lactose intolerant baby

[beth m]

hello all
i am new to these boards and looking for advice on lactose free weaning

my 4 1/2 month old son has been on every baby formula you can get in the supermarkets since he was born he has had several a bad reaction to all of them
our doctor thinks he is lactose intolerant and he currently on sma lf which he seems to be fine on and under going tests as he has been very unwell and in hospital isolation twice with server infection

we have been advise to start weaning him as he is starting to refuse milk but will take baby rice we been advised to follow a lactose free diet
i will be giving him home cooked food and not baby jars or baby food except baby rice any advice would be greatful for
thank you for reading
best wishes beth m xXx

[Copper]

Welcome to the site. I am out of touch with babies as it is so long since I had mine. Are you seeing a dietician? Somebody should be keeping an eye on your son's calcium levels.

I guess you could try making things like custard with his SMA lf as he would still be getting some milk that way.

Hopefully somebody else might have more useful ideas.

[rebecca c]

Hi Beth and welcome to the site.

My children are both older now. Neither had bad problems with lactose but I was careful with the amount of dairy I gave both of them as I was worried about inherited problems, my eldest did seem atopic with some bouts of eczema and I was generally unhappy about cows milk in little human bodies.

I breastfed them both for quite a long time and they were neither of them too bothered about solids until they were a good 8 months to a year.

I think the main mistake I made was to wean my eldest onto soya milk instead of cows milk as he suffered from undescended testes and I am worried I may have endangered his future fertility.

I weaned my youngest onto goats milk.

I used to make up frozen ice cube trays of liquidised fruit and steamed vegetables and mix it with baby rice to start with and later pasta and potatoe basis. I also used to make ordinary meals and whiz them with a hand blender.

When he is older try making the things you would make but use dairy substitutes like pure sunflower margarine.

Be aware many people who are intolerent to lactose develop soya intolerence at a later stage and the best way to avoid this is to rotate it in in a smaller amount in his diet. Ie one yoghurt a fortnight.

I was happy to give my boys food from organic baby food jars, doing otherwise seemed to be making a burden for my own back.

You might find it helpful to do a search for weaning and see what other things have been discussed in the past.

[jill]

Hi Beth and welcome, afraid I can't give you any advice on babies as I don't have children, but you should be able to get lots of advice from others on the site.

[beth m]

hi ladies
started weaning cameron last week so far all is well so we have moved onto puree with baby rice so far he has had puree carrot sweet potatoe or bannan these have been a hit.

No we not seeig dietian yet, health visitor said to keep him lactose free food but try him on everything and see how he goes. If he has any problems with food then she will refer him.

im hoping he not to intolerant and he will grow out of it. he was 3 days old when he flaired up with ezcema gp said it was the milk and to change it and then the lactose intolerance started.

we were trialing weather he was LI 2 bottles of normal formula after 5 weeks of being on LF milk and we were back to a very unhappy baby so doc concluded he was LI and he since had blood test to confirm it

We are seeing the pead consultant in a few weeks time so will discuss it with him it poor little man has been through mill these last few months
beth m xXx

[Copper]

Hmm interesting as I am pretty sure there is no blood test to prove lactose intolerance. In a nutshell the lactose should be broken down into two smaller sugars which can be absorbed by the intestine. We lactose intolerant folk do not produce any or enough of the enzyme that breaks the lactose down. This results in the lactose fermenting in the intestine which gives us wind, bad cramping pains, d & s.

They can test for this by checking the breath after drinking a know quantity of lactose. Children are tested by a stool sample. The sample is checked for lactose as in "normal" people this would be absent.

This problem runs in several generations of my family. The lactose intolerance might improve but in my experience does come back to haunt you eventually.

I think you should ask somebody about checking and monitoring your son's calcium levels.

[rebecca c]

I agree with Copper somebody should have done something to about discussing his calcium intake with you in meantime - broccoli would be a good high calcium one to puree.

[beth m]

thank you for all the info it is a great help as im new to all this i have no idea about what test can measure lactose intolerance but im sure as time goes by i will have an extend knowledge like most of you

anyhow this is what my gp said the blood test done was a blood sugar test apparently if the blood sugar levels dont change before and after you have sugary drink then this indicates a lactose intolerant ? they did test his stools ive also seen the same info about blood test on website growing kids

will speak with pead consultant about calcium levels hv said to use baby rice made with milk in everything until we have been back to hospital does anyone know if there is any foods available on prescription and how difficult is it to get my sis in law mentioned it as she get gluten free food on script
beth m xXx

[rebecca c]

If you are a properly diagnosed coeliac (a outcome to acheive in itself) you can get pescription coeliac products.

There is no such system for lactose intolerents to the best of my knowledge.

[beth m]

thats what i thought otherwise my hv would have siad something she is really nice i had trouble getting get camerons milk on scipted my gp wasnt interested but my hv spoke with her and now there no problem im going to ask you never know ?

[Copper]

Nobody here has mentioned dairy free/lactose free foods on prescription so I am pretty sure there aren't any.

Special milks aimed mainly at allergic babies are available on prescription.

I must look into that blood test and sugars. I know that lactose can not be absorbed by the body which is why we suffer. It is broken down into two other sugars which can be absorbed by the body and those sugars would show up in a blood test. Ah so if the sugar level does not rise after drinking milk then the lactose has not been broken down into sugars that can be detected in the blood.

Nice to know that I still have a brain, I do wonder sometimes LOL

[beth m]

your right about how test works
im glad you have made some sense of the blood test after you said you didnt think LI could be tested by blood it got me thinking and what you said in the last post is what the doc said
at the time i was a little glazed over when the pead was explaining cameron was 3 weeks old when he was rushed into hospital
i hadnt had any sleep in 2 nites and was more worried about him than how the blood test worked althought i am now making alot more sense of it all now

hope you have some luck with blood test

[Copper]

Ooo I have no intention of taking any lactose intolerance test ever. I would be so sick that they would not get any results.

I have been very ill on and off from birth but nobody ever found out what was wrong with me. In my 40s I had to take some tablets for a problem with my ear and the tablets made me feel really ill. I discovered that they contained lactose and that is when I realised that all my health problems were due to lactose intolerance.

I used to be able to tolerate a small amount of lactose but in the last 6 years or so this has changed so now I can't tolerate any lactose. Despite not replacing all my dairy with soya I have also developed a soya intolerance!

[jadiesoya]

Hi Beth have you tried soya milk? Might be worth a try getting a soya milk maker that makes hot soy milk and rice paste.

[beth m]

hi jadiesoya
no we havnt tried soya milk as he is still on sma lactose free which works for him he can have this until he 18 months old we have a good while yet before we have to go down that roadas he is only 6 1/2 months old but thank you for the suggestion i will consider all options when the time comes

[Copper]

I would be very careful about replacing all dairy with soya as some of us here have now developed an intolerance to soya.

[4mummy-2009]

Hi beth m,
I have just signed up as i am currently going through the same thing with my 8 month old son and so glad to read that i'm not alone. Fred started reacting after his first bottle and all i seem to do is get bounced around from one health profesional to another. He to is on sma lf which i have finally managed to get on script, and he has just seen the diatition, i would love to know more about test as i have been told there is no test it's a case of trail and error/pain.

[Copper]

Welcome to the site.

If you wanted your son to be tested for lactose intolerance he would have to drink milk which contains lactose :( Beth is the first person on this forum to have had her baby tested. It is usually trial and error.

Adults can be tested but again this involves drinking a lactose solution.

I have never been tested for lactose intolerance but realised when I was in my late 40s that I had always been lactose intolerant. I was born in the dark ages when intolerances were unknown. :lol2:

I am totally intolerant now, so I would not survive the test without being very sick. I just need to persuade my GP that my lactose intolerance is here to stay and to get it written in my medical notes. Far too many tablets contain lactose these days so I can see I will have battles eventually.

[beth m]

hi all
some of you may remember asking about the leap study and i just realised i havnt updated so here you are
we had an appointment at the evelina hospital in london and cameron is unable to take part in the study as he has had other health issues but to get to this conclusion they did pin prick allergy test for cows milk soya peanut tree nuts and sesame seed all bar the milk is clear so this is good news we know he is lactose intolerance so was expecting a reaction the consultant has said that the infection he had has affected his gut and this is why he is lactose intolerant they and us are hoping by resting his stomach from all lactose until he is 1 and then slowy introduce some lactose to see how reacts that his stomach will have healed but there is the chance that he will still be intolerant but at what level time will only tell

[4mummy-2009]

Hi, Copper. He is seeing the GP tommorrow so i'm going to ask more, but the dietition told me to use have his sma lf and lactose free milk to try and see if it the milk protein or just the lactose that he is suffering from. I did this the other week and with in the first hour he was reacting but he was just grumpy and not sleeping and that was only with 2 out of 8oz being changed but i followed the plan until on the third day it was 50/50 and he was not sleeping, was screwed up in a ball screaming and then he went all blotchy and puffy in the face, so i stopped it and informed the dietition and even emailed photos and she still hasn't got back to me. I have seen the nursery nurse at home today who caim to observe his eating and she said to stay to dairy free diet but she knew nothing about it and surgested googleing dairy free weaning and here i am. It would be great if some one could give me product name for the basics like cheese, butter ect. as my local health food shop said that most of the stuff they get says it not sutable for babies, and the health visitor said that boys shouldn't have soya products? something to do with hormones? help i'm very confused and i used to work for a major health food retail outlet!
Thanks A.

[Copper]

Beth

I am confused about the pin prick results. These are for allergies which are not the same as intolerances. This would suggest that Cameron is allergic to milk as well as lactose intolerant.

Some children do grow out of milk allergy so it is not all bad news. I hope the pin prick test results will be sent to Cameron's consultant.

[Copper]

4mummy-2009

Every now and again there are scare stories connected to foods. One of these claimed that soya could affect boys later in life, fertility I believe. I have not seen anything scientifically sensible on this subject but then I have not really searched for it. I would be concerned that there is a chance that he will become soya intolerant.

Ask your GP if a puffy face is a sign of an allergy rather than an intolerance. If your son has been ok with the LF milk I guess he has not got an allergy. Any swelling is usually a sign of an allergy.

Just to get this in perspective, soya is added to rather a lot of foods these days so it is difficult to avoid it. In your case I would try and keep your son's soya intake as low as you can but don't get paranoid about it.

The easiest thing to do is not fill him with soya milk and lots of soya yoghurt.

Butter can be replaced with Vitalite (in a round tub in the margarine aisle) or Pure (make sure it is not the soya Pure). For baking cakes etc you can use Stork margarine which comes in a foil wrapped block.

Alternative cheeses do not taste like cheese and many are based on soya. There used to be some based on rice. I used to get these from my local health food shop. They were a bit like Kraft cheese slices. We called them plastic cheese :lol2:

Ice cream alternatives are tricky as they are soya based. I believe there are some rice based ice creams but I have never seen them in a shop.

When I first weaned my children (20+ years ago) I gave them pureed vegetables, fruit and milk based things like custard, rice etc which I gues you could make with his LF milk.

Hopefully somebody with more recent weaning experiences will have more ideas. I really must look at the baby food aisle in Tesco and see what "normal" babies have these days.

[4mummy-2009]

Copper, Thanks that is a great help as for cheese as he has never had the real thing then he won't now the difference! The reason they said to try the lactose free milk was because they think it might be dairy allergy and although the sma lf is dairy it has been so processed that most of the protien has been distroyed.

[beth m]

hi i have found lots of website hwen i get more time will email you with them but i looked up lactose free weaning found lots of stuff esp the norfolk nhs which actually have a list of basic product and other names for dairy and lactose found this very useful lactofree products which you can get in most big name supermarkets is not completely lactose free they also have a website and another is growing kids they have good info i make all of camerons meals from scratch i have only tried cameron with jared food 3 times none of which contains lactose but he was very ill and upset but completely fine on home puree food very strange anyhow hope this will help and i will email you some info i have found
beth

[Copper]

Have you seen this page on this forum?

http://www.dairyfreeuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=738

This is a list of alternative names for milk. You will need to check everything you buy for your son. This list is helpful when you do your shopping. Most foods now have an allergy information box but that is not always reliable so you should always check the ingredients lists too.

We are experts here when it comes to chocolate. Oh yes we can still have our treats :lol2:

This on line food shop might help with ideas for dairy free food

http://www.dietaryneedsdirect.co.uk/

You can either shop there or make a list of things you would like and see if your local health food shop has them, or is willing to order them in for you. Some people here have used Dietary Needs Direct and some of us have very good local health food shops willing to order things in for us.

[4mummy-2009]

Hi Beth, Thanks for that it would be very helpful, it's all abit of a mine field i've started reading labels closely now he is starting at last to eat as i keep being told he needs more than veg and i have been shocked at just how much milk products are added to things. it's also helpful in the fact that i am new to all this internet stuff as i live in the middle of nowhere and have only just managed to get connected yes some of us do still live in the dark ages!! LOL Thanks Alison

[beth m]

copper
all these test are so confusing the pin prick test he had for milk allergy was clear but they extract the lactose out some how and also tested for this which his he reacted to
i am aware that he can grow out of intolerance when he was 3 weeks old and again at 3 month he had a accute staph infection and scalding skin syndrome he was in isolation for a week and on antibiotics for 6 weeks the serverity of the infection is the cause of his problems which is one of the reasons we were refured to the evelina and the leap study we saw one of the co founders of study who is a specialist in allergies and derma condition so it was a very interesting and worth while visit i got more info from that 1 visit than all of the appointments we have had with his consultant they did a full blood anaylis liver and kidney function iron caluim and full blood count they aslo did and echo as he had a heart murmur again caused by the infection which has healed camerons consultant gp and i all have copys of the results from our day evelina

[4mummy-2009]

Just looked at that online food shop and was suprised by how many products i recognised from my old job, I think i might need to get the job back for the staff discount, lol! but it nice to see such a wide range of kids treats may be life won't be as boring as i thought!! Thanks

[beth m]

alison my son is 7 months old i started weaning him when he was 5 month as he started to refuse his milk lables are a mine field but after afew shopping trips it does get easier i always carrier the list you will find it norfolk nhs site lactose free weaning boot organic amd hipp have lactose free food i give cameron plenty of green veg as this is higher in calcium i also found a site that give you info on calcium levels the food standard agency is also good for info and growing kids
i am going to email you tomorrow with aload of website and info i have found as im just waffling on now hope some of this helps

[Copper]

Beth, please could you post the helpful websites here too? It would help others who might join later.

If you only have time to post the sites I can always add a few words of description.

Maybe Steve (admin) could make a section for this information so it is easy to find in the future.

[mummy broomhead]

hi just joined site to as my 16 week old was born lactose intolerant was tested and told he is lactose cows protien intolerant which i was when about six months old but grew out of it at 3 years. He was put on Nutramigen fomula at 4days and within day or two had a happy baby he was 5 weeks early and in the 4 days he was not on nutramigen lost nearly 15% of his weight glad to say he is now 10lb 1oz and gaining at a steady rate. We have just starting to wean him to finding it hard as he wont take baby rice and had reaction to rusks but have got some hippa orgainic banna cerial which he takes at a push but he will take banna pear and appel puree. So any advice any one can give will be great.

[rebecca c]

Sorry in my other post I suggest baby rice I didnt realise he wont eat it. You may be able to do something with millet flakes.

[harry's nan]

my grandson is lactose intolerent he is now 12 months old we get most of his jars from Asda mainly Hipp. Be careful though because some have whey product in them.
When he was mainly bottle fed the doctor prescribed Lactose free baby formula . Now when he has cereal he has Lacto free full milk available from the supermarkets.

[beth m]

hi guys hope all is well with you all

the good news is cameron is doing well and turns 1 next week cant believe how quick this year has gone he saw the doc last week and all is good and they are happy for for us to introduce lactose in to his food now although this will be a slow process its a step forward which is good but still alittle unknown as to how he is going to react

since being aware of lactose not being introduced into his food it started making me think about my daughter she has always had lose poo and thought it was from where she was eating alot of fruit and veg then i started to wonder weather she could be lactose intolerent as they were worse when she had milk or dairy prodcuts i have been giving her lactose free milk and dairy products and things have got much better she only pooing once day now and when she goes her skin is not burning and blistering i spoke to my hv and gp and they are fine for me to continue giving her lactose free foods

so althought i am looking forward to cameron trying lactose comtaining food i am still checking lables now for my daughter

best wishes x

[Copper]

Wow doesn't time fly when you have children! I found it went faster with two children especially once they started school.

Good luck with the dairy introduction for Cameron.

You have improved things for your daughter which is good. She must be feeling much better now. I always thought that feeling ill was normal when I was a child. I am much better on a dairy free diet which I stick to every day.

[beth m]

thanks copper
the thing with my daughter is she has always been well and never complained or said she felt unwell other than having lose poo no other symptoms and if it wasnt for cameron i might never have consider it looking back now i see pattern with them both as small babies on milk with both we were told it was colic but the crying stopped after they had been to toilet but now she is very solid and potty training is so much easier and less messy