Lactose intolerance

[springbabydays]

13 month old just been diagnosed with a 'mild' intolerance. Been advised no dairy for 6 months. Two questions:

DS loves cheese and yoghurt. Can anyone recommend dairy free alternatives please?

Also, still bf at least twice a day. Is this enough milk? Tbh during the day the only other drink offered is water. Planning to use almond milk in cereal etc but there's a warning on the pack saying not suitable as complete milk food for under 3s.

I know there's lactose in breast milk but Dr says to just cut out dairy in the first instance as benefits of bf outweigh problems at this stage.

Dairy free cheese alternatives are generally vile. Alpro yoghurts are nice, though you would probably want to only give them occasionally, as they're pretty sweet.

If it's lactose that's the problem, then why have you been advised to cut out dairy entirely? Lactofree products are excellent, and are milk with the lactose removed. They do a whole milk version and a cheese which melts nicely on pizzas, soft cheese and even double cream - first time in my life I've been able to enjoy cream without worrying about the short term consequences!

It was a fairly brief telephone conversation with the Dr (and a noisy baby distracting me at the time!) - I would have liked a more indepth discussion really so may have to make another appt. I don't know anything about lactose intolerance hence my questions here. Hoping a trip to the supermarket will answer some of my questions too when I go.

breastmilk is full of lactose (the sugar in all milks) so unsure why you could still breastfeed and then have to cut out dairy. Could it be cows milk protein intolerance instead?

Also cheese and yoghurt tend to have lower lactose levels than milk itself (you can get lactofree versions too if lactose really was an issue)

how was the diagnosis made?

Stool analysis.

Thanks for all the advice so far. Think I need some educating here.