Exploring cheese

I gave up dairy for our son immediately after he started reacting strangely at 2 months old. Not knowing that his diet would soon require many more restrictions, I mourned the loss of my bowl of cereal and spent weeks trying to adjust to the thought of rice milk on cereal. Looking back now, I have to laugh a little. I rarely miss cereal. Since switching to a primal diet and lifestyle, I eat better than ever. When I did finally start to reintroduce dairy to my diet, it was a gastrointestinal hiccup. My system lost its ability to break down the lactose and it let me know of its displeasure. A little at a time, I reintroduced goat cheese and now I am back up and functioning properly. Thank goodness. Our son's dietary restrictions are a minefield of potential slip-ups. We are limited very strictly by his food intolerances as a subcategory of Celiac and Leaky Gut. He is gluten intolerant but also is severely intolerant to soy, legumes, grains, corn, potato, millet, chocolate and coffee. Also on this list is cow's milk. We thought he had Milk/Soy Protein Intolerance but we aren't sure anymore. It is still possible but there are no real answers when there isn't a clear test available. Here is what we know. If we have cow's milk products he has a violent reaction. It is a nasty stool, bad breath, reflux, screaming and red gluten-rash reaction. That also includes failed attempts at kefir and lactose free products. He had a upper and lower GI scope a few months back and the doctor said that he had such a low ability to digest lactose that he was amazed that he could digest breast milk. The doctor obviously doesn't realize that most cultures are lactose intolerant yet digest breast milk. 

My husband and I are both part Native American so we assume that the lactose intolerance can also be partly genetic. What isn't explained is why he can digest non-cow's milk products. My husband's family has a lot of lactose intolerant people and since my sweetie loves his cheese and milk, he swears by drinking a glass of milk a day to maintain his lactose tolerance. I used to think this was nuts. I thought he was deluding himself into thinking it worked that way. Turns out he was right. Mea culpa. 

This was crumbly, sharp and slightly gooey. It was awesome.
Not the best cheese description but you know what I mean. It was tasty.

Want to learn more? Check out this Science Daily report about how you can gain a lactose tolerance by drinking a small glass of milk a day. The human body is a wonderful thing. It will really adjust to whatever you throw at it. Working with the insight of this study and our desire to introduce our son to so many wonderful foods before he hits the age of refusing everything, we have ventured into the realm of the sheep and goat cheeses. 

I am curious if our son has MSPI or if the dairy intolerance is part of his Celiac. If anyone has any insight, I would love to hear it. I found a list of gluten cross-reactive foods that lists American cheese and cow's milk as a cross-reactive food. A year ago I would have not believed that. We found that our son has a gluten reaction to the aforementioned list of foods and they are all on the list. Curious- Check out Cyrex Labs Array 4 test.  The bad breath is usually the tip off. It tells us that something is going on in his GI tract that is not making him happy. The rash also gives it away. 

This was light, subtle and rich. Almost like a young romano.

Now for the fun part. Testing limits. Our son is not a guinea pig but we do have to know what our limits are so we can feed him and lead a relatively normal life. He will be sheltered from the majority of food things that most people eat but I don't consider most people's diets food. So, that kind of makes me not feel so bad. Our local farmer's markets are filled with great vendors and a few goat people. I love goat cheese. Wrap it in chicken breast or crumble it over a veggie bake and I am in heaven. We are lucky enough to have a great shop downtown that sells artisanal cheeses and other foods. 

This week we are sampling a goat cheese and a sheep's milk cheese.  The good news is that he has yet to have a physical reaction to the small amounts tasted. That is wonderful news. There may be hope for him after all. 

Local goat cheese: Garlic herb from Paradox Farms in NC

We are planning to attack the dairy problem on two fronts. 

1-Gain a lactose tolerance so he has more flexibility in his diet and can potentially enjoy ice cream at some point in his life. 

2-Develop his palate so he experiences new flavors, textures, smells and kinds of food with fearless embrace. 

First attempts have been successful. We began with the goat cheese from Paradox Farms and he didn't seem to mind a little crumble here or there on his veggies. He wasn't too keen on simply eating the cheese though. Same reaction with the Humbolt Fog. When it came to the Spanish sheep cheese, he made a little smile. That is what it is all about. We will work on giving him little bits of that at his snack time for a few weeks and continue adding in new flavors and varieties. Sometimes I feel like a culinary mad scientist with my test subject. I love having people to cook for and getting to see his face when he tries a food that he didn't even know existed is great. That is why we call it the tasty life.

In my searches for information about lactose and MSPI I found these helpful links. 

Dairy Facts

Things I never would have thought of before having to read ingredients lists- Dairy or non-ndairy? 

Dairy guides to all the types of dairy, lactose percentages and forms. Whey, casein etc.