Suddenly lactose intolerant?

[natural4mybabies]

Hello-
I am 31 yrs old and have consumed all kids of dairy my entire life. I stopped cold turkey a couple of times since I suspected my son had a dairy allergy while I was bf'ing. He is almost 13 mos now and turns out that he had somewhat of an intolerance but is outgrowing it as he is doing fine on a combo of bm and non-homogenized whole milk from grass fed cows.

So I decided to incorporate dairy back in gradually. I have had very soft stools (very out of the ordinary for me) but did not think anything of it. I tried quite a bit of yogurt last week and immediately had lots of stomach activity with gurgling, horrible gas & pain and later diarrhea for almost 3 days. By the morning third day it was better as I did not have any dairy again during that time. That night, I had some milk (2 oz) and whey protein. The crazy stomach activity was back as was the gas.

Is this something that is now permanent or might it be a case where I can get a hold of some good probiotics to get back on track?

TIA!

[sapphire_chan]

Um, yogurt is probiotics. My guess is that since you've been off dairy, including yogurt, for so long that it shocked your system to get all those bacteria at once. I'd try a small amount of yogurt and see how that goes and gradually increase if it's okay.

And with not having dairy for so long, your body may have decided it just isn't worth making lactase anymore.

[natural4mybabies]

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan

Um, yogurt is probiotics.

I get that, but since there are many strains of prebiotics/probiotics, etc, I wasn't sure I was getting the right kind or amount via the yogurt.

Thanks for the reply, I will try and go much slower Just a little over zealous I guess with having missed it so much

[kjbrown92]

Another possibility is that you've been milk intolerant and just didn't know it. Sometimes when you take a food out, when you go back on it, symptoms are much worse than they were before. Just a possibility.

[broodymama]

Something similar happened to me about a year ago, with some very unpleasant "pull over and find a bathroom NOW!" side effects. All 3 of my kids have been sensitive to dairy and soy so I had spent most of the previous 5 years on a dairy & soy-free diet. Once DD2 outgrew her sensitivities I was happy to add dairy back in, only to find out that I couldn't tolerate it well anymore. I did have luck using probiotics to help my system adjust to it again.

[natural4mybabies]

Thank you all for your input, glad to know I am not the only one! In all my research on elimination diets for bf'ing, I never saw it mentioned how our bodies may react once we re-introduce these foods. Just had me a little worried that something else may be going on or that I may have caused some permanent issues!

[lil_miss_understood]

Originally Posted by kjbrown92

Another possibility is that you've been milk intolerant and just didn't know it. Sometimes when you take a food out, when you go back on it, symptoms are much worse than they were before. Just a possibility.