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Home › Articles › Feeding Baby › Lactose Intolerance

Lactose Intolerance

New Guidelines for Diagnosis and Diet

By Kelly Burgess

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There are possibly more myths and misunderstandings about lactose intolerance than any other food-related condition. Katie Cardenas of Greenwich, Conn., is a case in point. After her daughter, Zoe, was born the nurses in the hospital gave the baby some formula to supplement her mom's breastmilk. Subsequently, a little blood appeared in Zoe's stool. Unable to find any other cause, the staff physician concluded that Zoe was lactose intolerant and ordered Cardenas to stop eating dairy products.

Rather than just taking those orders at face value, Cardenas followed up with her own pediatrician, who told her that was nonsense and she was hurting herself by not getting the important nutrients in dairy products. Cardenas resumed her normal diet and she and Zoe were both fine.

Like Zoe, many infants are misdiagnosed with lactose intolerance, and panicked parents pull all dairy products from their diets. But the results of a new study shows that lactose intolerance almost never is a factor in digestive upsets until ages 3 or 4 – and almost always resolve themselves by the teen or preteen years.

Lactose and Lactase
Lactose is the sugar that is found naturally in milk and other dairy products. Lactase is the enzyme that digests lactose. Lactose intolerance occurs when the small intestine doesn't produce enough lactase. Signs and symptoms of lactose intolerance can include nausea, abdominal cramps, bloating, gas and diarrhea. The severity of these symptoms depends on the amount of lactose consumed, the degree of lactase deficiency and the types of lactose-containing foods.

While lactose intolerance can make a child uncomfortable, it is not a particularly serious condition and is not to be confused with milk allergies. Milk allergies occur as a reaction to one or more of the proteins in cow's milk and can cause digestive, skin and respiratory reactions.


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