and take note of the other ingredients, many brands contain very little soy. My SIL told me Aldi have a good organic soy milk.

As for the constipation, Bubble loves cheese but when she eats too much it backs her up too. A extra cup of water through the day sorts it out pretty quick though.