Can you get Full Fat Lactose Free Milk?

[Bodkin]

DD2 (18 months) is lactose intolerant and she has been having either Alpro soya or Rice Dream from about 15 months as her main milk drink (GP okayed this), plus soya yogurts and spread. But I've just been doing some research on here and I'm now not sure that this is ok.

I have tried her on lactofree and she was fine with it - but I have only seen semi-skimmed and that has even less calories in it than Alpro or Rice Dream.

I've also seen lactase drops that you add to normal milk to reduce the lactose content - has anyone used them, and are they suitable to use with full fat milk?

Hiya The only info I can give you is that my daughter ( now 4) became milk intolerant aged 2 she has been on the alprosoya original since then and has been absolutley fine re growth and weight gain ( regular checks with HV). My second daughter also has soya milk probably 50% of the time because of conveinience more than anything else ( its in my cooking etc ) I also noticed that dd2 had started getting v flemmy when she had milk b4 bed, This was the start of the problem for d1, and suspect that the reduction in milk/ increase in Soya is the reason dd2 hasn't had such a severe reaction.

Both of my girls are slim but they always have been and I don't think it has done them any harm to have a slightly reduced fat content in one product.

I have recently noticed however that not all of the Alpro soya range now have added calcium since the packaging changed, so watch out!! A bonus to them both having soya milk is that they are both going to have v low cholestrol!!

Also I was warned by a nutritionalist that removing milk from their diets completely could prevent them from consuming it at all in adulthood. Consequently we have always given a single dose of milk product every week in order to prevent that complication. My 4 yr old has now almost outgrown her reaction and we are gradually increasing her milk allowance with no ill effect. So I do feel using the Alprosoya has been a success. Sorry for such a long post!! Hope some of my ramble is useful to you!!

Thanks for that. I have only in the last week cut all dairy completely out of her diet - before she seemed to be able to tolerate butter, yogurts and cheese - but things were starting to go badly wrong in the nappy department again, so have cut it out completely and hey presto, award-winning poo again.

So having taken this rather drastic step I thought full-fat Lactose Free milk would be just the ticket.

And she is such a titchy little thing. I just had her weighed again today, and she STILL has not reached 20lbs.

Hiya Bodkin,

I can only go by my children and my friends daughter who is severly lactose intolerent and a friends son who has a horrific reaction bless him!. I don't have any medical training but over the course of the last couple of years I have found out bits and pieces that help. I have been told that

Cheese because of its procesing doesn't contain hardly any lactose. My children can eat it fine, my 2 of myfriends children can't, 1 can. Butter was a no no for all of them and yoghurts were the absolute worst thing possible.

Personally I would speak to your GP and find out if it would be appropriate to try to find out really what you can get away with. If he / she says yes I would give her another week of totally dairy free and then try a v small piece of cheese to see if she can tolerate it, and if she does seem ok then I would try a small amount each day and see if it is accumulative.

Another friends child has quite a bad reaction and yet can get away with eating icecream once a week, in her case its definatley a build up that causes the problem.

My friends little boy however only has to have a tiny amount to be violently ill.

I have just realised that I know 4 children locally in addition to my 2 who all have problems with milk. Each child reacts differently and can get away if you like with different things.

If you can work out what her tolerance level is then you may be able to broaden her diet somewhat and worry a little less.

As for her weight don't forget that the charts only give average, if you or your partner or both are of a small build you can't expect her to be huge, and even so every child is different. If she is happy has plenty of energy is healthy and your health visitor isn't panicking then don't worry.

Mine are casein intol but ds3 was wrongly treated by GP as lactose intol for 3 years.

DS3 was prescribed enfamil lactofree formula until 3; despite it being not really right for him I have nothing but praise for it, it even tastes nice!

Hi, we use lactofree and it tastes like normal milk - wrt cheese, I can't have soft cheese or normal cheddar (or yoghurt) but I seem to be fine with small amounts of very hard cheese like Jarlsberg or Leerdammer. Some people can also tolerate cream but not milk - that may be a way to add calories?

I lve tofutti soft cheese youc an get in holland and barratt- the baby likes it too (garlic and chices variant) but ds1 hates it, worth a go?

Thanks for all your input everyone.

Kitkatqueen - I like your suggestion about keeping dairy free for a bit and then trying again with cheese (she does love it). I think it may have been butter that was causing problems, as she eats qutie a lot of toast . I had read somewhere that the more fat the dairy product contains, the less lactose it has, so thought butter would be ok. Yogurts are not too much of a problem because she likes the soya ones, or I can use fruit puree pots as puddings etc.

Peachy - will try and track down the tofutti cheese you mention, that also sounds really good.

Anyway, i think I just need to stop stressing! She is perfectly healthy and developing normally...my partner and I aren't tiny, both average sized, as is DD1, so i guess that is why I have been worrying aout her size a bit. The HVs are not in the least bit concerned, so maybe I'm just looking for things to worry about needlessly

Good Luck Bodkin!!