Our Allergy Journey – Why Dairy Free Kids? Part 2
Follow up to Why Dairy free kids part 1.
I also began by breastfeeding my second child. He used to feed every 2 hours, and at about 6 weeks he started arching and screaming after feeding for only a minute or two. He was clearly hungry but was in pain feeding. I suspected silent reflux.
At this stage he used to get one bottle of Aptamil a day, it was at night-time and he would have terrible colic every night too (I thought it was colic but have since read that trying to get wind up in reflux babies can make them worse, I don’t know). Anyway he never slept for more than 2 hours, ever, until he was over 4 months. He would fall asleep on my shoulder maybe and as soon as I’d put him down he’d bawl, I suppose reflux made him sore lying down.
My older boy had a dairy intolerance which I discovered when he was nearly 2, and because of this I tried baby number 2 on Wysoy, a soy based formula, at about 2 months old. I weaned him at this stage because I thought holding him upright to give him a bottle might be more comfortable for him than lying down when breastfeeding. I was very disappointed to be weaning so early as the breastfeeding was a lot easier than on my first baby. My GP was happy for me to try the Wysoy. I also asked her about silent reflux, she thought it was over-diagnosed and said it was probably just colic. I rang her a week later in dire straits and she prescribed Zantac for him. He was much better after a few days of that, not perfect by any stretch but doing better. We went to see a paediatrician around then too, she wanted him back off the soy formula as she said it’s not recommended for under 6 months (although the packaging still indicates it’s fine from birth and my GP had been happy with it). Weary as we were, we did what we were told and he went back on Aptamil comfort which is a bit thicker than normal Aptamil so a bit better for reflux. We went on like this, he was a bit improved but not super. I can’t remember exactly when I took him back off dairy and on solely soy, not sure if it was at 6 months or before. There was a good improvement though, and he’s still off it (he is 21 months old now).
I started weaning to solids around 4 months also and this both helped and hindered. He had problems with baby rice, it made him very windy, was up crying in pain at night after it. Other things I started with like butternut squash and sweet potatoes were very hard for him to digest too. I kept a very strict food diary, only trying something new if i was sure the previous thing had been tried for 3 days with no issues. What i found with the reflux is that if something upset him and he was up at night bawling with it that it could take two or three days for him to be back to normal after it, so I had to wait even longer then to try the next new thing.
Apple was terrible for his reflux and he still can’t have it. He has grown out of a lot of the foods difficult to digest but he still has problems with apples, parsnips, rice, wheat, dairy. We weaned him off the Zantac around 10 months. I hated giving him the horrible stuff but when you see them in pain it’s so horrible, so it was the right thing at the time.
I rarely see reflux problems with him anymore which is just wonderful. He still has tummy pains if he had white bread for example or anything containing dairy so he is allowed small amounts of brown (dairy free) bread sometimes, and I don’t allow any dairy in his diet at all. At about 19 months we tried goat’s milk but he didn’t tolerate it brilliantly, so for now we are sticking to the soy based products.
