Sad News...Dairy Allergy Returns

Witt "outgrew" his dairy allergy at age 2 1/2. We lived as a dairy-free family from the time he was 6 months old (when we found out about his his life-threatening allergy) until then.

After that, we slowly introduced dairy products into his diet. There were no reactions. He LOVED cheese and yogurt! We switched to raw milk and he drank that fine as well.

Then, about a year ago (around 5 1/2 years old), he started having stomach pains after he ate.  They were random and not every time he ate.  Then after a few months, the pain got worse and more frequent.  He wasn't finishing meals.

I began to narrow things down in his diet and watch what he ate and when the pain would come.  I had it narrowed down to gluten and/or dairy.  Then, one morning before he ate anything, I gave him a small glass of milk to drink and nothing else. I set the timer for 20 minutes to watch for a reaction.

Within 10 minutes he was in pain! He wouldn't eat anything else and went back to bed to wait it out. Poor little guy.

He had a doctor's visit and I brought up the possibility of lactose-intolerance turning up.  Dr. P said given Witt's history, he would not classify it as intolerance, but as an allergy.  He recommended keeping as much dairy out of his diet as possible.

I posted this new information on my food allergy blog, Must Follow Recipes, asking for suggestions. I got a response from Lady Makes It saying that her husband cycles through from allergy, to being able to tolerate milk in small amounts with Lactaid use, and then back to full-blown allergy. This gave me the idea to use Lactaid with Witt... and it worked beautifully!

For awhile.

Now, the Lactaid doesn't even help. He is even having stomach pains from baked-in milk and from cultured milk, like yogurt. :(

So now, I'm back to reading labels for hidden dairy and re-learning how to cook dairy-free for him. It's not as intimidating this time because I know I've done it before, but I am so not excited about this (for him or for me). However, at least now, at age 6, he is able to ask if something has dairy in it and (as of right now) the allergy is not life-threatening.

THAT is a HUGE blessing!!!