HELLO!

I'm new to the group and I know I have some sort of milk intolerance, I
believe it also includes the protein in milk.  I was given whole milk at 3
months of age and had terrible excema.  I am 48 yrs. old so that was a long
time ago.  I continued to have milk my whole life until a few years ago when I
found out how bad it was for me.  For many years my only symptoms were dark
circles under my eyes (very dark, I'm good with makeup) and a very
embarrassing situation with bad breath that no doctor or dentist could fix
that I work extremely hard at keeping under some control.  Then milk starting
giving me bloating and gas, so I pretty much cut it out of my diet except
lactaid milk in my coffee.  But now I think even lactaid gives me problems
since I cannot handle lactaid cottage cheese and can feel slight bloating
after coffee with 100% lactaid. A couple of years ago I became vegetarian but
not for long.  Severe bloating and diarrhea after eating whole grains (always
ate supermarket white bread) so I guess I gave myself IBS.  Eating the celiac
diet didn't help either, to this day cannot handle any grains except
occassionly 1 piece of rice bread.  I do have a very healthy diet now that
consists of meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and occassional rice bread, although
the best starch for me is a white or sweet potato.  Anyone else with similiar
history?

My problem now is my kids (5).  I have an eighteen year old boy who eats a lot
but is very skinny.  Checked out the Iga etc. stuff for celiac but tests came
back negative.  Have convinced him to go totally dairy free and that's what I
needed this list for.  Have done nothing the past two days but read old posts.
Has helped tremendously.  Also have a 10 yr. old boy who still wets the bed,
and cries easily - found out that could be dairy related.  Cannot convince
kids to go wheat free at the same time, but with the help of this list we will
go 100% dairy free. Anyone else with kids with those symptoms who improved on
a dairy free diet?  Can the kids have some soda?  Checked out Lindt
bittersweet chocolate but it had butter - how can that be legal so to speak?
I love Rice Dream bars, you guys sure that's okay?  I promise I'll never write
this much again and bore you all but thanks for the group.  Thank-you again,
Jane