3.5 Yr Old Lactose Intolerant??

Updated on July 27, 2011
D.P. asks from Minneapolis, MN
6 answers

So my husband I know has a lactose intolerance but has never been formally diagnosed with it. He gets very gassy any time he eats anything with it though. (very annoying by the way!) So my son the past few nights has been saying his tummy hurts when we out him to bed. I've been pushing less juice and more milk/water. He's been drinking milk in the evenings and I'm wondering if he could be lactose intolerant. Anyone have a child diagnosed that young and how did you know? My husband said his didn't start until he was in his teens.

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K.*.

answers from Los Angeles on

Yes, my daughter is very lactose intolerant! Poor thing gets belly aches and sounds like a motor boat. If she has rich and creamy things, she will get diarrhea. I have given her milk once and it resulted in lots of gas, cramping and a nasty poop! Her tolerance is actually improving as she can tolerate yogurt and cheese okay. LOL...my husband is apparently intolerant to MOST things, because of all the gas that guy produces!

Oh, and we found out she was intolerant/allergic when she was 2 weeks old. Her stomach protruded with gas and she had blood in her stool (trace amount, not visible in diaper) AND a colonoscopy that showed inflammation. Poor baby, she had me so freaked out!

1 mom found this helpful

D.B.

answers from Boston on

Switch him to lactaid or another lactose-free milk and see what happens. Or try rice milk or soy milk.

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B.R.

answers from Naples on

My husband and daughter are lactose intolerant. My husband grew in to his intolerance in his 30's, my daughter seems to have become afflicted as I switched her from breastfeeding to milk in a zippy cup. They were drinking lactaid brand milk for awhile, but the problem is that it's more expensive than regular milk, AND we travel a bunch, it doesn't travel well in the cooler in a paper carton, it's pain to always be concerned that the cooler is cold enough, you can't get it in convenience stores or restaurants...generally a p in the a! The "Lactaid" brand of lactaid pills are a pain too because you have to take 1-3 every time that you have dairy if it has been more than 30 minutes. I discovered a newer product and tried it on my husband....he says it's the greatest thing EVER. "Digestive Advantage" for lactose intolerance....you take one tiny little capsule in the morning and you are good to go for 24 hours! So much easier...he doesn't have to think twice about eating out pizza, ice cream, shakes etc. They also make a chewable children's, but it is getting harder to find. On their website, often times they have a printable coupon for $1 - $3 off. My local Publix ordered the children's chewable in for me, then accidentally bought too much....put it out on clearance and reduced it to $5.49 box, I had $3 coupons, so I bought enough to last until the expiration date of 9/12! A box is a month supply and it revolutionized our lives! No more gassy rumbly smelly people in the car! http://www.digestiveadvantage.com/. My daughter is 7 now, so I don't even have to worry about what she eats at school. On the occasion that I was out of the children's chewable,,the adult version starts at age 6, and it is very small...she was able to learn how to swallow it very easily. If you don't want to go that route (it's an enzyme to aide in digestion) before I discovered this product, I used to give my daughter a sippy of lactaid milk and as long as she had it right away she was safe to eat cheese, ice cream etc. Good luck, hope this helps!

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T.T.

answers from Chicago on

we are ALL lactose intoleratn to a degree. our bodies make lactose to digest mothers milk. then we no longer need mothers milk so we should stop producing it. instead we trick our bodies to continue to produce it when we ingest other animals breast milk. this is fine for some and for others it causes inflammatory issues, and for some they get big digestive upset, the best way to know is to take your kid off of milk for 2 to 3 weeks. see if the tummy gets better and then give him a bunch of milk and see how he reacts. youll know pretty fast if there is a problem. but you have to eliminate it for several weeks so the body can process it all out and you start with a clean slate.

M.M.

answers from Tampa on

Most human beings are somewhat moderately lactose intolerant. We simply aren't meant to ingest as much foreign species's milk as we do. The protein in the milk itself is large and hard to digest - also it's not altered to such a degree as cooking the meat to eat does. Hard cheeses and organic dairy seems to be much easier on our systems for a multitude of reasons.

Milk has a lot of sugar in it... maybe regular water after dinner and before bed time would be a better choice anyways.

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J.G.

answers from Cleveland on

My sisters kids just had an endoscope done to her, she is 4. She has been having issues for a while, but also get blood in her normal stool or is really runny. We are still waiting on results from her test, but yes that is one thing they are checking on.

My hubby is lactose intolerant... if he drinks milk or eats cheese or icecream he gets really gassy, not really "farting", but gas pains sometime so bad that he can't even walk. It also causing him to have to run to the bathroom a lot, once its out of his system the gas pains go away & all is good again. But no he hasn't had a doctor tell him he has an issue, but when he doesn't eat anything with milk - he doesn't have any issues... do we really need a doc to confirm.

We had to watch which formula our 1 yr old had cause of his gas pains... we ended up using Carnation Good Start Gental - it was the only formula out of 8 that we tried that didn't cause him to gas up and cry all the time. So, far we haven't had any issues with milk, but I drink a lot of milk so maybe we will luck out and they won't get the intolerance from daddy!

I'd keep a log of how much milk and milk products your boy drinks/eats and one on his tummy hurting. See if there is any differences on days you give him less milk and milk products and days he gets more. Watch it for a month or so & if you see a pattern make an appointment to see his doctor and take the logs with you. They maybe able to get you more information or testing to help him and get to the bottom of the situation for both him and his dad.

Plus, if the doctor does do a diet change for your son, maybe you can talk your hubby into trying it since he is such a role model for your son... thus in the end helping with one of the annoying factors dealing with your man - lol. In the end everyone wins in someway :)

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