*update* Lactose intolerance - reintroducing "normal" formula as a test?
I've always thought my little girl was Lactose intolerant since she was a teeny-tiny baby and after months of battles, finally at 28 weeks, the HV confirmed it, and the doctor took us seriously. After another battle, he prescribed us 4 weeks supply of Lactose free formula.
Now, the 4 weeks are up and my HV / the doctor want me to reintroduce lactose to her diet after 4+ weeks of being lactose free completely. The doctor says to just give a days worth of her normal formula (I was using Aptimal comfort which has 60% less lactose). The HV says to give something food wise such as soft cheese. Which obviously is very conflcting. I'm also wondering whether me giving her the "normal" formula will be enough lactose to trigger the intolerance, as her symptoms only got extreme when we started weaning and she had lots of lactose in her diet..
Just wondering whether anyone had any experiences? If so, what did you give as the "test"? How soon after would I expect any issues to appear? (It was explodapoop within 5mins of a bottle last time).
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If she is only lactose intolerant, which is usually a temporary thing, then hopefully she'll be fine now, but personally I'd only give her a tiny amount to start with, maybe a few spoonfuls of yoghurt, wait a day and if no reaction then try her with a bit more. This is what I've been told to do when introducing milk into S's diet (she's milk intolerant) but we're not to do so until she's one so I've not started yet.
Thanks LWO that's what I was thinking. I'm told one feed takes 24 hours to get through their system so if I gave 5 feeds and it was an issue, that'd be a long five days of sufferingfor E.
F is milk intolerant and I started him back in normal formula as a test and his symptoms came back in less than a day. I'm pretty sure it takes 24 hours from the last bottle to get out of the system but I think if she can take solids introducing a little at a time this way would be better. Doesn't help if you don't have any lf formula left though.
There's no way I'd go straight back to 5 bottles a day, def introduce slowly and see how she gets on. X
So, we did Cheese which resulted in a not-so-nice-but-not-horrendous nappy, then we did "normal" butter and had the same. Then the HV insisted again we try formula, so we did and after a large bottle (split into two sititngs) she screamed for 45mins solid, and thurst and writhed, and went bright red in the cheeks, then explodapooped all over the bed this morning, cot sheets, sleeping bag, her outfit, the airwrap, bumper, taggy, all in the wash.. So we are back to square one, the intolerance (or allergy?) definitely hasn't gone, however now, we still don't know if it's lactose or if it's cows milk.
Just been to see the doctor again (I swear they must book us in every other day!) and the doctor said he would suggest keeping her on the lactose free formula, offering teeny bits of dairy if in general cooking etc and see how she goes.. He also wants a stool sample which he'll send off to test for an emzyme which should tell us whether it's lactose which she can't break down, or cows milk. (Though pretty sure it's lactose as it's a cows milk based LF formula). So fingers crossed we'll have answers soon!
Thanks again for the advice ladies.
Oh love, poor E...hope they get to the bottom of it soon. One of our friend's little ones has a dairy allergy so can only imagine how much of a pain this is for you all xx
Bloody HV and their advice based on no experience. There's no chance anyone who had experienced the side effects of milk/lactose intolerance would insist on giving a whole bottle. So sorry you had such a bad reaction. It's not that common for babies to be lactose intolerant, so chances are it could be a milk intolerance, but if the lactose free formula is made from cow's milk, that would rule it out if she was fine with it. I hope you finally get some testing done and don 't have to go through it again. X