Lactose is the sugar, not the protein.  From what I've seen of 
inforamtion about the purification process, it should be free of casein, 
the protein.  HOWEVER, there are also notes in what I can find about 
level of purification of the lactose and I have no way of finding the 
specifics of them - so, while I tend to believe that any concentration 
of the protein in pharma-grade lactose would be miniscule, I certainly 
don't know that for sure, as I don't know what concentrations might be a 
problem with severe allergy to it (I am fortunate in that I'm "merely" 
severely LI and don't have a true allergy).

Now, if he's old enough to have taken (for example) most multivitamins 
(Centrum, Theragren among them, but NOT One-a-day which does not have 
lactose in them) and has not had any reaction, I'd suspect he's probably 
okay with most medications containing pharma-grade lactose.  If not, I'd 
be very cautious about it until he's had something like that in a 
controlled environment..

There's no easy answer, unfortunately.



R. Pellerin wrote:
> Just a question from a curious parent, as my milk allergic child is nowhere
> near ready to start popping pills but Singulair was offered for his asthma.
>
> Is the lactose a problem for those with lactose intolerance (which I totally
> understand) or also for those with the milk protein allergy (which my kid
> has)?  This particular hiccup never occurred to me and I must thank the
> original poster for mentioning this.  This is valuable information for
> future prescriptions for my son!
>   
>