If your baby is colicky, spits up a lot, or is generally miserable after nursing you may be dealing with a dairy intolerance.
Dairy intolerance in breastfed babies is increasingly common because of our poor gut health.
You see, baby inherits our gut health when she passes through the birth canal. If our gut health is not up to par (and most of ours aren’t because of the prevalence of processed foods, rancid cooking oils, and feedlot meats) baby ends up inheriting less than ideal gut flora. (Cesarean birthed babies inherit gut flora too, just usually from the skin).
OG had a really tough time nursing in the beginning. First, she and I were highly swollen and groggy from her birth. Then it turned out that she had a tongue and lip tie.
On top of all that she had terrible reflux. She spit up all the time and her spit up was mucousy, yuck! She also screamed after every feeding and I didn’t really know why.
Luckily I went to a La Leche League meeting with an amazing leader (who was also a lactation consultant) and started to get to the bottom of OG’s nursing and digestive problems. It turned out that she had a dairy allergy/intolerance!
What is a Dairy Intolerance in Breastfed Babies?
Whatever mom eats enters her breastmilk. Most of the time foods are digested before they turn into breastmilk but some proteins (dairy and egg, specifically) enter the breastmilk unchanged. It is thought that this occurs to introduce baby to what he may be eating later on in life. An intolerance is when baby reacts to the dairy proteins in mom’s milk. (source)
Does that Mean Baby is Lactose Intolerant?
No. Actually, lactose is hardly ever the problem when babies react to dairy. Lactose is a sugar that is present in most milks, including human! Intolerances and allergies are typically a reaction to the protein from cow’s milk entering mom’s milk, not the sugar.
Dairy Intolerance in Breastfed Babies: Symptoms
- Colic
- Frequent and/or painful gas
- Reflux and spit up that is mucousy
- Black poop
- Green poop
- Other unusual digestive problems
- Screaming at the breast or after feeding
If you think your baby might have a dairy intolerance or sensitivity consult with your pediatrician. If they tell you that these symptoms are normal, find another pediatrician.
Dairy Intolerance Remedies
If you think your baby has a dairy intolerance there are two main things you can do.
Dairy Elimination Diet
A dairy elimination diet will stop the symptoms while you work to fix the underlying problem.
Cut out all dairy from your diet for at least 2-3 weeks (cow’s milk protein can stay in your system for that long). If baby’s symptoms get better when you aren’t eating dairy then she probably does have a dairy intolerance.
OG stopped spitting up almost immediately when I stopped eating dairy. She was much happier and didn’t cry for extended periods of time for seemingly no reason.
Here are some products that I use to replace dairy:
Butter: coconut oil, olive oil.
Milk: unsweetened almond milk. For a baby under one year I would be cautious about using a nut-based milk. Coconut milk would be a good alternative.
Buttermilk: 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice or raw apple cider vinegar to 1 cup of non-dairy milk of choice.
Yogurt: Homemade coconut yogurt.
Chocolate chips: Enjoy Life chocolate chips, which are gluten, dairy, and soy free.
After becoming dairy free you can test one dairy product at a time to see if it creates digestive problems. Some children might be okay with yogurt or butter. So far Olive is sensitive to all dairy. I haven’t tried it yet but goat or sheep’s milk might be okay for your dairy sensitive baby. On the other hand, there has been research connecting cow’s milk sensitivity to beef allergies as well as sensitivity to goat, ewe, and buffalo milk.
Gut Healing
Though dairy allergies are the most common food allergy, many children are thought to grow out of it by 18 months – 3 years old.
However, I think sometimes we may believe that our child has outgrown their allergy because their symptoms appear to be gone when in reality their symptoms just changed with age. OG, for example, seemed to outgrow her allergy because she was no longer spitting up when I tried reintroducing dairy.
What really happened was she was showing her intolerance through other digestive symptoms like diarrhea (hard to notice with a breastfed baby sometimes).
That’s where gut healing comes in. Gut healing can actually heal the lining of the intestine so that the allergy or sensitivity can be resolved.
There are 3 basic principles to gut healing:
- Eliminate the allergen. In many cases, other allergens, like gluten, should be eliminated too. Processed foods should also be avoided. grains are also hard on the gut and best avoided while healing.
- Introduce probiotics through a kids’ probiotic supplement or fermented foods like sauerkraut. keep in mind that fermented foods contain yeasts as well as probiotics and enzymes. If you’re dealing with a yeast overgrowth, it may be best to avoid fermented foods for a while.
- Heal the gut with homemade bone broth from organic pastured meat and poultry. You can cook veggies in bone broth and feed them to baby for him to get the benefits. Collagen is a good alternative when you don’t have a good source of quality meat available.
Additionally, gut healing diets like the AIP (autoimmune protocol) or GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome diet) can be helpful.
What is your experience with dairy intolerance in breastfed babies? Tell us in the comments!
I am currently gluten and dairy free for the sake of my breastfed baby. This is my 5th child and I have never done this before, so its all new territory. I REALLY like Enjoy chocolate chips… a little too much!
I’m enjoying your blog! :)
I hear ya! If it weren’t for dairy free chocolate chips I don’t know if I could have done it :)
My son was colicky, gassy didn’t sleep more than two hours a night when he was born. After a month I brought him to doctors because I knew something was not right. I knew loose stools was normal with breastfed babies but it would be literally right after he fed. Pediatrician first thought he was having reflux issues we tried adding cereal to breast milk to slow him eating to fast and then kept him up right after eating. Time went on nothing changed I am lactose intolerant so I do not consume much dairy except what’s in food. I cut out all dairy an my son was still having issues. We tried nutrimigen formula and within 24 to 48 hours I saw a huge difference he wasn’t crying all night from gas pain and no diherea. Savor that forumal was but very expensive and my insurance didn’t cover it. He was on it up until he was just a year then we switched to him whole milk and he has been okay on it.
Poor baby :( Glad things improved for you!
I would be mindful of the language you use. The post says great article about dairy allergies. On the post title it says dairy sensitivity and then when you open it says dairy intolerance. Those are three different thing.
That’s not entirely true. Some people think of allergies as only being anaphylactic reactions, but really an allergy can still be present when the reaction is not immediate and life threatening. Sensitivities and intolerances may technically have different definitions (depending on who you ask) but many people use them interchangeably.
An allergy is a very narrowly defined type 4 IgE mediated reaction. An allergy is not an intolerance or sensitivity. Allergic reactions can be tested for in the blood with certain markers. An allergy is NOT an intolerance/sensitivity.
I do not appreciate your first paragraph at all. There is a lot of untrue statements in there. Babies do not inherit our gut flora from passing through the birth canal. I had both my babies via C-section ( no birth canal) because they were both breach and I was unable to eat dairy with both because they had a dairy intolerance. Also I do not appreciate the feedlot cattle comment. Feedlot cattle do NOT create poor gut flora. Cattle are a great source of protein. Feedlot cattle must pass a very high standard before they are allowed into our food chain. There are lots of good farmers and ranchers out there raising safe food sources. Would you rather an animal get sick and not be treated with antibiotics? Which is worse….treating an animal so it can get better or not treating an animal so it can be “antibiotic free” and so sick it dies???
I’m sorry if you are offended by my article. It is true that babies inherit our gut flora whether born vaginally or not (http://www.klaire.com/images/InfantGIMicroflora.pdf). If babies are born via cesarean they are colonized by your skin usually. I will update to make that more clear. As for the animals: Feedlot cattle are stuffed into small spaces where manure piles up. They often get sick so are given antibiotics preventatively and therapeutically. Antibiotics do stay in the meat (particularly the fat) so yes, it does affect our gut flora. I know plenty of farmers who are not these big AG feedlot farmers and give their cattle access to pasture and who also do administer ABX when needed. No, I don’t want animals falling over dead because they are not helped. You can find more of my thought on this topic here.
My son is also intolerant/allergic to dairy, we’re not sure which one. He was very congested, fussy, gassy, and would get colicky before I cut out all dairy. It’s amazing how different he was after about a month of no dairy.
I do agree with Jessica though about the language used throughout the article. An intolerance and an allergy are different things. An allergy causes an immune response that can affect multiple organs and possibly a life-threatening situation; an intolerance is usually limited to digestive issues and is not as severe. People do throw around both words interchangeably, but they do have different meanings.
My 15 month old who is still nursing had a hard time (got really gassy) with whole milk so now when he does drink anything it is almond…..still has some dairy innhis diet which I am starting to think I need to eliminate because his poops are still very odd looking never formed and he still seems like he is struggling early mornings with stomach pain…its so hard to figure out. He gets an odd rash in diaper area as well. Its painful and really red (yeast?).
I would definitely eliminate all dairy in his diet and yours (if he’s nursing) for at least 2 weeks and see how that goes.
I recently found out my baby has a cow milk protein intolerance. He was very congested, had diarrhea all the time, bloody poos and painful gas which caused him to scream randomly throughout the day. I stopped dairy and soy as recommended by my dr about a month ago. My little one has stopped having bloody poos, seem much happier but is still congested, especially while breastfeeding, he splutters and gasps, gurgles etc
Do you think he may be allergic to something else?
It’s possible. I’d look into gut healing too since these kinds of allergies often are accompanied (or caused) by a leaky gut.
My baby is EBF and only at night does he move around a lot like he’s uncomfortable until he passes gas and sometimes gets fussy but is just fine during the day. He will sleep fine until about 3-5am and then he becomes fussy and passes gas a lot. Does this sound like something to do with my breastmilk?
I’d definitely talk to a pediatrician and maybe a lactation consultant for a definite answer. My personal opinion is that babies shouldn’t be gassy (occasionally is fine but not all the time). Same goes for adults. I would consider an elimination diet to see if it helps.