new and frustrating developments...help..

Hey Blondie,

There are other substances found in milk products - other than lactose - that could be contributing to the problem, so you might want to try a completely dairy-free diet for about two weeks to see if that improves anything.  It's difficult, because dairy is in a LOT of things and you have to closely read the ingredients' label to make sure you're not ingesting any of it.  Sometimes taking Lactaid pills just ain't enough!

You also might want to consider getting a stool test for giardia, which can cause really foul-smelling flatulence and stools, bad stomach cramps, and diarrhea.  It's a pretty common parasite and can be a real pain in the you-know-what but is easy to treat!  You'd need to do three separate stool samples in order for the test to be fairly reliable.  Ask your doc about it!  Good luck, and keep us updated.

true...I checked my bread labels on my packaged bread and it had lactose in it!! Go figure. Yeah we bought some Lactose free milk...but I still had the same problem...today I had it at school (really embarrassing..)after eating lunch. A peanut butter jelly sandwich with an apple and a bottle of water. But, I had scrambeled eggs this morning and my mom accidentally put a dash of milk in the eggs so maybe that was it. My parents are really reluctant to take me to a doctor...I guess its a money thing...I just want this to all stop..Im for sure not eating any more dairy for a while!
Another thing we considered was a yeast overgrowth in my intestines? Im also very allergic to preservatives in packaged foods, candies, etc. Give me the same problem plus horrible nausea. Im just all messed up! I'll keep you guys updated...and if you have any other suggestions please let me know! :)

Never, ever eat anything sugar free--including chewing gum and breath mints. If it's sugar free, it has a sugar alcohol in it (although I have seen jams and jelly that just use fruit juice to sweeten, not sugar alcohols) and sugar alcohols are evil. A lot of IBSers are overly sensitive to them, but me, I can't tolerate so much as 1 gram without being horribly sick and bed ridden for two days.

Diet cokes don't contain sugar alcohols, but caffeine and/or carbonation aggrevates some of us, so better drop the colas as well. I think if you drop those, the apples and the gum (of course you can have regular, sugary gum), I think you should see some relief in a couple of days, at least from the gas. Any of those things alone can give you gas, but much less in combination. And they can be delayed, so the apples you eat at lunch may start bothering you at supper. If I were you, after I cut all of those things out--and provided that pretty much clears you up--I would try some milk again and see if that causes you a problem. You may very well be lactose intolerant as well, but then again these other things may have been causing your problems all along and you actually don't have a problem with milk.

Mind you, don't switch up fat content on milk. If you have always drank 1%, don't start drinking 2% or whole milk. Switching fat levels in milk will bother anyone. If you want to up your fat level in milk, then do it slowly; try mixing 1% with 2% and drinking that for a few weeks before going on up to 2%. Then mix that in with whole milk for a few weeks before going on up to whole. As far as I know, though, downgrading fat content doesn't cause a problem to anything but your tastebuds, so you can go from whole to skim if you want.

I hope you get better.