Wondering If Anyone Has Done a Lactose Breath Test for Their Child?

HI ! My daughter is 2 1/2. We noticed she had a problem as a baby and switched her to soy formula. When it was time to switch her to milk we just automatically put her on the lactaidmilk that they sell because I knew she had a sensitive stomach. She has been on it ever since and sometimes she will drink soymilk too without a problem. Maybe try switching her to the different milk and see what happens. She may be lactose intolerant but I would not put her thru that at such and early age. Hope this might help a little.
L.

My daughter used to get gas pains after drinking milk. Rather than take her to the doctor, I took milk out of her diet for about a week, and the gas pains went away. I introduced Lactaid milk, which is milk for those who are lactose intolerant (incidentally my husband drinks it as well since he is lactose intolerant). She loves it, and drinks her milk every day now. It sounds a lot easier that way than putting her through a three hour test, although you may have other issues you are concerned about which a doctor needs to advise you on. Good luck.

I don't know about the lactose part. but I have a daughter about the same age and she is the same weight. her dr. isn't concerned about her. I know all docs are different. we used to go alot when she was a baby about underweight but now she is fine. she also would snack all day. It is hard to believe what they get when they do snack calorie wise if if is the right choice. Itwas suggested to my daughter to have milkshakes and some ice cream for the calcium and t have the extra calories. I have another daughter that just had allergies teseted by the gastr and they were back in the same week. Have you called to see where the results were? What about a second opinion? On a doc and what you could try to see if she was lactose. take it out of her diet. try rice milk? just sugestions. But weight wise then my daughter is severely underweight.

I haven't done this test, but...I also wouldn't. From what I've read and what the allergist and ENT have told me, the best way (and the only accurate way) to test for an allergy at this age is by eliminating it from the diet. (see my post yesterday, regarding red cheeks and allergies). Dairy is pretty simple to eliminate - give her rice milk instead, and buy/make food and snacks that don't have any dairy products in them. There are lots of ideas of dairy-free eating on this site and all over the internet (or you can message me too). Our son has simliar problems to your daughter with weight, also has other problems. But when we eliminated milk (9 days ago), we saw improvement within 4 days and continue to see great improvements every day - but when we had his blood tested, it was negative for a milk allergy. Our son is a hit-and-miss eater, meaning one day he won't eat a thing, but the next will be more normal. Now, I do think he has multiple allergies (wheat?) but we're checking one at a time. If I were you, I would eliminate milk from her diet now, and see what happens. Then as March gets closer, you can decide whether to cancel the breath test or not. Also, regarding juice...some children do find it upsetting to their tummies. Maybe start watering it down and/or encouraging more water consumption instead?

Hi J.! I'm sorry you're having trouble with your little one. When my youngest was 2 we were in and out of the ER with blood in the stool, vomiting and whatnot. At 3, we finally got to see a gastrologist and he wanted to preform an endoscopy. Not knowing what was wrong with him, we allowed it. They knocked him out and it was the most traumatic thing for both him and me! He still will not go to the dr. without crying because he thinks they're going to hurt him again. While he was under they did allergy tests and the milk test came back negative. My point is, we put him through all these tests and everything came back negative. On our own we took him off all dairy and fructose and he was better within 5 days, after having trouble all his life! I personally, do not have much faith in these tests! Go with what you think is wrong and remove it from her diet. We have the same issues with eating and snacking too. My son is only 30 pounds and he's 3, so I wouldn't worry about the percentiles so much. When they are hungry they eat. As long as her snacks are nutricious then she should be doing fine! Percentiles seem to be just another way to make us neurotic! Good luck with whatever you choose to do!

Between now and the test put her on a lactose free diet.
If she gets better, you have your answer. Sounds like
cooperation is needed for the breath test. At 2 years old don't think it will happen.

My son went to a gastro dr, because he had issues with vomitting every day. We took him for the test and it started out great, until they made him drink the stuff. He drank it and then went right to the bathroom and vomitted it up. I can tell you what the doc found out from this. Apparently the main componant of the drink is sorbitol. Because of the way my son reacted to the drink the doctor said it is likely that he is allergic to sorbitol. She said with the sorbitol allergy, the stomach doesn't breakdown the sorbiol and it sits in the stomach and causes a gas pocket. My son's way of releasing that pocket is vomitting. he would vomit and then come back and finish his meal. there is sorbitol in all kinds of juices. I am not sure about how the body reacts to a milk allergy, bu i am guessing it could be the same. I would wait until the blood work comes before deciding to do the breath test. If it comes back that she is allercig to milk, then why put her through the test. Good Luck

HI. My daughter had this test done last year. She was seven at the time, not as young as your daughter, but always gives a hard time at the drs office. we were sent to the local hospital to have the test. with my suprise my daughter had no problem doing the test. the drink is not that bad, and not a large amount to drink. they made a game out of blowing into the tube and she did great and really did a great job. they had movies and games for her to do while we waited so she enjoyed that. the tube has a thing at the end of it that the child has to make rise to the top so she liked trying to make that happen. to be lactose intolerant i guess you need to get a 10 on a scale of 1-10. my daughter was a 9. so they do not consider her lactose intolerent but said she could take the medication still. we are still seeing a gastro because she gets pain from eating foods or i am beginning to think stress. now she is on a medication for reflux. as she has gotten older i think the pain is going away slightly for her. she is also under weight like your daughter and very petite. our dr said that he instestines need to catch up to her body size and she needs to drink alot more water. i am hoping this answers some of your concern regarding the test. our children will sometimes suprise you at what they will do, when you think they won't. i wish you luck with everything.

Hi J.,
I'm sorry to answer saying I never had this test done on my 2 boys. What I did want to throw your way is that I also didn't bother trying to give them cows milk until they were at least three. I used rice milk. It was sweet and they liked it. They didn't drink enough of it or use enough on cereal to put us in the poor house because it is expensive. I was lucky in that when I did introduce cows milk they were ok. Many young children can not digest cows milk and it's very hard on their systems. Colds would produce very thick snotty noses. My kids got colds but their noses ran clear. Personally I wouldn't put my child through what you're describing as a very difficult experience for a 2 year old that may not produce accurate results. If she's thin I may pursue that avenue with testing and skip milk in her diet all together until she's a little older. She may grow out of it and she may not.
Good luck!
nanc

Hi J.
Sorry for your trouble!!! Sorry also for my long answer!!!
Hope something helps and / or encourages you.
Wow!!! I see 3 or 4 issues that you are addressing. Are you wondering if they are all related? They could be but not necessarily.
First the breath test. Maybe others have heard of it, but I just had a lactose tolerance test and I was so sick just from drinking the mixture they stopped taking my blood, which was to be taken every 15 minutes for 3 hours. I had serious diarreah, and began vomiting. It was horrible. I was so sick but they also told me that I should start to feel better so I left the hospital but it was 3 days before I was better. The test proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was lactose intolerant, but I already knew I could not drink milk, MD needed test not me. OK so do they take her blood too or are they going to go by her breath & not take her blood? Is she having breathing issues? You don't say so. I assume not.
3 out of my 4 children were declared lactose intolerant or allergic to milk at a young age, all were given alternate formulas without testing. What is gastro trying to prove?
Does this test prove a need for scans? or other tests?
Do you have family who are lactose intolerant?
Underweight could be a related issue, but my lactose intolerant children bloated, therefore looked heavy. My only underweight child was borderline malnourished at that age, and no cause has ever been found. At least none MD's could agree on. Of course they all have their opinions.
My most allergic child followed a routine but I would call it when I feed him, he will scream and continue to scream for 2 hours after that he will whimper and fuss, and about the time it is time to feed him again he will be an angel.
I am an elimination/substitution diet person. Try Silk Soy, my favorite, but there is also rice milk and others at any health food store. Goat's milk work for some. I am also a person who would go to the health food store and ask for their help giving them the MD's diagnosis. I don't know if kids can take "pearls" which I get there, or "Digestive Advantage ---lactose intolerance therapy"(drug store) which I used on the start, but either or both of these worked far better than anything the gastro did once we had a diagnosis. We eliminated lactose from my children's diet, and some needed other things eliminated as well.
God bless you and give you wisdom as you make some major decisions. Can I pray for you to seek wise counsel?
K. --- SAHM married 38 years === adult children 37, coach, at 4 mos he was in hospital and records show they thought he would be dead in 24 hours--miracle; 32, lawyer, at 4 mos he was hospitalize 28 days, later SIDS symptoms, later hives, ADHD at 12 mo, and ADD later, all allergic related(used elimination diet), married with 6 mo son---miracle; twin girls 18, born after 19 weeks of bed rest for premature labor at 18 wks, weighing in at 5'11" & 6'8", in college after homeschooling 3.8 and 3.7 GPA and one is overweight and one underweight(at a very young age I learned she was a snacker and would eat it if I left it to be eaten, so I did, when she didn't do meals I accepted that; when she went into the hospital at 12 weighing 72#, I was worried but in 3 days she was down to 53, and I was furious, saying I did better than they were. They said she ate everything, but was loosing. I knew that is why we were there, but I kept her weight up. Why couldn't they? Because she was a grazer. She still is) due to allergies.
She must eat about 4-5 thousand calories a day to keep the 100 pounds on her body, if she must exercise(walking around the college campus) she must eat more. No one knows why.

Hi, my son is also almost 2 1/2. He was only 25 pounds at his two-year old checkup and I hope he has gain a pound or two since. But, our pediatrician is not worried, and we make sure his snacks and food are healthy. He is a snacker. He is also on a dairy-free diet, since he was three months old. My son took the dairy allergy blood test when he was two and it came back as negative. We gave my son a little goat cheese and his cheeks and chin got a red rash, so he is on dairy-free diet again. We plan to try dairy again when he's three, b/c children ability to break-down cow's milk sometimes require more mature digestive system. If he rash again, we plan to just eliminate dairy again until he is much older, then decide what to do next. From the description of the lactose breath test, I wouldn't do it just to find out if he is truly lactose. Eliminating dairy from the diet is not so difficult. There are a lot of websites that have great dairy-free recipes. Hope this help.

Regardless of the outcome of the test, it sounds like you already know how to help her.
Listen to your maternal instincts and continue to keep her off dairy. We give our 2 yr daughter a mix of rice and hemp milk. Hemp is packed with protein, calcium and good Omega 3 oils. You can get chocolate or vanilla, sweetened or not. We like the brand Living Harvest which we get at Mrs Greens or Whole Foods. Soy is also a big allergen so mixing it up with other non-cow milks is a good idea.
Hope it helps!

Hi Jenn,

I just typed for over half an hour about your question and outlined a nutritional plan for your daughter and then I hit a wrong key and the entire message vanished. No time to re-type everything now so here's a shorter version.

Basically: no test! You already know she's allergic.

Read: Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrmann and The Raw Family by Victoria Boutenko. Most libraries have them. They are real eye-openers as to what us humans should be eating for health. Health doesn't mean your child needs to be big or fat.

Recommended products: Barleans Lemon Meringue fish oil--tastes awesome.
Greens like Prairie Natural which is a dehydrated juice, not a gritty powder. Hemp butter, almond butter, almond milk, etc. Feed her avocados. Make guacamole out of it if she doesn't want it plain. Feed her fruits and homemade fruit juices for most concentrated nutrition.

Can't believe the message vanished!