Last year, my son used to have stomach pain after he ate.
Went to the doctor, found nothing.
Told him to quit drinking milk.
Okay.
He’s been drinking milk for a long time now.
However, he says he sortof throws up a little about twice a month. Has anyone heard of this being a symptom of not being compatible with milk?
He does drink it at school lunch. I’m thinking of taking him off milk and seeing what happens.
It sound almost like acid reflux to me.
How old is your son again? When you say “stomach pain”, do you mean “abdominal pain”, like with diarrhea and gas, or “right up under the rib cage,” like heartburn? When you say “went to the doctor”, what does that mean? Did they do upper GI X-rays, which is where he drinks the awful-tasting milkshake while they take pictures? Or did the doc just say something like, “He’ll grow out of it, have him stop drinking milk”, and send you home?
Don’t just jump to the conclusion of “acid reflux”. For one thing, I have personal experience of the fact that kids (boys) who gulp their food because they’re in such a hurry to get back to the Playstation :rolleyes: can have spectacular stomach aches from trapped air, before they’re old enough figure out what that feeling is, and how cool it is to belch loudly to get rid of it.
Spitting up a little bit twice a month doesn’t sound like anything to get worried about, especially if he’s an active kid who eats his lunch in a crowded, busy lunchroom (gotta get done quick so you can go outside).
Here is a link on how they diagnose acid reflux in children. “Spitting up a little” twice a month doesn’t sound like classic acid reflux.
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~smb4v/tutorials/reflux/diagnosis.htm
I think the keyword here is “frequent”. I don’t know whether you personally have ever had an upper GI series done, but I have, and it isn’t something I’d willingly inflict on a child without a really good reason. It’s not as bad as the barium enema, but it still isn’t fun. They can refer to it as a “milkshake” all they want, but it still isn’t, and you have to drink it really fast, which isn’t fun at all.
Here is the main Acid Reflux Links page where I got the above link from.
http://www.healthlinkusa.com/492.html
Tell him to slow down when he eats. 
P.S. “Lactase deficiency” , a.k.a. “not being compatible with milk”, almost always has diarrhea and gas as its main symptoms. Try having him drink Lact-Aid and see if it makes a difference.
Caveat: I am not a doctor.
I am, however, lactose intolerant and have a couple of minor food allergies.
If the doctor has done tests and found nothing, then start with the food he is eating. The best way would be to keep a journal with what he eats and when he feels bad. That might point to a correlation.
Also, if he is developing a lactose intolerance, any type of dairy could set him off. Therefore if he is off the milk but eating the three cheese pizza and an ice cream cone, that could set him off.
I have inadvertantly gotten into some lactose that caused such a strong reaction that I thought I was going to vomit in addition to the cramps and diarrhea and general wish for someone to take me out back and shoot me.
As it has been explained to me, some people lose the lactase production in their bodies as they mature. I, personally, loved my morning bowl of cereal until I was out of college. Then I started having problems and now any type of dairy product that is not preceeded by a Lactaid™ condemns me to an adverse reaction.
The absence of any “bottom end” effects would tend to point in a different direction than lactose intolerance.
Regards and good luck.
I’m deep in the heart o’ GERD land. I’m on the maximum daily dose of Pepcid. I just had my upper endoscopy yesterday. Did the barium milkshake last year. It wasn’t that bad, but certainly was no fun. Any visit to the dentist is worse than that, and the part where you get to see the milkshake swirling around inside your own innards was kinda cool. Just being on that cold metal table that swings you around 360° in three dimensions is the worst part. Still, there are things you can do before going even that far, and DDG has pretty much covered them. I don’t think that what you are describing is GERD, because the acidy backwash associated with GERD isn’t accompanied by the reverse-peristalsis that usually accompanies “spitting up”.
I don’t know what these symptoms have to do with milk (unless he’s got a gas/diarrhea thing going on also), excpet that fatty foods can aggrivate GERD in which case you could go to 2% or less on the milkfat. The lactose intolerance test is to stop lactose intake for two weeks, carefully noting the results and then suddenly restart dairy intake and see what happens. The sudden influx of indigestible lactose should cause immediate gas, bloating, cramps & diarrhea. I believe that lactose intolerance is strictly lower-alimentary business, and shouldn’t be causing problems “above” the small intestines.
Goose: I think you’ve got it.
He Does eat too quickly.
I was just worried about the throwing up part, however.