Hello...I wrote one day last week also, now I know why it didn't go
through...
I'm Patricia and live in Arkansas...I have a little boy that is nearly
five.  Since he was a little thing, around a year old, we have been
having problems with his intestines...he had a severe bout of
constipation then after that a case of gastroenteritis...although the
symptoms lessened he had chronic diarrhea after that.  The doctors never
even mentioned lactose intolerance...they ran test after test for things
like parasites, yeasts, and I honestly don't remember what else...it was
several thousand dollars worth (and we had no insurance and low
income).  All tests came out okay...many were run two times at different
hospitals by different doctors.  We went through several doctors.  All
for some reason kept saying he had toddler's diarrhea and would outgrow
it by two or three.  Like an idiot I believed them, this didn't end up
being the case, at three the problem was still here and he was unable to
potty train because of it...so back we went this time to be told it was
encopresis...another wrong diagnosis.  Another said maybe its just
because of ADD (which though he is very active I don't believe this is
the cause of diarrhea)

Well, finally I decided to again removed dairy.  We had done this one
other time but were only told by that doctor to remove straight milk, he
said cheeses, yogurts, etc were fine...well you know the story.  Of
course that did not help.  A couple weeks ago I totally removed all
dairy products from his diet.  THree days later his syptoms were about
85% better.  He has improved a little more since, but we are also
finding he is unable to eat any melons either or the symptoms recur.
So, we will be removing all dairy and melons from his diet (and we will
be closely watching other fruits).  I am happy to have this list for
support and help since this is new to us.  When this helped him  I
decided to try a lactose free diet myself, sure enough almost instantly
the problems I had been having (gas, bloating, intestinal disturbances)
stopped immediately -- only to reoccur when I had two or three bites of
ice cream or cheese.  It seems that we will have to be eliminating even
the dairy in bread and baked goods as this is enough of a problem to
trigger him to be loose boweled again.

My little fellow had severe rashes as a baby and toddler.  These rashes
on his bottom would get so bad he'd have sores, again we saw several
doctors many times over this and couldn't get help...they just wouldn't
stop reoccuring and were next to impossible to heal up.  They were very,
very painful for him to say the least...now I have read this is a common
problem for babies that are lactose intolerance.

Does anyone know if there could have been permanent damage caused by his
continueing to have these dairy products in the past even though he is
lactose intolerant?  I am so upset that this was not checked further by
the doctors, in fact we were given misinformation by the doctors.  They
insisted that a child his age wouldn't be lactose intolerant etc...

I could also use cooking tips on using soy products as a
substitute...what things are difficult to cook/make with soymilk?  I am
going to experiment with making our own soy milk to save on some of the
cost...and also we are eliminating all dairy for the whole family to
make it easier on the little guy...he did great though...I had to leave
him with a day care for a day, they told me they were having bologna
sandwhiches for lunch, I took his own to make sure it was dairy
free...wouldn't you know the day care changed there mind and had pizza
that day...my little guy's favorite food...and he didn't even cry, ate
his bologna like a champ they said.  Course his little eyes showed some
hurt when he got home...any recipes for soy pizza?

Patricia