CHICAGO — Lactose-intolerant children should not avoid dairy products but consume as much as they can tolerate, according to a report issued today by the American Academy of Pediatrics. It is better for children to suffer the intestinal symptoms of lactose intolerance from time to time than to not get enough dietary calcium, said Melvin B. Heyman, M.D., M.P.H, of the University of California San Francisco, the report’s principal author who wrote for the academy’s committee on nutrition. The report strengthened previous academy recommendations on lactose intolerance and dairy consumption, which had said that milk products should ‘not be discouraged.’ The new recommendations go much further by saying that milk products should be ‘pushed to the point of tolerance,’ Dr. Heyman said in an interview. Although the academy has never recommended that lactose-intolerant kids should avoid milk products, there is a perception among pediatricians that this is a correct course of action, Dr. Heyman said. Doctors often suggest milk avoidance to control intestinal symptoms, he added. ‘Treatment of lactose intolerance by elimination of milk and other dairy products is not usually necessary given newer approaches to lactose intolerance, including the use of partially digested products (such […]