Help?!?!

Lactose free milk is available in most grocery stores. You could try mixing it with the soy 1/2 and 1/2 to see if she tolerates the soy any better now that she is a bit older. Also, dont just change her to milk all of a sudden, you need to mix her formula with the milk 1/2 and 1/2 for a few days, maybe even a week and then every few days, increase the milk to 3/4 and then finally, if she doesnt have a reaction, you can give her all milk. If she does well on that for a month or so, then try to reintroduce the soy milk if you want. Watch her for any reactions to the milk. Try not to be paranoid but watch her. good luck.

Enfamil Next Step has a soy version. We had to use that for my little girl...when she was about 1. It was great

Hi Trish!
I was fortunate enough to have a GREAT pediatrician from my son's 9th month on - he turns two mid-August. First, talk to other Moms in your neighborhood to find a doc that will discuss your baby girl's nutrition and your concerns. Second, while I'm not a doctor I can surely pass along what I did for my very healthy and VERY lactose intolerant son! At 7 months he went from breastmilk to a lactose free formula (he could not keep soy formula down). At one year I started him on 1 ounce Lactaid WHOLE milk and 5 ounces of lactose free formula - I did this for one week, then the next week I went to two ounces of Lactaid WHOLE milk and 4 ounces of lactose free formula, etc. etc. There is no rule that your child has to go cold turkey from formula at age one. It is MUCH easier on their digestive systems to make changes gradually. Do what feels comfortable to you and what your gut tells you -- remember, you know your baby better than anyone! You might change the ratio every two weeks instead of every week if she takes a little longer to adjust. Keep encouraging a variety of age appropriate foods too! Best of luck to you with your little one and college!!!

Try SILK Milk. It's a bit spendy but it works.

I would change your pediatrician if you can. Telling you to give up nursing because your baby was lactose intolerant was ignorant of him/her. You could have cut dairy out of your diet & continued nursing her. Sorry I don't have any more advice. Good luck with college.

Hi-

Well, first of all get a new doctor! Any doctor who doesn't offer much help or ideas is NOT a good doctor. The doctor may be blowing you off cuz you're a young mom & may not think you know what you're talking about. Do you have a parent or another adult who can go to the doctor with you? That said, our friend's 3 year old son is lactose intolerant. His mom buys lactose free milk at the store (I see all different types in the milk case) plus, when he wants to have something that isn't lactose free, she gives him a pill. Not sure what kind, if it's prescribed or over the counter. Hope this helps & good luck with school!

Don't put her on any medicines, just buy Soy. My son is can't have any dairy or he instantly get's a sinus infection. So No Ice cream,yogurt,cheese etc. Can your baby have soy? If so they make everything with Soy (yogurt,milk etc. ) Go to your local grocery store or a Henry's and look at all the different Milks they have. Hope this helps

I know you got a lot of responses, so I will try to make this short. First I would get a new doc. Second I would do allergy testing. Do you get WIC, if so talk to them. They have nurses that work for them. They can be a great help. I have a lot of allergies. It doesn't sound like she is intolerant. It sounds like she is flat out allergic. I am intolerant to milk. If I drink too much I get really bad gas pains. When I was a kid I used Mocha mix with my cereal. It doesn't taste good for drinking. I also tried acidophilus milk. It provided the extra support my stomach needed to digest milk. When a person is intolerant the hairs in their stomach can't digest the lactose. I found out one of my sons was allergic to milk when he was 6. He was very gassy and would spit up constantly, as a newborn. I used Similac, it was the worst. Then I switched to soy, I couldn't stand the burping smell. Last, I tried Carnation good Start, no spit up. Trust your motherly instincts. I knew my child had a problem with it, but I let Dr. convince me not to switch. When I found out he was allergic, I tried many things. Rice Milk and soy come in reg, vanilla, and chocolate. My son hated them all. He loves reg. milk. My daughter who is younger loves all the milk subs. I think this is because she was so much younger. If she can tolerate soy milk, I would try that. Soy is so much more healthy for females.
Good Luck
K.

My daughter was formula fed, because she was lactose intolerent as well.

We had her on the Enfamil Soy. That worked ok for us. When she turned one. We tried the whole milk regardless of her intolerence. Their weren't too many other options out there. She loved it. It didnt cause her any problems.

I don't know if she grew out of her intolerence or what, however she is now 6 years old eating cheese and drinking normal milk without any problems.

My kids have been drinking soy milk since switching from formula and they are fine. However, if your child is allergic to soy, you'll have to try rice milk instead. There are also other formulations, like Almond milk, and I know one woman who gives her child goat's milk. Any of these alternatives to milk may be more expensive, but you may be able to buy cases from the health food stores. One cautionary note: I would NOT try almond milk until she is older, because you should avoid giving young children nuts and nut products until they are 3 years old due to the high risk of allergies. Also, You will want to make sure she gets plenty of fat in her diet, since fat is vital to brain growth in toddlers, and dairy products are often a good source of kid's fat intake.

OK, That's my milk schpiel - but I also think that if she is prone to allergies and you have found a formula that works well for her, why switch?? Many people switch to milk for financial reasons (formula is so expensive!) but if it is working for her, there is absolutely no hard and fast rule that says you need to have her off of formula at 12 months. I gave my daughter formula until she was 2, just because she liked it (if you can believe that!!) and she would ask for it instead of milk. To this day, she is not a big milk drinker, she just liked the formula better.

Trish, get a new Pediatrician who cares about your daughter and I have seen Lactose Free milk in the stores. You have to look in the dairy case that has the soy milks and one is called I believe Lactaid which was a medication that developed their own milk product so that people didn't have to always buy the pills. A friend of mine was so allergic and they didn't have anything 15+ yrs ago so she had to drink Mocha Mix its also in the dairy case along with the egg substitutes. I hope you find a way to feed that beautiful baby.
W. H.

My son is also lactose intolorant and we have given him lactaid milk since he turned one he is now 2 and doing fine. although I should warn you that lactaid is very expensive it goes for about 4.00 a half gallon. we also give him alot of natural foods trader joes is a good place to find dairy free ice cream with the cookies we buy gluten free because they usually dont have milk

Hey Trish,

First let me say, you're seem to be doing a great job of being a momma. Congrats on starting college too! My advice is talk to your doc first. One of my best friends has this challenge with their son. He drinks Rice Dream, rice milk. Your doc should be able to guide you through this. They may outgrow it, they may not so stay in touch with your medical professionals as much as you can and they will help you as your little girl gets older.

i am dealing with these issues myself. i was also told to stop breastfeeding and put my baby on formula. i did not stop nursing. i found this stuff called daily advantage lactose intollerance treatment for children 3 and up. i know it says 3 and up, but i give my son a half a pill in the morning and his problems are way better! i cannot buy it in stores anymore, i get it from drugstore.com. i did a ton of research on baby lactose intollerance, which i suggest you do the same. through my research, i found that my little boy is allergic to gluten, a protien found in wheat, barley, rye, and oats. the only way to fix his "problem" is to strickly avoid those foods, both for myself (it gets into my milk) and for my son. i wish you the best of luck! it can be very tough to be a young mom (my 6 year old was born when i was 18) and to have health issues with your baby. i would love to know what you find out in your research, so please let me know how things turn out.

Trish,
When my daughter was born, she was lactose intolerant. The only formula I could put her on was nutramagen I think it was called. It was $25 a week. The Dr. gave me no help at all, but a nurse told me that she would be absolutely fine on regular milk when she turned one. I made the transition a little slower then normal, and she's now 5 1/2, and has been on regular milk since she was a year old. She's absolutely fine. The nurse told me that what usually happens is their tummies can't handle digesting the lactose when they're little, but by the time they're 1, they're fine. She also strongly advised against soy.

Trish, have you talked to your doctor about allergy testing? As you've probably guessed from the advice so far, there could be a lot of different reasons your baby was allergic to your breastmilk. It might not be lactose at all that is the problem. Could be wheat, soy, etc. With my son, he was so extremely allergic to dairy that he had extreme digestion problems and rashes such that while I was breastfeeding him I couldn't have any dairy! As long as I was breastfeeding and not eating dairy, he was 100% fine. Eventually I was able to put him on soy formula. Then later on regular fortified soymilk.

I remember too how one of my nieces had really bad allergies and her mother assumed it was wheat and dairy and began giving her lots of soy this and that. Turns out, after tests were done, that legumes like soy were on the top of her list! Can't have ANY soy. She was one sick little girl for a while. And her mom didn't know how to help -- until she got the allergy test results.

So it's better not to assume if you're seeing extreme sypmtoms. Get her tested!

And if your doctor doesn't seem too concerned about your child's misery, dump him! Just find a new pediatrician and make an appointment.

Hi Trish,
Have you tried lactose free milk? Obviously if your little one is allergic, you can't start her on whole milk, but I am sure there are options out there. You should call an alergist that specializes in kids. Good luck in school! If you need a viable easy way to earn some extra money while in school, give me a call or contact me through my website. http://kellyis.stayinhomeandlovinit.com. No Risk opportunity for Mom's and others to earn a little cash from home.

Hi Trish,
My son was on soy formula the first year of his life. I thought it would be a smooth transition to move him onto soy milk but I found out the hard way that it actually tends to be very harsh on their little tummies and can actually be detrimental - check out this article: http://www.mothering.com/articles/growing_child/food/soy_...

My recommendation would be to try organic rice milk. This is primarily what his diet has consisted of since age 1. He loves it and it's easy on the stomach. Many rice milks today are fortified with vitamins as well.

Good luck!

One of my aunts went through this with her second child. It was so bad she had to put him on a special formula prescribed by the doctor. Maybe you can make an appointment and ask your little girl's doctor what you can do if you haven't already. As for my son he would get sick to his stomach with regular formula and couldn't keep the soy down for a minute. We ended up putting him on the step 2 formula (for infants 9 months and up) but the lactose free version. Wal-mart has the step 2 formula and it's like half the price of the name brand. He drank that all the way until he was 2 and he is just now able to handle the 1% and sometimes 2% milk. Hope this helps, even just a little. Good luck.

My best advice to you is get a NEW doctor!

I am a bit shocked that a doctor would tell a mom to stop breastfeeding instead of eliminating dairy from your diet. Really irritating. Have you considered Rice milk or Almond milk. It's really best to avoid daily milk drinking.

the effects of the plant estrogen in soy can cause premature puberty (I've had friends who had to stop soy on their daughters because they were going through puberty at 9. Soy has issues as well, and you may not see them until your daughter is an adult.

You might want to find a local La Leche League meeting near you. Google them. Good luck!

try soy milk... its regular drinking milk but made out of soy

Hi Trish,

There are actually a lot of people who don't give their kids any dairy products at all because of all the chemicals in dairy. So, as long as you are replacing the nutrients that she would be getting from the milk she will be fine. it's really the calcium, fat and vitmains that she needs the milk for so just substitute those with other things (avocados are great source of healthy fat & vitamins & calcium can be found in cashews & lots of other sources).

You could also try raw milk. Raw milk is not pasteurized and it is often the pasteurization process that actually causes allergies in people (this is the case with my husband). You just need to be careful with the raw milk and make sure it is from a trusted source and that you consume it within it's date, keep it cold, etc because it does have live bacteria in it. I started giving it to my daughter around 1 1/2 and my husband and I also drink raw milk. Here is a great article on raw milk:
http://www.mercola.com/2006/sep/7/the_expert_are_wrong_ab...

Good luck and don't stress about it too much. Just make sure she has a healthy diet and she will grow just fine!

trish, storebrought milk is pumped full of hormones and comes from sick cows because they're fed soy instead of grass. Someone who is lactose intolerant could probably handle organic milk or soy milk.

Hi Trisha,

First of all, find a new doctor, or make an appointment, be firm and insist on answers. Don't let your doctor get away with blowing your concerns off as un-important. A quality pediatrition should be able to offer ideas for all problems related to children or at least be able to steer you in the right direction.

There are lactose free formulas and milks offered, but there is no rule that says kids have to switch at a year, it is just necessary to keep them on the formula for a year because of all the added nutrition. If you need to keep her on formula longer, do so, if you can continue to afford it.

Good luck in school!

D.

Dear Trish,

Go on line to drgreene.com it is a wonderful site that will help you with information about a mountain of things with your baby. I tried to find 'lactose intolerance in babies', but they didn't have that specific question. But, I do think that if you dig deeper than I did you will find help.

Also, go to the County Health Dept and ask for advice, that is what they are there for. I know, doctors have to be jiggled pretty hard sometimes to get them to zero in on your particular problem. My husband has Alzheimer's and none of the doctors see it. Why they don't listen to me 24/7 with him, but they don't. Then I found out that in the first 3 or 4 stages of Alzheimer's, it is not evident in the 'clinical' setting, (meaning the doctor's office visit). Sooooo, we just have to be persistent and keep on searching. Thank God that we have the internet.

Where is your Mama? Every mother needs a Mother, so you need to find one if your mother is not available. Look for a wise older person who is not a busybody and who has had a lot of difficult times in life and has learned from them. Make sure that it is someone that doesn't gossip. Also, after getting advice, always think it over with your own wise brain. Make your own decisions and keep on going. Have a wonderful experience in College. I went when I was about 34 years old and finally finished when I was 54 - lots of time off for earning money and taking care of my family. But it was a good time. You are getting a good early start. Sincerely, C. N.

Hi Trish -
My daughter was allergic to milk too. I had to use Similac Alimentium (sp?) until she was 1, then switched her to soy milk. That made her very gassy, so I did half soy and half rice milk. It worked great. Then once she reached 2 I slowly added whole milk to it and she never had a problem again. She is now almost 5 and drinks milk all the time. Although, it did take her awhile to accquire the taste for regular milk. Hope this helps, but of course I would check with your Dr before switching her to anything else.
Take care,
C.

have you tried lactose free formula? If you want milk try a lactose free milk like lactaid. I thought my daughter had a lactose allergy but it turns out she was allergic to the hormones in milk. I started giving her organic milk and her diarrhea went away.
Hope this helps.
J.