"Nancy1" > wrote in message
oups.com...
| Ditto. Another odd thing - I don't remember anyone when I was growing
| up being lactose-intolerant; yet, that phrase is so common nowadays.
| What gives?

Just because you didn't hear of it doesn't mean it wasn't there. There are
entire world populations who are lactose intolerant. Canada made an ass of
itself a few years ago shipping powdered milk to a country where most people
can't drink it because they can't digest lactose. It's just a case of a
missing enzyme. There is now more recognition of the problem. Years ago it
would most likely have been diagnosed as something else.

As for allergies, milk allergy is very common but is often misdiagnosed
because the symptoms are not always obvious. My friend's baby girl had very
frequent ear infections and was on one antibiotic after another for weeks.
One day her pediatrician said "Let's take her off her milk formula and put
her on Isomil." In two days she was a different child: she slept at night,
the ear infection went away, there was no more crankiness. The allergy to
milk had caused swelling of the Eustachian tube that promoted the growth of
bacteria and the resulting infection. Without the increased recognition
that milk is often an allergen, that child would eventually have had tubes
installed in her ears with all the problems and inconveniences that go with
that. Not to mention that frequent ear infections at such a young age can
often mean that speech is affected because of muffled hearing.

Gabby