Lactose Intolerance – Feeding Your Baby Safely

The topic of lactose intolerance has been frequently up for debate lately, especially when it comes to babies. Despite its popularity, lactose intolerance is poorly understood nowadays and there are several myths and misunderstandings about it. Let’s take a look at this important issue of parenting and find some practical solutions for the times when your baby cries for no reason.

What is Lactose Intolerance?

Lactose is actually the sugar in the milk. Lactose intolerance is the inability to digest lactose and it occurs when a person’s body cannot produce enough lactase (the enzyme that is required to digest lactose). Therefore, the lactose cannot be absorbed and it stays in the digestive tract. Once getting into the large bowel, it produces uncomfortable acids and gases.

Babies with lactose intolerance present some of the following symptoms: liquid stools, irritability, winds passing, weight loss, dehydration, and so on.

How can you tell if a baby is lactose intolerant? Normally the medical tests like ‘hydrogen breath test’ and tests for ‘reducing sugars’ in the stools will be positive if a baby presents lactose intolerance. These tests can be also positive in most normal breastfed babies under the age of 3 months, so diagnosing lactose intolerance in young babies is often questionable.

There are two types of lactose intolerance in babies.

Primary lactose intolerance is also known as true lactose intolerance and it’s a rare genetic condition which requires medical intervention. A baby with primary lactose intolerance won’t start to gain weight and will need a special diet soon after birth.

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Secondary lactose intolerance can be caused by some factors that can damage the gut lining, since the enzyme lactase is produced in the microscopic folds of the intestine. Certain conditions may reduce the enzyme production, like for example food intolerance or allergy.

Secondary lactose intolerance is only temporary, so when the cause is removed, the gut will heal, even if the baby is still breastfed. A baby can be allergic or intolerant to some allergenic agents in the breast milk. In this case, simply taking the allergenic foods out of the mother’s diet will solve the problem.

Lactose Intolerance Solutions

Even if your baby presents lactose intolerance, you can continue breastfeeding as long as he or she is feeling good and growing normally.

Often times it is suggested that the mother should alternate breastfeeding with feeds of lactose-free artificial baby milk. In some rare cases, the baby with lactose intolerance can be taken off the breast. You should keep in mind though that human milk remains the best food and will help with the natural gut healing.

It can be useful for mothers to change the breastfeeding routine for a short time. The main focus should be to slow the rate at which milk goes through the baby, and you can do this by feeding one breast per feed, or by ‘block-feeding’.  Simply put, you need to set a period of time (for example 4 hours) and use the same breast every time the baby needs to eat during this period. Then you can use the other breast for the next 4 hours, and so on. This way, every time your baby feeds on the already used breast, he gets a lower volume of high fat milk that helps slow the system down. During block-feeding, you need to make sure that the unused breast doesn’t get overfull.

As a complementary solution, there are several types of drops containing the enzyme lactase which you can give to your baby in order to heal the lactose intolerance symptoms. Though these drops don’t seem to have much value, some reports show that large doses may be occasionally useful for babies.

Final Note on Lactose Intolerance

As explained above, it is important to keep in mind that there are several types of lactose intolerance. An essential aspect is that you don’t have to stop breastfeeding your baby because of this condition. There are extremely rare cases of primary lactose intolerance. Getting to know the exact cause of lactose intolerance is the key to fixing the problem and soothing the symptoms for your little one.