Switching My 1 Year Old to Milk / Really Bad Diaper Rash

are you using whole milk? my kids had been breast-fed and when it was time to go to milk, they just did not tolerate whole milk. I went with 2%. that really made a difference. after a while, I just started giving them skim milk and that is what we drink to this day(kids are now 21 and 15) and they never had any problems. they are 6'4" and 6'2" inches respectfully.

That is exactly what happened with my daughter too - when she stopped nursing and started taking milk in a sippy cup with meals. My husband is lactose intolerant so he was the one that put it together. She stopped sleeping through the night at that time, balling up with stomach cramps screaming, crazy poo, and the worst diaper rash that I have ever seen, huge craters and cracks - had to get a prescription because nothing was working! Anyway - try giving her Lactaid brand milk, or Smart Balance - lactose free and see if it helps her. If it does then you'll know - and give it a week or two. Also - what I had to do - was have my daughter drink the lactaid if she was going to eat yogurt, cheese, pizza, ice cream etc. As long as she had a sippy cup of lactaid milk first she was ok to eat that stuff. I t was hugely inconvenient because we travel alot and you can't get lactaid in convenience stores or restaurants, we don't let her have soda,and she actually craves the milk. I finally found a product for my husband that eventually revolutionized our lives! With the lactaid brand of pills - you have to take 1-3 every time you have dairy if it has been more than 30 minutes. Expensive, and highly inconvenient! I found a product called "Digestive Advantage" - the adult formula is a tiny little caplet and you take one with breakfast and you are good to go for 24 hours! They finally came out with a children's chewable, but it's hard to find. Our Walmart used to carry it, but they only have the adult one - which at 6 my daughter is now ok to take, but Publix orders the children's chewable in for me. If you go to their website - you can print a coupon for 2-3 $ off, (it varies) and they run about $7 per box - for a month's supply. In the long run, it's cheaper and more convenient than the lactaid milk, soy, almond etc..... ALSO - before I discovered this I was giving my daughter soy milk - and then I started noticing some things, and read articles about the dangers of soy so I stopped. You can google it - but it is now being attributed to early premature puberty, certain female cancer etc. I noticed that at 3 my daughter was developing really dark hair on her arms and legs and was getting really moody. I stopped the soy all together - and the hair has gone away and the moods leveled out. Good luck!

Two of my three kids were lactose intolerant for a while at this age. One was on lactose free milk and the other had to have soy. It didn't last long and it didn't do them any harm. Better than a bad rash, but probably wise to check with your pediatrician too.

she could be lactose intolerant or have a milk protein allergy, Why we wean our children off of human breastmilk to put them on cows breastmilk still baffles me...consider continuing to breastfeed her, and when she is older and eating more calcium rich foods and is ready you can wean her and not even worry about cows milk...many cultures never touch cows milk and they are just fine!

Sorry just re read and see you are FF. either way she doesnt need to drink cows milk just give her calcium rich foods and she will be fine! and no that is not a normal transitioning that is her body refusing the substance!

This happened to my daughter too...after breasfeeding. I tried goats milk, did a little better for a couple of weeks and then the same. Tried soy and that was a disaster. Diaper rash and oh so gassy. On rice milk now and finally no problems. I took her to the allergist and even though the scratch test didn't show an allergy...the dr said that they symptoms are consistent with a milk intollerance/allergy (but not so bad that anaphaxis is an issue)....AND that she should grow out of it. Since 1, we have tried milk again twice and she has not grown out of it.

If the formula she is taking is just the regular one, then it is already milk based. If she were lactose intolerant, I don't think she would be able to tolerate the regular formula. I would check with your pediatrician.

It could be an effect of the introduction of milk which is semi-normal during the transition, so follow some of the others advice - but also don't rule out that she may be teething? at the same time too, they seem to experience it all at once sometimes and we get false cues! Kind of like when they get sick when you introduce a new food, but it is just co-incidence.
Good luck!

Thank you for posting this. This is exactly what happened to me last week. I started giving my son a mixture of milk and formula and he got a bad diaper rash. I stopped giving him the milk and his rash is fading, thank goodness. I would like to know what other mom's think about this too. And what I should do about it.

It sounds as if she might have a milk allergy. You could try lactose free milk which is usually easy to find at most markets. If that doesn't work, goats milk might be a good choice. Goat milk is much easier to digest...good luck!

I don't know that I would attribute the explosions and diaper rash to the milk. The amount of formula is high enough that I wouldn't expect that strong a reaction to the milk. My son is about 15 months and around 9 months had a few days of super poopy explosions and a bad rash. The pediatrian told me it was likely a stomach bug and he was fine after 3 or 4 days. The weirdest thing was no one else in the family got it and he has a 3 year old sister.

When I transitioned my son to milk I found the opposite to be true of milk- he gets really constipated, so I went down to 1% milk and add about 2 ounces of soy milk (my daughter was on soy formula and soy milk for the first two years of her life and is perfectly healthy) and that cleared it up for him. Just thought I'd mention that in case your daughter swings the other way at some point.

Now about the diaper rash- we have found that mixing Triple Paste and cornstarch will clear up even the worst diaper rash in about a day. You can get it at Target- it is expensive but worth it. Hope she feels better soon.

C.