Sneaky ways of getting more milk into a lactose intolerant baby needed

[entropy]

The doctors are convinced that dd is lactose intolerant (think she's not but have agreed to keep her lactose free for 3 months!) but they have told me to start weaning her now (23 wks) I've given her fruit and veg purees and before the lactose free promise yoghurt (which was unfortunately her favourite) is there anything yoghurt like out there for lactose intolerant babies? She doesn't like milk much and isn't having as much as she should so I was hoping to sneak milk in to her in the form of yoghurt cheese sauce etc.....

[AitchTwoOh]

is it milk she needs or calcium and fat? it's not something i'm familiar with particularly, but dd is one and i've been trying to find out about the whole milk thing and it seems that the reason children continue to drink milk is for calcium, which you can get elsewhere. can you ask a nutritionist for clarification?

[AitchTwoOh]

i meanclarification for you, not me...

[CanStarveWillStarve]

But all milk products will contain lactose (and cows milk protein, which is a more common allergy that lactose), so giving her these means she won't be lactose free.

If, as Aitch says, it's just the calcium that you want her to have, then you could try soya yoghurts (made by Alpro). You can also get soya cheese (Cheezly widely available) but it isn't very nice.

Sardines are a VERY good source of calcium, so you could always try her with them, although the taste might be a bit strong as a first food.

Presumably you are breastfeeding, as formula milk contains lactose? Dairy can also pass through into your breast milk if you are eating it, so you will have to give it up totally as well.

What makes your gp think that your dd is intolerant?

(my 11 month old dd is milk intolerant btw)

[NotQuiteCockney]

Um, breastmilk contains lactose. (As does every other sort of milk - lactose is milk sugar.)

Are the docs saying it's lactose? Or maybe cow's milk protein?

[entropy]

Am ff as breastmilk indeed contains lactose. on a prescription milk called neocate. It?s really the calories/fats I'm trying to increase as dd is very underweight. I supplement her vitamin intake and she can have fruit and veg but her daily calorie intake is still lower than it was on her old milk.

Personally I have no idea why our paed insists dd is lactose intolerant. she has feeding "issues" which seem characteristic of a swallowing problem to me (but I'm not a medical doctor) They think she has reflux and when the reflux meds didn't help that much their next guess was an intolerance, could be cows milk or lactose. but they have plumped for lactose, in my opinion quite arbitrarily! Her blood, pee and poo have all been tested but nothing positive has shown up. but apparently the best way to be sure is to go on a lactose free diet for 3 months and see if things improve.

my fact sheet says that 1 in 3 babies with a milk allergy go on to develop a soya allergy so I should also avoid giving her soya, I think its until 6 months but it might be a year! (can check if anyone is interested) hope its 6 months as she would like soya yoghurt I'm sure. (would alpro be suitable for babies though?)


on the plus side she is really taking to purees she screams with delight at the sight of the spoon and horror at the sight of the bottle (which is why I want to hide the milk in stuff...) I'm going to try putting it in baby rice soon but the brand I have says "may contain milk" which isn't helpful. my fact sheet says that some brands are ok (at time of print) so I hope to find one we can use.

someone on a previous thread suggested banana smoothie as a way of making milk more paletable. I'm going to give it a go but not sure if it will work with just bananas and milk or if I need baby rice to pad it out (need to give it from a spoon I think to avoid bottle issues)

[admylin]

DH is lactose intolerant and as a child he was given goat milk products - so he says. Are they maybe easier to digest? That was in India so I don't know. Also some sort of almond milk. Sorry can't help more. Ds is lactose intolerant (he is 8) so he had a special milk with ground rice and honey added as a baby, now I buy lactose free milk and know that some yoghurts are OK but others send him running to the toilet. Some spices have lactose in like the supermarket curry I bought once, again ds and dh were queing for the loo! I have to read all packaging.

[NotQuiteCockney]

Lactose intolerance is really common, particularly in people who aren't from Western Europe, but it generally comes on about 7 or 8. (At which point, normally, humans would need to digest milk, so no longer need the enzyme to digest it.)

I don't think it's very common in babies, but am not an expert.

[CanStarveWillStarve]

Ah yes, I know of Neocate.

Avoiding soya isn't just about developing allergies - links have been found to infertility in later life.

Alpro is suitable for babies in one sense, but it's low in fat, and does contain some sugar, so I don't think it's the best food to achieve your aims.

Avocado would be a very good thing to give her, and works well mixed with banana if you're doing purees.

You can also get nut butters (I'd stay away from peanut ones as the allergy risk is much higher) which are rich with good fats.

Admylin - sounds like your dh is cows milk protein intolerant rather than lactose, as goats milk still contains lactose, but around 20% of those who can't tolerate cmp can tolerate goats milk protein.

Am shocked at you saying that your ds had honey is milk as a baby. Honey isn't recommended for children under 1 as there's a risk of botulism (which can be deadly in a child that young). Surely this risk was known about 8 years ago?

[admylin]

CanStarveWillStarve, ds had a mixture of rice powder and honey mixed with water in his bottle, doctor told us to give him it but we are in Germany so they do alot of things differently to UK especially in the health/babys side of things. As I was expecting I was never warned about eating certain cheese, non pasturized or something which is normal to be warned against in UK.

[akent]

You could try contacting the manufacturers of Neocate and see if they have any recipes.

I guess you could make mashed potato with Neocate. You could also try rice pudding made with rice flakes. I get these from the local health food shop. Depends how she is with lumps.

You could probably make a white sauce with Neocate, oil and rice flour (thus avoiding dairy and gluten). Might take a bit of experimenting!

[entropy]

thanks for all the advice folks but the paed has now decided that dd is not lactose intolerant!
I am very relieved as she wasn't taking much neocate at all (I'm not surprised as it was rank!) but we are now back to square one with her feeding problems