Dairy Sensitivity with Breastfeeding

This happened with my younger son! Not only was dairy a source of nastiness, but also anything remotely acidic, even ketchup! I just really tried to be creative in obtaining the protein and calcium I needed by eating more nuts, fish, etc. Also, Tums is a great source of calcium. I noticed that once my little guy was not exclusively nursing, the problem tended to ease up a bit, though at 2.5, he is still sensitive at times to certain foods. Best of luck!

Hi C.,

Have you tried raw milk (grass fed)? That may make difference.

I soak almonds overnight (to release the enzymes) and then make almond milk in the blender and strain the pulp into a nut milk bag (easy to find on line). One of the things that helps digestion is enzymes. Soaking nuts overnight will release the enzymes.

1 cup almonds, soaked overnight
3 cups water

You could add enzymes to your diet as well. E3 Live (frozen) is a an amazing product for enzymes, calcium, protein, vitamins and minerals. Take it with orange juice.

I would do one thing at a time to monitor.

My kids grew out of that stage before I figured it out! You're ahead of the game.

Good luck!

Just another point of view--remember that the theory of 'colic' continues until a child is approx. 3 mos. old. From my research, while a child will have some reactions to foods the mother eats (I remember the worst night of DD's life when I ate too much garlic--ugh) and dairy intolerances ARE high (after all, cow's milk is made for cows who can digest things such as grass--and not for humans) the majority of the time, babies are fussy and 'colicky' because they're adjusting to new sensations in their bodies.
Newborns' brains aren't fully developed and therefore they're aware of the process of peristalsys (the intestines squeezing food along the intestinal tract during digestion) and they don't like it one bit. They're more aware of it at night when all is quiet & so they react the worst then.
It really helped me to be aware of this possibility whilst removing everything and anything even remotely offending from my diet--I was able to think of my DD as just not liking the process of digestion vs. being in true pain over something I've eaten.
As I suspected, once DD began to be less aware of her digestion (4 mos for us, not 3, as our pediatrician said :( she became able to eat just about anything (save for cow's milk--but again, most people DO have some sort of difficulty digesting milk/sensitivity to the enzymes).
In the end, I avoided even whey and other minute amts of dairy byproducts to try to end the 'colic' and you know what? Now I'M lactose intolerant! I went without it for a few months and now I'm running to the bathroom within a half-hour of eating a slice of pizza, a few pieces of cheese, cream in my coffee! This from the girl who ate cheese like it was her job!
I can't help but wonder if keeping dairy out of my diet early on caused DD's intolerance as well...
Anyway, if there's an intolerance, you'll need to cut ALL dairy out. However, be prepared that cutting it out of YOUR diet may result in YOU being the one who's 'colicky' from it :(
Good luck. Trying to figure out what's going on in our baby's brains is exhausting!

I had to give up caffeine with my second one, but that was easy compared to giving up dairy with my third!
Most kids eventually grow out of it, so I purposefully had milk about once per month to see how it effected him. My son was sensitive to all dairy, even cheese and yogurt for about 6 or 7 months, now he's 13 months and drinks cows milk like... well... a cow I guess!

Continue taking vitamins, I used vanilla soy milk for cereal, etc. and it wasn't so bad. Also, calcium enriched OJ is equivalent to milk. It was hard for me to remember when I was eating out though, so much has dairy!

I had the same problems with my son. I couldn't drink milk, eat cheese or eat garlic. Garlic was the worse. They tell you your diet doesn't affect your babies tummy, but as soon as I elmininated those things from my diet, he was so much better. My son wasn't bothered by yogurt, so most of my dairy came from yogurt and I continued to take prenatal vitamins. There are some vegetables that have calcium too, leafy green ones, I think brocolli too. (Brocolli was another culprit with both my kids.) With my daughter I noticed similar symptoms with the same foods, and our pediatrician told us to try gripe water. It was a miracle product for us. Anytime she was fussy and there was no other explanation, I would give her some, and it worked right away. I still avoided the stuff that bothered her, but didn't feel horrible if I indulged now and then as I knew I could give her something to make her feel better. Grunting to poop at his age is normal, their digestive systems are still developing, and he will continue to grunt for some time to come. As long as his poop is not hard, he isn't constipated, just working out the kinks. I would also suggest the book or DVD the happiest baby on the block. There are a lot of helpful things in there about soothing a cranky baby I wish I had known when my son was an infant. Anyways, good luck. I was able to go on nursing my son for 10 months, and my daugher until she was 15 months, so you can still do it.

I had the same problem and it got worse and she got older. I knew it was a Dairy issue, but I couldn't figure out how to completely eliminate it. Everything I ate seemed to have dairy in it. By 4 months I stopped breastfeeding and put her on Soy formula and she immediately slept through the night and would go a couple days without even crying once. The nasal congestion and gas/bloating also stopped. Sorry I don't have any good suggestions, because I could never figure it out.

Sheryl