Do I/my child suffer from lactose intolerance?
Lactose intolerance is a very common disorder that is present in many people and being ignored all the time. The first thing you basically need to check about yourself is whether you get bloating as soon as you have dairy products. This usually starts within 30 minutes and may be an indication that you might be lactase deficient (on the other hand if your colleague in the office suffers from wind instruct him to avoid dairy products to allow you to work in peace!).Many persons suffer from symptoms of lactose intolerance without realising the actual cause of it. In these cases the person may feel distressed with symptoms. The main problem is the fact that not many people would ever think that milk may give all these problems to them. Usually all other things are blamed but milk is never in the list of suspicions (especially in allergies - see milk allergies).
Many times babies suffer from wind and colic. However, the cause of all the pain, crying and distress on both the baby and the parents may be the inability of the baby to break down lactose (lactase deficiency). The fermentation of lactose in the bowels causes the formation of gases, including methane and carbon dioxide. These will cause the baby’s intestines to inflate and there is no need to say how distressing this feeling on the baby is. Unfortunately this remains undetected and the baby is fed milk all the time. In a medical study involving 53 babies with severe colitis half of them stopped crying after they were given milk treated with lactase enzyme drops. These lactase enzyme drops are available here as well and are highly recommended by several medical researches to give to babies who suffer from colitis (See abstract). Alternatively, with advise from the doctor and dieticians a supplement to milk should be found, at least to see if the cause for colic is milk.
Another drawback is that LI is misdiagnosed in most of the cases. Doctors find it difficult to pinpoint the presence of LI and people with this condition are wrongly classified as suffering from the Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). These persons are made to suffer in vain, where if they were diagnosed properly, all it takes is the avoidance of milk from read more
