Lactose Intolerance??

NiniJ55

I all, If your DC has a lactose intolerance what do you give to substitute for cow's milk? My DH and MIL (who is retired and lives with us) both have a lactose intolerance and as a result we drink "Lactaid" milk in my house. DH is able to eat cheese and other dairy products but a glass of milk or a cup of ice-cream will send him running to the bathroom for the duration for the day. MIL on the other hand can't even have cheese without taking Lactaid pills first. I am still Bfing Tristan but he eats solids now too -- 3 full meals a day. If I drink a straight glass of regular cow's milk he will be fussy, gassy and gets a nasty rash on his face (cheeks). All other dairy I am able to consume with out getting a reaction out of him though. He eats mac&cheese and baby yogurt and has not displayed any issues thus far but I am afraid that just like his father (I have heard that intolerance to lactose can be inherited) he will be unable to have regular milk. I am curious if you give your toddler if they had an intolerance to lactose -- and how did you determine it was an intolerance to lactose vs. a milk allergry? TIA for reading.

bulldog_mama23

DD is lactose intolerant.  We found this out once she was on regular formula, after 6 weeks, we made the switch to soy as sensitive made her super gassy for some reason. I am lactose intolerant and so is my dad.  DD can eat cheese and yogurt just fine (like myself) but when we tried switching to whole milk, she was having severe diarrhea and extreme crying and fussiness.  I know for myself and my dad, milk and ice cream can totally do us in. The day we switched to soy milk, everything was normal.  We were slowly introducing the whole cow's milk in her bottle and only got up to 1/2 oz milk and 4 oz soy formula when we decided we could not keep doing this to her.

I guess since she never threw up or had bloody stools, she was not allergic to milk? That is what I have read about milk allergies, I think.

We are going to try introducing whole milk again when she is about 2, sometimes they can grow out of an intolerance.  I don't know how she will do though, I gave her some bites of ice cream at my hubby's birthday and she had diarrhea three times after that and it was only like 3 bites! 

wendy25

Our Dr suspected that our DS had a milk protein intolerance because at 1 month old DS had severe eczema. Now that he's eating solids he loves yogurt and cheese. When we mentioned this to Dr at DS's 1 year visit, he said an intolerance is a dosage issue not like an allergy. Meaning you can eat yogurt once a day and not have any problems (if you have an intolerance). If you have yogurt, cheese and milk, you may have a reaction due to intolerance. In our case, a reaction would be an exzema flare up, constipation, etc. (which we haven't seen yet). Dr said if it's an allergy then you'll see it immediately (or soon after) from one "dose" of a milk product. With a milk allergy, you could see vomit, bloody stools, and diarrhea. 

Since I BF'd DS, our house was milk free for the past year. We used soy milk primarily. Recently, I tried and loved Almond milk. But since DS seems to be transitioning to whole milk ok, looks like we're going back to cow.

JENNIGER

We use Lactaid and Lactaid chewables for anything w/ milk/lactose in it.  Our doc said some cheeses and most yogurts have very little lactose in them.  We got confirmation of the diagnosis after 50+ days of diarreah and they did a colonoscopy on my son.  The biopsy # on his tissues was zero for lactose..should have been 13-17ish.