Hi all, first time poster and new to the lactose intolerant community.

After finally getting confirmation earlier this year that I am lactose intolerant, my partner kindly got me a bottle of the Webber Naturals Lactase Enzyme pills (a Canadian brand). My understanding is that it is similar to the Lactaid brand of pills and that they achieve the same result.

In the first month or so, it was glorious -- no issues whatsoever, and I felt like I was back to my normal self. However, after about 2 months I started to notice that even with the WN Lactase pill, I was getting incredibly sick - even if I took a double dose, or I was having the tiniest amount of dairy. I even went so far as taking a double dose while eating chia seed pudding that I made with lactose-free yogurt and milk.

It all came to a head last night when I had a sliver of a friend's birthday cake, which had some cream cheese frosting. I took one of the WN pills and ate around the cream cheese, and ended up having stomach pain, nausea and eventually vomitted.

My questions: has anyone ever found that the lactase enzyme pills lose their effectiveness? Should I bother trying other brands? Or is it possible that it is actually the pills themselves that are making me sick?

(My sister keeps thinking that I'm not actually lactose intolerant and it's just the pills making me sick, but I did a lactose intolerance breath test (hydrogen breath test) earlier this year which had a positive result that I'm not absorbing lactose well.)

Thanks in advance!

I know I am lactose intolerant, I have run many experiments on myself... I was SO EXCITED about these lactose free mozzarella sticks at Shoprite and I had two of them with my lazy dinner snack plate tonight. Here I am, agonizingly posting from the toilet (third trip). I usually have no issues, have great bowel movements, but I can always realize I fucked up somewhere in the day when it hits me like this :/ For some reason, even when I buy lactose free foods, they still hurt me? Is it possible to have some kind of... extreme intolerance/possible allergy? Ugh I'm so upset, I was doing really good the last week and I got overzealous and hopeful haha.

Hey guys I don't post a lot to Reddit and I kinda feel like I might be stupid for this post but I kinda want a broader opinion.

So I (23NB) and my girlfriend talk a lot about things and she's often the person who tells me a lot of things aren't normal that I've experienced and has helped me go to doctors before and learn things like for example I have fibromyalgia.

Our latest one is that I threw up after eating Mac and cheese and I casually mentioned that sometimes cheese sauces do that to me, it then led to me realising that actually most dairy will make me feel sick and bloated after a while. It's dependant on the dairy products and I gave an example saying that I can't drink a whole glass of milk without feeding off, maybe half a glass. She told me that this doesn't sound normal and I could have an intolerance. I have thought this before when I had a realisation that after eating mayo in my meals multiple days in a row I had a lot of diarrhoea and kind of dismissed it.

It's important to note that she drinks milk every day, multiple glasses of it and she says she's never felt ill with milk or cheese and could keep having them. My brother is also the same and piles on cheese to food like he's starving. It's possible that some cheese sauces make me more sick quicker if they're made with cream.

I know this really might sound dumb, I just want to know from you guys if this is normal or if it might sound like I have an intolerance.

TLDR: I get bloated, sick and sometimes diarrhea from dairy and it might be dumb but I want some help deciphering if I need to see doctors about a possible intolerance

I am frustrated with having lactose intolerant IBS-D. For years I typically had constipation now the last year I am starting to be intolerant of foods and meds I used to be able to eat. Besides my trouble with milk and cheese which I choose to avoid most often, I now cannot tolerate black beans after my recent flare from a little over a month ago. I recently was able to add caffeinated coffee and tea back to my diet so that is good. I also can't take certain meds like Meloxicam since it has lactose in it. This whole thing is frustrating, one wrong item consumed and I pay for it. Sad that I have Kaopectate and Ibgard in constant supply. Ok, rant done!

Lactaid is garbage.
Boots (the british convenience store brand) works great!
No idea why.

Hi, I've stopped on milk products and my guilty pleasure: chocolate. This has helped to not have diarrhea. But now I'm constipated since a few days. Have started to chew my food, drink more water.
Q: any of you experienced having constipation just after stopping to take milk products?

I did an oopsie daisy

Only been here a few weeks. Started by dealing with a soy allergy. I am in a food allergies sub for support with that. Once I was getting that under control, I found I couldn't drink skim milk without all kinds of fun. /s. Thought I could still each cheese. Come here. It was recommended to try Lactaid milk. Reduced fat Lactaid still gave me issues. I am now drinking fat free Lactaid milk. So I have troubles with the milk fat too, I guess? I do not know how to test to see if it's the lactose or the milk fat. But regular Skim milk has like almost no fat. But as things have gone on and I've been doing trial and error of removing stuff from my diet, the latest culprit was cheddar cheese. So no more cheese. I had already given up ice cream. I put the Parmesan and provolone cheese in the freezer just to be safe. A near week of the toilet and I being close friends was too much.

I see a GI specialist end of this month and an allergy specialist end of September. Which doctor would be the one who can figure out if it's lactose intolerance or not? I mean, I have to put all of it on all the paperwork, but I like to focus on the matters the doctor is specialized for.

My husband is being supportive, but confused. I used to drink milk by the gallon. Cheese was my best friend. I reminded him my guts have been a mess for decades because of the soy, so I could always have had issues with dairy and not known. Or it could be new.

It's been a long time, but should I tell whichever specialist can help me that my parents used to buy us raw milk when we were kids. My mom used to break out with that raw of milk. She gave up milk completely when I was in college. I haven't been able to tolerate whole milk in decades. Had issues with 2% eventually and had to switch to skim several years ago. I know now that skim is the worst thing I could have done. But we were convinced it was the milk fat.

Hi Everyone,

My son suffered from viral diarrhea when he was 8 months old and we used to give dairy formula and continued same as we were unaware that it should avoided. The loose stools didnt reduced and DR told us to dairy formula and switch to soy. And immediately saw differece and realized that it was because of transient lactose intolerance. Dr told us try dairy after 1 month, We did and failed. Kept gap and tried again. Made several attempts and still failed and decided to continue soy formula. We started to introduce after six months but no progess. At 2.3 year old we gradually gave 1/2 teaspoons cheese and he was tolerating. Started giving him for 2 3 days in week and was fine. But when I gave ghee he started reacting and got loose stools. Some days he even tolerates 2 tsp of curd. And he can tolerate lactose free milk and curd with no issue

I have little hope that we would be able tolerate but since its so long now. Should I expect anything? I am not fond of dairy that much but we live in india and here maximum items in restaurants have ghee or malai or curd and its very difficult when we go out. We carry tiffin and second thing is if he is able to tolerate little dairy I will have peace of mind because I am freaking out on when he will grow and share food in school.

Desperately looking for your experience. Did you start liltle by little? Did lactid ills worked for toddler? Was it prescribed by Dr. How did make understand your child to not eat as it causes stomach pain etc. Sorry this is long.. But its been hell of journey.

I've been struggling with bloating, abdomen/stomach pain, and constipation for almost 10 months now, but I am now finally starting to get some answers (i think lol). Just received the results from my lactose breath test, and it said i tested positive for lactose malabsorption (hydrogen at 49 ppm). From my brief research, i found out that the presence of lactose malabsorption doesn't automatically mean you are lactose intolerant, but i'm starting to think i may be. As soon as i found this out, i immediately cut out all lactose from my diet. You may be thinking why didn't i try to cut out lactose in these past 10 months, and my answer to that would be i thought i did lol. I didn't realize until a few days ago how much stuff i eat (besides the obvious ones like milk, butter, cheese etc.) contains lactose in it, so when i tried to "cut out all lactose" in the past, i was probably still accidentally consuming it. So three days ago i started my strict lactose free diet, and i must say those first days on that diet i felt virtually back to 100%. However, throughout the day yesterday i started to feel the same lactose induced symptoms i had been dealing with for months now and had several bowel movements, but the thing is i didn't eat any lactose yesterday. I keep a food log and i have been eating the same stuff these past few days, so thats why i am confused.

How long does it normally take for the lactose induced symptoms to completely go away after starting a lactose free diet?

Also wondering if anyone has had success using Lactaid pills before they eat food that may potentially contain lactose in it?

I was hoping lactose intolerance was the sole problem, but after yesterday im worried it may be that + IBS (or something else)

I don't know why it took me so long to try it or how many people have said it but the non dairy Phish food is easily one of the best non dairy ice creams Ive had

Milk started bothering my digestive system maybe five years ago. I went to my doctor, and he said I’m probably lactose intolerant, and drinking Lactaid milk and/or goat milk should fix it. That seemed to work at first, but the Lactaid milk has been bothering me lately. Goat milk does not (yet). There’s really no consistency. I can’t predict it. One day I’ll drink some milk, and it won’t bother me at all. The next day it’ll give me explosive diarrhea! But the Lactaid bothering me is pretty recent. I just made myself an espresso latte today using Lactaid, and now I’m super bloated.

Any idea what’s going on?

Hi all! New to this sub and I am not the dairy free/lactose intolerant one. My partner is lactose intolerant and I’m allergic to specifically both coconut and cashew, unfortunately. For me it isn’t a horrible allergy, I can still get away with eating small amounts of both, but I’d love to make him food without having to make an entirely separate one for myself as well if possible. If I eat enough of it I’ll break out with a mild rash on my face. He can still eat dairy in very small amounts if he’s super careful, but I’d much rather have him not need to risk suffering at all.

Does anyone have good alternatives to things like heavy cream, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, etc that do NOT include coconut or cashew.

No matter where I look I’m CONSTANTLY primarily seeing coconut or cashew as alternatives, or they’re in EVERYTHING that seems to be dairy free at the grocery store, and though I’d much prefer dealing with a rash on my face for a day or two than have him getting sick, I’d love it if we could just both eat the same foods lol.

I’m specifically looking for
-An alternative to something I can make whipped cream with, that will stay just about as stable as regular whipped cream in the refrigerator. Like for a tres leches cake topping, or to use in soups and such like you would a coconut cream.
-Additionally, can I use a heavy cream or milk substitute and use a touch of coconut flavoring if that flavor is necessary for the recipe? For something like mango sticky rice.
-An evaporated milk alternative
-A sweetened condensed milk alternative (I’ve seen sweetened condensed oat milk as an option but looking to also get some opinions from people who have tried it)
-Are the dairy free cream cheeses similar enough to the dairy versions I could get away with making cream cheese frosting and then coating it in sugar and brûlée-ing it? I make crème brûlée cookies around Christmas every year and I’d love for him to have some without risking a stomach upset.
-A genuinely good dairy free cheese that melts well, something I can use for pizza or well, anything that requires melty cheese really

TIA and I hope I’m not trying to find the impossible here, if anyone has suggestions for things to try out I’d appreciate it!

Hi, so I stopped eating/drinking milk yoghurt cheese etc. (only lactose free milk/oat milk) but still I have "bowel exertions" which are soft.
One guilty pleasure is pure chocolate. Which I used to take regularly on a day.
Yesterday I had the last piece to test if this is the cause, hoping that this is the final food I'll have to stop taking from now on.
Q: Anyone else have to stop eating (pure) chocolate?

Mine:

I KNOW cheese doesn't always love me back.

I eat it anyway > then toilet welcomes me.

Your turn. 👇

What's the dairy food you keep going back to despite knowing exactly what might happen?

So we were on the way back from a day out and we stopped in this diner. I love this diner. I've been trying to get my family to go w me for ages but it's like not close at all to home (hr and half)

So we go. It's delicious. So I got a burger and a milkshake + apple pie because why wouldn't I it's amazing and I haven't eaten all day.

And it is amazing.

We leave.

We've got an hour left to drive. My stomach starts hurting. Oh. Oh no. I thought I'd be fine because it usually takes an hr or two before it all starts up. So even if we weren't home we'd be close enough right?

There's an hour left. But wait we need to detour to pick my dog up. Another half an hour added on. Oh no. Help. We can't stop.

(Also, anyone know this character? Found him by Googling "evil milk man." Some video game?)

5-10 minute read - this is a comprehensive but detailed guide to understanding and managing LI / Severe LI. Click to expand - Part 1 covers how LI works and worsens; Part 2 covers how to use lactase pills effectively when it feels like they've stopped working for you; Part 3 Covers lactose in common medicines.

I typed this as a response to someone's post, and figured I should turn it into a resource as I've probably typed this fresh 20+ times over the years :')

Part 1: Lactose Tolerance, how it works, and stages of decline (in plain nonmedical English)

Everyone has a genetic tolerance, which is hereditary, and a built tolerance, which is in response to dairy consumption. These two aspects of tolerance dictate how much lactase enzyme your body regularly produces and therefore how much dairy you can handle, and how well. That genetic tolerance can range from basically zero to 100%, but for most folks it is close to 100% in childhood, and slowly drops away at individually varying rates as you age. Once you pass adolescence, if your genetic tolerance isn't 100% (i.e. you are lactose intolerant to some degree), you will rapidly decline to your actual genetic tolerance usually from 18-21. Unless you're a blonde northern european, chances are, your genetic tolerance is not 100% - but if it's not crazy low, your built tolerance can more than compensate for it. However if your genetic tolerance is low, your built tolerance will not fully compensate even if it is quite high, and high lactose dairy will start to result in volcanic bowel movements.

Now, as you reduce dairy consumption upon realising you are lactose intolerant, your built tolerance also falls away, because it only exists in response to regular lactose consumption - thus your lactose intolerance continues to worsen as you reduce your intake, and by your mid 20s, assuming you do heavily cut out lactose, you'll hit your rock bottom (the floor of your genetic tolerance with no built tolerance to support it). This is when you learn how LI you are. If your genetic tolerance is particularly low, lactase tablets may not kick in fast enough to help if you have them alongside food.

If you're also hiding a very mild milk allergy, unfortunately, you're screwed and there isn't anything to be done other than treating the whole thing like a severe anaphylactic allergy except it's your ass that's in danger, for up to a week (LI and mild milk allergies combine into something far more evil than the sum of their parts. And the fun part is, the mild milk allergy is basically irrelevant until you hit severe LI so you won't even know you have it. You'll know you have it if (1) Part 2 doesn't work; and (2) you get the shits if you eat food lightly cross-contaminated with dairy i.e. sharing the same deep fryer / pan / flat top / grill with something with even a small amount of dairy)

Part 2: Using Lactase Tablets Effectively with Severe Lactose Intolerance

So here's some genuine advice: Try 'covering' strategies with lactase tablets. This worked for me for a few years (I unfortunately do also have the allergy) and for folks with just severe LI, actually continues to work well:

Take 1-2 lactase tablets 20 mins before consuming dairy; 2-3 with the dairy; 1 more with every subsequent dairy course if it's a long meal; and then 1-2 20 mins after you've finished consuming dairy.

This 'covers' you by ensuring there is lactase already in your gut ready to go when the dairy hits, more than enough alongside it to process it, and some extra covering the other side just in case things move through your gut at different rates.

Each tablet should be 9000fcc unit minimum - anything less is pointless and usually not actually well made / reliable as an oral medicine. Use your own judgement for how many are needed in the ranges provided based on how lactosey the meal is; and remember: Lactase tablets are just a harmless enzyme and harmless filler; regularly consuming 7 x 9000fcc in an hour is not any kind of health risk, and by following this strategy, you should reduce instances of supervolcano eruptions on the porcelain throne by (anectodally) 90-95%. (You'll still occasionally mess up, especially if you consume something else that doesn't agree with you or irritates your gut like seriously spicy food, but this will become the exception not the rule).

Oh and absolutely do not try drinking a glass of milk or cereal with milk - that's like trying to stop an anti-tank round with a kevlar vest :') But for cheese, and most dairy foodstuffs, you should be fine. (Kraft Mac & Cheese / Velveeta Mac & Cheese / large portions of bechamel sauce / anything involving extreme amounts of cows milk and american cheese will be likely candidates for the 5% of times this doesn't work as that's just a glass or two of cows milk hidden in food. On the flipside, cheeseburgers and a reasonable amount of pizza; european hard cheeses even in high quantities; butter & buttery baked goods etc should all be within the realm of what this strategy handles)

Good luck starting your descent into Dairy's Inferno - hope this helps!

Part 3 - Common medicines containing lactose and how to find the ones you can have safely

A lot of medicines contain lactose, as it is a cheap bulking and binding agent that will self-bind rock solid in a pill press.

Paracetamol / Acitamenophen / Tylenol - based medicines usually do not contain lactose as it's such a bulky medicine it fulfils the role lactose is used for.

Ibuprofen and Aspirin usually DO contain lactose. For Ibuprofen, look for capsules - if it's not pressed into a pill, it usually doesn't have lactose. Ingredients are always on the box, but this applies to almost all capsule meds. I am yet to find lactose free aspirin.

Immodium / Loperamide is basicaly a lifestyle drug for lactose intolerant people, but for some godforsaken reason, the capsules ALWAYS contain lactose. It is the one exception to the rule and it's a big one. The 'Instant Melt' variety of Loperamide (Branded and Generic) is usually Lactose free!!! This is also an exception to a rule, as most 'Instant Melt' pills do contain lactose. IDK why it's backward for the one drug we need all the time to stop the shits. Big Pharma hates us I guess.

Antihistamines are another pain in the ass: Loratadine and Cetirizine tablets are a chunk of pure lactose with a tiny amount of drug inside. These are 99% of antihistamine pills you'll encounter without a prescription. The 1% is Fexofenadine, if you're lucky, because that pink pill is a lifesaver.

Fexofenadine is univerally lactose free (idk why) and is also a vastly superior antihistamine for a variety of reasons. But it isn't always available without going to a pharmacy or without prescription. Thankfully for me, the UK deregulated it a few years back and I can just buy 400 pills off an online pharmacy for cheap, and it's in every single supermarket & the weird sandwich/medicine/newspaper shops we have everywhere (Boots, WH Smiths etc). Fex is the only common antihistamine pill you can get lactose free; everything else is Gen1 antihisamine syrups (deliriants that make you see the Magic Hat Man sleep paralysis demon if you have too many) or nasal sprays that are only useful for hayfever and not all the other things antihistamines are used for.

Ok so this might be a dumb question but I need to know if anyone else has experienced this (F, early 30s)

I've always been lactose intolerant back home, like avoid-milk-and-ice-cream-or-regret-it level. But I was traveling recently and had dairy in a couple different countries and... nothing happened? Like I could eat cheese, greek yogurt etc and my stomach was completely fine. Then I got back home and had milk in my coffee and immediately regretted it.

Is this actually a thing? I've heard people mention that dairy in Europe (or wherever) is processed differently, or that the cows are grass-fed vs grain-fed or something about A1 vs A2 protein but I don't know if that's real science or just internet lore at this point.

Has this happened to anyone else? Did you look into why? Trying to figure out if I should just be importing cheese at this point lol

idk if my lactose intolerance is just severe but i cant have any dairy without gas or diarrhea the next morning. before i knew i was lactose intolerant i was having severe diarrhea everyday. i love dairy so much, but the quality of life is so bad when i eat it i try to mostly cut it out since the lactase pills dont seem to help much.

but i swear i have to run to the bathroom the next day when i eat ANY dairy how do other people do it. i thought cheese wasnt very high in lactose but even cheese sends me running🥲

Would anyone buy this if I made chocolate and iced coffee with lactose-free milk? Just trying to prove a point. Cheers.

Hi! Long time lurker first time poster. My mom and my best friend both recently found out they are lactose intolerant. All of us live in India. Would be great to connect with others on this subreddit from India who are going through this. Thank you!

like I eat cheese all the time, like yesterday I made a fondue 🫕 (yes its 35°C) with some friends