Are Lactose-Free Dairy Products Safe During Pregnancy?

Is it safe to consume lactose-free dairy products (i.e. lactase enzyme) during pregnancy? And if yes, how much? On my pills, it said to ask my doctor. My doctor didn’t know but said it was “probably fine.” This does not exactly make me feel reassured.
—Sofie

“Probably fine” is my favorite pregnancy medication category. Probably fine or maybe… what? It’s a great example of the need to articulate what you’re worried about.

In this case, the ambiguity seems to come from the fact that, on the one hand, there is absolutely no reason to think that this would be an issue in pregnancy at all. No mechanism, nothing concerning in what we see in the world, etc. On the other hand, we do not have any randomized controlled trials (or even large-scale controlled data) that show direct evidence of safety. Given our general high level of caution about pregnant people and the fact that, frankly, companies do not want to be open to liability around pregnancy, the lack of concrete evidence leads to the “talk to your doctor” warning.

This is a reasonably common situation in pregnancy and it can be frustrating in part because it puts a lot of pressure on doctors to have answers, which cannot be based on evidence because there is none!

Ultimately, this decision has to be up to you. If it were me, I wouldn’t worry about it, given the strong baseline logic suggesting no reason for concern.