Lactose Enzyme Supplements for DCs

[rockinhippy]

I'm not sure if this is the best place to post or not, as DDs problems are intolerance rather than allergy, not life threatening etc, but can make her pretty ill, very ill if she ingests a lot of the wrong uncooked cheese, drinks cold milk etc etc, so I'm hoping someone here might have some advice :)

My DD has an IBS diagnosis & Urticaria, her triggers been artificial food additive & lactose, we've been managing it mostly fine for years & I cook from scratch, so she generally doesn't miss out, but we are now hitting the age of over night School trips etc & realising, especially with the lactose intolerance just how ignorant a lot of people are on the subject - understandable if you don't have to deal with it, but I do sometimes wish DCs meals providers etc were a bit more enlightened

Anyway, I remember reading somewhere about milk sugar enzyme supplements, I think its called lactase, or something similar - I'm wondering if anyone knows...

exactly what they are,
what is a good brand
& are these okay for kids?

I'm thinking these might be a good idea to take on the run up to & during an upcoming School trip, in the hope of making things easier to manage whilst she's away from home & she's not restricted by the overly cautious diary free diets that seem to be the norm when ever this comes up :(

TYIA

Hi - I'm a qualified nutritional therapist - yes you can get lactase supplements to help with lactose digestion. Lactase is a digestive enzyme needed for the breakdown of milk sugars. As you'll already know, people with lactose intolerance produce little or no lactase and hence the digestive problems resulting from the undigested lactose fermenting away. I'm looking in my Lamberts technical book and their product called "Lactase Complex" is labelled as safe for long term use. However, I'm not medically qualified, so please check with your GP before hand to make sure there are no interactions with any other meds your little one might be on. Might also be worth you finding a nutritional therapist in your area who might be able to help with digestive issues