BF moms with dairy sensitive LOs come in

huntjul

If your LO is sensitive to dairy products that you eat, what symptoms did you see?  Are you able to eat any dairy products, or did you have to cut out absolutely all dairy?  Did the symptoms completely go away after cutting out dairy?

Clara is perfectly healthy and happy besides having some blood in her bowel movements intermittently for the last week.  Our family practice doc suspects it could be a food allergy, and since we haven't started solids (since she hasn't potty trained yet haha), that means it's my food.  But I love dairy and the thought of cutting it out makes me all sad panda.

LetsGoToDisney

We saw so much gas, reflux symptoms (arching back, strained swallowing when not eating, extreme fussiness in the evening), blood in the spit up and blood in the diaper.

I have been dairy free for just under 2 weeks and she is now taking 10 mg Nexium powder (prevacid solutabs were too expensive and didn't work). After the first week we saw a huge improvement. She is happier and sleeping better with very little gas and no more blood. 

Edit: You think it would help with weight loss, but I am not really seeing that.

AggieAsh23

LO had tons of painful gas all the time, diarrhea frequently, eventually specks of blood in her stool, and couldn't sleep because she was waking every 45 minutes or so with stomach pain. I noticed when I had any non solid form of dairy such as milk, creamer, ice cream, sour cream, etc. it was really bad. With hard cheeses and baked goods she seemed ok for the most part. I eventually cut out cheese too just to be safe. We are going to try adding it back in soon though and see how it goes.

ncase2

DS was Mr. Cranky-pants all.the.time prior to me cutting out dairy. We also had severe reflux and blood in his stool. I've been dairy-free since November - it's not as bad as I thought it would be, but I do miss cheese pizza. I have very recently started adding back some dairy (mostly scarce amounts in baked goods) and haven't seen any issues so I will slowly add things back in. We also added in zantac 2x a day and that also seemed to help.

kelle017

No diagnosis but if I eat to much she is extremely fussy. One day I had a burrito (cheese and sour cream) and ice cream and she had gas pains and screamed.

I just really limit it to one thing a day (like only cereal) and it's usually okay then.

casey820

DS was super fussy, tons of gas, projectile spit up. I wasn't even sure it was dairy but gave it a try since DD was and it was the same symptoms. I went cold turkey back in November and he improved drastically. In the last month I've been adding in things that have hidden dairy but staying away from the obvious sources. So far so good.

lightninglarose

Signs for us: blood in stool, mucus, runny poop.
Doctor says it is only an intolerance not an allergy. I cut all dairy and all soy protein out of my diet. That means reading labels. I don't even eat it if says it may contain milk or soy. Basically eating whole foods and check out mspimama.com for recipes. The cheese cravings will go away. Going on this diet is well worth it for the sake of LO. I noticed changes with in a few days.

BlessUrHeart29

Lots of fussing and blood in his stool.

It takes a few weeks for it to cycle out of your system, so she may not be clear right away.

We've cut it out completely, and he's responded very well. I think we'll try to reintroduce around 6 mos and see what happens.

psychdoc12

Hopefully the experts weigh in too, but from what I've seen on here dairy and soy intolerance/allergy often come hand in hand. I wonder if you're going to cut out dairy, it would make sense to cut out soy too. That said, I do think sometimes that food allergies are overdiagnosed and feel bad for women on these restrictive diets that might not even need to be. The lack of other symptoms in your LO is what gives me pause for you.

jennlin

@psychdoc12 you don't have to cut out soy just bc you cut out dairy, although 50% of dairy intolerance has soy intolerance too-so your chances are good, but not necessary.

@huntjul it might be difficult for you, cause when I was cutting out dairy only with dd, I ate Asian food every day. While traveling in the Caribbean last year, I could not find Asian food for the life of me.

You could do total elimination for 2.5 weeks, then slowly introduce things one by one to see how c reacts. Total elimination would be super healthy, whole foods only.

huntjul

Everyone seems to be saying their LO was also fussy and gassy.  Clara is totally happy and besides the blood, her stool is normal (not green or mucusy).  That doesn't seem to fit, I agree @psychdoc12 But then what else do I do?  Eliminate nothing and see if the blood just goes away?  The past 3 days it's actually been increasing, so I'm not sure I want to do nothing.

@jennlin We cook basically all of our own food and usually healthy, whole foods are a big part of that, so I think it would be possible as long as I'm careful to find a new calcium source and another protein source to replace the dairy products.

BlessUrHeart29

If it's getting worse, I would probably eliminate dairy for a month just to see if it helps.

lovelainie

We had the fussiness, plus he was gassy, with green, mucusy poop (sometimes with little bits of blood). And a skin rash.

The fussiness and gas got way better within a week of cutting dairy (obvious and hidden). His skin didn't clear up until I cut out all traces of soy.

Now he's a super happy baby, but we're still dealing with mucusy green poop, so I'm slowly working my way through all the top eight allergens to figure out what's causing it. I'm currently dairy, soy, nut, and wheat free.

It was really, really hard at first, but once I got into a routine, things got way easier.

Izzies

I would cut the dairy and soy just to see but like PP said you need to give it 5 weeks for it to be totally out of your system. For a non dairy non soy alternative or milk try Almond milk it has more protein and calcium than skim milk and is really good! Also Dayia makes good dairy free soy free cheese, it's actually the best I have ever found. I have started using canned coconut milk as coffee creamer and that's pretty good though a little oily on top ( dairy free soy free coffee creamer was 6 bucks at the store! )
Good luck!

ncase2

I use rice milk in my cereal, and have stuck with soups (be careful to read labels) and whole-foods based dinners - chicken/beef/turkey, rice, roasted potatoes, steamed veggies, etc. Some bread products are dairy-free, so that helps.

Also, if you don't think its a dairy or soy intolerance, be sure to check into peanuts and wheat - those can cause similar reactions.

Maybe try a food diary to see if there is anything your consistently eating that correlates with the symptoms? 

Ycu2013

Gas, so much spit up, he wouldn't poop as often, mucus in the stool and spit up and finally blood in stool. I'm a little over a week in to eliminating dairy from my diet and I still see blood.

MtnChickaD

LO had massive snot like mucus stools and had painful gas basically every night. Now he has seedy poops and almost never has painful gas. I never saw blood in his stool but we didn't get it checked for occult blood so who knows.