# Introducing Dairy back into Diet



## shortie (Apr 28, 2011)

For the past 18 months i have been completely dairy free, no specific allergy just my doctor suggested trying a dairy free diet as he believed it may assist with easing the symptoms of my IBS-D.

On the odd occasion that i have accidentally consumed dairy (for instance when out for a meal) it now really does give me volatile D literally within 3 hours of consumption.

Any advice on how to reintroduce dairy back into my diet so that i am not suffering with D within a few hours of consumption. I want to get back to how i was and be able to tolerate it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciate


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## shortie (Apr 28, 2011)

Has nobody reintroduced dairy back into their diet after being dairy free??


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## Goldfinch (Sep 9, 2012)

Sounds like you have a pretty strong negative reaction to dairy, so I would be wary of reintroducing it. Do you know exactly what about dairy causes you problems? If it is only lactose intolerance, perhaps lactose free dairy products? Very hard salty cheeses are low in lactose and can sometimes be tolerated by those who can't handle milk, cottage cheese, ice cream etc. Admittedly it's nice to have that nice sharp flavor and a little goes a long way.

I was on a strict low fodmaps diet for several months, which meant no dairy. I did reintroduce dairy very slowly and discovered it isn't a major trigger for me, but I am trying to lower my cholesterol, so I eat modest amounts of low-fat dairy only and do okay. I find that staying away from wheat is the most helpful for me; everyone has different sensitivities, so make on one change at a time and do it in small increments.


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## shortie (Apr 28, 2011)

A little bit each day i suppose is the way forward, hopefully my tolerance will then improve


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

One thing you might do is see if you react to a small amount of lactose free milk the same way as lactose full milk (whether you take the lactase or buy pretreated).

Sometimes people can get a conditioned response. I had this to raisins. It is like when people can't drink tequila any more because they got too sick on it when they drank too much of it. I got really really sick the first time I ate raisin bran. Now it wasn't the raisins, but the brain made a connection. So after that I got sick when I knew I ate raisins. I could eat all other dried fruits, all grapes, just not raisins. I took a break for a few years and it finally broke. Unfortunately if that is going on avoidance for a fairly long time is the only way I know to get around it. Because everytime you eat the offending item you get sick and it reinforces the conditioning.


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## shortie (Apr 28, 2011)

Kathleen M. said:


> One thing you might do is see if you react to a small amount of lactose free milk the same way as lactose full milk (whether you take the lactase or buy pretreated).
> 
> Sometimes people can get a conditioned response. I had this to raisins. It is like when people can't drink tequila any more because they got too sick on it when they drank too much of it. I got really really sick the first time I ate raisin bran. Now it wasn't the raisins, but the brain made a connection. So after that I got sick when I knew I ate raisins. I could eat all other dried fruits, all grapes, just not raisins. I took a break for a few years and it finally broke. Unfortunately if that is going on avoidance for a fairly long time is the only way I know to get around it. Because everytime you eat the offending item you get sick and it reinforces the conditioning.


Thank you, great advice there.

Well i have introduced a small amount of dairy to my diet everyday for the past 4 days as i am currently off work for another week. I am finding each day the severity of the reaction is reducing, so fingers crossed it will keep getting better


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