Q: My one month old son's urine has been examined and traces of lactose and galactose are found in screening of urine. There are no other problems. Could there be some problem? Is it natural to release some part of lactose and galactose for new born infants? Is there any precaution that should be taken?

A:If there is galactose in the urine, you should get it confirmed by doing the enzyme assay in the blood. This should be available at any Genetic Lab. One of them is at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Genetics department. The head of this department is Dr. I.C. Verma. After confirming the diagnosis we should remove lactose from the diet as byproducts of its metabolism in these babies can have long term problems, even though baby looks fine right now.