I was dairy and egg free for a year because my DD was allergic to them and I was her food source (when she was 12 months to 24 months old.) . It isn't easy. Milk and eggs are emulsifiers and they are used in so many foods. Starting in 2006 all food labels in US had to state if they contained the top 8 food allergies, milk is one of those. That helped. We had to become major food label readers. Now I can pretty much have memorized if something has milk in it and what doesn't, I think I have read every label in the store. I called food manufactures and seen dieticians (who sometimes gave me false info.)
The good news is my DD's allergies are much less sever and she can have it baked in most products and even does ok with cheese baked on pizza as long as she doesn't have too much. She can't have ice cream, whipped cream or cream cheese. We hope she will outgrow it in time. She loves soy ice-cream. (and tofutti cuties, tiny dairy free ice cream sandwiches. You can find them many places. Try Trader Joes.)
I am lactose intolerant. I take lactose pills and try to stick to dairy products that have less lactose or soy products. I limit how much dairy I can have now, and use lactaid ultra and probiotics.
You can take tests to tell if you are allergic or lactose intolerant. It sounds more like intolerance for you. Really it is MUCH easier then allergy.
FYI, when I was off dairy for a year I lost over 20 lbs. I have kept it off, but I have been really exercising, I don't want to diet anymore. I had enough of not being able to eat almost everything at anyone's house I went to dinner and talking to every chief at every restaurant. Thank goodness DD's allergy has improved and she should be able to eat normally in a few years. For now she likes soy milk so we stick with what works. She loves yogurt though, and we can't let her have too much, or she will get a rash.
Have you ever heard of or tried probitotic pills? It is the cultures in yogurts. They can be found in non dairy forms at health food stores and whole foods. I found this has helped me a lot in reintroducing dairy back into my diet.
Good luck to you, it isn't easy. I can be done. Keep in mind it takes at least 2 weeks to get dairy out of your system, so give it at least that long before you expect to feel changes.
links on probiotic info. Happy reading.
http://www.pdrhealth.com/drug_info/nmdrugprofiles/nutsupdrugs/pro_0034.shtml
http://www.usprobiotics.org/
We had to use a lactose free formula until he was almost 15 mos old and was able to handle real milk.
