Putting Two and Two Together

On Friday night of last week, we took the girls to Brigham's for dinner, after eye doctor appointments for Katherine and I. Katherine had cheese quesadillas and an ice cream for dessert. In the middle of the night, she was on the toilet, literally crying in pain (yes, I know TMI but it's essential to the story). This is not the first time that something like this has happened and after thinking about it for a while, I realized that it only happens when we go out to a restaurant for a meal. It might have happened occasionally after eating at home, but these times were so far and few between, it's not worth considering. After further thought, I realized that it only happens when she has had both dinner and dessert (we rarely have dessert at home and if we do, it's not always ice cream).Katherine is pretty predictable when it comes to ordering. She almost always gets a grilled cheese sandwich or cheese quesadillas and some sort of ice cream type dessert. The one time recently that I can remember her ordering something different it was a hamburger, and, of course ice cream dessert. This is the only time in recent memory that I can remember her not ending up in the bathroom when all was said and done.

So, the point? I think she might be (or still be) lactose intolerant. She always was as an infant, and although lower fat milk does not mean lactose free milk, she has never been able to properly digest whole milk. We drink skim, because Emily, who also had a lactose free formula, also can't handle the whole milk(in fact Julia, who was also on a lactose-free formula is the only one of my children who went to whole milk at 1 year).

After coming to these conclusions, I decided to read up a bit on food intolerances and allergies and it turns out? There is a ton of research/stories of children who have stopped bed wetting after eliminating the offending food from the diet. There is also research/stories of children whose asthma and chronic cough were eradicated by eliminating the offending food. So, since she has obvious symptoms of lactose intolerance it seems to me that it would make sense to try a dairy-free diet with her to see if it helps with the bed wetting/asthma/cough as well as the intestinal issues.

I need to look at this a little further and read up on what foods might be forbidden (besides the obvious milk, cheese etc) and decide what I want to do but it all seems to be pretty clear to me. If we go ahead with it, we'll have to see if it works but on the surface, before even trying it? It seems like it may be the key.