Lactose Intolerant?

I think it is time to be seen by a Dr, take her in and explain to them whats going on-
Good Luck...
M.

It is very unlikely she is lactose intolerant. Lactose intolerance is babies is very rare, extremely serious, and she would be very sick. Its more than likely a dairy protein allergy, if it is in fact a food allergy. Cutting out dairy will help, but it could take up to two weeks to see a difference, it takes that long for hte protein to get out of your system and no longer passed through your milk. Keeping a food journal will help you find the trigger to her gas and fussiness.

Sounds to me like you have an overactive/forceful letdown. She is gulping too fast, milk dribbling out her mouth, and when she unlatches milk is spraying? This will slow around 6-7 months, and become more 'normal', but until then what always worked for me was to latch until letdown, unlatch and catch the major spray in a towel or burp cloth, then relatch. Her diapers should be yellow and seedy. IF they are green or stringy/mucousy, its a foremilk/hindmilk inbalance and your letdown is usually to blame.

Formula is much harder to digest than breastmilk, so just keep at it and you'll find the problem. If its forceful letdown, its easily managed and will get better with time. If its indeed a food/dairy allergy, elimination diet will work wonders, then around 6-7 months you can slowly re-add the food in and see how she does.
Good luck and congratulations on breastfeeding!

One more thing to add, my neighbor's daughter is intolerant and allergic to just about everything, and she told me that it actually took a couple of weeks of no dairy (and all other allergy items) for her to see a difference in her daughter. So, follow the other advice, follow up with your doctor, but it may take more than a few days for you to see a difference in your daughter's gas problems if she is having a reaction to the dairy.

Breastfeeding is the best thing you can feed your daughter! She may have even more tummy problems with formula if you try switching now. I'd wait and see what works changing your diet before giving up.

Another note, my son ate every 2-3 hours at that age, and some nights woke more often. He was just hungry, breast fed babies need to eat more often than formula fed babies. Especially if they are going through a growth spurt.

Good luck!
J.

Don't stop breast feeding! I had the same problem and changing my diet really helped. No dairy and nothing that is highly acidic (tomatoes, any beverages with citric acid, spaghetti sauce, nothing spicy, etc.) She was better within just a couple days, speeping better too. Hopefully this will work for you too!

Good luck,

R.

Maybe look at you diet the types of food you are eating. I had to avoid onions when I breast fed my son. Don't give up on breastfeeding, it's better digested than formula and better for your daughter. Maybe she is hungry over night, breastmilk is digested quickly too. You may want to consult your pediatrician for advisement D.

Hi A.,

I've been there, done that. I'm a mother of ten who are 25 down to almost 5 now. My 25 yr. old daughter just had our first grandchild and Ariella has been very gasey too. My daughter lays Ariella on her back and pumps her legs so her knees come up to her chest to relieve a lot of that gas...walks her. It's mostly day time stuff.

You might want to study the websites my daughter did as she anticipated Ariella's home birth back in August. Unhinderedliving.com, unassisted.com, then I enjoy mothering.com, clubmom.com too.

I don't think it's lactose intolerance; but anything is worth the try...how's it been since you went off dairy?

B. in Eau claire, WI

A.-
I am sorry to hear of your difficulties! My daughter did this for a while as well, as with the other mom's I would take her to the DR just to follow up but I changed my diet as well. I loved brocolli but it is a big no-no for babies because of the gassyness (sp?) Dont give up breastfeeding, it is so worth it! We gave our daughter a little mylacon to help with digestion. You can squirt it in her mouth or in a little water in a bottle; also moving her legs down and up to her chest and around may help her expell the gas. Good Luck! :)

N.

You’ve already gotten some good advice here…especially from Becky! She knows her stuff, and her advice is right on.
My baby did the same thing, and I didn’t know 15 years ago that it was because I had so much milk (therefore a forceful let down). If I would have known it I would have kept it up and donated to a bank, though it was harder to do then than now. (For those of you who are making more milk than your baby needs, you can donate to International Breast Milk Project http://www.breastmilkproject.org/ or http://www.hmbana.org/index.php?mode=locations to help save babies worldwide!)
You’ve cut down on cow’s milk in your own diet. Most formula is made from cow’s milk, and what isn’t, is made from soybeans…one of the top ten allergens. If you stop nursing to put your baby on formula, not only could you be introducing more of the offending substance, but you’ll hook into an expensive and experimental cycle to try to find out what your baby might be sensitive to, prolonging the suffering for both of you. At least now you have the opportunity to tweak your own diet while still providing the best source of nutrition for your baby.
However, as someone said, it may not be your diet. When I was nursing and my baby got fussy everyone insisted it was what I was eating…garlic, onions, etc. I was down to just oatmeal! Yes, gassy veggies like broccoli contribute to gas in everyone, and caffeine contributes to jitteriness in everyone. But as one midwife pointed out to me…babies are used to what their mothers eat. Middle Eastern mothers eat a TON of garlic and don’t have issues. They wean on hummus! Mexican mothers eat spicy and don’t have issues. But people assumed it was the breastfeeding because it was something they didn’t know a lot about (INCLUDING my doctor). While let down was part of the issue, it was probably also that my baby was ‘high needs’ in that she was impatient (still is) and would get mad very quickly. The crying contributed to the gas. It may also have been that her immature digestive system was developing, as someone else said. She could be going through a growth spurt and have been more hungry…which is also short term. But it could have nothing to do with feeding at all. Did she recently get shots? Did anything in your environment change? Did your routine change? It could be so many things that make her fussy…and it could be the fussy that contributes to the gas. Have you read Happiest Baby on the Block by Dr. Harvey Karp? I’ve seen parents use those techniques and quiet a fussy baby in minutes, if not seconds.
Whatever the cause, it did pass for me and it will for you (providing you know your baby is healthy, of course)! It was exhausting and frustrating…but it did pass in a few weeks. Had I stopped breastfeeding, the research says I’d just have been trading those sleepless nights for even more sleepless nights (2 to 5 times more) with high fevers, ear aches diarrhea and vomiting. Would she have had a happy and stress-free mother then? With even less sleep and no oxytocin and prolactin to keep me mellow?
Do you have someone who can help you by taking the baby (someone who will be patient even if she's screaming?) so that you can sleep for a couple of hours uninterupted during the day so the nights don't wipe you out as much...just until this passes? Can you pump and let someone else feed the baby for one of the night wakings so you can sleep for a four hour stretch?
Stay strong! Motherhood is the most rewarding thing I've ever done...even when it's been a challenge (I know...easy to say when I slept all night!) and I had to come up with creative solutions. Good luck.
K. Wildner
____@____.com
www.kimwildner.com

I had to avoid any type of garlic and chocolate while breatfeeding!!!

And please do what is right for you. If you don't want to breatfeed then don't. A happy, healthy Mom is better than a child who is breast fed with a stressed out Mom.

Do give it a try and contact your ped or a lactation consultant to try to fix it, but if you have to stop....don't beat yourself up. I had to stop with my second and I still have the guilt...and I SHOULDN't....but some people really make you feel bad :)

i went threw the same thing with my now 6 mo old. just know that it will get better. i can eat all dairy now and he is fine. with a baby that already has tummy troubles, my ped said that formula could just make them worse. just take it one day at a time. you can get threw this, and your baby will benifit from your nursing her for the rest of her life. you are a strong woman obviously because you had a baby, you will survive. i did even after the endless insomnia and mindlessness. i still think i am recovering, but what kept me sain was that i knew that the intolerance couldn't last forever. he actually let's me put him down now( he spent the 1st 4.5 mos in a sling on me all day!) good luck and best wishes-- H.

Perhaps your daughter is what Dr. Sears calls a "high needs" child? http://www.askdrsears.com/html/5/T050400.asp In this instance there may not really be anything terribly wrong, and she may outgrow it. We've had all sorts of fussiness issues with our son, but now that he is 9 months many of them have resolved themselves. I'm still breastfeeding even though I at one point wondered about food intolerances. He's great now (happy 90% and fussy 10% of the time), but he does have a wheat allergy. Good luck, and hang in there -- it will get better!

Babies can be lactose intolerant, or have lactose sensitivities. Stay off the dairy for 2 weeks minimum, see if she's any better, and then you can slowly add dairy back in. If you see improvement when you are dairy free, and then she returns to crying and fussing when you eat a little dairy - that should narrow it down. Same thing for any other food. It does take about 2 weeks to see a change.
I would also recommend contacting your local La Leche League group... you can find them online at http://www.lalecheleague.org/webindex.html
good luck!

Lactose intolerance could be an issue but more lilely she is just at that age where their digestive systems are still developing. It may take a little extra effort and patiece as her mommy. See your pediatrician to discuss it before you make any drastic changes.
Other ideas include to cut down on eating gas-producing foods as long as you are breastfeeding. webmd.com has a health guide article listing gas producing foods under A-Z Guides if you want to search for it or copy the link at http://www.webmd.com/hw/health_guide_atoz/tm6319.asp
Talk to your pediatrician first but if they say OK, consider giving her gas drops. We used both the Brand (Mylicon) and the generic (anything with Simethicone) drops and we used them until he was about 7 months. They don't work for every baby but they really did for us. You can find them at most drug stores in the baby section.
Keep up with running her little legs as that should help some too.
Good luck.
D. Bijou J.

My first breastfed child screamed day and night for the first 4 months but then we discovered she was protein intolerant. Lactose intolerance usually causes loose stools and protein intolerance causes constipation. That was my daughter's probem, her constipation was causing the gas to back up and she would scream constantly. She once went 12 days without a poop. There weren't any dietary changes that I made that were helping so we put her on soy and she was perfect from then on :o)
You have to do what works right for you because, like the other poster said, you daughter needs a sane and happy Mom more than the breastmilk and being miserable.
Best wishes,
J.

i would go and talk to your doctor and hers.. my nephew was lactose and my sis had a really hard time.. good luck and keep your head up and make sure you take a breather for yourself

I do think the other woman is right and you should talk to your pediatrician about it, but in the mean time here's what I did.
My son went through a stint of gassiness. I don't like using any meds for him at all but a couple nights I used the infant mylacon (I think that's what it's called) and it helped a little. My Mom actually had this thing she would do that really helped. She would "exercise" his legs. Basically she would grab his ankles and calfs and push them lightly toward his stomach, hold them there for a second or two, then staighten his legs out again. She would do this about ten times....he thought it was funny (he still thinks it's funny and he is 19 mo. now). I think doing these exercises helped to pass the gas along, now we do it for fun. I used to sing him the ABC song while doing it.