Am I lactose intolerant?

Why sick after hotdogs and chinese food if lactose intolerant?

• After two months of being sick, my daughter tested positive for being lactose intolerant. We've cut out dairy and have purchase lactose free products for her to gradually try. She really likes rice milk in her cereal. I am reading labels for lactose and milk in products and avoid them. My duaghter did get very sick the morning after eating sesame chicken for dinner (I'm guessing the batter) . What surprised me more was that she got sick after eating hot dogs on a bun with beans for dinner. I did not check the rolls that night for milk but I did read the hot dog package which had potassium lactate. I wondered if that could have affected her also. Being lactose intolerant is less than two weeks old for our family. Are there things that I should be avoiding other than milk/dairy, and lactose on a food label. Also, if bread doesn't specify milk, whey or caseium on the label, does it have the potential to make her sick? Thank you.

• Answer:

  First, if your daughter is just lactose intolerant, she will react only to the lactose (milk sugar) in milk products. If she's actually "allergic" to milk though, she will have a different kind of reaction partly, and it will be a reaction to the proteins in milk (the casein or the whey). Few people have both problems. Lots of products use milk or lactose or whey or even casein in processed foods though, so you and she will need to be label readers. Check out the info in my previous answer here though about being lactose intolerant, and also some links about that and milk *allergies*: http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100622015029AA1ups2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose_intolerance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dairy_allergy You might also want to introduce yogurt into her diet since lactose is eaten up when milk is turned into yogurt (and if you make it yourself, you can eliminate all of the lactose though that's seldom necessary). http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ako2PqEvIX8Fs7_7a6XeTh116xR.?qid=20070405080017AAQBRCv http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091029150228AAoliRL (Be aware also that there could be those ingredients in restaurant foods too, and that she'll be better off in general with whole foods, not processed ones --in packages/boxes/etc. Also, some kinds of restaurant or take-out food can upset anyone's intestinal tract for all kinds of reasons not related to milk products unfortunately so don't assume all upsets are from milk.)