eliminating dairy from 13 month old's diet, necessary for mom to eliminate too?

[LucysMommy]

Hi,
I have a 13 month old who has always had tummy troubles (gas, bloating, runny poops).  She isn't bothered much during the day, but her sleep has always been terrible (30 minute naps from 2 months old to now, many night wakings some lasting up to 1 hour, problem often allieviated by gripe water).  As she is my first babe I always thought she would grow out of the bad sleep, but as she is now over 1 year I believe that she may have a dairy intolerance that is the root of the problem. In the past Dr. said to give simethicone drops or gripe water, and / or that she needed to cry it out.  Needless to say CIO was not an option and I am tired of giving gripe water almost every night.  I'm now determined to get some help from the dr.  We have a dr. appt next week but I have already eliminated dairy from her diet in the hopes that might help.  I still bf her 3-4 times a day, wondering if I should eliminate dairy from my diet as well.  It has been 4 days and I am seeing some better sleep already, dd took a 3 hour nap today!! I was in shock and not sure what to do with myself!

Any help or comments are appreciated. 
I feel bad that she is 13 months and may have been dealing with this problem for the last year... i just didn't know better 

[EloysH]

Yes the protein crosses through your milk to her, so I would be eliminating it. Don't let any doctors tell you that is doesn't or that's rare.  its simply not true and is old school thinking.  If you speak to an allergist or a dietician then they will tell you that it is common for irritants/allergins/chemicals to cross and have an affect on the breastfed child.

The good news is that she may tolerate a little dairy in your milk, especially since she is eating other food so  the volume of milk coming from you is not so high.  I would start with no dairy for a few weeks so you get a good diea of what her "baseline" is - i.e. settled and pain free. Then see what happens when you eat butter for 7 days.  If she can toelrate that then up it to cheese or yoghurt once a day.  Keep going until you find that she reacts.  She may never tolerate you drinking cows milk though    If she isn't settled after two weeks you may need to eliminate soy too, as intolerance to both is common.

[Buntybear]

Hi,

Sorry to hear about your LO. I can verify that if I eat dairy it will affect my DS. Normally about 8 hours later he will be sick. He is MPI which as I understand it is a slow reacting allergy. It may be your LO is intolerant to lactose??

Anyway, I think it is easier to test for allergies when they are over 1 so hopefully your doctor will be able to help quickly.

x

[EloysH]

You can havean allergy or an intolerance to the milk protein itself or else lactose intolerance.   

Allergies involve am immune system response or are often rapid onset.  Intolerances takes days to weeks to build up and don't involve an immune response. Once your threshold of tolerance is reached LO will react. 

[LucysMommy]

We had our dr. appt today and dr. recommended that I eliminate dairy too.  Boo!  I love my cheese and yogurt :-)  Dr. suggested us both going off it for 4 months... that seems like a long time for it to clear out of dd's system.  How long would you say I should go off it?  I would think a month would be long enough?? 

[EloysH]

2 weeks to clear out of your system, add another week for gut damage to heal. Then you would "expect" to be at your "baseline" or as good as it gets off dairy.  You would need to keep dairy out of the diet to stay at the baseline. However, if you want to see how much LO can tolerate, you can start to liberalise a little and "see" what happens.  I would stick to one food per week though - so you know what's being reacted too.  For example, Butter for 7 days in isolation, then yoghurt for 7 days, etc.

[skipper11]

Yeah, I think you'll have to stay off of dairy.  My dairy-intolertant daughter turned one last month, so we tried introducing dairy to her diet in the form of a half a grilled cheese at lunch.  It took a week for her symptoms to come back, but -- and here's the worst part -- almost 2 full weeks for them to stop. 

However, when I was still nursing I found that I was able to re-introduce hidden dairy (i.e., things made with dairy that had been cooked, processed, or baked) in small amounts without it bothering my DD.  If you do that, I would advise keeping a food journal because it can be really hard to figure out what is affecting your kid --especially if they don't have symptoms right away.  Best of luck!