Is dairy All or Nothing?

[DeChRi]

I posted two days ago about some issues with an upset baby, that I believe is partially due to oversupply/overactive letdown, and have been block feeding for about 48 hours now.

Well last night was really bad, she was so uncomfortable that she would not nurse all night, cried, finally thing morning she had 3 massive, loud, and hard fought poops. Then fell into a wonderfully comfy sleep. For the first time her poop looked th slightest bit green.

I am a major over consumer of dairy. It didn't bother DD1 at all, nor DD2. My questions are this:
1) If she is a bit sensitive to dairy, is it normal for them to not show symptoms right away? (she is 4wks)
and
2) Considering that I eat huge amounts of dairy (i.e. half & half in coffee, cheese on eggs every morning, 2-3 other cheese servings daily, 2-3 servings cottage cheese daily, 3-4 servings of whey protein in various things, milk in recipes, etc)...It varies but I eat loads and loads of dairy. I am wondering if with this LO, it is just too much. And if so, does it require total elimination, or could the shear quantity be bothering her? If I kept like a single whey shake and a serving of cheese in, and eliminated the other 7,000 daily servings ....could that make a difference? Or does it tend to be All or Nothing with dairy?

[changingseasons]

1- Yes

2- At least initially, it needs to be everything- including hidden ingredients. Once you're off dairy for a couple weeks, you can do a trial to see if your LO reacts. Usually once you remove a food and reintroduce it, symptoms will be more obvious.

I would also recommend cutting soy at the same time, as many dairy-sensitive babies are also sensitive to soy.

[PatioGardener]

I had to remove ALL dairy and soy, but I do have a friend who cut out only obvious dairy (yoghurt, cheese, milk, ice cream etc but did not read labels so ate dairy in bread, muffins, etc) and her baby got much better. She thinks baby would have been even better with all dairy gone, but wasn't willing to go that far and felt things had improved 'enough'.

[BtotheG]

I did like changingseasons said: cut out ALL dairy for a few weeks. I then started adding it back in, and found that dd could handle everything but me drinking milk and eating ice cream. She is fine with me eating reasonable amounts of cheese, sour cream, butter, etc. And milk is actually fine as long as it's cooked (I guess the heat breaks down the protein causing the problem).

So no, it doesn't *always* have to be all or nothing.

[mommy2two babes]

With DS1 I was able to eat the majority of dairly products as long as I didn;t over do it. I couldn't drink a glass of milk or eat ice cream for the first 6-7 months. He tolerated small ammounts of yougurt cheese cream in coffee ect.

DS2 is another story. I had to cut out all dairy for 3 weeks before I saw an improvement ( he was really fussy and had alot of sulphur smelling gas)
He has been ok with some dairly in baked goods now and recently I tried a bit of ice cream and he was ok. Sour cream for some reason is a item I have to completely avoid. in the few times I tied the effects lasted days.

I guess what I am saying is to experiment and see. There dont seem to be set rules.

[SallyN]

It doesn't HAVE to be all or nothing. Though when you're first experimenting, my advice is usually to cut out everything and then slowly add things back in. However, sometimes going cold-turkey can be too much to swallow (no pun intended) for a dairy-lover (especially with a toddler and new baby!) so in your case, cutting a significant chunk out at first might be a good step. Just keep in mind that it may not be enough to have noticeable effect on your LO, and if that's the case then the next step is to cut out the rest of the obvious dairy, and eventually all hidden dairy. And it can take up to 6 weeks for all dairy to work out of your and LO's system.

[SallyN]

sorry, realized that pp might have been a bit discouraging. It can take up to six weeks for dairy to work out. And it might take that long to see an effect... BUT... usually it's much faster.

I've been dairy-free/dairy-light for DD2 and we actually just finished up a bit of a dairy "trial" (she's 15 months old). I learned that she (and I, actually) can tolerate some dairy now... maybe one or two times a week. But if I eat dairy every day, even though we're both fine for about a week or so once the "bucket" (so to speak) fills, we start having issues no matter what we eat. (And we tolerate cooked dairy better than stuff like ice cream or cream cheese.)

[ShwarmaQueen]

For DS, it was only major dairy sources (milk, yogurt, cheese, etc.) and it only lasted for the first 6 months. I started having it again recently and it's fine.

[PatioGardener]

Originally Posted by ShwarmaQueen

it only lasted for the first 6 months. I started having it again recently and it's fine.

yay! so nice to have this hope! i used to eat very little dairy, but i miss fancy cheese!

[DeChRi]

Thanks so much for all of the input. I actually ran in to and chatted about it with my Dr (our whole families Dr). She is BF-ing her 4th child currently, who is 2yo, which I adore about her. Her take is that not many babes are truly allergic, but each has a different tolerance level. Most do fine with normal dairy intake, some it make bother a bit but not enough to really notice. She also says it usually self-rectifies around 6 months. At her advice I cut way down (half and half in coffee, yogurt, and not being too concerned with hidden dairy), vs eating the ton that I did before. I am also block feeding in case some of the problem is my super over supply and foreceful let down. I am not sure which is doing the trick, but in 2 days she seems much happier. I am going to keep on with this plan, assuming that she stays happy, and see what happens. I am secretly praying that it isn't dairy, as I fear starving to death without it.

[lazzybee]

My son had a lot of issues from dairy. I was consuming A LOT of kefir and yogurt. I cut them both, but kept daily half and half as well as occasional cheese--no more issues! It does take a few weeks.

[HonkyTonka]

I'm dealing with something similar, and trying to figure out if it is an over supply issue or an allergy or something else. Not really sure how to figure out which one it is...

[SteelerMom]

My son was less than 2 months old when I discovered that I couldn't eat dairy if I was going to breastfeed (which is what I was definitely going to do.) From the beginning, his poop smelled more foul than the usual breastfed baby's poop and he seemed to have more gas than I remembered my first ever having. It was when I noticed a small amount of blood in his poop that I became suspicious of dairy. Unfortunately, I had to eliminate ALL dairy including hidden dairy for 8 months. When he was about 10 months old, I experimented with adding small amounts of dairy and he did well. I continued to breastfeed him until he was 21 months old and he did fine with me eating whatever dairy products I wanted and he eating dairy products as well from the time he was about a year old. He does have pink cheeks and a tendency to get eczema, so I still wonder if he tolerates it as well as the average person, but there have been no GI affects as far as I know since he was an infant. The good thing about eliminating dairy is that I lost the baby weight a lot quicker than I normally would have (50+ pounds in 9 months.) The bad news is that when I started to reintroduce dairy into my diet, I had a few bad episodes of abdominal pain and gas. Good luck.