DS lactose free for a year but recurrence of symptoms

[AugustRose]

Hello
After having blood tests and a the embarrassment/stress of a colonoscopy last December my DS1 (18) was considered to be lactose intolerant - I must point out that the doctor who gave us the results was not the one who did the tests and was very dismissive saying "the colonoscopy was fine so that's it, oh well it must just be lactose intolerance 15% of the nation are".

So he has followed a lactose free diet and been mostly OK, just the odd bout of pain/diarrhoea. But now over the last month the symptoms have increased and he is now in a lot more pain. I will be making another appointment for him and he is going totally dairy free in the meantime but is there anything else I should be asking the to check for. They said he definitely wasn't coeliac.

Thanks

Just bumping for any help.

Have you considered soya intolerance? My DD is dairy intolerant and her symptoms have also returned. I've been told soya and dairy intolerances are often linked so to try removing that. I believe lactose intolerance can be diagnosed using a breath test, might be useful to ask for one. Good luck!

Thank you for your reply, I had considered the soya as we use that as the main substitute for milk. Things have settled s bit since he stopped the dairy altogether but will probably stop the soya if it doesn't improve soon.

Is he eating something he doesn't know contains lactose? It's in some surprising foods, such as tomato ketchup, pills/tablets (including allergy meds ), some sweets etc. It's a cheap sugar, and is easy to unknowingly eat.

We check labels all the time and have changed brands/makes of a lot of things or he just doesn't have them. There is a small amount of lactose in his medication but when I spoke to the GP surgery they assured me it was so small it wouldn't make a difference - I was a bit about that too.

We weren't offered any support from a dietician but he may have to see one as he needs to be able to control it, he to go to uni next year. To be honest he's just getting very grumpy about it all as if it's my fault. None of my other children have any allergies so he feels isolated and left out a lot. Saying that he thinks our youngest DS may also be lactose intolerant as he is very windy and goes to the toilet 3/4 times a day. He never complains of pains though.