All About Lactose Intolerance in Infants

Lactose intolerance in infants can make it difficult for your little one to be able to drink milk. When your baby is intolerant of lactose, his body isn't able to produce enough of the enzyme lactase, which helps him to digest lactose. Lactose is the main sugar in dairy products like cow's milk. Since he can't digest it fully, the part of the lactose that is not digested stays in the intestine, and can cause health issues. These tend to be more of a problem than a danger.

Premature babies sometimes aren't able to produce enough lactase at first. Their level usually increases during the end of pregnancy's last trimester.

The form of lactose intolerance in infants is not the true form. The actual form shows up when your child is in grade school, or when he becomes a teenager. He may show some symptoms at an earlier age, but babies don't usually suffer the same form of lactose intolerance as adults or teens do.

You may ask yourself, what is the cause of lactose intolerance, in infants or adults? We don't always know why some people develop this and some don't, but it isn't a rare condition. There are thirty to fifty million people who are lactose intolerant in the United States.

Genetics are a part of who develops this disorder. More people of Asian American descent and Hispanic American and Native American descent are lactose intolerant. Only about fifteen percent of people in Europe have the condition.

On vary rare occasions, lactose intolerance in infants does actually occur - the same type that adults experience. For this to happen, both parents would need to pass that specific gene to the baby. After his birth, the baby would have serious diarrhea and he would not be able to drink his mother's milk or any formula made from cow's milk. He would need to drink a lactose-free formula for infants.

If your baby is not normally lactose-intolerant but has had a serious case of diarrhea, his body may not make enough lactase, so he may seem to be lactose intolerant for a couple weeks. People who suffer from conditions that may affect their intestines, like Crohn's disease or celiac disease, may occasionally suffer from lactose intolerance, too.

If your little one is a victim of true lactose intolerance in infants, he may experience bloating, diarrhea, cramping or gas, anywhere from a half hour to two hours after drinking his mother's breast milk, or after eating products with milk in them. Babies should actually not drink any cow's milk until after their one-year-old birthday.

Some people who are lactose intolerant can eat small amounts of dairy foods without experiencing any symptoms. But others will suffer discomfort each time they eat food that has even small amounts of lactose.