chronic constipation and dairy

[plantmama]

Does anyone have experience with treating severe, chronic constipation with a dairy-free or very limited dairy diet?

Ds is 7 and has always been a big milk drinker.  We also eat a lot of dairy in general.  We did a dairy free trial a couple of months ago and within weeks he was still going only once a week but he was virtually pain free.  He had a ton of pain and blockage when we did a week of dairy.  Now he is doing very limited dairy and seems to be doing great (for the first time since he was a toddler!)  However, I'm confused about how it works.  We went to see a pediatric GI specialist last week and she downplayed the role of dairy.  He is scheduled for a lactose intolerance test next month but from what I read about eliminating dairy to treat constipation it is more the protein than the lactose that bothers people with constipation.  She says to get him on miralax but he is improving on the limited dairy diet so much that I'm sticking with that. 

I'm curious to see if anyone knows more about this.

[plantmama]

also, I'm curious about using goats milk and sheep's milk.  We already drink raw cow's milk.  Ds now drink's water or oj with calcium and D or almond milk.

[maryamb]

My son who's almost two started having constipation issues at around 12 months when we introduced Dairy.  I didn't put two and two together and at his 15 month appointment his doctor asked me to stop giving him dairy to help with constipation.  Up to this point, he was on a gluten free diet.  Nervous that I was cutting "too much" from his diet I removed dairy and introduced gluten along with sheep milk/dairy (not a smart move).  His constipation did not really improve.  At 18 months his doctor asked me remove gluten, dairy including sheep's milk and we did a food sensitivity test to confirm this was the root cause.  Turns out he is sensitive to dairy (both sheep/cow) and gluten.  He started going regularly a few weeks (it takes a while for the body to adjust and to fully remove gluten/dairy from its system) after we started the new diet.  Based on my own personal experience, I would suggest to completely remove all dairy from his diet. There's definitely a link between food sensitivity and constipation.  I hope this helps!

[plantmama]

thanks! yes, I just wish I had tried this when my ds was your ds's age!  It would have saved us years of terrible struggles.  You are lucky to have a dr. that supports it.  Every dr. we've seen acts like without dairy a child will starve!  It has completely come from dh and I.  I would like to do dairy free but ds thinks he is fine with one serving a day.  Usually it's cheese.  I'm worried it will build up again.

Thank you for relating your experience!