I have looked in all our lab references and asked Leon (Mitoulas) and Peter (Hartmann). None of us are aware of any literature identifying the presence of lactase in human milk. As you say it would somewhat defeat the purpose as the lactose would just be immediately split back into glucose and galactose (and there would be next to no lactose left in milk). Peter says it could be possible for it to be present in milk if it were in an inactivated form, which was then activated (somehow) once in the gut (although none of this has been investigated - to my knowledge). Peter seems to think that there is some in marsupial milk but only at the end of lactation. Can't seem to find any refs though. So in short I think the Dr may have been mistaken in regard to his comments about lactase in milk (unless of course he knows something we donšt :-). Regards Cathy Fetherston CM MSc IBCLC Perth, Western Australia *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html