My son had vertical sleeve two weeks ago. He is having difficulty with Protein. He is lactose intolerant. He is not having cramps in his stomach but intestinal. He is taking lactaid now and has gone from mixed protein (shakes, etc) to clear protein. It is everytime he drinks it. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Stay in touch with your MD and nutritionist. He needs protein and they should be able to help him find something he can tolerate - or prescribe something that will help decrease this response.

I was born lactose intolerant, but can handle most cheeses and greek yogurt well. I cannot tolerate regular milk, so I stick with unsweetend almond milk (I prefer it to both soy and rice milk - some people also don't tolerate soy well and rice milk is a little too sweet and watery). I don't seem to have a problem with whey Protein, thankfully, but there are egg based protein powders out there. The Vitamin Shoppe carries Jay Robb protein powders and you might be able to find or order their egg white protein powders. You should be able to get a couple of single serving envelopes for him to try before buying a whole tub of powder. Lots of the ready to drink shakes seem to be made with milk. Switching to a powder may help.

If he seems to be okay with whey protein isolate, I could not recommend unjury protein highly enough. In addition to the usual chocolate, vanilla and strawberry flavors, they have a chicken Soup and a cheese sauce.

Intestinal cramps could also indicate constipation. I had awful pain on my lower right side - I thought I had a pulled muscle at one point. Once the miralax kicked in, I felt like a brand new person.

It really seems, though, that each person has a highly individualized response to this surgery, their recovery, and food/drink preferences. When in doubt, ask the professional.

My Doc switched me over to rice protein, since surgery I have become allergic to Dairy Soy and Eggs. The rice protein works well for me. It taste pretty bad honestly, you get used to it though

I had severe lactose intolerance after surgery and I didn't before surgery. I was even unable to drink Lactaid milk. So I switched to Light Soy milk and used Unjury protein powder without problems. When I did this, each shake was about 28 grams of protein for 8oz of fluid. At about a month out, I was able to tolerate EAS Carb Advatedge ready to drink shakes. Now that I am 6 months out, I am ever so slowly introducing milk products back. Plain cow's milk still causes me a little problem, but its better...most other milk products are back on the menu. It just took that long for my stomach to produce the enzyme, lactase, again. Tell him it gets better. The first month for me was hellish. It's difficult to make your plans if you don't know if you going to have the screaming diarrhea from hell that knocks buzzards off of gut wagons....in public much less in your own home. I made sure I was always within a 5 second walking distance of a toilet and had flushable wipes on my person at all times. I get it...believe me..I get it. But...it does get better. Good luck! Try the plain soy milk for awhile...and then slowly introduce milk when you are a couple of months out. Remember...I am 6 months out and just now have started eating Greek yogurt without issue. If I had tried that at even 3 moths out, it wouldn't have been pretty!