Lactose intolerance

[Dexky]

lactose intolerance

I'm new on here. My 10 yr old son has Crohn's and currently has no problem with lactose intolerance. I'm wondering if other crohnies start out that way and develop intol. later?

If it is developed over time, maybe it could be slowed by limiting dairy. He really likes Carnation instant brkfst. I'd hate to lose that because it seems like a treat for him which makes me and him happy. It's also loaded w/ nutrition.

 

[Astra]

Hiya Mark

I suppose everyone is different, everyones unique, and I don't have any dairy or milk intolerances, and if EJ is ok with it, then don't change it, I'm not sure whether that changes in the future, and Crohnies become intolerant to lactose, I've had it for over 15 years, and I haven't yet. Maybe someone else has?
xxx

 

[Dexky]

Thanks Joan that's good to hear. Reading more and more I'm learning the only thing most crohnies have in common is the dx....and sometimes not even that it seems.

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Dexky: I've been lactose intolerant for about 10 years (it started for me at around age 20), and just developed these Crohn's-like symptoms last year around the time I turned 30 (I don't have a diagnosis yet so not quite sure if this is CD or something else). My lactose intolerance seems to be hereditary, as the majority of women in my family develop it around their late teens/early 20s. My other gut problems do not seem to be hereditary, so for me it seems that the two conditions both happened in me independently of each other.

As far as slowing the progression or possibility of lactose intolerance over time by limiting dairy products, I don't know if it works that way or not. It certainly didn't work that way for me. I was always an occassional dairy-eater, I would have a glass of milk or two each week and pizza about once every week or two. One week I was fine and completely able to digest dairy with no ill effects, and literally the next week I was very ill after drinking a small amount of milk or a few bites of pizza. So for me it was not at all a gradual thing, it was very sudden.

I've discovered plenty of delicious alternatives to cow's milk products. If you're concerned that your son may someday not be able to tolerate dairy from cows, try sheep or goat's milk products instead. I've had good success with goat cheeses. I've also found that almond milk is delicious (much better than soy milk, in my opinion) and there is a wonderful coconut milk yogurt on the market as well (I believe the brand name is So Delicious - and don't worry if your son doesn't like the taste of coconut, I cannot taste coconut at all in the yogurts).

I hope that helps you a little bit. Good luck!

 

[Dexky]

Thanks Cat, no other lac intol that I know of in my or my wife's families but no crohn's either. I guess we'll keep giving him dairy until otherwise.
Mark

 

[ataloss]

Thanks Joan that's good to hear. Reading more and more I'm learning the only thing most crohnies have in common is the dx....and sometimes not even that it seems.

Isn't this the truth! I think no 2 crohnies are the same! It makes it even more frustrating!

 

[dreamintwilight]

Also...if your son ever has to stay on a low fiber/low residue diet (which limits your dairy intake to 2 cups a day) you could always try rice cheese and milk. I just tried this recently since I'm still trying to stick to low residue until my meds are figured out. I find rice milk is tasty with cereal and the shredded cheddar rice cheese I have tasted great on my sloppy joe's!

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

I haven't been on low fiber or low residue diet yet (not diagnosed yet so haven't had any dietary advice yet, just trying to figure things out as I go along!). Are rice milk and rice cheese lower fiber/residue than regular milk & cheese? I've tried rice cheese and didn't particularly care for the flavor or for the way it melts (both rice cheese and soy cheese seemed very plastic-y and not very cheese-like when I tried them on pizza). I think there's almond cheese available as well but I haven't tried that one yet, since I've had such good success with goat cheese - it melts great and it's really tasty!

I haven't tried rice milk, but I've tried many other milk substitutes like soy milk and lactose free "milk" (that just tasted like very watered-down milk), and my favorite so far is almond milk. It's very good and doesn't really taste like almonds (I'm not an almond fan). It's much creamier than the other fake milks I've tried so far.

 

[dreamintwilight]

Well, I have been diagnosed since February and I haven't really had too much dietary advice. I get most of it from the people on here actually. I was just advised to stick to low fiber for 2-3 weeks after getting out of the hospital to slowly reintroduce my body to foods again (since I was on liquids). I've kind of decided to stick with low fiber until my body starts responding better to meds (they're still trying to figure out the right combo).

Rice cheese and milk are made from rice, so it's not so much that it's less fiber than cow's milk and cheese, but it's another way to get dairy-like products into your diet without exceeding the 2 cup limit of "normal" dairy. They say 2 cups of dairy because dairy tends to constipate you and being on a low fiber diet you have no extra fiber to counterract the constipation, get it? They will actually count towards your servings of carbs, which the dietician said I could have 6-11 servings a day of carbs on a low fiber diet.

I like almond milk too. I haven't seen almond cheese yet. I'll have to look next time. We actually have rice milk because I was trying to find a milk substitute my husband would also use with cereal and he thought the almond milk was too creamy. I thought rice milk was the most unintrusive milk sub, but he ended up going back to milk and I stuck with the rice milk, haha.

 

[ChefShazzy]

I'm not familiar with Carnation Instant Breakfast... is it a dry mix that you add to milk? If it is, you could try fortified soy milk or almond milk (they have calcium)??

Since my teenage years I've had trouble with dairy, but I kept consuming it. Now I only drink soy milk and eat soy- or rice-based 'frozen desserts' (God I miss ice cream!!). I can occasionally cheat and have a bit of cheese or REAL ice cream, but only a couple nibbles or else I'll pay for it. I tried a sip of cow's milk a few months ago and it tasted unpleasant to me. My favorites are So Nice Original and Almond Breeze Original Unsweetened.

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Marisa: I've seen almond cheese at Whole Foods (and I think that's the only store I've seen it at, it must not be very popular). Not sure if every store has the same general layout or not, but at my local Whole Foods, there's this little refrigerated case on one of the end caps that has all of the cheese substitutes (soy cheese, rice cheese, almond cheese, etc).

Sharon: Every once in a great while I'm tempted to try a bit of cow's milk as well, and you're right, it tastes really strange and not very good once you're no longer used to it. It just tastes "wrong" for lack of a better word! And for me it's the same with beef - I haven't eaten beef since I was 13 or 14, but every few years I get a craving for a hamburger. After a bite or two, I'm completely disgusted (again, it just tastes "wrong"), and then I get a massive stomach ache that lasts for days. Even before I got ill with CD or whatever this is, I would get stomach aches after trying to eat beef - I think that after years of not eating it, my body no longer produces the enzymes to digest beef, so it just makes me really sick.

 

[dreamintwilight]

Cat - I must not have been very observant because that's the section I found the rice cheese in. I'll have to purposely look this time

Sharon - I tried the Carnation Instant Breakfast powder several years ago and had serious D problems. Like literally peeing out the butt (sorry, TMI, I know) with terrible gurgling sounds. I even tried it again just to make sure and it happened again. I tend to stay away from that now, haha.

 

[Dexky]

Sharon, EJ has had no problems with the Carn inst brkfst. But so far the only things we have found that we are sure bothers him are strawberries and spaghetti sauce. We assume the strawberries are because of the seeds so we try to avoid all seeds. It's too bad cause I make a mean fried rice w/ sesame seeds.

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Sesame seeds bother me a little bit, too. They cause some discomfort, and they do not get digested at all - maybe TMI, but they come out looking exactly the same. So I try to avoid all seeds too.

I haven't tried Carnation instant breakfast, but now I'm curious. Is it similar to Ensure? If so, are there different flavors of it? I can handle chocolate Ensure, but the vanilla flavor causes me to have d & cramping. My friend with crohn's said she's experienced the same thing, so I wonder what it is about the vanilla flavor (or if it was just a coincidence?). If Carnation comes in chocolate, though, I think I'd give it a try.

 

[MapleLeafGirl]

Does anyone know if Almond Milk is available in Canada? I haven't had any luck finding it.

 

[Rob]

I used to be addicted to Farmers Union iced coffee flavoured milk, would drink it all day everyday lol
but at about 25 that stopped due to me having really bad cramps an D nd Bad gas when ever I had milk
thing is I can eat ice cream, cheese, yoghurt etc no probs - in moderation of course

but if I hav any milk flavoured, plain etc then stay out my way and of my toilet lol
very weird
and a pain cod man I miss my iced coffee

 

[Rick62]

Since I switched to Lactose free milk I suffer a lot less from bloating and wind problems. Sometimes I can get away with eating cheese but only in moderation. I find soya yoghurts a nice alternative, but avoid ice cream (pity!). I tried rice milk but thought it didn't look right (coloured water?), and tasted kinda funny.

 

[GoJohnnyGo]

Does anyone know if Almond Milk is available in Canada? I haven't had any luck finding it.

Blue Diamond makes Almond Breeze. I've see it in chain supermarkets as well as health food stores.

It's not bad actually, a tad sweetish for my tastes.

 

[ChefShazzy]

Does anyone know if Almond Milk is available in Canada? I haven't had any luck finding it.

It definitely is, I can find it in my local Superstore (Loblaws for you?), or Bulk Barn, and a number of other places. You can find it in tetra packs on the shelf, it's not refrigerated.

Best price is usually Superstore, though. (Once, I guess someone input the price wrong into the register, and instead of being priced at $4/2 litres, they scanned as $2/2 litres... I spent $30 on 30 litres of Almond Milk and had it for weeks!! Yum!!)

I agree with Rick, rice milk is kinda like ricey water. Blech.

 

[Dexky]

Cat,
Carnation IB does come in choc.. I think it is similar to ensure. Choc. is the only flavor EJ will drink. We also use it to flavor milk shakes for him as a treat. I guess you could use it in milk substitutes. We've never tried though.

 

[bethyd78]

Lactose Intolerant Pill

If you can't take milk if it gives you problems just take a pill from the drug store called lactaid or the generic pill. You just take a pill before you ingest dairy and you can have milk. I tested positive once for lactose intolerance and now I have tested negative. Your body can change with this it's weird I know. Try the pills if you have trouble just ask a pharmacist.
Bethy

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

If you can't take milk if it gives you problems just take a pill from the drug store called lactaid or the generic pill. You just take a pill before you ingest dairy and you can have milk. I tested positive once for lactose intolerance and now I have tested negative. Your body can change with this it's weird I know. Try the pills if you have trouble just ask a pharmacist.
Bethy

I've been lactose intolerant for about 10 years now, and the lactaid pills used to work fairly well for me, but over the years they gradually lost their potency. I'm not sure if I built up a tolerance to them, or if my lactose intolerance got worse. Whatever the case, it just seemed easier to give up cow's dairy altogether and find suitable alternatives.

 

[TLM]

Lactose subsitutes

My 16 yr old son was recently diagnosed with chron's after 2 long months of pain and suffering. Which during this process we discovered that milk was adding to the pain.( he loves milk) needless to say we have avoided all milk products for him and found some good substitutes. They have a lactose free butter made from smart balance (its in the small tubs and light flavor) Borden makes a lactose free sliced cheese and he prefers the Rice Dream rice milk. Also we have discovered he can have frozen yogurt in place of ice cream and Perry's makes a delicious peanut butter flavor ( i don't like yogurt but I really like this) For cream cheese we use a soy based cream cheese ( we can only find this at Wegmans) but all the rest we get at our local Walmart. Good luck Hope this helps!

 

[iminflamed]

70% of the planet is lactose intolerant.

 

[belle1999]

No lactose intolerance for me. Although when I first started having tummy issues, milk products seemed to be the cause. But now, I can eat cheese, yogurt, ice cream, etc. No problem. Don't know if your son will develop an intolerance or not.
I also have the same problem with seeds that others do!

 

[Kev]

I am extremely intolerant of lactose, so I opt for a lactose free milk, AND I stick to the cheeses that are low/free of it.
Unfortunately, there are other places lactoce crops up, it is in everything from pills (vitamins), margarine even orange juice.

Lactose is merely milk sugar, and since the bad bugs behind CD seem to thrive on anything ending in 'ose', I try to limit those items in my diet... lactose, fructose, sucrose...
I use honey as a sweetener, and it seems to satisfy all of my sweet cravings w/o causing me any associated grief. If your 10 yr old isn't showing any lactose related issues, its probably a safe bet he isn't Lac. Intol.... yet.. but you might want to watch/limit the amount of lactose he intakes just to be on the safe side. Avoiding it shouldn't case you any problems, and it might just spare you some down the road.

 

[Mrjono]

My intolerance formed over a period of time. I used to be able to drink pints of whole milk a day. Then I got diagnosed then whole milk made me feel bloated so I dropped to Semi skimmed (2% in the states) and I was fine with that. As time has gone on though it makes me gassy and irritates my stomach so I've dropped milk all together. I also can't eat butter and cheddar cheese but I'm okay with cottage cheese.

 

[missconstantpain]

I was diagnosed with Chrohn's a couple of months ago and have basically been in pain my whole life and was glad to have an answer but depressed that it was uncurable as I'm sure you can all relate. I'm basically having one big 30 year long flare up. I am now on the steroids and anti-flams and playing the waiting game which is very frustrating as I'm sure you'll all know. I have tried giving up milk before but I'm going to try and go totally dairy free to see if my symptoms ease even a little bit. For other people who have tried this, how long does it take for signs of improvement from ceasing eating it? Days? Weeks? Thanks xx

 

[Dexky]

Thanks all and Kev I think we will try to limit his dairy w/o eliminating it. He really doesn't seem to have a problem w/ it now.

We are definitely still in the learning stage of his diet though he seems to be doing well right now.

 

[Rae410]

Lactose intolerance actually came first for me. I was constantly throwing up about 6 years ago and found out that I had a bad lactose issue. Like a year and a half later I had Crohn's. It may or may not be related though.

 

[Crohn's 35]

Lactose intolerance actually came first for me. I was constantly throwing up about 6 years ago and found out that I had a bad lactose issue. Like a year and a half later I had Crohn's. It may or may not be related though.

Hey Rae, welcome to the forum, please let us get to know you and post your story on a Your story thread, that way everyone here can greet you! Hope you join us! Great people here, for support and experiences. We can learn from you too!:thumright: