Squirmy/fussy/restless at the breast- could it be dairy intolerance??

[abigail_b]

Hi All,

My 5 1/2 month old baby is rarely a particularly "contented" nurser. I have overactive letdown, which was a problem when she was younger, but I don't think that issue is at play any longer since she is actually developing a preference for the larger/stronger let down side.
My son (now 3) was very fussy at the breast when overactive letdown/oversupply was an issue for me, but that was just in the first couple of months and then he became king of the comfort nursers. I keep thinking it will get better with her, but it isn't...
Could this be due to something I am eating? She doesn't have any rashes, seem overly gassy, or have any obvious digestive issues. She does spit up some, but it doesn't seem excessive (much less than my son spit up).
Can a dairy (or other food) intolerance/allergy manifest only by fussiness at the breast?
Thanks!
Abby

[karika]

yes it can. I do highly recommend for giving up dairy in all forms. It is not meant to be ingested by humans IMO. It is actually very freeing. A quick question though, you say she has no rashes, is there a red ring around her anus? this would always happen to my dds if i ingested dairy.

[abigail_b]

Thanks for the reply. She does actually have a bit of a red ring there. Also, my 3 year old son, who seems to be healthy and thriving, also has a small red ring around his anus (he has been potty trained for a long time, but we do wipe him and I know that he gets very clean down there so that isn't causing the redness)...I wonder if dairy could be an issue with him to??

[Pandme]

I don't eat dairy and I could have written your post word for word.

[karika]

the red ring is the teller. I was dairy free when nursing both dds. Mind you, they still both had other things going on, but the red ring is the calling card of foreign milk protein. I make my own almond milk and we use it and hemp milk in baking or cooking, and we mostly just drink water. leafy green are an excellent source of calcium and are better assimilated by the human body as well. here are some helpful links. I had trouble locating a link about the red anus that did not link to other information that I would not want to forward (like dr sears, I love him, but he does not go far enough IMO... ok here is his link about it,

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/T032100.asp

but it is not lactose intolerance, it is more than that, but he does mention the red ring anus and that 75% of infants are allergic to cow's milk protein)

http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns...nsitivity.html

http://www.milksucks.com/index2.asp

[sarahdavida]

this might be a long shot, but my son, who is now 3, started to become very squirmy and fussy at the breast for no apparent reason around around 7 months or so (don´t remember exactly, he was still pretty small)...I thought I was low on milk - or not letting down - or something else was wrong...I was really distressed and couldn´t figure it out...then I noticed when I switched him to the other side, he calmed down and started nursing happily again - but that this happened no matter what side I started on...I came to realize that he simply wanted to switch sides - and truthfully nothing more - it was just a little nursing quirk of his - and he still does it to this day! It wasn´t really a problem - just a physical comfort preference - he was truly an incessant side-switcher! sometimes going back and forth 6 - 8 times before finishing - or settling down to sleep for naps and/ at night...