Transient lactose intolerence

[bexandlucy]

Hi! Lucy had a D&V bug nearly 2 weeks ago and ever since she still has diarrhoea (watery green stools about 5-8 a day). She's also been in the meantime started on a low dose of Ranitidine for reflux, but her vomiting is worse than its ever been.

I spoke to my HV yesterday as I couldn't get in with the GP and she thinks the D&V may have caused a temporary lactose intolerence and advised I cut out lacotse in my diet (as she is exclusively breastfed).

I've been doing some research and I'm really confused, surely breastmilk will contain lactose whether or not I'm eating it, so is me cutting it out really beneficial? And then is cutting out a foodgroup going to impact on the nutrition in my breastmilk?

From what I can see, it can last for about 4 weeks in babies of her age (4.5 mo). I'm so confused, my brain is pickled from reading about it. Anyone got any experience in this? If I do need to cut out lactose, can I concentrate on the lactose bit and carry on with the cows milk protein or should I eliminate dairy altogether?

[Mashi]

Lactose is a milk sugar, and after bouts of gastro it is very common for adults and children to have trouble breaking it down, and as your HV said it can take a few weeks until it can be tolerated again. 

The thing is, there is lactose in breast milk, no matter if you are consuming dairy or not. There is lactose in all mammal's milks.  So you going off of lactose is not going to remove lactose completely from your breastmilk.

From what I know, though, in the cases of temporary (secondary) lactose intolerance you are not supposed to stop breastfeeding...she will get better in time and although it can take a few weeks it also might just take a few days. 

FWIW, if you did choose to remove lactose from your own diet, you would not need to remove all dairy, you could just switch to lactose free dairy instead.  Cow's milk protein and lactose are completely different things, (although both are found in dairy) so there is no need to look at the proteins at all.  However, if you suspect that the cause of her reflux and her diarrhoea is a milk allergy, that is the proteins, and yes they would need to be eliminated from your diet if you chose to keep breastfeeding.

HTH?

[bexandlucy]

Thank you! That really helps loads.

I don't think its the cause of her reflux, but I'm willing to attempt omitting lactose for a while and seeing if it helps.

I know that breastmilk always contain lactose, but will me not eating any have much of an impact or am i wasting my time?

x

[lizzyr]

Have you looked into using an infant probiotic powder for a couple of weeks (I would use a hypoallergenic one without dairy)? This can help the gut to normalise again. You can just sprinkle a little on your nipple before your LO feeds. Solgar do one called ABCdophillus.
You could also use lactase drops (such as Colief), if you could be fussed to express. Quite a fiddle though. That is all if it is temporary lactose intollerance.

[bexandlucy]

Thank you, I'll look into that, i didn't know it came in a powder like that, i ruled it out cause I can't give anything via a bottle.

xxx

[deb]

A lot of docs still confuse lactose intolerance with milk protein intolerance, which makes it confusing for us parents trying to do the right things.

Would also recommend probiotics. Even if you can't give by bottle, can you give some via syringe like meds? I ended up doing probiotics on my nipple for Nat, who it seemed was reacting to the A/B's from birth (I was GBS+ so got A/B IV in labor). But repopulating the good bacteria in the gut is key. If it's left too long you can end up with leaky gut and then proteins can literally go into the bloodstream when they don't belong there.