Saying hello to lactose free?

Gianna had to have her yearly check up for school today. Her teacher checked her shot record yesterday and told me she was up to date on all her shots and we wouldn't need any. I made sure to tell Gianna this because she is TERRIFIED of the doctor's office. The moment we walk in she is a boo-hooing hysterical mess. She is petrified of shots. So today she was good because "no shots" but I forgot they'd check her hemoglobin which in her mind is a shot even though it's just a tiny pin prick. So she was in a hysterical mess after that. I finally got her calmed down and told her NO more, that's it! I apologized because I forgot about that but that it was a shot, etc. etc. Then the nurse comes in and Gianna's sitting in her little gown waiting, still scared. And the nurse announces "She needs four shots today!" Gianna immediately freaks the heck out! Great. I said, over my wailing child, "Are you sure? She's had her four year shots, she shouldn't need anymore for awhile." Nurse: "No, she needs these....here's information on the shots" and leaves. I'm looking at the paperwork and I KNOW she's had these shots already like 6 months ago. So I'm getting ready to raise a stink and I'm sending B texts with maybe a cuss word or two in them! Gianna is still flipping out and I'm trying to comfort her and the nurse comes back in and says "Oh no, she's up to date, I hadn't checked her shot records yet....." WHAT?! You came in and announced that before you even checked?! Idiot.

Gianna calms down and the dr. comes in. Gianna was amused her name was Mrs. McDonald. I know Gi had to be thinking her husband was Ronald. She listened to Gi's heart, looked at her eyes, etc. Then I brought up something that has been concerning me and B. Gianna is tiny and fairly "long" for how thin she is. But she generally has a pot belly. But it's more then that - it's a bloated belly. Sometimes it's worse than others and occasionally it looks fairly "normal". But it just didn't look right. I asked Gianna if it hurt but she said no. But it looked painful. And this has been going on for over a year at least. We assumed to begin with that it had to do with her constipation issues. But after being put on Miralax those have gone away and she's fairly regular but the bloated belly continues. She complains of tummy aches fairly often as well. I mentioned this to a few other mommies and one mentioned possible malnutrition which sounds silly since Gianna does eat but it's small portions and fairly picky so I thought it might be a possibility that she wasn't getting what she needed. Another mom mentioned that her daughter was allergic to gluten and that she thought her daughter's was a reaction to gluten in her diet.

I have considered before that Gianna might possibly be lactose intolerant. She was as baby and couldn't drink any milk based formula and was instead put on a soy formula. And her constipation issues really picked up after weaning her off soy and putting her back on milk. But no one, not even the dr. has ever mentioned that might be the case and I've brushed it off. But I've really started thinking this might be a problem. All they serve at school is milk - she gets milk three times a day while she's there plus milk she drinks at home and her favorite foods include Mac N Cheese and yogurt. So of course my dairy loving girl would be lactose intolerant (possibly). So the dr. has suggested we try a lactose free diet for a couple of weeks and she said that should tell us. If that doesn't work she's going to send her to see a gastroenterologist and see if she's possibly got something else with a really long name that effects the throat and can cause gas and nasal/snoring issues. So we'll see.

I'm starting tomorrow taking her off main dairy stuff like milk, cheese and yogurt. But once she goes back to school Tuesday, until I can get a load of paperwork filled out by a doctor and returned (and our dr is 35 mins away!), she'll be back to drinking milk all day. So I'm hoping by a week from Monday we'll have it squared away and she'll be off it for a good two weeks to see if that works. But I already feel bad. I'm thinking about all the dairy/cheese stuff she eats that I'm going to have to restrict and limit. I feel bad for her that I'm limiting things she enjoys. I'm also really concerned about her being on a lactose free diet at school. I don't know how different that will be from the other kids menu but I don't want her to feel singled out or "weird" because she can't drink milk with the other kids or eat Mac N Cheese for lunch....

Here are my questions:

1. Do you have a child that is lactose intolerant? If so, how did you figure it out?

2. Besides obvious dairy stuff what else do I have to restrict or limit?

3. What are good alternatives for things she loves like Mac N Cheese and yogurt if she is lactose intolerant?

We're going to be using Rice milk instead of soy. I've heard some negative things about soy and little girls so I'm being a little cautious. We might mix it in later on if we find milk is the problem. I tend to like the taste of Rice milk better myself but she might like Soy or Almond better. Luckily, she's drank these before because it's all my dad uses although he isn't lactose intolerant, he does it for diet purposes. But what about cheese? Is there a lactose free kind that's good? (I have no idea how you'd make cheese lactose free! Lol!)

I need some help figuring this all out, people!