Need Advice Any Parents Have a Kids Thats Lactose Free? Gluten Free?

It's hard to give advice on your diet, because you've mixed a lot of things together. Lactose-free (has milk protein but no lactose), dairy free (has no lactose or milk protein), and gluten free are all very different from each other. When we were sorting out a food intolerance for one of mine, my pediatrician suggested an elimination diet. In an elimination diet, you remove all common allergens from the diet for 2 weeks. This includes all milk, dairy, gluten, nuts, eggs, and soy) for 2 weeks. Basically, he's eating protein (chicken, turkey) without any sauces and plain sides (white rice and steamed vegetables). Leave out any foods with multiple ingredients. Do this for 2 weeks. Hopefully all his symptoms will go away over the 2 weeks.

1. Then, add back 1 thing. Just 1. I would start with the lactose-free milk. Lactose-free milk has milk protein but no lactose. If you add the lactose-free milk back and his symptoms come back, then you know that he is intolerant of milk protein and you will have to avoid all dairy all the time. If he is completely fine with lactose-free milk, then you know that his stomach is fine with milk protein and you can add lactose-free dairy (this means lactose-free cheeses only, no ice cream, etc) back to his diet. Do this for 2 weeks to make sure it's fine.

2. (skip this step if he is milk protein intolerant in step 1) If he is OK with milk protein for 2 weeks, give him a small cup of regular milk. Lactose intolerance usually has pretty immediate effects so you should know within hours if he is lactose intolerant. If he has symptoms, go back to lactose-free dairy. If he doesn't have symptoms, you can add more dairy to his diet over the next 2 weeks. If he has symptoms at any point, then he is lactose intolerant and you need to go back to the lactose-free diet from the last step.

3. After 2 weeks, make him a scrambled egg for breakfast. Wait 24 hours and look for symptoms. If none, add more eggs to his diet over 2 weeks. If the symptoms stay away, he's all clear to eat eggs.

4. Same for nuts.

5. Same for soy.

6. Now that you have lactose versus dairy, nuts, eggs, and soy sorted out and you've been 2+ months with no gluten, you can tackle gluten. Have him eat 1 thing with gluten in it. Wait 24 hours and see if he reacts. If he does, you know he is intolerant of gluten so take it back out of his diet. If he doesn't react, slowly add more gluten into his diet and keep an eye on him. If at any point his symptoms return, then you know he is intolerant of gluten. If he symptoms don't come back, great, you can add gluten back into his diet permanently.

As you can see, this process takes 2-3 months to completely go through. However, at the end, you will have a very clear picture of what he can eat and what he cannot eat. Keep a food dairy during the whole process and if you find it confusing, work with a dietitian.

We have lactose intolerance in my family - but that hasn't produced what you are describing.

I was mistaken as IBS as a teen with mine which was frustrating.

Essentially, my lactose intolerant kids (just sensitivity to dairy) are gassy. Their breath smelled was a telltale sign too.

Loose stools and farts quite frankly runs in my family - when we eat dairy. We're not allergic. We take pills and we don't get it. Or if we switch to soy milk, we're ok too. That was the quick test for us.

I also have a child who vomited out of the blue, and it was due to anxiety. Showed no signs otherwise at all. After them saying it was acid reflux, etc. we figured out that it was anxiety. It just manifested as tummy ache (very common with kids). Same with headache. The two often go hand in hand.

It was a phase with this kid, and learned some relaxation techniques - and we've had one other episode of it again (a few years later). Same thing - vomit/nausea feeling, tummy upset, headache.

I've met a few moms - same thing. We all went the stomach/dietary issue route first as was suggested.

Just thought I'd mention that. My kid was not typically nervous otherwise. No upset that we could detect either. Was kind of a developmental phase.

I'm going to second asking for a referral to a pediatric GI.

Our son has EOE (eosinophilic esophagitis) that is caused by an allergy, and we were going to have him tested. (Our son is responding to the meds, so our GI told us we could hold off on that for now.) Our GI wanted us to see a dietician and then do an elimination diet based on the allergy results.

I'm not saying your son has EOE, but a pediatric GI would be better equipped to figure out what's going on.

Also, your pediatrician or the GI could refer you to a dietician to help get you started on changing his diet.

I have to tell you, the idea of doing an elimination diet is very overwhelming to me, so I was comforted knowing that I would be working with a dietician. This could still be something we need to do someday.

It would be worth it to work with a pediatric gastroenterologist to find out if he has irritable bowel syndrome.
IBS is basically diagnosed by eliminating everything else.

When he was young our son had some mild IBS symptoms.
5 or 6 times per year he'd have excruciating abdominal pain - cramps, gas and diarrhea.
There was no pattern - it mattered not what he ate or didn't eat, whether he was stressed or not (like before a black belt test or school tests).
It didn't happen so much but it could strike at any time - during vacations, during trips, over summer, during school - day or night.

We discussed every year with the doctor - told him we treated symptoms as they came up.
Warm bath and/or heating pad to help with cramps, Gas Ex for gas, Imodium for diarrhea.
Doctor said all that was fine.
Because it wasn't constant and always cleared up within 48 hours the doctor was not concerned.
Once it was over it was like he was never ill at all.

By 5th grade he was down to about 4 times per year.
By middle school it was 3 times per year.
High school - twice per year and then by his senior year it only happened once.
He's now in college and seems to have outgrown it completely.

There is an excellent cookbook called "Cooking For Isaiah", that is specifically geared towards the author's young son, who must eat gluten and dairy free. Lots of really helpful recipes and advice and encouragement. It's available on Amazon.

Hi C., I am a holistic nutritionist and deal with this all the time. In addition to this we have celiac in the family as well as gluten, soy and dairy sensitivity. While the comments on here may be helpful I encourage you to work with a nutritionist. An elimination diet should be done for 3 months not two weeks in order to be effective. The cookbook on isiah, is nice for treats only. Her recipes are really high in processed and high sugar foods so should only be used for special occasions. Elimination diets are very restrictive and I use food sensitivity testing instead. I use blood spot testing for kids. Like others have said, it could be an issue that goes beyond food sensitivity so that’s why you should work with your GI and nutrionist. There is another test I like, a stool test that will pick up on viruses, pathogens, fungi, bacteria and much more such as zonulin.
If your doctor said he has a sensitive stomach, that to me is not a professional answer. Why does he have a sensitive stomach? Does he have dysbiosis, low HCL, is he not producing enough bile or digestive enzymes and so forth. You need to find the issue and resolve it -not use symptom management either. There is a lot more that can be done for your son so he’s feeling better.
My own son suffered for years and traditional doctors were not helpful. Hence why I went back to school, switched from my career in healthcare to holistic care and became a nutritionist. Your story sadly with western medicine just giving pain meds and no resolution is all too common.
I offer free 15 min. Phone consults if interested and see distant clients. If interested email me ____@____.com

Updated

Hi C., I am a holistic nutritionist and deal with this all the time. In addition to this we have celiac in the family as well as gluten, soy and dairy sensitivity. While the comments on here may be helpful I encourage you to work with a nutritionist. An elimination diet should be done for 3 months not two weeks in order to be effective. The cookbook on isiah, is nice for treats only. Her recipes are really high in processed and high sugar foods so should only be used for special occasions. Elimination diets are very restrictive and I use food sensitivity testing instead. I use blood spot testing for kids. Like others have said, it could be an issue that goes beyond food sensitivity so that’s why you should work with your GI and nutrionist. There is another test I like, a stool test that will pick up on viruses, pathogens, fungi, bacteria and much more such as zonulin.
If your doctor said he has a sensitive stomach, that to me is not a professional answer. Why does he have a sensitive stomach? Does he have dysbiosis, low HCL, is he not producing enough bile or digestive enzymes and so forth. You need to find the issue and resolve it -not use symptom management either. There is a lot more that can be done for your son so he’s feeling better.
My own son suffered for years and traditional doctors were not helpful. Hence why I went back to school, switched from my career in healthcare to holistic care and became a nutritionist. Your story sadly with western medicine just giving pain meds and no resolution is all too common.
I offer free 15 min. Phone consults if interested and see distant clients. If interested email me ____@____.com

Updated

Hi C., I am a holistic nutritionist and deal with this all the time. In addition to this we have celiac in the family as well as gluten, soy and dairy sensitivity. While the comments on here may be helpful I encourage you to work with a nutritionist. An elimination diet should be done for 3 months not two weeks in order to be effective. The cookbook on isiah, is nice for treats only. Her recipes are really high in processed and high sugar foods so should only be used for special occasions. Elimination diets are very restrictive and I use food sensitivity testing instead. I use blood spot testing for kids. Like others have said, it could be an issue that goes beyond food sensitivity so that’s why you should work with your GI and nutrionist. There is another test I like, a stool test that will pick up on viruses, pathogens, fungi, bacteria and much more such as zonulin.
If your doctor said he has a sensitive stomach, that to me is not a professional answer. Why does he have a sensitive stomach? Does he have dysbiosis, low HCL, is he not producing enough bile or digestive enzymes and so forth. You need to find the issue and resolve it -not use symptom management either. There is a lot more that can be done for your son so he’s feeling better.
My own son suffered for years and traditional doctors were not helpful. Hence why I went back to school, switched from my career in healthcare to holistic care and became a nutritionist. Your story sadly with western medicine just giving pain meds and no resolution is all too common.
I offer free 15 min. Phone consults if interested and see distant clients. If interested email me ____@____.com