Without going through all the details we have found out, after testing, that our 8 week old GRANDdaughter is lactose intolerant

This solves the "problems" she and my dear daughter in law have been having with the bonding/pain in the tummy/??? wondering WHAT is wrong issues....

She has been on formula for a couple of days now and working through this.

Anyone out there have a baby that has been/is lactose intolerant? Advice?

On the bright side...GRANDPA can feed her

She loves her grandpa

My son was having problems breast feeding for the first few weeks. Horrible tummy troubles and projectile vomiting. Turns out it was what I was eating. I stopped eating shellfish and chocolate and he didn't have any more trouble.

I actually didn't know they did tests for this at such a young age.

But I'm glad YOU are able to feed her now!

Is your grandaughter lactose intolerant??? OR is she allergic to Cow Protein?? Cause for us..our baby girl was born with major tummy issues even when on formula..so she got put on a formula called Nutramigen..and that is free of cow protein and hypoallergenic.. There is a difference between cow protein allergy and lactose allergy..Often lactose is present in all milk and even in breast milk lactose is present..which is why typically the issue is cow protein which can come through breast milk if the mother drinks milk..and its present in mostly all formulas except for hypoallergenic formulas and soy formulas...

They will get used to the flavour...if you can start on nutramigen or allimentum and keep her on that fould while..then at 6 or 7 months..you could try switching her over to nestle good start..which is much easier digested by babies with sensetivities..Our girl is now 10 months and she was on nestle good start till 10 months old and now she drinks cocoanut milk and rice milk as well as formula..she still cant drink regular milk though

Oy...not a good allergy to have. My hubby and step daugher are not able to have milk products either. They get major toots when they do eat or drink milk products. :x lol

My little one is not a baby any longer. He'll be six next month. We were hit with several food related issues when he was young. Allergies and a food related immune disorder. The long and short of the advice I can give are summed up from my experience and the experience of a close friend or two who also have a kid with food issues. The advice is also contingent on this being a long term issue rather than something that she may outgrow in the next year or so:

1. Diagnosis is always good. It doesn't create the problem, it tells you what you are dealing with so that you can *do* something about it. (as opposed to having a sick kid and not knowing why).

2. *Assuming that she is still lactose intolerant when food is introduced* (Because it can be outgrown sometimes) Educate, educate, educate. Educate yourselves and anyone else who will be a main caregiver in her life. It's good to know the hidden places of lactose in foods that you wouldn't ordinarily think to find it. Learn ways to make the foods that are part of daily life in a way that she can eat them. Join an online group for support and also for some great recipes, ideas, and info on great products. If you guys are interested let me know, there are several great support/informational groups out there. There are some people out there who are pros at this stuff because they've been doing it forever and a day and they have great information. Educate her about her condition because as she gets older, she will be in the care of others more often and not everyone remembers food restrictions like her parents/grandparents. We have the rule that he is not to eat anything unless parents give it to him or it's in his specially marked safe-food containers, which he opens. Friends have older kids and their kids learn their brand foods and use a sticker system in the kitchen to let the kid be independent in getting their own snack. Another friend's kid says to even her teacher "Did my mom say I can have that cupcake because I'm allergic to milk eggs and peanuts?"

3. Food is such a social thing. There will be many times that she will hear she can't have something. If you know about it ahead of time, her mom can make something for her ahead of time, that is the same, but won't make her sick (ie cupcake for a birthday party they will attend). Nonperishable items are wonderful things to always have on hand to replace a reward that the class or sunday school class got that she can't have due to lactose (ie chocolate kisses etc). Stickers still work magic for my 6 year old.

4. It can seem overwhelming in the beginning but once you get a hang of things it will all be old hat. Her mom will look back and think about how overwhelming this diagnosis and dealing with it at first was, but soon reading labels and ordering food, and dealing with social food centric activities will be second nature.

5. Praying helps. Praying that she outgrows it, but if that is not to be in the plan, that you/she are able to deal with it with grace and grow from it.

6. Enjoy each other. Sometimes things like this gives you more opportunity to show love and support in different and unexpected ways. (ie grandpa gets to feed the baby!) As for bonding issues. My little guy was severely ill when I tried to feed him. This lasted for over a year because one of his disorders is rare and was hard to diagnose. The nurturing that moms tend to pass along with the nutrition wasn't going to happen that way. First we had to get him to not be sick when he ate. Then we had to help me figure out another way to feel like I was pouring in the love outside of nursing/feeding. It makes a mom no less a mother, and I'm not saying your daughter in law will have this particular issue, but sometimes there's difficulty in that emotional part of the feeding thing.

I'll pray for you all. I hope some of this was helpful to you, rather than just me rambling.

Just wanted to throw in that majority of the population is lactose intolerant, so don't get too down. I think our gastroenterologist said upwards of 80% of the population was lactose intolerant because our bodies weren't meant to ingest it. Many people don't even realize they're lactose intolerant because they don't have the thought to correlate symptoms.

Just be thankful she is healthy and alive.

Congrats on your granddaughter. Although my daughter can have milk, my husband is lactose intolerant and I feel so bad for the guy! Problem is he LOVES the taste, and will often eat things that kill him later. He also has different reactions to different types of dairy. He can get away with eating cheese, but milk is awful. That he manages to stay away from.

There are so many events that people end up just ordering a pizza. Problem is, he can't eat pizza. So oftentimes, he just goes hungry, or if he is able to plan, eats something else. And he is a big baby, and doesn't like the "taste" of pizza without cheese. But I digress...

Similac makes a lactose free formula, one of the true lactose free ones on the market. They will usually grow out of this by about a year when they start weaning to whole milk, it just takes their systems time to grow enough lactase enzymes. It's pretty common.

As for breastfeeding, sometimes when a person breastfeeds and mainly pumps or doesn't breastfeed quite long enough per session, the hindmilk with all the fat does not get a chance to get let down and the foremilk which carries a lot of the lactose will be the main thing the baby is getting, causing gas. So if that's an issue, it might be worked around with time and formula supplementation.

Good Luck! It's hard to see babies deal with this stuff but they do often grow out of it.

Y'all are fortunate to have found the culprit, so many people go through this and just suffer through because they don't know what the problem is.

We went through 3 different formulas before we found one my son could tolerate. Those were some long, hard months.

He is almost 10 now and hasn't had any gastro issues since he was around 3 or 4. It is quite common to outgrow it. He can enjoy milk, ice cream, cheese, etc without any difficulty.

I have been lactose intolerant my entire life, but it was much worse as a child. I can have cheese and butter without much trouble, but a glass of milk would have me miserable for a day or two. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything, it's not really a big deal to live with.

My son (11 months) has this and I went through **** the first 6 months of his life. Can`t offer much advice as the rest is fantastic, but also keep an eye out for acid reflux or silent acid reflux as that also contributes to projectile vomiting. Good luck!

My daughter in law was here yesterday and read every post...she was so thankful for the reposnses, she is going to add them all to her "info" and records of the baby's responses to the changes....

She said she couldn't believe that you were all so helpful...

I told her I could

Thank you all so much

Another helpful book is Dr Sears Fussy Baby Book - it helps you get through the tough times. Babywearing in a proper sling (a wrap, a ring sling, an Ergo - not a Bjorn-style) has also really helped with mine, I still wear him on my back all day at 1 years old, it helps keep them upright and compress the chest, as well as soothes them for being close, it can really help a baby with digestion issues.

It took us forever to figure out that my DS was lactose intolerant, he was nearly 2 years old..poor baby. After we did we switched to soy milk, but he hated that, and then we changed to regular lactose-free milk and that helped a lot. I just started researching where to buy different kinds of lactose free foods, and got creative.

Today he's not unable to eat foods that contain lactose, but he ends up with constipation or diarrhea in some cases when he consumes them. Some foods don't seem to bother him at all...ie/ he can eat pizza, but some like just a piece of cheddar cheese will have him on the toilet all night. When we know he wants to have some dairy products we use children's lactaid to prepare his system for those foods. Check with your pediatrician to see when she recommends you can start this.

Overall I would say that he is outgrowing it somewhat, and he just naturally chooses non-lactose foods now (ie he will choose a popsicle or sherbet over ice cream), so it's nice that I don't always have to tell him no.

Congratulations on your new granddaughter!

SACHA and ANGIE thank you! My dil read these and have added all the information, along with the oter posters, to her journal. She is still amazed at the outpouring of help!

My GRANDdaughter is doing so much better! She is on the formula and also being breast fed as my dil changes her diet for the baby.

Hugs to all of you!

My daughter is 7 and we finally took her off milk completely (she always yo-yo'ed with stomach pain after dairy for periods of time, then was fine again with it, in a cycle). She is lactose sensitive, not intolerant. It started when she was a toddler since she was never really on formula. We switched to soy. Then she was fine for a long time. Soy bothers her now too so we use almond milk. If she wants icecream, it's only a tiny bit once in a while.

It's a lot of trial and error when they're young. A friend of our's daughter just grew out of her lactose intolerance, so it's possible. (she just turned 3.) They're are great alternatives now that are good when they're babies and as children.