It’s been a rough few months for me, again. Physically this time, which hasn’t helped mentally either with everything else I’m still trying to deal with. All of this is having a tremendous effect on me and us here and the kids are worried something will happen to me too because I’m (in their words) ill like mummy was. I reassure them the best I can but they can see its getting to me and I’m not in the best place at the moment.

At the end of January I developed a random infection in my right knee. A spot that had been there for 20+ years suddenly decided to become a problematic thing. Its always been diagnosed as a suspected blocked gland and always been told if it isn’t a problem not to worry about it. A week of antibiotics didn’t do anything, it just got worse. A second week of much stronger antibiotics again did nothing. I ended up in hospital 3 times in one week mid February to have it cut out and removed. I’m still healing from the infection as the hole was quite big and deep on the side of my knee cap. Two things have occurred since this happened.

First, I now get sharp shooting pains across the top of my knee when I stand from kneeling or straighten my leg from an extreme bend similar to that. I’m trying to manage this the best I can by limiting movement although it’s not easy especially with 3 kids. Not sure why this is now happening or if it’s even linked?

Secondly, this is the one that is a constant drain and having the most impact on daily life. The second lot of antibiotics has left me with some very unwanted side effects. For the past 3 months I have suffered daily with stomach issues. The result of which could easily be on par with the picolax thread, but without the picolax. This is still a daily occurance, usually several times a day. Sorry for the frankness but not sure how else to explain it. Unsure if this a coincidence in timing but it hadn’t happened before taking those tablets. The extreme discomfort and pains in ummmm other areas because of this is unbearable. This is part of the reason why I haven’t been overly active here the past few months.

All of this is really getting to me and has literally left me in tears. Certain samples were sent for testing back in March and the results were all negative so not sure what’s happening.
I finally managed to speak to my doctor the other day and he’s sending more samples off to be tested and ordered some blood tests to see (in his words) if we can get to the bottom of this (he said the pun was intended).

He said the tablets have likely stripped my gut of the bacteria that helps break down the lactose and that I might now be lactose intolerant. I’ve had skin conditions throughout my life which he’s said losing dairy/lactose would definitely be beneficial to those too. Sorry for the lengthy post, just thought a rough outline of what’s going on might help with any advice I might be able to get regarding this.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Or had any experience surrounding this? Looking into substitutes for lactose and dairy at the moment but any recommendations are welcomed. I’m hoping changing things will help matters, but also might help with my general health and possibly even aid in weight loss too which could have positive knock on effects all round.

If you got this far, thanks for reading and apologies again for a lengthy post.

Has anyone tried the various milks for starters? Didn’t realise there was so much choice and I haven’t even looked at other foods yet.

Could you try some probiotics? Either the tablets or the yoghurt drinks.
Not sure if they work (scientifically) but i have found that i feel better faster after antibiotics having taken them

I’ll throw in the possibility of IBS, with everything you’ve been through mentally it could cause it and would describe issues you’re getting

While I still drink regular milk, my better half has been drinking mainly soya and oat milk in preference to almond milk for ~2 years, they all taste ok but some don’t work well with my coffee. Sometimes brands like Alpro are on offer for £1 for 1l cartons at Tesco etc.

I’ve tried cutting out as much lactose as possible and is definitely helped with my symptoms, not solved everything but definitely helped.

Just get lactose free milk like Arla or the Aldi/Lidl equivalent. You’ll barely notice the difference.

I’m experimenting with lactase tablets as well at the moment when I eat biscuits and things, I think it helps, but I still have moments that I can’t really nail down the cause of.

I tried oat milk in my coffee for a bit, don’t dislike it but that didn’t agree with my tum tum either, just go for the lactose free stuff.

Lactose intolerance after taking antibiotics is usually temporary – from what I understand.

I’ve recently cut down on my dairy – lactose intolerance runs in my family and it looks like its finally getting to me – so have been trying some dairy-free alternatives. Oatly milk and crème fraîche are now staples. Their chocolate milk is good too.

Currently sampling as much dairy-free ice cream as I can get my hands on (I ‘kin love ice cream!). Ben & Jerrys is lovely. Swedish Glace is a bit meh. And I’ve got a tub of Jude’s chocolate flavour and some Magnums waiting for me.

Had similar experience here after a course of antibiotics for a tooth infection. Guts were destroyed for weeks, the practice nurse told me to buy proper probiotics from a health shop. Got a bottle of them and was completely normal within 24 hours. Best £20 I’ve ever spent

Hi @gnusmas

Both my dad (severe) and I (much less severe but enough to be a pain in the gut) have issues with dairy. I never really realised I had an issue until I was trying to recover from a bout of horrendous food poisoning. Doc told me to take a few weeks off dairy. I thought I possibly had IBS for years – since cutting the dairy down (but certainly not fully out) 95% of the symptoms are gone.

I still have some cow dairy (dad has none) but it’s now limited to:
* Milk in hot drinks (I rarely have the kind of coffee that consists of milk with a dash of coffee)
* Cheese in sarnies/on crackers/on a burger etc.
* Butter on toast, in cakes etc.

If I drink a glass of milk, have a bowl of cornflakes, overdo the cheese then I’m ill pretty quickly.

Getting down to my reduced level is easy – a quick run down on how I have massively cut back going through the bigger dairy culprits. When I typed this out it didn’t look like a lot but it made quite a big difference for me but I’ve also tried to drop in what I know about my dad’s preferences where I can. Hope this helps you.

CEREALS
Of the plant based milk alternatives I’ve found oat milk the most palatable to me and generally acceptable with most of the usual suspects. For me NEVER unsweetened almond milk – tried that once and only once (sweetened is ok). Oat milk sucks in tea and coffee but no worse than UHT milk (although we do use oat when camping). There’s a coconut one we’ve had to – not a fan personally.

Goat milk is good (much better for tea and coffee than anything else I’ve tried) but it has a slightly earthy twang, not unpleasant but I prefer the oat on cereals.

YOGHURT
For granola/muesli I like plain goat yoghurt (St Helens readily available), little drizzle of honey takes the goaty twang down a fraction.

The Alpro Soya ones are also decent (Vanilla and Strawberry normally) but I think there are ecological issues around soya and the goat option is nicer imo.

While on goat yoghurt it takes fruit/bit of something sweet well for a ‘bowl of yoghurt’ moment too.

SANDWICHES
I don’t butter my bread if going savoury – just Mayo or Salad Cream generally.

I can still tolerate some cheese so this is one area where I tend to be fairly normal (just ditch the butter to cut the overall down)

If your intolerance is more severe my dad has tried various non-dairy spreads – his verdict is that they’re good for baking not for bread and I agree.

Goat butter is your friend here, again St Helen’s is freely available. If my intolerance worsens it will have a place in my fridge.

There are some amazing goat cheeses out there – including blues (I like blues and one or two of the goat ones have been very very good) but there is no obvious direct swap for cheddar. Sheeps cheese doesn’t work for me or dad.

BAKING
Dairy free and stay the hell away from Soya! Bleugh!
We haven’t reached this stage yet – my issue seems to be more prevalent with untreated/uncooked.
Did I mention lay off the soya?

GENERAL INGREDIENTS
Milk based additives make their way into a metric shed load of stuff.
At my level I can largely ignore but again if more severe you need to learn your way round the ingredient list. It’s in the most bizarre stuff and sometimes NOT in things where you’d really expect it.

EATING OUT
If more severe intolerance it will be more challenging but more places are clued up on it.

ICE CREAM
Swedish Glace – often dairy free

CUSTARD
From powder (not instant) works well with goat milk

Feel free to drop me a PM with any specific subs you cannot work out and I’ll do my best to help

Hopefully you’ll find like me that a big dip in volumes consumed means complete abstinence won’t be needed.

You may need to try a few different things to get the right balance for your tastes and some stuff you will notice the taste difference to start with but persevere a bit before giving up on any options. Good example for me can’t stand soya spreads or milk but very happy with it in yoghurt.

Good luck 🙂

Just one more thing – not all milk substitutes are created equal.

I’ve had some absolutely minging supermarket own brand oat and almond milks and some much better ones. The branded stuff seems to be consistently better so maybe experiment with that and then try the supermarket version of something you like/tolerate next to bring the cost down.

Lacto free milk is fine, Sainsbury’s and Aldi do for £1 but elsewhere is expensive.

Sorry to hear you’re poorly Gnusmas. Hope your GP can get your gut flora back up and running. I’ve found Lidl’s oat milk to be quite acceptable on cereal or porridge, but no use at all in tea or coffee. The alpro range of milk is quite often on a multi buy offer in Asda and Morrisons – I look out for them being on offer and stock up!

Fermented foods like kimchi and miso are supposed to be good for helping rebalance gut flora after antibiotics, as are pro biotics (and live yoghurt but that’s not much good if you’re lactose intolerant!). I know it’s hard to change what you eat when you have kids that like their usual stuff, but have you tried doing a few days of a diet designed to help reset your gut? There are plenty of options on the web with guidance on high fibre/fermented food/low sugar and fat combinations that are thought to work. It might ease the symptoms?

I’ve been lactose intolerant for a good 12 odd years – be aware of the different lactose amounts in different food. I drink lactose free milk, but other than that and a few other food items which I avoid, it’s really not a big deal.

Cheese, yoghurt, ice cream etc all have much lower amounts than milk so I’m completely fine with them.

Dairy milk chocolate and Galaxy have such high milk % that if I gobble down a whole bar I’ll have issues! But eat small bits it’s fine.

I’ve also started having just a splash of milk in a coffee 1/2 times a day, 1 or 2 days a week, with no side affects, just enough to turn the coffee from black to ‘slightly less black’.

I do not touch almond/oat milk etc, it’s disgusting stuff. Lactofree milk is just normal milk, only a tiny bit sweeter.

Fermented foods like kimchi

Only caution to Hannah’s advice, is if you do have IBS, fermented foods can be a nightmare. It’s a bit of a trial; so just be cautious if your symptoms don’t improve if you do go down this route. Likewise soya milk is awful lactose replacement if you have lactose intolerance + IBS. Arla (or similar) lactose free milk is safer option (if not milk protein intolerant).

Gnusmas, if you are going to try and cut out areas of your diet, the advice seems to be that you should do it with the support of your GP who will help with sorting out on keeping a food diary. And you need to be strict, no point cutting out 95% of something but missing an ingredient and rendering the trial void. Good luck

PS I’d second the probiotic drinks and proper Live yogurt.

There’s a difference between lactose intolerance because you don’t make the enzyme, and because you’ve lost the bacteria.

I would be just limiting lactose for a while until they recolonise your gut; or I’d be following Vader’s advice. If you remove lactose from your diet you might end up not getting any of the right bacteria back.

An update of sorts……

I’ve had my results back from all my tests and everything was negative, which is good to know. In one way it would have been nice to have something found to know how to move forward, but I’m pleased all has come back fine.

Doctor said yesterday he feels it could possibly be lactose intolerance or IBS. I tried some probiotics and introduced a milk related item a few days later but same things happened again.

On the upside, my snacking has drastically reduced. This has been really difficult to do but have persevered with it because I’ve had to. Been comfort eating the past 3 years or so which isn’t healthy I know, but couldn’t help it. Since I haven’t been eating anything with lactose in it and had to change what I would normally eat, I’ve lost 4.7kg in weight in the past few weeks. Guess there’s a positive side to all of this too.

I would slowly build up your gut microbiome by consuming a variety of fermented foods. A local independent health food shop will have much better products than the supermarket stuff that is often pasteurised after fermenting for shelf life. Kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir, kombucha, miso and as much fruit, veg and whole grains/nuts as possible. Small amounts of each to start. I’m a strong believer in diet having a huge impact on health.