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Terrible intractable reflux, not responsive to meds. Like going to the ER for choking and not breathing.

Also, explosive horrible poops from day one - like shot across the room. Very quickly, the poops got bloody and FULL of mucus. Not a little mucus - it was like the whole diaper was like strings of bubblegum. No seedy poop. And the poop smelled HORRIBLE - like super acidic and sometimes vinegary. (not the usual BF poop smell, which is pretty inoffensive)

And my son was inconsolable. Never slept, day or night. After I would nurse him, he would cry for 2-3 hours. He was also very congested all the time.

I eliminated dairy when he was a week old on the recommendation of his pediatrician. At 1 month old, his pediatric GI recommended I eliminate soy and then all top 8 allergens. His diapers also tested positive for blood.

Dairy was for sure the thing that affected him the most, but unfortunately it was just the beginning for us. I had to eliminate a lot. When he was 3 months old, we went to a party at Thanksgiving and I ate a piece of turkey that I thought was safe but had been basted with butter. That Thanksgiving weekend that followed was pure hell - he was vomiting and screaming nonstop.

I'm 34 wks pregnant with #2 and I've already eliminated dairy and soy in preparation for this baby.

Screaming, reflux, blood and mucus poops, eczema, wheezing, aspiration, refused to nurse, clenched fists 24/7. It got so bad we switched to formula. She's only 18w and we're still trying to figure out what's wrong. She's on an elemental formula, "medical food," called Neocate.

Very visible blood in her diapers. Her poop was the normal yellow seedy but was also super mucousy. I desperately wanted to believe it wasn’t a dairy allergy, but it got to a pretty undeniable point. She wasnt fussy at all, which made it hard to believe she had a problem without the diapers.

Mucusy and sometimes really green poops. And kind of like it just leaked out, always a dirty diaper. Sometimes noticeable blood. Couldn't sleep due to horrible gas. Spitting up a lot. Eventually refusing to nurse.

All 3 of mine had variations of those symptoms and definitely worse after I consumed dairy.

@CatchAFallingStar: there’s dairy sensitivity and then there’s dairy allergy. If it’s a sensitivity, cutting back might help but if it’s an allergy, it won’t.

Nondairy creamers - if you want sweetened my husband drinks the Silk almond creamers. If you want unsweetened, I like Nutpods. Nondairy milk for cereal, DH likes light almond milk - unsweetened is too bland for him and the regular one is too sweet. The light or hint of honey ones that are around 45 calories is just right (says he). I like unsweetened nut milks and currently my fave is Milkadamia. Ice cream, coconut bliss is pretty good IMHO.

@CatchAFallingStar: Love Silk Nutmilk + Protein for cereal and coffee. The red one is very lightly sweetened and my favorite. The vanilla and chocolate make for yummy coffee treats. The key with coffee is to put the milk in first and slowly pour in coffee so it doesn't curdle. Personally I find almond creamer disgustingly sweet. I don't love Ripple milk either although it is another popular option.

I use So Delicious coconut milk creamer. I love it.

Cutting back wouldn't have worked for my LO, but you never know. If I was going to try cutting back I would fully eliminate then slowly add back.

@MrsADS: So many great suggestions! Avocado is like my BFF right now, I'm eating a lot of avocado toast and love it in mexican food as a sort of cheese replacement.

I'm dealing with this now for the second time as well - @CatchAFallingStar: I'm thinking if your first LO had this issue than it's likely to be the issue again this time. We also don't have a lot of symptoms besides the poop - mucousy poops, sometimes green, and despite cutting dairy and soy for weeks now I have seen a few specks of blood the past few days. So now cutting out soy oils/lecithin which are supposed to be ok. We've gone out to eat a few times so I'm guessing that was also a culprit even though I tried to order dairy/soy free!

For dairy replacement in my coffee, I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk, I actually never went back to regular milk after my first LO.

@CatchAFallingStar: if weird poop is the only symptoms, every doctor I've spoken with says its unnecessary to change your diet. Colic or seeming to be in pain, weight loss, or other symptoms would be more important symptoms to look for. Poop is just poop. Both my kids had green, mucous poops at various points and I was never advised to change my diet, as it was the only symptom (my son had reflux, but was treated for that successfully with medication)

@LBee: yes, this. its unfortunate. I know they are in a hard spot because parents want to feel like they are doing something, but it seems like such poor advice to give to women who already a. blame themselves for everything that goes wrong with their kid, b. have no time to feed themselves, and c. likely have at least some history of disordered body image/eating (given that most women seem to!!)

@CatchAFallingStar: If it actually makes you feel better to do something, then it doesn't hurt to try. Even if its just placebo effect, you feeling better is worth something. But full dairy elimination is a serious undertaking, so if it was me I'd try to read some research, and speak to the doctor at length before altering my diet. As some people have mentioned, they observed improvements just by reducing dairy, so you could go that route but a true dairy allergy would require full and cautious elimination.
Congestion is pretty common when babies are little in my experience. I was totally uninterested in changing my diet, I have celiac disease and its already hard enough to find convenient things to eat without also eliminating dairy. I obviously would have if my kid had a true allergy.

My son had/has a dairy allergy. The first signs were his absolutely terrifying projectile vomit of any formula. Ugh. I wished we had leather couches back then....

At 6 months, when we were introducing solids, he had terrible gastro issues after rice cereal (which has milk in it) and the clinching factor for me was when he broke out in hives all over his face when we tried frozen yogurt. No more dairy after that. We got him skin allergy tested at 11 months to have a doctor's note for daycare.

I never had a problem with eating dairy myself though. I practically lived off of yogurt and pizza and he never reacted negatively to my breastmilk. He was sensitive enough that if my husband had cereal and gave him a kiss a few minutes later, he'd have a nice little section of hives

He also had several gastro viruses his first year that I combed through my brain trying to think if he'd had milk and couldn't come up with anything.

On the plus side, we've managed just fine with soy milk/yogurt/cheese and he was just tested and is in fact growing out of the allergy!

Milk protein intolerance is different than an allergy and the good news is they usually outgrow it pretty quickly. I think average is around a year. Actual milk has been the biggest challenge for us, which is why I am so happy that Silk has included pea protein in their Nutmilk. My youngest is still sensitive to cheese so we haven't introduced milk yet so it really does help.
I think you got some great suggestions on products. Try to avoid processed foods whenever possible. And yes, the Earths Best butter in the red tub is so good. I definitely kept buying it long after I needed to.

@CatchAFallingStar: I would probably alert your doctor it has cleared up. Milk takes 2 weeks to get out of your system and 2-4 weeks to get out of baby’s. My daughter’s didn’t clear up for 3 weeks after elimination. I can’t link a study on it on my phone, but if it cleared up that fast I’d be considering other items in my diet that had a shorter half life.

@LBee: yep this totally. His led actually said the same thing as far as the likelihood of a lot of moms needlessly restricting dairy. He looked at me and said “if I told my wife she had to give up cheese and dairy without sufficient evidence she’d kill me”