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Two months ago Natalya had a really bad case of the runs. After a week of bad smelling frequent colourful output some fluro green and some black ones I took her to the doctor. He referred us to a paediatrician who diagnosed her as lactose intolerant.
Natalya is breast fed 
and human milk has more lactose than any other mammals milk. This meant that cutting cows milk out of my diet would not do anything as my body was the one producing the lactose. His first solution – lactose free formula. This would not work for us for two reasons.
1) Natalya wouldn’t take a bottle. We have tried on several occasions to give her expressed breast milk in a bottle but she just won’t take it. She wants it straight from the Mummycow.
2) I really like breast feeding and am reluctant to stop until Natalya is ready. I am aware of the many benefits of breastfeeding both to Natalya and to me. I’m too lazy to bother with bottles etc. I also object to many of the irresponsible marketing practices of the formula companies and would prefer to boycott their product.
Now don’t get me wrong, if I really thought that stopping breastfeeding was in Natalya’s best interests I would but I wanted to get some more information first. I have read too many stories of women who gave up breastfeeding because they were given the wrong information. I really felt that something that one of us had eaten had caused the problem. I wasn’t sure if it was the chili beans I ate just before her tummy upset or the broccoli I had been eating frequently or the fact that I had strawberries (high risk allergy food) several times that week.
The paediatrician’s other advice given that formula was not a viable option for us was to try to increase the amount of solids Natalya was eating to try to reduce her reliance on milk. This was also a tricky one because Natalya was reluctant to take solids especially from a spoon.
I did a Google search on lactose intolerance and breastfeeding and came up with this great article on the ABA website.
Lactose intolerance and the breastfed baby by Joy Anderson
It is a great article and I recommend reading it. The thing I found most relevant to our situation is that there is primary lactose intolerance and there is secondary lactose intolerance and secondary lactose intolerance is usually temporary.
Basically secondary lactose intolerance is caused when the little lactase (enzyme that breaks down lactose) factories get damaged. One of the ways that this damage can occur is by the stomach not agreeing with something either the baby or the mother has eaten (read the article I have linked to for more information). The body is able to produce more of the little lactase factories if you remove the problem foods.
Given that this latest bout of tummy trouble occurred just after my having had chili beans I figured that this was likely to be the case. To help her tummy to heal I also took out any other foods that might be causing a problem: garlic, chili, caffeine and chocolate. (basically the four food groups as far as I am concerned. I love these foods). My body did not cope well with total caffeine removal so I cheated and had one cup of half caf a day.
After a week or so her tummy settled and instead of the three dirty nappies a day that she had been doing since birth she was down to one a day. Who knows, maybe if I had given up coffee and chocolate earlier I would have had less nappies to change.
Now I am slowly re-introducing the foods in moderation.
I am glad that I followed my instincts and looked for more information before giving up breastfeeding. I really hope that by writing about my experiences I can help other parents in a similar situation.
(November 2007) (
