Now DS is in bed I have had chance to read the posts - think best thing to do is tell you DS's story .... (if you have an hour or two!!)
DS had lots of "colds" as baby which HV put down to getting all the bugs going. One day he had fluid coming from ear which I knew meant was perforated - because he was a misery (2 ear infections) I just breastfed him and didn't give him any cows milk .... suddenly his nose cleared - until the morning after he had cows milk with dinner. (I have cold cows milk intolerence, which gives me snotty nose, bad skin and boating, etc, but fine with milk above 72 degrees, cheese etc).
Since DS was on solids his poos were okay then started to get worse over time ..... just the snotty nose. He has always got a burnt bottom with carrots and oranges (DH had that until aged 2).
Over time through looking at his diet we realised that soya, carrots, citrus fruits, apples, and sometimes tomatoes, give him a burnt bottom. He also seemed to react to strawberries and blueberries.
We asked doctor to refer us to paeds to as we wondered if it was a wheat problem he had that caused loose stools, and to confirm cold cows milk problem. Paeds were USELESS but referred us to dietician (referral letter almost said the opposite of what we told her!!). We sent stool sample to doctor to test for milk intolerence (something about particles in stool - but tests were negative - I did read though that sample has to get to lab within 1hr so that may be reason!!).
Anyway, dietician initially said we could do skin prick test for certain foods and to keep giving DS wheat as the proper tests need it in the body for a couple of months to show up the relevant antibodies. Initially we were to try lactose-free milk and see how got on, but it didn't make a difference. We then were told to do completely dairy free diet and see if made any difference.
At last appointment (1 month after start of diet) dietician had changed her opinion (maybe spoke to her boss or something!!) and said to keep on the dairy free diet (where we were getting some "normal" stools and some squashy ones) - she said not to do wheat free and restrict his diet further. She also didn't mention any skin tests for other foods, but we were fine with this as DS rarely gets burnt bottom now we seem to have figured out main causes).
We go back in May to see what she says (got paed appt on Tues - only because dietician said we haven't been back there and should, so arranged it - sure will be waste of time!!). I annootated the referral letter with the true facts on it which I will take incase the paed mentions "it's just toddler diarrhoea and lots of children get it and we don't know why and most outgrow it" again!!
I asked dietician about when can introduce yogurt, etc and she said we will wait til May and see the story then!
Not sure if this helps but explains where we are with things!
Few things I have picked up, mainly from BW:
- lots of children with milk protein intolerence also have problems with soya (MSPI)
- some people (like me) are fine with all dairy apart from cold cows milk (anything above 72 degrees kills the whey proteins in milk)
- some people are just lactose intolerent so can use Lacto-free products
- and finally .... it is a minefield!!!!! fortunately lots of people outgrow the problems!!!