Everyone with lactose intolerance seems to have their very own lactose intolerance story, a story that may include doctor's appointments, specialists, testing, experimenting with a dairy free diet and more. My family's lactose intolerance story includes all of the above and more.
My husband and his mother simply avoided dairy for most of their lives, because dairy intake made them very uncomfortable. My husband has an Indian and African heritage, which means he had great chances of becoming lactose intolerant, but it was not until we had our first son that he realized the reason behind his reaction to dairy products.
Our son had no symptoms for the first 11 months of his life, and we thought we were off to a great start. I did nurse him for a few months, but due to going to school full-time I quickly gave up on nursing, so we moved on to bottle feeding him.
The first time we realized that our son had a problem was when we switched from formula to regular milk at the age of 11 months. We gave him a bottle of regular milk, and watched as his skin developed an instant rash. We tried it again a few days later, and the same thing happened. On top of the rash, he also complained of stomach aches, and he simply did not seem comfortable.
