7 signs your child may have a food intolerance
1. Spitting up
Possible culprit: Intolerance to casein, a dairy protein. Casein in dairy products—which is different from the casein in human milk—that gets into breast milk or is in formula can irritate an infant’s gut lining, causing gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Later, the symptoms may morph into chronic ear infections or constipation, says Dorfman.
Action plan: Remove dairy from the baby’s and nursing mom’s diet for at least a week. (It takes four to five days for dairy to clear from breast milk.) For formula-fed infants, choose a brand made with predigested casein or whey. To heal baby’s damaged intestinal lining, give 10 billion CFU daily of probiotic bacteria mixed in a bottle or sprinkled on solid food.