Lactose/dairy intolerance in adult?

[mrswhiskers]

I've suffered from dermatitis on and off since childhood and have had to use emollients daily for the past 4 years or so.
at the beginning of this year I went vegetarian and spent about 6 weeks following a vegan diet.
My dermatitis cleared up and I had no itching.

When I reintroduced dairy I found that whenever I had ice cream I would have diarrhoea within a couple of hours and dreadful stinky wind (sorry if tmi). My skin would also get itchy in the areas I had the dermatitis.

I also seem to be affected to a lesser extent by milk but OK with a small amount of chocolate, yoghurt and cheese/butter.
could it be lactose intolerance or something else? Could I have brought it on by going vegan? Should I see a GP or just eliminate the problem foods from my diet?

My son and husband are milk intolerant. They used to be able to eat chocolate, ice cream etc with no problem ( actually, there was a problem but we didn't realize).

However, since converting to goats milk, cows milk products really affects them. It's as if there body has had a detox, and they have become more aware of the effects of cows milk.

Incidentally, my son is cows milk protein, not lactose intolerant, so okay with chedded and butter ( little/no cows milk protein in them), but no okay with icecreametc.

It's relatively easy to cut out cows milk. Use soya or goats milk. Most supermarkets have free-from aisles although these products tend to be expensive. Eg free from jam tarts are £2. Ordernary jam tarts ( which are also don't contain milk) are under £1. It may take a bit of planning initially ( and a lot of label reading) but it's not impossible.

I realised I am lactose intolerant a few months ago when trying to work out the cause of my headaches. I used to have a thyroid prob and for yrs have thought my gut probs - constipation/ diarrhoea/ bloating and wind +++were all related then I stopped all dairy for 2weeks and I felt amazing - everything disappeared. I had a glass of milk and within a couple of hrs I had a really bad headache, itching and stomach cramps. I have worked out I can't drink milk at all, or cream, ice cream or soft cheeses. I use the lactose free milk and almond milk. I'm ok with a bit of hard cheese and ok with yoghurt. Anything with powdered milk (ready mixed coffees etc) don't agree with me either. I have decided to have 6mths off dairy as much as possible, and have been taking probiotic tabs (there is a bit of evidence they can help and I figure they can't do any harm) then try to reintroduce slowly. I didn't think my Gp would have anything useful to say, but if your diet is very restricted otherwise then it may be worth asking for s referral to s dietician. You have to make sure you are getting enough calcium - I eat a lot of green veg and mackerel so I think I'm ok.

Oh, and I'm ok with dark chocolate ( I prefer dark anyway so that a bonus!) if you want to work out what suits you (different foods gave different amounts of lactose in and most people can tolerate small amounts) go dairy free for s couple of weeks (and try to have a simple non processed diet to give your gut a rest) then every other day try a small amount of 1 thing. Butter, hard cheeses have small amounts of lactose compared to soft cheese. Unfortunately cream and icecream are the devils work when it comes to lactose. There are lots of LF products, most are expensive. The cream is good and there are loads of alternative that aren't advertised as LF - sorbets instead of icecream etc.

Swedish glacé is available in most supermarkets and is a good vanilla flavoured soya Icecream.

Thanks for your replies. think I'm going to try and cut out dairy as much as possible and see how I go from there which I wanted to do anyway from a health and moral viewpoint-its just so damn hard!
bought some more vegan cheese today (which I like anyway) and a cheese sauce mix which is surprisingly good and also the glacé ice cream. I'd been eyeing it in the supermarket for a while and tried a bit this afternoon. I can't believe how much it tastes like real dairy ice cream.

I've been dairy intolerant for 8 years. For a while I could tolerate lactofree and goats products, but for the last few years not even that. It's a huge pain in the a-hole. I have to read labels on everything because dairy turns up all over the place (plus I actively avoid soy).

I nearly cried with joy in Sainsbos last week when I saw Sacla gluten free red pesto is now dairyfree too!