Lactose Intolerant Toddler?? Inexpensive milk alternatives?

[Mickeys.friend]

I know sounds strange, but my 18 month old son has suddenly become lactose intolerant... The Pediatrition says go to soy milk. I say no...I read enough about soy milk over the years to know I am not trying that. But, the other "milks" like Almond and Rice milk are so expensive. I asked why I could not just try one of those lactose free milks on the market or even unpasturized milk and the doc said soy would be better. I love the doc....never had any problems with him at all ever....but we disagree on this issue. Does anyone have a lactose intolerant child? I would especially like to hear from anyone who has a child that did not have this problem since infancy. What have you tried, and how's the cost??? My guy LOVES milk and since I had to cut it out completely a day ago, he is just beside himself so i need to try something new ASAP, LOL!

LIZ

 

[blanq]

I have developed lactose intolerance within the past year. It does not matter if you are an adult or child, the remedies are the same, so I hope you are okay if I reply even though I do not have a child that is lactose intolerant.

I have found the best alternative is simply lactose-free milk. Is almost indistinguishable from "regular" milk in terms of taste and texture. Lactose-free milk is available in both conventional and organic varieties and readily available at grocery stores, in the refrigerator section, right next to the regular milk. My grocery store has their own store brand, in addition to others, and the cost is close to regular milk, although a bit more expensive.

Editing to add: If your son has an allergy to milk proteins, then lactose-free milk is not an option, and you will need to go with rice, soy, hemp or oat milk. Lactose free milk is still cow's milk and is full of milk protein but has undergone a process to add lactase to eliminate lactose from milk.

 

[MomToOne]

If your child is truely lactose intolerant, then switching to lactose-free milk and avoiding other lactosed dairy products should be enough. If your child is EXTREMELY lactose intolerant, you may need to avoid many other foods that contain milk or milk products. Or find a way to manage eating these foods, such as Lactase pills. (You may need to play around with the dose of these, I found my daughter needed 4 to handle large doses of dairy like ice cream. They are fairly benign, so my daughter's doctor was fine with this dose.)

However, if your child has a milk allergy, switching to lactose-free milk won't help at all.

I'd make sure you and your doctor are both clear on it being lactose intolerance, and not a milk allergy. Lactose intolerance usually doesn't develop so early in life, although it can in some cases (my daughter's kicked in at age 4).

 

[Mickeys.friend]

Thanks so far...his dr. says it seems only to be a lactose intolerance...not an allergy. he says an actual allergy to milk would produce different and more severe symptoms. There's no rash, swelling, runny nose...none of the allergy symptoms...For over a week my son has vomited and had yucky yellow stool and gas within 15 minutes of having milk. No reaction to yogurt(I know different entirely) or cheese(but he only will eat a miniscule amount of cheese at a sitting) or even ice cream. It only occurs with whole milk. At first I thought it was a virus...but it really did not present like one....no fever or constant gastric upset. It just came out of no where...

LIZ

 

[msmama]

You say whole milk...have you tried skim milk?

I don't know if that would work, but it's an option to at least try.

At this point you're looking for a milk substitute just because he likes it, right? I think you're going to have to go with his taste on this one.

He doesn't need milk of any kind.

 

[Justsyd2]

My son was raised on Soy, and I am lactose-intolerant and have used Soy all of my life with no problems. If you won't try Soy, you may consider using Lactaid so that he can drink regular milk. Just a thought.

http://www.lactaid.com/

 

[MomToOne]

You say whole milk...have you tried skim milk?

If it is lactose intolerance, skim milk will be a problem too.

I say grab a carton of lactose free milk (be prepared for sticker shock even there) and give it a try. You should know in a glass or two if that is the problem.

 

[ricktib]

The best deal I've found is Costco's Kirkland brand soy milk - comes in a box of a dozen cartons.

 

[bumbershoot]

You said he loves it, but there's no reason for us to drink cow's milk. Any calcium in it is used up, plus more, while digesting it (something that has been known for over 20 years and yet milk is still touted as a calcium drink...you end up at a calcium negative after digesting it). Any other nutrients useful to humans are *added* to it, they aren't intrinsic in the milk itself. So you could get them elsewhere.

We do use dairy products here, but never think we need them... And DS wasn't using them as a toddler (he was still getting tons of human milk, though, LOL), the cheese addiction came about later.


Many people who can't have other milk can have unpasteurized milk. Did you know that milk contains lactase? The enzyme that breaks down lactose? It's in human milk, too...as long as the milk is UNpasteurized. Plus unpasteurized milk has all the other good stuff in it too. But I would NOT suggest it to someone not totally comfortable with the idea, and if you don't have a nearby GOOD dairy that has nice clean healthy cows that it's being sourced from, then I would be totally hesitant to suggest it. But I did want to talk about it since you mentioned it. I personally would be comfy drinking it and giving it to DS if we felt the need to have cow milk around to drink, but not everyone is comfy with it. I also grew up with it, when my mom could afford it.

I hear goat's milk is good for those who can't otherwise have cow's milk. But it has a stronger taste. And costs a fortune; even more than unpasteurized cow's milk.


As for soy...meh. Cow's milk pretty much IS hormone. Straight from the cow. The argument against "non-growth hormone treated cows" milk is that cows milk already HAS growth hormone in it. (the argument for non gh treated cows is that the natural amount is better than MORE, and pumping cows full of hormones isn't good for THEM, either). So you're already drinking hormones...the fact that soy has things that can *act* like hormones doesn't seem much different to me.


If you can, just dump the milk. None of us *need* it. Get the nutrients elsewhere, and use water as a drink! *


*this hasn't been what we are able to do...I'm speaking from what I WANTED to do but experienced pushback from the husband, so we use soymilk when DS wants milk. now, a few years later, hubby realizes that milk does a number on his glucose levels, so he doesn't even drink it, grr. But DS usually just drinks water; the soymilk is barely used, so that's good.

 

[fimac]

I have a son who is casein intolerant . We use chocolate almond breeze as a milk sub. I usually wait until it goes on sale and buy it in bulk. Good luck.

 

[LuLuO]

My daughter couldn't tolerate regular cows milk until about two years old. We used Whole Lactaid and she never had a problem with it. I stopped the Lactaid when she turned two but around that time and she pretty much stopped drinking cow's milk anyway except on her cereal.

 

[tinkercat]

My son is lactose intolerant for milk, but does fine with normal quantities of cheese, yogurt, ice cream, etc. We use lactaid, or sometimes the store brand lactose-free milk and it works great for him. Just my 2 cents!

 

[kirstenb1]

We used Very Vanilla soy milk. Whatever you choose, you may want to choose a flavored-milk substitute. Just something mildly sweet, so he'll really take to it. DH, for example is lactose intolerant, and has been since he was an infant. Before he was dx'd he'd already begun to associate the taste of regular milk with stomachaches, so to this day, he hates the taste of real milk.

 

[fivikse]

My girls have never tolerated regular cow's milk, but do okay with yogurt, cheeses, etc. I also try to limit our soy intake. I used unsweetened Almond Milk for our substitute for a while since it seems to have the least amount of sugar in it. I would just stock up when it was on sale. Now we use lactaid milk because I didn't love the Almond milk for cooking.

But we really don't use a lot of milk. We never drink it, just use it in cereal or coffee and the occasional cheese sauce.

 

[Reagan&Co.]

Everyone has had really good suggestions so far! This is great!

IF you want him to have milk, don't discount all the milks, inc. skim, low-fat, soy, lactose free, etc. You will just have to experiment to see what he can tolerate.

If you look up stuff on the internet, you will see that lactose intolerance is diagnosed based on symtoms....those same symptoms can also occur with just a sensitivity to high fat dairy. For instance, my DS gets sick with whole milk, but can drink low fat. He decided, however, that he likes the taste of MY lactose free milk, so now I just buy it for the whole family.

To answer the question about inexpensive milk.....We don't have as much choice in our area about what to buy. The grocery stores are getting better about carrying lactose free and organics, but based on what other posters are mentioning, we are being left out from some options!!!:

 

[Mickeys.friend]

Thanks all...i am deciding to go with Lactaid for now....mainly because (as a few of you mentioned) I can cook with it and I don't want him to think milk must be sweet or flavored. Now of course, if Lactaid does not work out than I will have to go with something else. As for why I don't like soy milk...it's not just for the hormones, but for it's link, in certain studies to hich cholesterol. and it's too geneticaly modified... My brother in law is very fit, he is an army Captain and very active....He has always been health conscious and drank soy milk daily almost as soon as it became available in the stores...He found at a physical that his cholesterol had skyrocketed...Since my sister has hashimotos thyroid, she had learned about how bad soy milk and soy related products were for her, so she had her husband stop the soy milk and the cholesterol went immediately down...way down! I now try extremly hard to keep all soy products out of our diet which is not always easy....

LIZ

 

[squirrel]

My niece is lactose intollerant. We think she is outgrowing it now.

My sister buys her the Lactaid Milk. You can also purchase the Lactaid drops and add it to regular milk if that works better for you. When he is older you can also get Lactaid pills.

The pills work well for birthday parties if you don't have time to prepare a cupcake or something for him to eat. I don't know how severe his lactose intollerance is. My niece couldn't have anything with lactose in it, now she can handle a little bit.

My niece was really sick until we found out what she couldn't have. Another thing my niece's doctor said to watch out for is potatoes. They can turn into lactose.

I make my niece waffles and I use Soy milk as it comes in a smaller amount and I don't need to keep it refridgerated until I open it.

 

[pyrxtc]

I am going to suggest unpasteurized milk as well. See how that works. I know there are some farms near me that sell it.

 

[squirrel]

I am going to suggest unpasteurized milk as well. See how that works. I know there are some farms near me that sell it.

Where we live, we aren't allowed to drink unpasteurized milk. There is a farm that is being forced to throw away the milk. They aren't allowed to sell it. The farm is saying they are giving the milk to the shareholders and have put a label on it "Not for human consumption". It will be interesting to see what happens.

 

[Colinsmom]

When DS1 was lactose intolerant, I ordered Lactaid drops from Canada Pharmacy that I could add to any regular cow's milk - it was so much cheaper than Lactaid milk, and allowed me to choose whatever type (skim, whole, organic, whatever) milk I wanted. They are OTC and not available in the U.S. because the company makes more money selling the Lactaid milk.