Lactose intolerance in young babies

Em was admitted for failure to thrive at 5 weeks, put on formula and she gained. for a few weeks. then she started losing again. the dietician suggested a lactose intolerance so we did a challenge and as soon as she was back on the lactose containing formula she had all the same symptoms. the paed put her on a script 4 Karicare DeLact and she has had great gains since. she is only 4 months and we have tried 7 different formulas to find the 1 that agrees with her and we could get cheaper. we have to add thickener to it as well to help with reflux. considering this is so rare I was wondering if any1 else has had any early diagnosis of lactose intolerance?

My girls both have a protein intolerance to cows milk. Its different to lactose intolerance and actually a lot more common than lactose intolerance. Its hard to diagnose though. We did the lactose intolerance testing on Matilda when she was 9 months and it came back negative so we continued to give her cows milk... then years later we got allergy testing and cows milk intolerance came up.

Matilda had failure to thrive symptoms after she was 2 yrs old.

When Jovie started showing the same signs at 5 weeks we found that going to a complete dairy free diet was the best thing for her. As we were having issues with breastfeeding at that time & needed some supplementing we used goats milk formula. We had huge results with that. But gradually she started breastfeeding more & I just went on a complete cow milk free diet. Still am, but now after Matilda's results our whole family is dairy free.

Hi there, I know I am late on this one, and I dont' know all your little ones symptoms, but if she has reflux, then most refluxers actually have cows milk protein intolerence like Christy has said.

Reflux in itself causes Failure to thrive, it causes them to not want to eat or feed properly. The key here is to get her on the right amount of medication to keep the reflux under control and then hopefully she will eat and gain.

We were initially told that it was LI by an allergist but worked out soon after that it was milk protein. I am a supervisor of a large reflux support site and on all the kids there, there has only one been diagnosed lactose intolerent, he actually has an intolerence to all sugars, ie fructose.

Hi scarlett. we have had Em on reflux meds and standard formula and she still had massive amounts of diahorrea and weight loss. we have done challenge tests and will have thorough allergy testing in 6 months. There is also family history of lactose intolerance. it is definitely a comnmbination. we have the best paed in SA and yes he in expensive lol. i was going to ask you though, what is the formual for working out how much zantac to give as she has started to get really refluxy again.

I am sorry to hear that it is probably true lactose intolerence. Good luck with the testing. I just wanted to add it, that if it is LI, then watch out for any sugars, even those in fruits etc... as sometimes they can be sugar intolerent in general and it took my friend a long time to work it out that it was all sugars.

WIth zantac you get the weight in kilos and times by 10 and divide by 15, this is the maximum amount per day you can give. So split this the amount of times you need it in a day.

To get the minimum weight in kilos and times by 5 and divide by 15!

If these doses aren't cutting it, then go back to your paed and see what he suggests, he may give a higher dose or try something else like losec.

This is a great article, for those who think their baby may have intolerance or want to know more.

https://www.bellybelly.com.au/baby/l...stfeeding-baby

Thanks Kelly, I have read that article plus many many others. in the article it says:

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Primary (or true) lactose intolerance is an extremely rare genetic condition and is incompatible with normal life without medical intervention. A truly lactose intolerant baby would fail to thrive from birth (ie not even start to gain weight), and show obvious symptoms of mal-absorption and dehydration ? a medical emergency case needing a special diet from soon after birth.

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This is exactly what happened. Em was slow to gain and when she did she would lose again rapidly. at 5 weeks she was admitted with FTT for 10 days. she couldn't get the bm out either. we had lots of of dr's look at her and after going on standard formula with high calories and still losing weight we tried the challenge, since then she has not lost weight and her %ile charts have jumped to the 75th %ile. at 5.5 months she is 7.5 kg. em had severe diahorrea and was very sick until we discovered the li.

Scarlett, we have tried her with apples and pears, and she screws her face up something shocking, she also has very different poo, but not in the consistency, only the colour and smell (she is almost as bad as Sarah!). As she is unable to have any of the custards or yoghurts yet (we will challenge them at 9 months) we are very limited in what we can give her. she does like vegetables and i mixed pear with sweet potato this morning and she seemed to like that. we are getting allergy testing done at 12 months so hopefully we will be able to find out if she has any other intolerances or allergies then.

Awwwww the poor little bubba :( Not to mention how upsetting it's probably been for you too. Lactose intolerance is something which is thrown around quite a bit these days so hopefully people will have a better understanding having heard your story. Hope you find a good solution for all of you and she goes on to thrive well...

Just a bit of useless information:

I was lactose intollerent from 3 months old till 24months.
One drop of lactose in my milk and I would pass out apparently. I was put onto a lactose free formula (what ever was available back in the early 80's) and from about 2yrs I was fine.

One thing to watch as the bubs get older, I find I can't tolerate too much dairy or I still get stomach aches even though I haven't technically had the allergy for over 25 yrs (eg: I can't have milk on cereal and then have a creamy pasta for lunch or dinner)