h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is my pet hate. I have a mild intolerance to cow's milk, and my son has a total allergy to it. He showed the same symptoms that I did as a baby when he was put on cow's milk at 6 weeks old. Neither of us could go five minutes without being sick. Luckily, I was more persistent than my mother was, and I kept taking him back to the doctors, especially as he was losing weight. After 6 months he was put onto Soya milk and the projectile vomiting finally stopped. I don't know who was more relieved, me, him, or the washing machine.
As he has grown we've tried to get him back onto it, but he always shows the same symptoms, and now he is 6 I think it unlikely he will be able to tolerate it. He gets sick, gets the runs, and gets excema, and asthma comes back in winter. I took him off Soya milk when he was still on Wysoy because they admitted it contained genetically modified soya and put him onto Goat's milk. He seems fine on that, but he hardly drinks it. Most of his cows milk replacements come from soya now. We can get Soya chocolate, mousses, yoghuts, milkshakes, milk, ice cream - and I make sure all these are GM free.
It's hard shopping for him as milk products are in everything. These are the things to look for in ingredients lists.


Milk - whole, skimmed, or semi-skimmed, powder or otherwise
Whey
Whey Powder
Lactose
Milk Protein
Cream in any form
Yoghurt
Non fat milk solids
Caseinates
Casein
Lactalbumin
Lactic acid
Cheese
Sodium Caseinate
Calcium Caseinate

Note that some products may contain and have listed margarine, bread crumbs, which may themselves contain milk products , but are not listed.

Be aware that things like bread and sausages can also have milk products in as well, also it has been known for lactose especially to be found in tablets. Unfortunatley my son also has ADHD and there is lactose in his Ritalin. Hopefully it is such a small amount it shouldn't affect him, and we think he has more trouble with the protein in milk, rather than the sugar. We check all products all the time, as milk has been added and taken away to things with no warning.
Eating out with him is a nightmare, even things like Macdonalds we have to worry is there milk in the burgers? Sometimes we just say Forget it, and let him have a treat. He only seems to have a problem when it builds up in his system over a few days, so the odd bit here and there doesn't seem to cause him problems.
Thankfully some manufactorers are now labelling their food "contains milk" which saves time in the supermarket. He never seems to miss things, or complain when I have an ice cream out and he has to have an ice lolly, but I think that is because he has grown up with it.

With his ADHD I should probably try to stop all the artificial additives on his food as well, but I don’t know if I can restrict his diet any more, I feel so guilty as it is as he got this from me.

A friend of mine had a problem with milk and she found some tablets, through the internet which she eats before she eats the milk and they stop the problem. I forget the science but I think they provided the lactase enzyme she was missing that is needed to digest milk. I think they were called Lactaid or something. Ask your Doctor or get on line. It's worth a try. I think it depnds what it is in milk that you are allergic to.

FABT

Thanks.
I think I've heard of these, but his reaction is so strong, and sometimes it happens immediately, so I don't think it's a case of not being able to digest it.
A couple of years ago my nan gave him one of her sandwiches and he threw up straight away.
I think I will look into it though.

my story:
when i was a baby, i was lactose intolerant. this sucked as my mother had to pretreat all my milk (adding lactase). but i grew out of it when i was two. life was good untill that fateful weekend when i was ten. i was at my cottage and after eating some icecream i felt really sick. after an hour or so it went away, but every time i had milk, it happened. my mum figured i was getting lactose intolerant again, so she suggested that i only have milk once in a while, as a treat. this is did. i went a week without any, then had a smore, and within ten minutes, i had gone into anaphylactic shock. unfortunately, no one knew what it was, so we figured it was just a mild reaction. i took an antihistamine and went to bed. later my doctor figured that the only thing that kept my throat open that night was the antihistamine. anyways, after a few trips to the doctor, he decided i was allergic to the protein in milk, so he prescribed hardcore antihistimines, and a few epi-pens, and away i went. i was on a totally milk free diet until i was 16. at that point i started trying little bits (a dorito, or a few chocolate chips) initially, my tongue would get itchy (a very weird feeling) and my lips would get a little swollen. i persisted though; every month, i'd try something. by the time i was 18, i had gone half a year without feeling any symptoms, so a tested myself, i had two reactines and an epi-pen ready, and i ate a bowl of yogurt, a bowl of icecream, a block of cheese and had a tall galss of milk. nothing happened. so i returned, (slowly at first) to eating milk products. my doctor thinks that as my body matured it ditched the allergy.
anyways, i know what you're saying about having to check everything, and you're right, it seems as though milk is in everything. one of my problems, is that i also HATE soy milk. the good news is that there is nothing in milk that you can't get from other sources. health-wise your son should be fine. on the other hand, nothing sucks worse then him not getting cake at his friend's brithday party. here in canada, my parents found numerous products that had no milk. there was a ice cream type product called "tofuti" which made icecream and popscicles. entenmanns made baked goods that often had no milk. most dark chocolate doesn't have milk. there were a few soya cheeses, but they don't melt, so that sort of sucks. there are a few margarines that dont' contain milk, though they don't perform well in place of butter in baking. another thing that i found out is that pizza without cheese, is not only palitable, but it is very good. it is not nearly as greasy, and i still will order a pizza with no cheese from time to time. on another topic, there has been a lot of research recently into treating ADD with dietary controls alone, so if ritalin is giving your son problems, it might be worth seeing a dietary micropodist. they're neither a doctor nor a homeopath, but they take a pinprick blood sample, and suggest dietary changes to help treat the root of health problems. a very interesting notion. well, i hope there has been something of help in this long meandering tale, if at least some comfort that your son may well grow out of it. give him my best and remind him that humans are the only mamal who continues to drink milk after infancy, not to mention the fact that we're drinking another animal's milk, not our own. really rather weird when you think about it.
cheers

Thanks for that, it was very helpful.
I didn't realise that milk could send someone into anaphlatic shock.
As I said, my son seems to be plagued with protein problems. We were never offered anything to put in his milk, although when he was a baby I was told to put Gaviscon in it, which didn't make any difference as he didn't have indigestion! He doesn't seem to mind that he can't eat what other children do at partys, but I think that's because he's grown up with it. He is also at the age where he is more interested in the games than in the food.

In my original post I forgot to say that at least one of those ingredients has an e number.
Lactic Acid is E270

I remembered about my intolerance to something in cream last night. Out with some friends having a meal and all of a sudden I'm gagging. Realise that the meal must have contained too much cream

At age 51, I started having fairly frequent attacks of diarrhea. My doctor suggested starting a "food diary", and eliminating the "usual suspects", starting with milk. I had been drinking a LOT of skim milk, always a gallon in the refrigerator, rather than water. Calcium, right? Well, that was the culprit, I now drink "lactose free" skim milk, sold in half-gallon containers by several companies, including a store brand at Albertson's. Tastes just like skim to me, and no diarrhea. I haven't tried the tablets, and don't see a reason to.