Question for Those Who've Gone Dairy-Free

I think it's different for everyone. For me I can eat a little butter now and then, a croissant for instance, but if I were to eat butter on toast every day for a few days I would start reacting. I always say "I'm willing to suffer for a croissant"

Hello! It took me a very long time to find this community as well.

My suggestion based on experience is to commit to fully dairy free for at least a few weeks. My thought is that will give you a chance to recognize whether it is helping or not. I personally saw pretty quick results with no new eruptions and faster than normal healing for the bumps I already had. My brother and son saw similar results.

Being fully dairy free was more difficult than I realized!

I started adding dairy back in after about a month of being pretty strict. For me I would get new bumps pretty quickly when I indulged in something like pizza or Mac and cheese. But occasional butter or milk didn’t have as dramatic a reaction. It’s been about a year for me being low dairy, and i have found that if I don’t over-indulge, I can stay free of outbreaks. And just like u/dreamslikedeserts, I know I may pay for it when I do indulge which gives me a sense of control which feels awesome!

For me dairy is my biggest trigger I avoid all of it. I even started using vegan mayo. It definitely is complicated but there are great alternatives. If butter doesn't trigger you don't feel forced to cut it out! For a long time, I used only to eat Greek yogurt but had to cut it out due to the flares.

For me, I cut out all dairy. Even medications that contained it. Saw skin improvements after a few weeks.

Yes, in my opinoin, DAIRY is a good ingredient to first try avoiding too. I'd just try avoiding ALL dairy as mcuh as I could, but I guess if you absolutely have to have a little dairy, use a substitute & if that fails, then I guess do it if you really have to. By the way, if you don't already know, these are other things to avoid for HS-sufferers, which can be very tough because many or most foods have some ingredient or another of these:

AVOID THESE TOO:

DAIRY

GLUTEN / GRAINS

PROCESSED FOODS

SUGARS

GREASY OILY FOODS

SODIUM

SPICES / SPICY FOODS

YEAST

GARLIC

VINEGARS

LEMONS

NUTS / SEEDS & their oils

THEN, YOU MAY WANT TO WATCH OUT OR EVEN AVOID THESE TOO:

nightshades

legumes

mushrooms

soy sauces

fermented items

potatoes - many seem to have to stay away from that too, but sweet potatoes seem to be OK

eggs- many seem to have to stay away from that too