Forum : Mums

Hi, my son was tested for lactose intolerence at 5 months of age. they wanted to put him on a lactose free diet to see if his symptome improve but since my son had been ill for over 5 months i demended they tested him rather than a trial and error approach. I would ask strongly for your pediatrician to test your son. They plan to retest my son at 1 year to see if he has grown out of the intolerence as they think he will. Im still waiting to see the diatician as am unsure what products my son isnt allowed. We boought him the dairy free sunflower spread only to find he vomited straight after toast so am confused lol. x

my DS1 (17 years ago!) was also put on wysoy at 6 weeks (guidlines have since changed re the 6mth thing) due to him projectile vomiting across the room quite literally after ever feed. we avoided anything with lactose in untill he was almost a year, i was then advised by our dietician to introduce cow's dairy slowly much on a trail and error basis. some things such as yoghurt made him sick straight away but he could happily eat cheese. his milk was changed 1oz at a time on to cows milk and if i recall took about 2-3ths to swap completely. with food it took a bit longer. he is now fine and can eat whatever he likes.

DS2 (now 15weeks) is having something called Colief since 4 1/2weeks old in his bottles which is an enzyme that breaks down the Lactose in the milk before it is fed to him. the advise i have been given for him is that he has Transient Lactase Deficiency, which basically means his body doesn't make enough of the natural hormone that gut produces to break down the lactose in milk products so it causes him a great deal of pain in his tum as the undigested lactose product remains in his gut. as he grows and his gut matures he should be able to make the hormone himself and we should be able to start to wean him off the Colief in a few weeks time as i have been told to start to reduce his dose in the next week(16weeks old). however this will take some time and sometimes they need to stay on the colief for longer, much trail and error.

intolerances are very different to allergies.

i would insist that your son is tested properly!!! and if all is ok just feed what you like! he too may of had Transient Lactase Deficiency instead of intolerance or allergy!

Hi Tia
The information that I have been given is that the tests (especially for lactose intolerance aren't very accurate). My lo has been tested (by scratch test) for CMPA, which came up negative, followed by negative blood test also. However, I feel and my paed who is an allergy specialist have agreed that she clearly has some form of intolerance to cows milk protein (blood in poop and followed by extreme reflux). I'm surprised they've said three. My paed told me that they will trial my lo with milk at twelve months to see what happens. Apparantely there are a small number of babies who will test negative for allergies but clearly have a problem with milk and apparantely these babies do tend to grow out of it by one. I think sometimes, we as the parent have to go with our gut. I have been told that my lo doesn't have allergies etc but I know she clearly has a problem with it. However, if I thought for one minute she would be ok with it, she'd be back on it. I think the sooner you can get them back on normal milk, the better. Can you ask to see an allergy specialist and have the scratch test done and the stool test for lactose intolerance? If at that point they're both negative and you feel your lo is fine with milk, I'd go with your gut.
Good luck
Larax

You will find that some are tested and some not. It seems to depend on the doctor you see. So does the advice you are given after diagnosis. My son was diagnosed lactose intolerant from symtoms at 6 weeks. The doc said there is usually a slight variation in symptoms between milk protein allergy, milk protein intollerance, and lactose intollerance (also known as Transient Lactase Deficiency). He said he was 99% sure the problem was lactose but gave me a hypo-allergenic formula that covered all 3 conditions just in case. I was so relieved to have the milk prescription I didnt question it. I went back before weaning and was then told to go the trial and error route to see if symtoms persisted and go back if there was a problem in which case they would refer us for testing. The doc explained a bit and I read up some myself (I am a cronic google-er every time Im told anything lol). They should test straight away if they think it is the allergy, but as I understand it the reason there are 2 schools of thought regarding the intollerance's is that the tests are not definitive. Although it can produce a positive diagnosis a negative result does not necesserily mean there is no intollerance. They can test easily for an allergy as they are looking for a specific chemical reaction produced by the immune system and its a straight forward yes or no, however the tests for intollerances are looking for various chemicals and enzymes commonly present in people with an intollerance but its not 100% effective. Top and bottom is that it is down to the particular opinion of the doctor or possibly local policy in your area so if you want your child tested you may have to demand it. I suspect the reason you have been given two ages 1 and 3 for introducing dairy is that they are the ages given with the statistics in the government health guidance 'x% are fine by age 1 and x% are fine by age 3'. Annoying thing is that even after all of that its pot luck what advice your given anyway. Me and mummy2be were posting on the lactose a couple of weeks ago. Totally opposite advice for the same condition!!
http://www.cowandgate.co.uk/forums_and_friends/forums/mums/allergies_and_intolerances_forum/thread/Lactose_intolerenc_335365
Sorry for the rant but it gets my goat that there is no proper guidance and little sympathy for something so common xxx

Thank you for your replies. They have been very helpful. Im going to enquire about getting him tested, whether i will get anywhere is another story.
I think that 3 is a very late age to introduce any dairy, although his body may have built up more of a tolerance to dairy, surely if you've never had something, you wont react well to it, and he could still have the same symptons just on a milder level.
Alfie had Colief in his bottles before he was diagnosed, i used them for around 4 weeks, and as soon as i stopped putting them in his bottles that was when he drastically changed.
Thanks for your help! will let you know how i get on!

xxx

Hey my son was 'diagnosed' as being allergic to milk at 2 weeks old. They don't do a test they just look at the symptoms. He was put onto soya milk also, prescribed by a GP which like you, I was so upset about! He was only on it for a week and to be honest I think it helped but he still reacted to it. I hear that many babies that are allergic to milk will also react to soya which appeared the case for me. The paediatricians say there is no test that they do, they simply look at the symtpoms and are pretty confident most babies grow out of it by 3! My son's symptoms where - extreme colicky symptoms, excessive wind, vomiting, runs, tunny pains, swelling, weezing. If you look on the www.neocate.com website there are a list somewhere. Neocate is what my son was prescribed, he gets it on prescription and I don't think you can buy in the shops. I have been advised to keep trying my son with yoghurt every month to see how he reacts - obviously this is awful because he reacts badly but the Drs say this is the only way to determine if the allergy has gone. I have decided to wait now until he's 1 (now 11 months) to try again with the testing but dread it every time. Good luck with it all. So hard isn't it!

Hi i have a 10 week old son and from about 4 weeks he couldnt keep a bottle down after very bad chocking episode i rushed him to hospital to find all his symptoms he was allergic to his SMA milk and they switched his milk to Cow and gate pepti junior which is helping he is such a different baby he doesnt scream after every feed the only problem is he is still projectile vomiting aftre every bottle we have been told he also has reflux and will need antisickness medicine prescribing. its hard to see your little baby like this and there is nothing you can do to help him.

Thanks for all your replies ladies!
Alfie is 91/2 months old now, i have been trying him on some soya products. A few weeks ago i started to give him soya yoghurts, however after around 3 days he seemed to become quite irritable, Although as you all know this could have been more teeth coming, he could have been tired etc. Which seems to me that there really isnt a right time to try some new foods lol!!
Ive have managed to find some Dairy free cheese in the supermarket which contains soya protein, he has been having some of that for the past 2 days, so fingers crossed it agrees with him !!

Pleased your lo is making progress. Do you have an independant health food shop nearby? they tend to stock some alternative products for vegans which are dairy free x x

my lo is 4wks old he had been vommiting his feeds since he was born and 2wks ago hewas reffered to hospital they said he had reflux and prescribed gaviscon for him my daughter also had reflux and the gaviscon helped her although the gaviscon helped my son for the 1st 4 days he has now started vommitin again not with every feed bt 2 or 3 times a day and its quite projectile i also changed him to cow&gate hungry baby as he was wanting a feed every 2 hours but he still wanting a feed every hour and half to 2 hours and for the past 2 days hes been quite irritable and restless can anyone suggest what might be wrong with i was thinking he might be lactose intolorant but would he still be vommiting after every feed if he was xx