Dairy intolerant after rotavirus vaccine

[Anonymous]

Just throwing this out there, do you know if its dairy allergy vs. lactose intolerance?

[Anonymous]

Congenital lactose intolerance or malabsorption is very rare. Breastmilk is 7% lactose compared to cows milk, which is 5% lactose. The inability to digest lactose is from a lack of or limited production of lactase. Lactose is the milk sugar whereas dairy intolerance or cows milk intolerance or allergy is from the milk protein. The cows milk protein and human milk protein are different.

In dairy allergy you have allergy symptoms. Cows milk protein Intolerance mimics lactose intolerance but congenital (or from birth) lactose intolerance is very rare. Removal of dairy from moms diet, and therefore removal of cows milk protein, if breastfeeding is normally indicated. If formula feeding, hypoallergenic formulas help but they arent a panacea as the protein is broken down into smaller parts so more digestible but not completely removed and some babies still react.

Allergies require two or more systems so skin, respiratory, GI, cardiovascular, nervous system. Intolerance usually only affects one system- the GI with some exceptions due to runny nose/watery eyes. This makes sense because eyes and nose are mucosae much like the GI tract. You can test for allergies but even if negative for blood and skin, most allergists agree that response trumps testing. If your child has hives, wheezing, and vomiting/diarrhea after eating dairy then it should be treated like an allergy.

With that said lactose intolerance can develop at any point in a humans life as it can be brought on by illness, viruses, immune issues, etc.