>Could someone explain the difference between lactose intolerant and >milk allergy. Me, my husband and three kids all have bad reactions to >milk products (i.e. milk, ice cream yogurt, custards, etc) > >We get severe cramps, gas and diarrhea. My doctor just told me to stay >away from milk. My kids had trouble digesting milk, even breast and soy >milk. Now we just avoid milk products all together. We even have >problems with calcium supplements. > >Does this sound like lactose intolerance or milk allergy? I am new to this group and have never responded, but I although I am not an M.D. I am lactose intolerant and my son has milk allergy. If my explanation is incorrect someone please correct it. When I was born I got cramps, diarrhea, etc. after drinking milk. I had no milk until about one year old. The reason is that about that time the body produces enough lactase which is the enzyme that breaks down the milk protein lactose. The body reaches its peak in cases like mine about 3 yrs old and the production grdually decreases until it is at a very low level in the early twenties or so. Then the symptoms of lactose intolerance start to appear again. This is what happened to me. Our son was born with a milk allergy and when ingesting milk he would break out in hives over his entire body and also vomit on certain ocassions. (His symptoms are still the same at age 5 but not nearly as severe when he accidently ingests milk which is rare.) His situation (I think) is that his body pretty much sees milk protein as a foreign substance and does all it can to get rid of it. (The human skin is an organ and the body uses it to get rid of things the body considers foreign or toxic.) So it seems that yours sounds like lactose intoerance which by the way seems to be culturally more common in Jews of Eastern European descent (my case). In my son's case breast milk worked great for him, although with children with milk sensitivities it is very important that the mother does not ingest any milk products herself. Rachele Shaw [log in to unmask]