Hi! My daughter and I are both lactose intolerant. Have you done any reading about it? Primarily the problems are with things like milk and ice cream. Baked goods are not usually a problem. Cheese can be a bit of a gray area and depends on your sensitivity. Most cheeses don't have much lactose (or none) because it breaks down in the aging process. So hard cheeses may not cause problems but a soft cheese may still have enough lactose in it to be a problem. You do want to think about other sources like cream sauces. Yogurt may or may not be a problem depending on your sensitivity-- generally the bacteria in it breaks down much of the lactose
The good news is that there is a very simple solution-- Lactaid or similar products. Taken as soon as you start eating this contains the lactase enzyme you need to break down lactose. Because I am so sensitive I usually take more than the recommended dose--2 to begin and then sometimes 2 more half way through a big bowl of ice cream!
DD has Lactaid at the nurse's office in school and just takes one before every lunch and if they have any type of treat during the day that may have dairy. I carry these in my purse, have a stash in my car, and the friends she spends the most time with also have some at their house for just in case. If in doubt about an item we go ahead and take it-- you can't really OD on them!
We don't avoid dairy at all. When my dr tested me he said that I showed almost none of the lactase enzyme in my system, but even with that I have never had a problem with baked products, or a few drops of milk added to eggs. But everyone does have their own threshold so you may need to find yours by trial and error.
As for the Gluten Free, you will find that Disney is very accommodating of this type of need. I faced this exact same dilemma with my DD10 a few weeks ago. We had decided to try GF to see if it helped some other issues she was having. We actually did it for a few days before we left. But I decided that for us it would be easiest for her and the entire family to just go on as usual while on vacation. I didn't have enough knowledge before we left to even really know what to ask for/look for. She wanted to have fun and since pasta is her favorite food group I didn't want to denying her that because of a dietary experiment that may or may not have been needed. We were also on the QS dining plan so that makes it more difficult at Disney than just talking to the chef at a TS. Obviously if we had an absolute diagnosis that meant she had to be GF or we had been experimenting with it at home long enough to know that it definitely made a difference then we would have stuck with it.
She didn't feel great at WDW and we had some rough mornings and long bathroom breaks, but at this point we have no idea if it is related to Gluten or to any of a number of other things. We have medicine for stomach cramping, took a bottle of Imodium and stopped to rest when she needed.
As soon as we got home I spent a whole lot of time researching GF and we have gone at it full force. But I still end up every day on Google trying to find out if a particular product is GF or what she can eat if we go out. I didn't have internet access at WDW and it would have been very stressful to me to try to make sure it was all being done correctly, and may not have been an accurate measure of how she reacted since cross contamination is very easy and since you can't see it being prepared you have no idea if she is getting an item that is purely GF. We are being very careful to prepare her meals at home where I am sure that they are completely GF and that there is no cc.
You have to decide what will work best for you and your child/family. Just be sure you do some research before you go if you want to be GF. I have found tons of information and help at this site:
http://www.celiac.com/ including a great list of all the "hidden" ingredients to look for.
Have fun!
ETA: just wanted to clarify that from what I have been reading with GF you really need to go all or nothing. Even a very small amount can cause problems-- like putting a GF pizza on a rack that just had regular pizza, or some flour in the air when your meal is being prepared, or stirring regular pasta and rice pasta with the same spoon. This is why I decided that we would wait until we were at home. Since I couldn't be sure we would really be 100% GF I didn't feel it would be worth the experimentation.
I also want to mention that if you are planning to have her tested for Celiac then she has to be consuming gluten for the test to be accurate. If you go GF and it helps then she will have to go back to eating it for about 6 weeks (I think) before they can test.
