Q. I want to make homemade infant formula with goat milk. Is adding lactose necessary?
A. Lactose is critical for myelin and cerebrosides in the brain of developing babies. Lactose is naturally occurring in breast milk, which is well tolerated by babies all over the world. Almost all babies do handle milk lactose just fine.
Very rarely, a baby is born with lactose intolerance. (Both parents would have to pass the gene for this type of lactose intolerance to the baby.) From birth, the baby would have severe diarrhea and be unable to tolerate the lactose in his mother’s breast milk or in formula made from cow’s milk. Your baby would need a special, lactose-free infant formula.
Babies who are born prematurely sometimes can’t produce adequate amounts of lactase for a while. A baby’s level normally increases during the end of the last trimester of pregnancy.
If your baby has had a severe case of diarrhea, his body may temporarily have trouble producing lactase, and he may have symptoms of lactose intolerance for a week or two.
If lactose intolerance is a problem for your baby or anyone in your family, you might want to give these lactase enzyme drops a try anytime lactose is consumed.
Additionally, the HLC Neonate probiotic in the Goat’s Milk Recipe has lactose (which is milk sugar but does not contain allergenic milk proteins). It is well tolerated by infants who are dairy sensitive. Unless your doctor prohibits anything with lactose, I would recommend giving this product a try. It has helped many infants achieve better digestive health, even those with colitis. Regular maintenance with supplemental probiotics may also help to reduce the incidence of allergies, asthma, and gastrointestinal disorders as your child gets older. If you think the lactose will be a problem we do have a liquid lactase enzyme that breaks down lactose. You could give your baby a few drops to baby a few minutes before giving him the probiotic.
It is most likely that baby is allergic to PASTEURIZED dairy which is very common and used in commercial baby formula. Babies do great on raw goat milk and raw cow milk due to fact it has all its enzymes. Here is a link to some additional informational topics you can read about here: Baby Nutrition, which goes into more detail.
