Ds just diagnosed as Lactose Intolerant

[crazygracieuk]

My 6 year old has just been diagnosed as lactose intolerant after being on a elimination diet (Lacto-free version of milk, yoghurt and cutting out products containing milk, milk powder etc) and his symptoms disappearing.

The GP wont do anything else like refer to a dietician as he's not having strong reactions like anaphylaxis or getting a rash.
I expected at least an offer of some written literature sent to me do I have a proper list of ingredients to avoid.

What I'd appreciate is suggestions of alternative products. We use Lacto Free milk, yoghurt, pure margarine but could do with recommendations for bread (genius bread didn't go down well) , cereal and chocolate.

Thanks

[BartletForTeamGB]

Who was supervising the elimination diet? Normally it is dieticians who support that and then deal with any dietary changes afterwards.

[alliemack]

Hi crazygracieuk I was looking up information for myself and stumbled onto your post I joined this forum in hopes that I can spare you a little of the mistakes I've made in the last month...
I just discovered that I'm lactose-intolerant after 35 years of tummyaches & other symptoms (I feel like an idiot for not figuring it out sooner, but my symptoms tend to take about 2 hours to show up, so I blamed it on other things). I'm actually having my 12-year-old twins tested this week...
Anyway, the reason I'm writing is that it's AMAZING how many things contain lactose. I live in the U.S. (I fibbed on the postal code part of registration in order to write this sorry) and it's in things you wouldn't expect like breads, boullion cubes, cookies, etc. I had no idea. The key words I look for are milk, lactose, casein (i don't know if this has lactose in it or not, but I avoid it). It seems to be a universal filler especially in soft breads (maybe it helps with the shelf life?). More rustic breads like French or Italian don't seem to have it...
The most important thing I've discovered is that unless I'm mistaken there are TONS of medications that contain lactose as a filler. I think most people (probably me included) have a small tolerance for lactose either you can eat a small amount and get away with few or no symptoms, or you can take Lactaid (or another lactase enzyme tablet) with the food and have no issues. I discovered that a lot of the "chalky colored" medicines [tablets] I was taking caused extremely unpleasant symptoms (by chalky colored I mean the insides of the tablets doesn't matter what the outsides look like). I'm not sure of all of the medications, and it might depend on brands (especially if you get generic drugs), but birth control pills and ibuprophen seemed to bother me). When I removed all of those pills my symptoms virtually disappeared. (for example, I now take Advil or Motrin liquigels instead of tablets without a problem, and use a patch instead of birth control pills). This might not be an issue for you and your son yet, but it might in the future. My kids seem to have developed tummaches when taking asthma/allergy medications, and I'm curious to see if lactose is an issue for them (I discovered they also put milk powder in some of the asthma inhalers that they use -- FYI).
Anyway, I hope this helps. Hard cheeses have less lactose, so your son might be able to tolerate a small amount of cheddar or parmesan. I use soy milk for cereal some people prefer rice milk or almond milk. We have "Lactaid" milk in the U.S. it's milk that has the lactase enzyme already added to it, so many people can drink it. There are also lactase enzyme drops you can order on Amazon some people do that and add it to their own regular milk (I think you have to let it sit a day) if you want to continue using dairy milk.
Good luck! Monica (alliemack)

[Seriouslysleepdeprived]

Have they checked for an underlying condition such as coiac disease? Lactose intolerance is often secondary to another bowel issue & can be temporary. I was lactose intolerant for ages before being diagnosed with coeliac disease. The intolerance went after going gluten free for a couple of months.