Going dairy free Breastfeeding - Help? Anyone else?

[Miss]

Hey everyone

Well Georgie is coming up for 5 weeks and doing exremely well. I am breastfeeding and am pleased to say it's going fab, she is gaining weight well and put on a 1lb one week and 13oz the next! Duing the day she is a very settled baby but come 3/4 o'clock in the afternoon she starts to get grizzly but early evening she is screaming a really shrill scream and there is nothing we can do to settle her - I thought it was wind as she is not very good at giving it up so I put her on infacol which made no difference.

When I went to have her weighed on Tues I spoke with the HV about it and she reccomended colief which I went out an brought right away - it's a bit of a pain to express a little to mix it with every feed but if it helps her I was willing to do anything! Anyway....come thursday night I am still walking the house with her at 1am so I decided I had ran out of things to try and would go to breastfeeding clinic and have her latch checked etc

I spoke to the MW at the clinic (who in turn called every helper/HV and the other midwife over as she was baffled - As well as being on Infacol, Colief and using gripe water Georgie's latch is fine, she is gaining weight, she does not bring up alot of milk after feeds, we do a bath, massage and feed routine to try and relax her in the evenings, my diet is pretty ballanced I had cut out caffine while I was pregnant (apart from chocolate) etc yet she still she screams with pain everynight come late afternoon early evening.

The other midwife decided we needed to eliminate food groups starting with Dairy - which is fine as I thought I did not eat alot of dairy lol How wrong was I! I knew I would no be able to have cereal with milk or porridge etc but chocolate? Biscuits? Butter? I really did not realise how many things we eat have dairy products in them!

I only started this yesterday and Georgie was a lot more settled last night than she has been for 3 or more weeks which is brill but I am pretty worried now about getting my food in take to a decent level so as not to ruin my milk supply has anyone else managed this? Do you have any tips?

Any help apprieciated, thanks ladies xx

 

[Rayoflight]

Hi love! I did rhe same when my LO was suffering with colic.

I'd been vegan before pregnant so didn't find it too hard. Pm me your email address I've got some lovely non dairy recipes - super healthy, super easy raw chocolate too!

Blake was fine within a fortnight and I gradually introduced dairy again over a month. Im just on a health kick at the moment and finding I'm deviating away from dairy naturally. I always lose loads of weight when I do too.

Things I found helped:

Herbal tea (Mama Tea's New Mama Tea is great because it's healthy and it really increases your supply).
Soya milk - you do get used to the taste but try rice and oat milk from the health food shop too.
Mashed avocado on toast isn't quite the same as butter but it's nice and healthy too!

Get yourself some vegan cookbooks and see the alternatives for egg, milk, cheese, butter etc. You can always add meat and things into these recipes to adapt to your diet.

 

[Miss]

ROL you are a star! Thank you so much I will pm you my email address now.

It's all pretty daunting at the moment and I missing chocolate already haha

I had never even considered the health benefits of cutting out dairy I will deff being looking for some vegan cookbooks

I hope you and Blake are well (I was wondering where you were as I had not seen you around) thanks again for the help x

 

[Baby Bean]

You should be ok with a little dark chocolate. I've got an on off dairy intolerance (it disappeared when I got pregnant and is now sometimes ok!) And as rol said, soya milk is the way to go. It's not that bad when you get used to it. You can also get soya ice cream called Swedish glace from Tesco and it tastes really nice.

 

[xxbeckyxx]

Lizzie suffered in the same way you explained when she was little and I gave up milk but still had butter etc and it still helped things. Maybe give everything up and then introduce stuff gradually again so you don't miss out too much?

 

[ZMD]

Tegan was diagnosed as Lactose intolerant at 4 months and i was breastfeeding, i had to cut out all dairy its in so many things that you wouldn't even think of! hope it helps and she settles better soon xx

 

[Miss]

Baby Bean - My plan is to go to Tesco a little later when it's quiet so that I can take my time and read the labels and stuff I will deff be looking out for the ice cream and soya milk! OH went to Asda last night and bought me back some milk bless him but he had picked up lactose free and not soya milk I did not realise until after I had used it on my cereal!

xxbeckyxx - The plan is to give it all up and then introduce it again in a few weeks/months like you said. It's good to know it helped your Lizzie tho thanks hun.

ZMD - I am sure it was your comment I saw awhile ago about being dairy free! Glad it's going well for you. You are right it's a bloody minefield!

Thank you all for your help and advice it really is appreciated x

 

[JJ Mum]

Oh dear , my brother eats dairy free as it upsets his tum, and he uses vitalite spread (it's in the fridge with the margarines), it is normal and tasty as I grew up with this as my marg when I loved with my mum

Hope it helps, and hope you can reintroduce some foods soon

 

[Miss]

JJ mum! You are a star!

Both myself and Mitchell spent ages in the fridge isle looking at the back of butter boxes and did not find one that did not have milk or buttermilk in it. Did not see that brand tho I will deffo be going out to get some.

I came away with some mayo and some milk free pasta lol oh well at least I can have one meal! x

 

[ZMD]

Pure also do a dairy free 'butter' tastes ok, you can get dairy free cheese But its disgusting and dark chocolate is ok to eat. sadly i gave up breastfeedin when she was 5 months But wish id carried on! her diet is dairy free so If you've got any questions i may be Able to help xx

 

[ZMD]

You can also buy soya yogurts and desserts and If you look in most supermarkets where the 'free from' stuff is they sell some dairy free bircuits and Custard etc x

 

[Squeakz]

If your using dairy free buttersa our dietician said use pure. Its beTter than vitalite!!!!! Ah god its in everything! Later this evening ill writwe a list of stuff we have to look out for when feeding J (he has a milk intolerance_ and its LOADS!! X

 

[Miss]

You ladies have been fab! Can't thank you enough for all your help so glad I posted about this on here as I was completely clueless!

Squeakz - I would be grateful if you could post that stuff for me, when you have time of course.

I honestly could not find much in tesco even in the "free from" section but thinking about it maybe our tesco only has a small range? I will try Asda and the tesco a little further away. Ment to pop into Holland and barrett this morning but I have a head like a sieve and totally forgot!

 

[JJ Mum]

Not sure If I should be posting this as a link to another forum, but it's a dairy free one I found when looking fro dairy free pages for you, seems tok have useful info , like you can call tescok customer services and they can send you a list of all their dairy free foods etc , sounds helpful

http://www.dairyfreeuk.com/forum/index.php

 

[Squeakz]

hey sorry this wasnt last night! this is a list of stuff that we have to check the labels of food for for a milk free diet for jshua:

milk
modified milk
milk solids
non-fat milk solids
skimmed milk powder
cream
artificial cream
cheese
yoghurt
buttermilk
butter
margarine
ghee
whey,whey solids
hydrolysed whey protein
hydrolysed whey sugar
casein (curds)
caseinate
hydrolysed casein
lactose

its quite long.............................. hope it helps!!!!!!!!

xxx

 

[Miss]

Squeakz that list is a huge help thank you so much! We just do not realise what they disguise stuff as in foods do we! This has been a real eye opener for me! Also, I went to Asda and thanks to you and ZMD I found Pure spread and can now at least have a sandwich lol You made it so easy just giving me a brand to look for (I know that prob sounds dead lazy) they had a larger free from range too so I now have some yogurts, little chocolate pudding/custard things too so at least I have something for a snack.

JJ Mum - That site is brilliant thank you, I will be doing some serious browsing over there, trust me! I will also be sure to contact all the supermarkets and see if I can get lists - that would make make things super easy!

I really don't know what I would have done without your help!

I know it's early days but Georgie has been a lot more settled, unfotunately she still wants to be held ALL the time which was the norm due to her being in pain and screaming. I have been trying to put her down once I know she is propperly asleep but after 20 mins she wakes up crying bless her so I suppose it's just going to take patience, at the moment I have her in a moby wrap as it's killing my back carrying her everywhere! Such a shame as when she was very little she would go down anywhere!

Ok...I think I am waffling now for no reason lol

Thanks again for all your help and support

Donna xxx

 

[stephj25]

I have gone dairy free (amongst other things) to help with my endo.

For milk, I would recommend unsweetened rice milk - i love it!!

 

[Miss]

Hi Steph

Thanks for the suggestion, I am currently working my way thru a carton of soya milk - my good it's sweet will deffo try rice milk when it's gone tho x

 

[Squeakz]

Oh and we also got told that we should supplement his calcium count so I presume same for adults!!!!! We got recommended birds custard. The powder one in a tin-the original, and make with whicheer milk substitute you use. Add cocoa amd a bit of sugar for chocolate custard. White sauces usingthe substitute milk. Also dried fruit is apparently brill and also tinned fish excl tuna. Not sure how transferable some of the sauce/ custard recipes are with adult milk substitute but might be worth a go to make sure you get enough calcium!!!!! Oh and homemade rice pudding!! Let us know how you get on x

 

[Miss]

Squeakz you are a star thank you!

I was panicing about my calcium intake a few days ago and have made sure I have lots of broccoli etc but actually resorted to those horrible soya yogurts and custard pot things lol I am sure I will get used to them at some point but urgh they are vile!

Does your son still have the intolerance now? Or has he grown out of it?
Xx