Frequently Asked Questions

What is Colief®?

What is Lactase?

Transient Lactase Deficiency in Infants

What does Colief® do?

What does Colief® contain?

Are the drops suitable for vegetarians?

From what age can a baby have Colief®?

How do you give Colief® if bottle feeding?

How can you give Colief® if breast-feeding?

How do you use Colief® with pre-packed ready-to-use formula?

Can you make up more than one bottle at a time?

Can you use Colief® with soya formula or lactose-free formula?

Can you use Colief® with goats-milk based infant formula?

I am breast-feeding “on demand”, every hour or two. Should I still use four drops of Colief® at every feed?

How often should you use Colief®? And for How long?

How should you store Colief®?

Does Colief® have any side-effects?

Where can Colief® be obtained?

Is Colief® available on prescription?

Where has Colief® been researched?

Can I add the drops to milk formula that I have already made up and stored in the refrigerator?

How does Colief® work for breastfeeding?

I am bottle-feeding my baby with expressed breastmilk. How should I treat this with Colief®?

I am freezing my breastmilk for use at a later time. How should I treat this with Colief®?

What is Colief®?
Colief® is a food supplement for adding to infant milk and is not a medicine. The active ingredient in Colief® is lactase, a safe enzyme which occurs naturally within the small intestine.

What is Lactase?
Milk, infant formulas, breast milk and dairy products all contain a complex sugar (disaccharide) called lactose. Lactase is the enzyme our bodies need to produce to break down the lactose in milk and dairy products into simple sugars (monosaccharides) glucose and galactose, which can then be absorbed as part of the normal digestive process.

Transient Lactase Deficiency in Infants
Transient lactase deficiency has been shown to be an important factor in some babies with colic. A deficiency of lactase enzyme in the small intestine results in the inability of the body to fully digest the milk-sugar lactose. This causes undigested lactose in milk and dairy products to be broken down by bacterial activity in the bowel, which produces lactic acid and hydrogen gas and results in severe discomfort, bloatedness and wind.

It may be that the baby is not yet producing sufficient levels of lactase enzyme, due to being born with immature digestive system. However, by the time the baby is 3-4 months old its digestive system should have developed sufficiently to produce adequate levels of lactase enzyme for the proper digestion if its feeds.

What does Colief® do?
Colief® does not provide a treatment for colic, nor a cure. The addition of Colief® Infant Drops to the baby's usual milk merely compensates for a possible temporary lactase deficiency in the child's digestive system. Colief® Infant Drops added to baby's usual milk greatly reduce the level of lactose in the feed by breaking this down into glucose and galactose, before the baby is fed. Studies have shown that the hours of crying may be greatly reduced when baby's usual milk is treated with Colief®.

What does Colief® contain?
Colief®'s only ingredients are Lactase Enzyme (which should be naturally present in normal gut), Glycerol ("Glycerine" - which is also naturally present in the body as part of the process of converting fats to energy) and Water. None of these ingredients has even been shown to pose a risk to health.

Are the drops suitable for vegetarians?
Yes. The only ingredients apart from water are glycerol (derived from vegetable sources) and lactase enzyme (derived from yeast).

From what age can a baby have Colief®?
Colief® Infant Drops can safely be used from birth onwards.

How do you give Colief® if bottle feeding?
The bottles should be made up as normal and allowed to cool to body temperature (not hot – not cold). Add four drops of Colief® and hold at room temperature for approx half an hour before giving the feed to the baby. Always check the temperature of the feed before feeding the baby.

How can you give Colief® if breast-feeding?
Express a few teaspoons of milk into a sterilised container. Then add 4 drops of Colief® Infant Drops and feed it back to the baby using a sterilised plastic spoon. Immediately start breastfeeding as normal.

How do you use Colief® with pre-packed ready-to-use formula?
Open the pack, pour the required feed into a feeding bottle, warm gently to body temperature, add four drops of Colief® to the feed and use after approx half an hour.

Once opened, ready-to-use formula must be kept refrigerated and used according to the manufacturers instructions. Colief® works best with milk that is at body temperature: Colief® should not be added to milk at fridge temperature.

Can you make up more than one bottle at a time?
Yes, though the latest advice from UK Dept. of Health is that bottles are made up as and when required. The bottles should be made up as normal and allowed to cool to body temperature (not hot – not cold). Add two drops of Colief® per feed and place the feeds in a refrigerator for a minimum of four hours. Take the feeds from the fridge as required and reheat before giving the feed to the baby.

If made up in advance, we recommend 12 hrs as a maximum limit for keeping milk treated with Colief®, even when stored in a refrigerator. The Colief® will have completed its task of breaking down most of the lactose in the feed in the first 4 hrs, and little further activity will subsequently take place. It is not good practice to keep made-up formula for too long, even in a refrigerator.

Can you use Colief® with soya formula or lactose-free formula?
There’s no point using Colief® with soya or lactose-free formulas: these do not contain lactose and Colief® will therefore have no active effect.

Can you use Colief® with goats-milk based infant formula?
Yes: goats milk based infant formula contains lactose the same as any other normal formula. Use Colief® Infant Drops as for other formula.

I am breast-feeding “on demand”, every hour or two. Should I still use four drops of Colief® at every feed?
If you are feeding this frequently you may find it convenient to express off approx half a cup of fore milk* and store this in a refrigerator. Pour off a few teaspoons, warm it to body temp., add Colief® and give this to your baby before each feed.
If the feeds are small (say 50ml each) you may be able to use only two drops of Colief® per feed.
*It is worth also remembering that most of the lactose is concentrated in the “fore milk” at the commencement of every feed.

How often should you use Colief®? And for How long?
Colief® Infant Drops should be used at every feed until the baby is approx 3 – 4 months old, by which time the symptoms of colic should have disappeared. Colief® should then be withdrawn gradually from use, ie by firstly halving the drops per feed, then using at alternative feeds, then one feed per day before complete withdrawal. If at any stage the signs of colic return, revert to previous dosage level.

How should you store Colief®?
Unopened bottles of Colief® should be stored in a cool dry place, below 25 degC. Once opened, Colief® should be stored in a refrigerator and the opened bottle discarded after 3 – 4 weeks. The bottle must not be allowed to freeze.

Does Colief® have any side-effects?
When babies commence taking milk treated with Colief®, there may be change in stool pattern. The stools may then resemble those of a breastfed baby, ie looser and more frequent. If you are happy that the baby is otherwise well, gaining weight and urinating normally then there should be no cause for concern. If the drops seem to be working well, you might try reducing the number of drops used at each feed.

If you have any concerns regarding your baby's health you should consult a Health Care Professional as soon as possible.

Where can Colief® be obtained?
Colief® can be readily obtained from most pharmacies, including Boots, Moss, Lloyds, Numark & many major supermarkets, pharmacies (UK & Ireland).

Is Colief® available on prescription?
In the UK Colief® is approved by the ACBS for prescription by Doctors for babies with established lactose intolerance. Many GP’s are now prescribing Colief® for babies with Colic because of the well-established link with transient lactase deficiency.

Where has Colief® been researched?
Colief® was tested at Cork University Hospital, Ireland by Prof. Kearney in the early 1990’s to demonstrate that a lactose-reduced feed was effective in reducing infant colic. His results were presented to the Royal College of Paediatricians at their annual meeting in spring 1994 and published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics in Sept 1998. These results were confirmed in a larger study recently completed at Guys Hospital by Dr Dipak Kanabar and published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics in Oct 2001.

Can I add the drops to milk formula that I have already made up and stored in the refrigerator?
Not at fridge temperature. The drops work very slowly on milk that is already chilled. The ideal temperature for the enzymes to work properly is between room temperature and body-heat, ie neither too hot nor too cold. This is why we recommend that the drops are added when the formula is first made-up and allowed to cool to body temperature.

How does Colief® work for breastfeeding?
If the drops were given directly to the baby, the acid levels in the upper digestive tract would quickly denature the enzyme and render this ineffective. However, four drops of Colief® when mixed with a little expressed foremilk* appear to be protected against this process by the milk itself, and this then provides a lining to the baby's upper digestive tract, mixing with the feed as this is ingested and working to reduce the lactose level of the milk. We believe that in this form, the enzyme has an effective "working life" of approx 30 minutes or so. Laboratory trials have shown that four drops of Colief® in 100mls of infant milk at body temperature will convert approx 70% of the lactose in 30 minutes.
*Foremilk contains a concentration of the lactose in breastmilk

I am bottle-feeding my baby with expressed breastmilk. How should I treat this with Colief®?

Express-off a single feed, and whilst still at body temperature, pour this into a feeding bottle and add four drops of Colief®, shaking occasionally. The feed will be ready to use after approx half an hour.

I am freezing my breastmilk for use at a later time. How should I treat this with Colief®?

Option 1. Express-off a single feed, and, whilst still at body temperature, pour this into a suitable container. Add two drops of Colief® and place the feed in a refrigerator for approx 4 hours. Then use as required or freeze for future use. Do not place the feed straight in the freezer after adding the drops.

Option 2. Take a single serving of frozen breastmilk from the freezer, thaw and heat gently to body temperature. Then add four drops of Colief® and use after approx half an hour.

NB: It is important to add Colief® only to milk that is at body temperature: do not add the drops to milk that is either hot or cold. Also discard any milk that is unused once thawed: do not refreeze.