is my 7 week old baby lactose intollerant or is it just colic?

Question

He is breast fed
symptoms : cries alot early evenings especislly during and soon after feeding and also early mornings : generally better during the day

Answer 1

See a pediatrician. It can be a serious matter.

Answer 2

Traditional lactose intollerance is extremely rare in babies. Lactose intollerance does not appear until at the earliest age 2-5 years old. Other forms of lactose intollerance are metabolic disorders that are apparent within a few days of birth. They are extremely rare. http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/lactose-intolerance.html

More than likely your baby is having a reaction to something you ate, probably dairy (although if you provided more details we would be better able to assess what is ailing your baby, though only your doctor should make a diagnosis for most problems). You should think about eliminating dairy from your diet as many babies are sensitive to the protien in cow's milk. There are several other foods that might be the culprit, but cow's milk dairy is the #1 offender. http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/food-sensitivity.html

Your baby may also have colic. I like Harvey Karp's technique on soothing babies with colic. The 5 S's-- swaddling, sucking, side or stomach position, swinging, and shushing (white noise). http://www.thehappiestbaby.com/

Answer 3

Whether your baby is breast or bottle fed it could be lactose intolerance. Breast fed babies will receive lactose from the mother's milk if Mum consumes dairy products. Either way it would be worth consulting your doctor, although they are not always sympathetic to the worries of new mums. In the meantime try changing baby's formula to one for lactose intolerant babies or excluding all dairy from your own diet if you are breastfeeding.
At 7 weeks your baby should be eating about every 3 hours, maybe slightly less if breast fed, during the day. Regular feeding is important to minimise any stomach discomfort. As I'm sure you have experienced, when you let your stomach get too empty and then eat you can get quite bad bloating and wind, this is the same for babies only worse because their systems are not fully developed. Wake baby to feed during the day but not at night.
More information on your question would have been useful.

Answer 4

A baby CAN be intolerant of its own mothers milk, if the mother is drinking milk or taking any dairy products it can pass into the breast milk, it took us a year and a half to find this out. Our second daughter (now 13) suffered very badly from lactose intolerance, hardly slept, just cried in pain from birth until 1 1/2 years old. L I was a 'new' word at that time. We changed to soya milk and within 24 hours she was like a different child. We went through hell trying to find out what was wrong with her.
After about a further year we gradually introduced dairy products into her diet, and she was fine, and has been ever since, milk ,yogurt, cheese, ice cream, anything.

Answer 5

He could just be really grumpy when he is tired! I doubt if he is lactose intolerant as he is breastfed and lactose is generally found in cows milk no tmothers milk. You need to supply more information really, but here are a couple of points that usually come with being colicky.

Green runny poo that is quite smelly
Tight belly
Going off their food
Crying just after they are fed
Lots of wriggling when they are crying

If you really think he has colic get some colic drops from your local pharmacy and make sure that you always get at least 2 burps out of him before and after he is fed. Good luck!

Answer 6

does it sound like coliky pain, has he got a rash, has he done a poo?
my son was breast and bottle fed and i was told it was colic by my health vivitor, but after 7 weeks of constant crying i took him to see the doctor who said because he had had this rash on and off for a few weeks it was probably likely to have lactose intollerance. he staright away put my son on soya milk and within two days he was a differant child. we also found that Dr Johnsons bottles which are available from mothercare helped.
take the baby to the doctor get his opinion, you can just decided to change to soya formula its availble to buy and they dont miss out on anything its full of protein. my son came on leeps and bounds.and he grew out of it by the time he was 1 1/2 he was having normal products again. have you tried infacol that also helps if it is colic?

good luck hope everythings settles for you.

Answer 7

Most likely colic or similar especially if he is breastfed.

Some people swear by colic drops eg infacol available in the chemist. However, if your baby continues like this and develops any other symptoms - vomiting, blown up abdomen see your GP / go to A&E

Is he opening his bowels and weeing OK? What about his weight and how well does he feed? Are you producing milk OK?

Hopefully he will "grow out of it"

Answer 8

You need to give more details. However colic is actually very rare, people quite often attribute colic to everything. Babies are not designed to have bad tummies! If the baby is very sicky it could be acid reflux (which can cause pain) but if the baby just cries a lot then it could be that the baby is tired but doesn't know how to get to sleep. Read Secrets of the Baby Whisperer for tips on how to get the baby to sleep and try to get him/her into a good routine

Answer 9

i had the same thoughts when my child was that age, i found out it was colic by changing the milk that i gave from sma gold which is very rich to farleys give it a go, i found that after a day or so the symptoms were better but when i ntroduced one feed of the previous milk the symptoms instantly returned then i knew for sure, to releive the pain try gripe water or put your baby belly down along your arm and gently rub the lower back works a treat.

Answer 10

i don't know about lactose but colic is when a baby cries alot in the evening u could try some colic drop on AVAILABLE ON PRESCRIPTION
check out the sites below its great for all your baby Questions

Answer 11

from experience my nephew cried after EVERY feed and he had colic. and not just crying , really screaming. all the time after every feed. his mum was too ill to breast feed him so was on bottles and we got him drops and special bottles, that seemed to help alot. dont know if a baby gets colic when is breast fed, go see you gp or midwife. good luck, i know how hard it is