Anyone's PS lactose intolerant?

JandBandB

I have noticed when my 4.5 y.o drinks milk (2%) or eats ice cream, that he has explosive BM's about 30 minutes afterwards.  About 20 minutes after it all starts with yucky gas, but then 10 after that, the poop starts.  This week, he has started to complain that his tummy hurts as well about 25 minutes after eating or drinking things with milk.

If I took him to the doc, what would they do?  When he was 2, we thought he had a nut allergy and we had him tested.  At the same time, they did a scratch test and I thought they said they did a lactose as well (which came back negative)  Could L.I. come on over time?  What sort of things do you do for your DC if they are lactose intolerant?

Thanks!

UsedToBeGoldie

i recently became lactose intolerant this past year. it's just like you said - about 15 minutes after i eat dairy i bloat up horribly and have horrible gas, etc.

i never got tested- there is a breath test they do... i just stopped drinking milk and get the Lactaid milk now- and take a lactaid pill when i'm eating something with cheese, etc... and try to limit how much i eat when i do.  the pill is not a "drug"  it's an enzyme to help you digest... not sure if kids can take it or not but it's helped me a lot.

talk to your doc about it.

erincjackson

Both of my kids are lactose intolerant, to the point when they were infants I couldn't breastfeed due to the milk that I would eat/drink. I started them from soy based formula to skim milk instead of 2%. They luckly have outgrown most of it. DD can't tolerate as much as DS can. They don't eat much ice cream but handle yogurt and cheese just fine. We also drink 1% milk instead of 2% and they are okay with that but they only drink it with breakfast so not much.

cmanmom

DS has the milk protein allergy.  When he was a baby he would rash up after having rice cereal that had dried milk in it, even though I mixed it with breastmilk.  Since then he's been on soy milk.  I try and do soy ice cream or sherbert whenever possible and only 1 little cup of yogurt per day.  DS is not a fan of cheese sticks or pieces of cheese in general, but if he has too much say, on pizza or in a quesadilla he gets gassy   Thankfully it's an easy one to get around and not life threatening or anything!  Oh, and the diagnosis was just based on bringing him in to the dr. as a baby (6 months?  I can't even remember when we started rice cereal) and she saw the rash, compared the ingredients on the different rice cereal and the only difference was the powdered milk - there we had it!

GL

triplea1819

milk protein and an allergy are VERY different then lactose.   Lactose is a sugar in the milk and lactose intolerance is the inability to digest/break down the sugar before it goes into your intestines. 

DS is lactose intolerant.  He took the breath test just about 1 year ago.  It was immediately positive.  A few hours after he has a dairy product, he has diarrhea and it lasts for DAYS.  He has gas almost immediately, and you can see him bloat up.  

 Technically you can not grow out of lactose intolerance.  That would be more of a protein allergy.  

 Once a child is old enough they can take the breath test.  They have to be able to blow up the little balloon to take it.  I believe there is a blood test as well, but not as accurate as the breath test.

 It is very very rare for a child to be lactose intolerant.  I had to fight 3 drs for my son to be tested.  They said unless we are of jewish or asian decent the chances were 1 in a million.  He was the 1.  It is AWFUL for him too.  Pills do not help him at all.  He can not even have bread or dough that has a milk fat in it.  This means almost no deserts for him.  No butter, chocolate(except very dark chocolate), frostings, etc.  It is very very hard especially for bday parties, because pizza is generally the main thing to eat.    I feel bad for him, but at least he will never know different.

June2007

Not my PS but we are assuming that DD#2 has some sort of intolerance to dairy. It is actually more common than not but we deal with the nasty side effects of dairy because it is the cultural norm in America. I'm not the type of person to try to change people minds though so I'll leave it at that.

I will add that we are not bothering with testing, maybe when she's much older. We are all just changing the way we eat. We have always done soy/almond/coconut milks as our milk staple but we also found a delicious cheese substitute (can only find it at whole foods here, other brands are nasty!) that the name of it escapes me right now but I could go look if you're interested. We do coconut milk ice cream and yogurts too and buy earths balance dairy free brand butter. We do consume dairy occasionally but it is on par with junk food and a sometimes treat for us, we just give something else similar to DD2 on those occasions. She isn't so sensitive that milk being far down on the ingredient lists bother her though so that makes life a little easier.

WestwoodDriveMel

Lurker jumping in... my DD is 4 and lactose intolerant.  She was just like your son with stomach aches, diarrhea, etc. We also had her tested at an allergist at age 2 for all kinds of things (thought it might be nuts too) and all, including milk, came back negative (so not a milk allergy).  At 3, she was tested for celiac (negative) and pedi diagnosed her with lactose intolerance.

She drinks lactose-free milk (pedi warned against soy milk on a regular basis - she said it contains growth hormones).   You can also buy things like rice milk ice cream, lactaid yogurt, etc.

If I were you, I'd definitely talk to your pedi about it - they will probably want to rule out anything else.  Good luck!