milk intolerance

[@llli*irishmom]

At 2 weeks old, I was told my son had a milk intolerance and acid reflux. Now on zantac and milk eliminated from my diet he is much better. He is currently 3.5 months old. My question is, how long does the milk intolerance last? When can I start re-introducing milk into my diet? How will I know if he is having problems with the milk?

[@llli*mommal]

It's really variable. Some kids outgrow allergy/intolerance issues very quickly, while others keep them throughout their lives. My second kid was allergic to egg whites at 9 months, but by 18 months she could eat eggs every day with no signs of allergy.

Since allergies/intolerances are probably overdiagnosed in young babies, I would try reintroducing a small amount of dairy into your diet and seeing if your baby tolerates it. Start with some milk in your coffee or something, maybe once a day. If she suddenly has a bunch of hives pop up, and her poops turn green, mucousy, or bloody, then take the dairy back out of your diet.

[@llli*still.here]

I would personally wait until your child is older to reintroduce. It's only been a few months. I wouldn't think it very likely for a child to outgrow an intolerance that quickly. Maybe try it in your own diet just prior to starting solids around 6 mos to see if you need to be extra careful with that.

[@llli*irishmom]

Just some background info:

He never got any hives with it.
We ended up taking him to the doctor at 2 weeks old because he was projectile vomiting at almost every feed. He also had a distended abdomen full of gas. He happened to have a poopy diaper at the doctor's office which was green in color. This was the only reason why I mentioned the poop to the doctor. It was tested and was positive for blood. This was the only green poop or even odd looking poop he had. He was diagnosed with milk intolerance/allergy and reflux. We saw my peditricians colleague since it was a Saturday. As a side note, I am not a fan of the colleague.

He went on formula while I pumped and eliminiated milk from my diet. His follow-up stools 12 and 13 days later were negaitve for blood. I then re-introduced breast milk for one day then went straight back to the boob because the mixed stuff was more frustrating for us both. Since then he has had maybe 4 stools that have mucous in them . One time after a mucousy stool, I took it to the doctors and it was negative for blood. He has his moments where he has issues passing gas, we give simethicone and do bicycles and it helps. I never cut soy out of my diet. To be honest I am not fully convinced he has a milk intolerance. He was born at 37 weeks so I feel it is more of an underdeveloped GI tract so I think he has more difficulty with digestion. But this is based just on a motherly instinct. For expressed milk, we use the Avent naturals bottles which seem to be great with the gas. What types of things should I introduce first if I do try it? Do I try things that are packaged with milk in it? Spagetti sauce (some have it, gross!), butter on my bagel, etc? For coffee, I found out that coffee mate french vanilla is not a source of lactose (gross, but yummy). My pediatrician said that I could re-introduce at 6 months.

[@llli*mommal]

Did you have oversupply during the period with the vomiting, gas, and green/bloody poop? The reason I ask is that oversupply and lactose overload from oversupply can cause all those symptoms, and it's probably more common than allergy, and oversupply likeliest to happen when the baby is very young, because milk supply peaks during early infancy.

When you have a dairy allergy concern, the thing you should be worried about is dairy protein, not lactose. Lactose is milk sugar, and it is present in breastmilk. When lactose is a problem, the issue is that the baby is getting too much of it and that is causing intestinal irritation. So if you decide to reintroduce dairy, don't waste your money on gross Coffee Mate! Just have something with dairy- I don't think it matters what- and see what happens.

I think the PP makes an excellent point about waiting a few months. However, I also have to question the original diagnosis a bit! Just looking at one weird diaper doesn't seem to be enough to confirm an allergy.

[@llli*zaynethepain]

Ds had a milk allergy but I often cheated and didn't bother so much with hidden types of dairy without causing a problem. Issues occured when I drank actual milk or had more than one piece of cheese a day. Try drinking a bbig glass of milk and wait a few days to see if he reacts. Ds always got a rough rash about the size of a quarter on his chest or shoulder if I went overboard.