Symptoms of Lactose Intolerence and Lactose Overload in your breastfed NB & baby.

[Seven Oaks]

Hi All,
As my introduction post said I am a newbie but oldie to BB and it is great to be back on BB!

In all the advice I've given and recieved this would have to be my most important to date really, as this was such a huge issue that we are still getting over even though DS is 27 months old now.

I wondered where to post this, but when I came across this forum I thought it would be best as we first thought it was reflux, colic, you name it etc etc.

My question to you is would you recognised lactose overload in your baby? My goodness, I didnt. Miss H cried non stop for the first 4 months of her life, and even though I had a ton of MH support no-one, including myself and my mum realised what was going on. Thankfully DH and I chanced going to a doctor who worked on a sunday, it was when we were sleep deprived and hoping to just get through another day. It's was a life changing moment.

He asked me whether anyone in my family was lactose intolerent as a baby... which I was. He asked if anyone had ever had soy formula as a baby... which I had. In fact that same doctor happened to have 7, yes 7 grandchildren, who were exactly the same and thank goodness for that!!

We were advised to put DS (then 4 weeks old) on soy formula, so we bought some on the way home and from that very first bottle we had a different baby, she settled and slept! Did you know that human (your) milk has the highest concentration of lactose in all the mammals on earth? I did ALOT of research at the time as I was desparate for answers. In short, lactose overload is exactly what in implies, and the main sympton that sets it apart from others is green frothy poo, and intolerence of any breast/ cows milk based formula. It was a classic case of when breast was definatley not best.

I hope this may help someone in the future.

I know soy formula has been under debate in recent times, the first when our DS was born in 2011.
I was born in 1980 and was a soy only baby no negetive effects that I'm aware of so far!! Both me and my daughter by 12 months old were on regular cows milk, yogurt, cheese etc

[Eenee]

My daughter screamed for the first 3mths of life until I took her to a naturopath who said she was dairy intolerant so I cut dairy out of my diet and she was a new kid. I was able to continue breastfeeding which I'm thankful for.

Did he do any further testing or just go on symptoms? As to me that is wrong just to advise formula without trying other solutions first. Especially as true lactose intolerance is very rare.

[wysiwyg]

The ABA has some great research and articles on lactose intolerance vs lactose overload as like Eenee says true lactose intolerance is very rare. I will post the links when home.

[OceanPrincess]

This article describes symptoms of lactose overload and things you can do to help it:
Lactose Overload

This one discusses lactose intolerance.
Lactose Intolerance

I'm going to quote some of that article:

Lactose intolerance is poorly understood in the Australian community. There are lots of myths and misunderstandings about it, especially when it comes to babies. Contrary to what you may hear:

There will not be less lactose in the breastmilk if the mother stops eating dairy products.
There is no relationship between lactose intolerance in adult family members, including in the mother, and in babies. They are different types of lactose intolerance.
A baby with symptoms of lactose intolerance should not be taken off the breast and fed on soy-based or special lactose-free infant formula.
Lactose intolerance is very different to intolerance or allergy to cows' milk protein.

This article is written by an experienced IBCLC and ABA counsellor, with a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition, a post grap dip in diet and some other letters I don't understand, lol.

Seven Oaks, I'm really glad you guys found something that worked for you and your DD. But I urge anyone concerned about lactose allergies, intolerances or overloads to speak with a paediatrician with specialist breastfeeding knowledge, or an LC or other medical Breastfeeding specialist. The ABA is a great place to start.

[PumpkinZulu]

I agree with OP. while it's great you and your family are all happy and well, the info you're giving isn't 100% correct and could really adversely affect a struggling new mum. My DD2 had lactose overload as well as severe acid reflux. She would scream non stop, once for 3 hours straight. She has been 100% exclusively breastfed from birth, we used techniques like block feeding as suggested by the ABA to combat the lactose overload, and she is now medicated for the reflux. She's a happy and healthy 8.5kg four and a half month old

[Razzberry]

There is also milk protein intolerance - which is what both my children had, though with my daughter this was only discovered after talking a a paediatric gastro specialist as she is still on medication for severe acid reflux at 3.5 years. I BF my daughter till 6.5 months until she was losing alot of weight and had complete breast refusal and her reflux was just getting worse and worse. With my son, he was put on reflux meds at 10 days old and by 6 weeks was still screaming the house down with little change, even when I cut dairy from my diet, so he was put on neocate which is an elemental prescription formula - it totally changed our lives! I had a sleeping and settled baby within weeks. I still think Breast milk is best for almost every baby, but in my children, if I had listened to the doctors and put my daughter on prescription formula we probably could have avoided the year from hell, as well as many other issues that continue to plaque my daughters from complications from reflux. I will breastfeed my next baby, but if the same symptoms occur and I have changed my diet and still not change then of course I will look at specialised formulas.

[wysiwyg]

This article describes symptoms of lactose overload and things you can do to help it:
Lactose Overload

This one discusses lactose intolerance.
Lactose Intolerance

I'm going to quote some of that article:



This article is written by an experienced IBCLC and ABA counsellor, with a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition, a post grap dip in diet and some other letters I don't understand, lol.

Seven Oaks, I'm really glad you guys found something that worked for you and your DD. But I urge anyone concerned about lactose allergies, intolerances or overloads to speak with a paediatrician with specialist breastfeeding knowledge, or an LC or other medical Breastfeeding specialist. The ABA is a great place to start.

Exactly the links I was going to post and with better surrounding words - cheers OP.