Just found out that my 1 year old son is lactose intolerant and that it has been the reason why he has not been growing as much as he should. Does anyone here have any experience of lactose intolerance? Any advice would be greatly received, cheers!

Not sure about in kids but my mum is lactose intolerant – but weirdly goat’s milk/cheese and sheep’s milk/cheese is fine. Also look out for whey powder, it’s in all sorts of things you wouldn’t expect.

Is he Chinese? apparently they are Lactose intolerant for some genetic reason

I had to leave Liverpool and move down South because of my Lacoste intolerance.

I’m lactose intolerant; gives me really bad IBS. Took ages to work out what it was that was causing it & was annoying cutting out lactose to start with, but don’t really miss it now.

Goat’s & Sheep’s milk are both fine, as is double or clotted cream (all fat, no sugar), most hard cheeses are fine in moderation, as is yoghurt & I use whey isolate powder at the gym rather than whey concentrate. I drink black tea, eat dark chocolate, religiously check ingredients if out for a meal & really miss lasagne.

Not experienced it stunting growth though. I’m 5’11” & my sister (who also has it) is 6′

rondo101, Lasagne made with goats milk is really nice, super cheesy. You can also use hard goats cheese on it too.

We’re kinda lactose wary and my wife is wheat intolerant too, which makes eating interesting.

i have a proper italian lasagne recipe and it doesn’t have any cheese in it apart from parmesan but I bet you could use something like pecorino instead.

I’m lactose intolerant, it’s not a big deal once you learn to manage it, but when I first had it it remained undiagnosed for months and I lost about 2 stone and looked like a lightly reheated corpse for a while. Doctors thought I might have cancer or something, I had all sorts of intrusive tests (I’ll spare you the details). It was only when a hippy friend suggested cutting out dairy that I suddenly got better. Idiot doctors. Anyway…

There are a few things to bear in mind. Firstly, it’s seriously uncomfortable, often very painful to be fed large amounts of lactose when you can’t digest the stuff. Assuming that the diagnosis is correct, and he hasn’t got any other issues, your boy will be much, much happier if you cut the stuff out of his diet.

You can buy pills and drops containing a lactase enzyme which are supposed to do the lactose digestion bit for you. The drops are available for tinies, ask your doctor about them. Bear in mind that they’re not a quick fix solution, though. I use the tablets quite often, if I’m eating out or whatever, and they seem to make things a bit better, but they do not cure the symptoms entirely and I still have to watch what I eat. Large amounts of cream or whatever and I’m in gutrot hell again.

Lactose is used neat by food manufacturers in all sorts of stuff, often things you really wouldn’t expect it to be in. It’s used as a binding agent in crisps and as a glaze on lots of packaged meats. It’s used in a lot of pharmaceuticals, again as a binding agent. You’ll find it in gravy mixes, Pringles, Twiglets, supermarket ham, pasta sauces, margarine, all over the shop. The upshot of this is: if you want your kid to be happy eating food, read every single label of every processed food-thing that goes in his mouth. It’s a drag to start with, but after a while you’ll get the hang of what’s good and what isn’t, it’ll stop being a pain and just become a habit.

You can buy lactose-reduced milk in most big supermarkets now. The stuff I’ve tried is called Lactolite and is made by Arla. It’s indistinguishable from normal milk. You can also get infant formula that is lactose reduced, I expect that a decent sized supermarket or Boots would stock this. You can get dairy-free margarine in the UK, and in France you can actually get lactose-free butter, not seen that over here yet, though.

The lactose reduced stuff is good if your son’s intolerance is moderate, but if it’s very severe the only option is going totally dairy-free. This is probably the best bet anyway to start with. At a year old he doesn’t need to drink milk any more, by the way (anyone who rattles on about breastfeeding at this stage can be safely ignored as a complete flipping lunatic).

All of this sounds like a bit of a pain, I know, but it’s worth it: your boy will be much, much happier if you can cut the lactose out of his diet, trust me, I know. Good luck!

the cheese in lasagne isn’t the problem; it’s the milk used to make the white sauce. LW – I’ll try it using goat’s milk; for some reason this has never occurred to me.

Cats are lactose intolerant, but my last moggy only ever drank milk, turned its nose up at water

Don’t think 14 and half was a bad innings though

i’m another lactose intolerator… it really isn’t much of a problem.

(like minty says, keep an eye on the ingredients lists for a while – soon you’ll be able to remember what your son should avoid)

goat’s milk / sheep’s milk do taste a bit odd, i don’t bother with them, the only time i use soya milk is on breakfast cereal and sometimes coffee.

the best cheese in the universe is made from sheeps milk, and comes from north yorkshire:cheesey swaledale link

some estimates suggest 70% of the uk population are lactose/milk intolerant to some degree, it might be worth you or your son’s mum reducing your milk consumption – your son got his genes from somewhere.

you never know, give it a couple of weeks and it might improve your asthma/ exscama/ bad breath/ random-stomach-pains-you-just-sort-of-ignore/ always-runny-nose/ whatever…

My son was lactose intolerant – he’d projectile vomit (a la Mr Creosote) when given cows milk. Took us a while to realise what it was and on the doctors advice tried goats milk and all sorts. In the end he was on soya milk for about 2 years, but only go down the soya route on advice from a doctor as it can be really bad for toddlers (not enough fat).
He seems to have gotten over the intolerance now and is fine with cows milk – apparently the intolerance can resolve itself.
As for the lack of growth – my son was 9 weeks prem so is small anyway but seems to be catching up a bit now (he’s 4).
Good luck!

(like minty says, keep an eye on the ingredients lists for a while – soon you’ll be able to remember what your son should avoid)

I have just discovered that the super-tasty Hendersons crisps I’ve treated myself to with my lunch have lactose in them. Damnit.

Thanks a lot for all your advice guy, really appriciate it.

Can I ask you how you managed to get it diagnosed? Our daughter has been ill for nearly a year now keeps throwing up her whole stomach contents and also has problems the other end too and nobody has managed to diagnose it yet. To be honest I couldn’t even tell you if she has had a test for lactose intolerance. We have been thinking for a while that it is probably an allergy or something but the docs wont listen too us. Just wondering if this rings any bells as we have yet another appointment on Monday.

Thanks

As others say you wont believe the stuff that has whey or lactose in it for no apparent reason. Dont forget to read the ingredients EVERY time you buy stuff as they often change ingredients. It is a pain but essential IMHO.

but only go down the soya route on advice from a doctor as it can be really bad for toddlers (not enough fat).

WTF did Juan tell you this? it really is possible to live without any milk products as Asia proves and IIRC you can get fat from other food groups like say chips. Do you mean Omega 3 and 6? easily available from other food stuff like fish and seeds etc.
EDIT: Vegan not lactose intolerance but kids never had non breast milk.
Happy to give you alternative recipes that are milk free and soya is ok for sauces,custard etc [also rice milk and almond milk but dearer]…stick to goats cheese as vegan cheese is plastic and dreadful

The NHS information on lactose intolerance has been significantly improved since I last looked (when I say improved, I mean that there actually is some, whereas there wasn’t any a few years back). Tons of good info here now:

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/lactose-intolerance/Pages/Introduction.aspx

I_Ache, as you’ll see on those pages, there are several different means of diagnosis available. Ask your GP to do a test, if they refuse or try to put you off ask to see another GP.

Junkyard – try getting a baby i.e not weaned yet to eat fish and seeds 😯
They need MILK!!!!! Breast or otherwise.
And for your information though the lactose intolerance is up to 90% in asian countries that has been measured in adults not children. You need to separate the two – in the west lactose intolerance is 5% of adults the reason it is so low is the lactase enzyme is normally genetically programmed to ‘switch off’ after weaning but the dairy rich diet in the west has, over time, lengthened the time taken for that genetic switch. Thats why some people can be fine for many years and then become intolerant. It is similar to why western europeans can drink alcohol and Asians have a low tolerance – we have the enzymatic capacity to detoxify alcohol, they don’t because we used alcohol to purify water, the asians used boiling it to make tea.
As for omega 3/ 6 I think its best to leave that to the ‘nutritonists’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SavsJYXWgm8 – I think mitchel and webb sum it up better than I could.

lets not go OT here
On rereading it does sound like I am suggesting it is ok to not have some form of milk [because that is what I wrote-DOH]which I am not [we are mammals after all] I am only saying soya is ok for a toddler [aged 1-3 and once weening]. Before age one the child should not drink ANY milk it should drink formula milk which is either soya or milk based. Sorry for any confusion I caused

Be careful talking about lactose intolerance in babies/toddlers. There is also Milk protein allergy, which is not the same as lactose intolerance but the two are very often confused.

Milk protein allergy can remedy itself. Also it can be got from sheep, and goats milk and yogurt and cheese and soya.

More detail here. and here.

[On rereading it does sound like I am suggesting it is ok to not have some form of milk [because that is what I wrote-DOH]which I am not [we are mammals after all] I am only saying soya is ok for a toddler [aged 1-3 and once weening]. Before age one the child should not drink ANY milk it should drink formula milk which is either soya or milk based.]

You dont make sense – how can a child before one not drink milk if all formulas are soya or milk based?
The point I made and rightly so becasue I have first hand experience of the situation – is that soya milk should not be given to the under 1’s without doctors advice. Soya milk is different to soya protein concentrate used in formula. Soya milk contains ‘anti-nutrional factors’ a catch-all term for things such as stachyose, raffinose and other carbs that are not digested by humans. The fermentation of these sugars by gut microbiota CAN cause enteritis and therefore dehydration. You do not want dehydration in a baby because they don’t chirp up and tell you ‘I’m thirsty’. If you have to give soya milk to a baby then you also need to make sure it has added minerals as some of the minerals in the milk are biologically unavailable e.g. phytate.
To return to the original topic – if a baby is lactose intolerant see a doctor don’t listen to people on the internet who think they know it all because ‘some bloke down pub told me’ or ‘wikipedia says so’.

At about 6 months my son started vomiting, constantly dripping and block nose and started losing a bit of weight. Took him repeatedly to the doctors who just said he was getting over a virus.
We finally asked them to prescribe Neocate formula milk after doing a bit of reasearch on the web, the vomitting stopped instantly and his nasal passages cleared and stopped dripping.
You could ask your doctor to get a prescription for some to try.
Good luck.

slightbreeze – Member
Just found out that my 1 year old son is lactose intolerant and that it has been the reason why he has not been growing as much as he should. Does anyone here have any experience of lactose intolerance? Any advice would be greatly received, cheers!

Lactose intolerance can be pretty common, kids can have a “transient” form especially after gastro bugs. Sounds like your little guy has had this problem for longer if his growth has been effected, and I’d suggest whichever doctor has diagnosed it refers on to a dietitian – while adults are “ok” to just skip milk, kids needs the correct advice on calorie intake, vitamins & minerals that they’d usually be getting from dairy.

A suitable lactose free milk should be provided on prescription via GP or dietitian, but be aware the kids soya formulas stink and taste like shit.

I_Ache – Member
Can I ask you how you managed to get it diagnosed? Our daughter has been ill for nearly a year now keeps throwing up her whole stomach contents and also has problems the other end too and nobody has managed to diagnose it yet. To be honest I couldn’t even tell you if she has had a test for lactose intolerance. We have been thinking for a while that it is probably an allergy or something but the docs wont listen too us. Just wondering if this rings any bells as we have yet another appointment on Monday.

Well he had not been putting on much weight really since birth, following his own growth curve but way below normal, the health care station said that because he was soo active and happy we probably didn’t have to worry. But on his 1 year control the doctor saw him and said that it would be a good idea to get some tests done. They take about 6 viles of blood and a stool sample, plus we had to not feed him one night until the next morning and take him to the local hospital to drink a lactose solution and then check his blood sugar every 15 minutes. His blood sugar did go up but not enough and coupled with the other test results we got the answer.
This by the way is in Norway I don’t know how it is back in blighty.

Any armchair medics want to tell me what is wrong with me? I can eat hard cheese, but soft cheese, milk etc. gives me stomach cramps, and…

Even Lactofree soft cheese does it. Mozarella etc also V bad. I don’t think it’s lactose intolerance, could it be an enzyme of bacteria. I appreciate I should go see a doc, but suspect they won’t tell me anything I don’t already know and have a huge phobia of needles.

We should form a club.
I’m intolerant and quite frankly I’m pissed off about the boggy belly I get after eating anything nice. The alternatives are mostly rank. Rice milk is horrible, unsweetened soya is nasty and oat milk is bleugh also very expensive. Soya custard/yoghurt now that is nice.
I do alright with goat milk, still expensive mind.
Go to dietetic services (NHS is a wonderful thing)they have the best resources, a godsend frankly having spent so much time quite confused about what I could and couldn’t eat.

If they are testing for lactose intolerance – no needles. They give you a lactose solution and make you breathe into a plastic bag thing every 15 minutes spanning 3 hours or so. Be sure you know where the toilet is. Fun it isn’t.

You dont make sense – how can a child before one not drink milk if all formulas are soya or milk based?……
If you have to give soya milk to a baby then you also need to make sure it has added minerals as some of the minerals in the milk are biologically unavailable e.g. phytate.

and you also have to add things to cows milk hence it is formula rather than the stuff you get from a cow. If you give a child just cows milk from birth will it be ok? You cant give either cows milk or soya milk but you can give formula based on either of these with added stuff to make it suitable. They could drink them but, as you note with soya , which is also true of milk, on its own it is not enough. Does it make sense now?
http://www.ivillage.com/soy-milk-or-cows-milk-baby/6-n-137505
which concludes ,on which is best that

Ultimately, the answer to your question is individual and is dependent on the nutritional needs and restrictions, as well as the taste preferences of the child. Children have been raised sucessfully on both types of milk.

If they are testing for lactose intolerance – no needles.

Oooh. Thanks. Will consider it…

[and you also have to add things to cows milk hence it is formula rather than the stuff you get from a cow. If you give a child just cows milk from birth will it be ok?]
AT no point have I said childern should be raised on cows milk 😯 . My son had soya milk on the advice of a doctor (who also advised trying goats milk, but that produced similar results to cows milk based formula). The doctor made exactly the same points your ‘reference’ does – that soya has lower fat and vitamins so get a fortified one that is not low fat but without wanting to sound repetive (this is getting dull) it should be done on the advice of a doctor – not what some bloke on the internet says (and I include me in that).
[You cant give either cows milk or soya milk but you can give formula based on either of these with added stuff to make it suitable. They could drink them but, as you note with soya , which is also true of milk, on its own it is not enough.]
see above point.
Does it make sense now?
My points do. If you are going to make any changes to a childs diet consult a professional – a doctor! (really getting dull repeating things over and over..)
[http://www.ivillage.com/soy-milk-or-cows-milk-baby/6-n-137505
which concludes ,on which is best that]
Yep glad to see you went with the peer reviewed stuff then…. 😯
Oh wait a minute I see the article is written by a ‘consultant nutritionist’. Are’nt we back to Mitchell and Webb?

i’m lactose and gluten intolerant, have been for about 4 years now since i nearly died from food poisoning, still suffer daily even tho i check everything i eat,alpro soya stuff is excellent! check out http://www.foodreactions.org for extensive info and help, (probably get shot for posting links but without this site i think i’d have died by now)

I think something like 90% of the worlds population have some degree of lactose intolerance, its only those of western European origin that aren’t.

Can you produce some peer review research that counters the quote?