Dear Sarah,

A negative skin test means your child hasn't shown IgE 
antibody reaction to milk.  However, there is a type of food
allergy that is not IgE mediated and will not show up on the
skin test or RAST test.  It is called allergic colitis, and
symptoms are bloody stools, diarrhea, abdominal pain.
This diagnosis is usually made after everything else
is ruled out.  

So, yes, your child may be lactose intolerant, but there is 
also a possibility your child has a non-IgE mediated allergy
to milk.

The following is an excerpt from an abstract on file on
Medline, the National Library of Medicine's abstract data
base.  It is from the article, "The cow's milk allergy 
comples:  overlapping disease profiles in infancy." 
(Hill DJ:  EurJClinNut 1995 Sep)

 "Recent laboratory based studies have identified
 three groups of infants with cow milk allergy (CMA) who
 demonstrate different symptom and laboratory profiles.
 The first, an IgE-sensitized group, shows features 
 of immediate cutaneous eruptions and anaphylaxis. The second,
 a non-IgE sensitized group, develops gastrointestinal 
 symptoms within hours of ingesting moderate amounts of cow
 milk, whereas the third group of patients shows symptoms of 
 gastrointestinal disturbance with or without bronchitic 
 and/or eczematous symptoms after ingesting cow milk over 
 several hours or days. The late reacting non-IgE sensitized
 CMA patients demonstrate elevated T-cell reactivity in vitro
 to milk proteins....<snip>"
 
Lynda

>He was put on soy formula at 4 weeks of age because he had
> bloody mucousy (sp?) stools. He was drinking regular 
>infant formula.  He was fine after that.... <snip>

> So we fed him a muffin.  The next day he had diarrhea and 
>the pediatrician said he'sallergic to milk do not feed him
>any dairy products at all......

>I then asked that he be tested by  a pediatric allergist. 
>That was done when our son was 1.  It was negative (yes it 
>was just a scratch test)......

>The allergist said that our son was probably lactose 
>intolerant...... <snip>