At what age should a non-breastfeeding toddler have formed poops? Because Jocelyn will still go 3-6 times a day and it is always nasty and looks like young baby poop--not formed at all and has a horrible smell to it. And it happens so many times a day.

When she was 9 months old, she was diagnosed as lactose intolerant (which is common for Vietnamese children, but not usually in babies. However, 95% of Vietnamese individuals are lactose intolerant, so the chances of a baby being LI are a bit more likely. She could not tolerate any lactose-based formulas or breastmilk and would vomit almost everything up even with meds. For every ounce she drank, 3/4 of it came back up.). Anyhow, after the ped diagnosed her (a diagnosis we agree with given her race and symptoms), we switched to lactose free formula, and then to lactose free milk. She seemed to tolerate cheese, small bits of ice cream, etc. ok so we really just kept her on the LF milk (she drinks 4+ cups a day of it) and then fed her what everyone else was eating.

But, I'm starting to think she's not tolerating the other dairy at all either...she's got a horrible diaper rash (ironically, we just went back to cloth, and the rash is not healing), and these bowel movement things are driving me nuts. Could her LI be progressing and getting worse? Or is there something else we should be considering (she was adopted at 4 months old, so she had her birth mother's diet in the womb, but was on all American foods since she started eating solids)? Or is this normal for an almost 2 year old?

If it's LI progressing, do they make a young child version of those lactose intolerance tablets? Jocelyn will be 21 months old next week.

Strangly enough (not.), I can't remember what my son was doing at that age. LOL!!!

I'd say it is not normal. If you know that she's lactose intolerant (was she tested? or just a guess on the part of the doctor?), then I'd go further and remove all dairy. Get to a baseline that is normal and then add back in things (like butter, which doesn't have lactose, or yogurt where the cultures "eat" the lactose) one at a time to see what she can tolerate. It's possible that she's dairy intolerant instead of lactose intolerant and can't eat any dairy. That would be the first guess. Any other food is fair game after that to be causing the issues.

Ditto to everything Kathy said. My dd had gross bms like that, too, until we figured out her allergens. I would assume at this point that you're not dealing with a lactose intolerance problem, but an allergy or dairy intolerance. Both can cause damaged gut and mushy bms.

Also, my understanding is that milk intolerance and soy intolerance commonly occur together...so if it seems things get better but not totally right with elimination of milk (which requires learning all the names of derivative ingredients) then soy would be a good #2 target. Sorry.

As far as Lactaid tablets, our ped. recommended I give him the regular stuff at the regular dose...which I didn't like (or do more than once, long story)...and the drug company deferred to whatever the pediatrician orders...which I think is appropriate.

hmmm, thought I already replied... I would ditto everyone else. I think it is likely a casein and not lactose intolerance.