Transient lactase deficiency

[nikkinoo69]

Hi,

I am blessed with a generally very happy baby who doesn't scream for hours, maybe 10 minutes and has been easy to calm down...

A bit of history....
I breasfed up until 10 weeks, because my daughter was on the breast all the time - for comfort and food and I was exhausted. Since going onto bottle feeding, she is STILL on the bottle all the time.... and now on the soother from time to time as she can't get the comfort from the bottle.

The more I read into it, the more I think that she has 'transient lactase deficiency' and has had it since she was 6 weeks old when I had an oversupply of milk (I think due to poor breast management - didn't understand what I needed to do... and didn't get support, because I'd 'ticked' the boxes that I'd breastfed up until 6 weeks...)

Anyway, as she's not a high-need baby, GPs and (at the moment) my health visitor seem to not take it too seriously. I know I'm lucky not to have her crying for hours, trust me I do understand that. But I know something isn't right... she's awake half the night... (started co-sleeping to make it easier). I've started on colief 2 days ago, she's now taking less formula, I'm trying to add some water to her diet. I think it's a chronic build up for lactase. Her legs go up at all times of the day, she's in discomfort and I wish I could take it away from her. I'm thinking of going the lactose-free route for formula. I know her body will mature and she'll probably get over this time, but I want to sort this out sooner or later. As I say, the professionals aren't listening at the moment, and I don't want to get to crisis stage. She had a short cry this morning with no tears, so dehydration is always a concern.

Anyone else had any of these issues?

[Lolly]

How old is she now? What formula do you have her on and how much is she taking over 24 hours? I would be careful how much extra water you are giving her, small babies will literally only need an extra oz or 2 over the day and that's really only if it's hot or they are constipated.

Have you considered that she may have reflux? Constant comfort feeding is a big symptom of reflux and the colicky symptoms I assume you are getting could also point to it.

Crying with no tears is a pretty normal thing too - my DD still cries with no tears .

Laura

[nikkinoo69]

Thanks for replying Laura. I did consider reflux - silent of course, she does have slight reflux problems but nothing major. This transient lactase deficiency can have reflux tendencies. She is on aptamil. I started recording how much she was having last weekend and she was averaging about 24oz which seems a bit under a 14lb baby, but her last weigh in last week was all fine - in some ways with the change over from breast to bottle, it's too soon to work out if there's a pattern. The last couple of days she's only taking 19 1/2 oz which is why I've given her a bit of water as well.

Thanks for reassuring me about the tears, she has cried proper tears, but I suppose they don't always??

She's on aptamil, 2-4 big dirty nappies a day, which one doctor said were a bit spready and to watch (we brought one to show him!), but then when we went back to the doctor and saw another one, he just commented (without seeing them) that it was within normal range. It's so difficult having consistency with a doctors practice when you see different doctors all the time.

I've been on aptamil 1 but as she's a snacker, I find that I can't prepare enough bottles with colief in as you need to wait 4 hours with making formula in advance. So today I went out and bought Aptamil Comfort and SMA Lactose Free. The question is which to use? I really don't think she has a lactose intolerance - a tiny percentage of the population has that.. I know she could be one, just not convinced, anyway she's thriving, possibly over thriving, which isn't the case with lactose intolerance. I think she could possibly manage without lactose for the next month or 2 without any future implications, just to get over this time that she has problems processing it.

The other thing which occured to me today is that this sleeplessness of the last few nights started the day of her 3 month injections, so I'm wondering if there's also a connection there. However, her legs definitely shoot up in the air at night (and often in the morning) which wakes her up. Could this be due to the injections?

And in the end.. I want to get her in a routine! We have a bedtime routine thankfully but she wakes up with a big yawn and we just try to catch up with longer naps during the day. Until she's over whatever she has, I just feel that I've got to go with flow and not impose too much, just try desperately to follow her lead.

We really are such baby detectives...

[Lolly]

To be honest I would try the aptamil comfort formula, it's lower in lactose than the normal Aptamil and it's thicker so if there's reflux at play then it should help that. You will need a faster teat if you try the comfort formula.

My DD used to throw her legs up in the air and slam them back on to the mattress - she stopped once her reflux was under control. I would investigate the reflux a bit more - around 10 weeks is when my DD's got considerably worse and needed a reflux formula. She dropped her milk intake by half really suddenly, she was a silent refluxer.

Have a look here http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=654.0, in case you haven't already seen it.

Laura

[nikkinoo69]

Thanks. Do you think level 2 teat for Dr Browns bottles will do? Planning to use them overnight, so need to be prepared...

Interesting what you say about instant reflux and your daughter slamming her legs up. I think I've been focussing on her 'habit' of eating which is basically irregularly, so lactose is backed up in her body. This also goes with what the osteopath said a few weeks about her, that she had a blockage in her tummy - again due to maturity. Honestly, sometimes I think our LOs would benefit from 6 more months inside - not that I'm volunteering, you understand!

[Lolly]

Try the level 2 but you may need the level 3 , see how long it takes her to drink it. We used Dr Brown's with DS and that was a while ago so I'm not sure which ones we needed with the comfort formula! I think DD was on the tommee tippee bottles when she was on the comfort with the vari-flow teats.

Irregular eating is a very common aspect of reflux though. They want to eat because it sooths their throats but they don't take much because it hurts so they snack because they don't take full feeds. It's so hard to know what's what with a tiny baby, you are right about the detective work!

Laura

[ENMS]

My DD used to throw her legs up in the air and slam them back on to the mattress - she stopped once her reflux was under control.

Laura, my DS does that all the time these days... I think we need to up his meds, but is it common that this slamming of the legs on the mattress is a sign of reflux? I thought he just did this for fun, but now I'm thinking again 

nikkino69 - so sorry for highjacking your thread! 

[nikkinoo69]

That's alright Elise!

So... first night on aptamil comfort.. put down at 7pm regular aptamil with colief before bed) woke up at 11.45 gave 4oz comfort feed, then woke again about 3.45, gave her a dummy, she fell asleep until 4.20, gave her 5oz feed by which time she was wide awake... so looks like morning has now arrived! Thinking back, she has been like this for weeks and weeks... very wakeful and alert, showing aome signs of sleepiness (yawning) but generally very alert I'd say. I know what the average amount of sleep should be ... she just doesn't fit it. We'll fit in extra sleeps during the day... just need to see how it all goes. Oh well... at least last night was better then the last few nights when I was awake from about midnight onwards!