Lactose intolerance 4yo

[purplemumster]

Hi all, reaching out to see if anybody has found themselves in a similar situation to us?

DS started school in September and had no health issues until the end of November when we noticed a pattern forming of D&V on a Thurs eve/Friday morning and settling by the lunchtime with a plain diet (toast, banana etc.) at first we assumed he must just be unlucky with the bugs going around (local schools closed with norovirus etc) and our GP supported that. Over Christmas I noticed it was worse after eating any kind of dairy which isn't cooked in to food , milk, cheese, Yoghurt, ice cream etc.

Having proved this theory by moving to lactose free foods and seeing a complete recovery, I contacted the Dr's again to make an appointment to discuss this a bit further and qas basically told that I'd have to wait several weeks and they wouldn't test for allergy at this age anyway? DS sneaked literally a mouthful of DHs milkshake yesterday and today he's had awful D&V again and I can't help but feel this sensitivity is getting worse. Has anybody been in a situation like this and any ideas for getting this checked out?

Tia x

[purplemumster]

*just to clarify because this is quite vague, we have tested him with all kinds of dairy individually and we know this is the trigger

[Biscusting]

Does it need testing if lactose free options solve the problem?

[PickAChew]

There is not much you can do but what you were already doing, even with a diagnosis. Lactose intolerance isn't an allergy and much of the world's population is lactose intolerant, so it's not really a medical priority.

Hopefully your ds will learn the lesson that he can't drink other people's milky drinks. What will be harder is swerving shop bought baked goods and a lot of quite unexpected products which contain lactose.

It is possible that his lactose intolerance was triggered by a stomach bug, in the first place, in which case it should resolve or at least become less severe, in time.

[purplemumster]

Both fair points, thank you! I see what you mean about the lactose free options but this is entirely new territory so was unsure if I should be attempting to reintroduce dairy in case this is just off the back of a tummy bug?

True enough about the milkshake, tbh it's safe to say he's been so poorly I don't think he'd want to.

[sparkle789]

Dd has been diagnosed with lactose intolerance that was triggered by d and v.
Our gp said you can try and reintroduce it but it’s a couple of ml at a time and build up so it can be a long process.

[purplemumster]

Thanks for that sparkle, I've read similar so we're going to give it a go but very tiny amounts at a time

[SheldonSaysSo1]

I probably wouldn't try to reintroduce anything just yet. Seeing as he has just upset his stomach with the milkshake I would allow a few weeks for this to settle before introducing anything. I've worked with children who have done gradual introduction and it has to be very small for some children.