Dairy Free Diet

[jfoofj]

Hi... My son was recently diagnosed w/ a milk allergy. He needs to be on a dairy free diet, which is a pretty hard task! He is also allergic to nuts, so we are pretty familiar w/ reading labels, but I just had no idea that milk proteins were in so many food products. We met with a nutritionist and she gave us a ton of info, but I am still a little overwhelmed. My son is 8 and is used to eating the foods he has been eating (pizza is his favorite, mac and cheese is his second and I won't even get into ice cream...) so it is hard to make a big change all at once especially when he knows what he is missing. He feels like he is being somehow punished since he can't have his favorite foods. It is also hard because his allergy affects him internally, not like his nut allergy where he immediately has a reaction w/ hives and itchy mouth, so he can't see the reaction and has been eating this stuff for years so he doesn't understand why he can't eat "just a little". We have tried to explain he will feel so much better without dairy but he is just upset about losing his favorite foods.

I bought soy milk, and he is ok with the chocolate and vanilla flavored ones so I am not too nervous about him missing his calcium requirements BUT he is a little underweight so I am afraid that he will lose weight while we try to find things he likes.

I was wondering if anyone has any good ideas, recipes, or products to recommend.

 

[turkeymama]

Have you visited the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network website yet? They are great and have quite a few resources. When my daughter was first diagnosed with her dairy allergy, I bought some cookbooks from them, and also the "hidden ingredients" cards. The cards help you out when you are grocery shopping. Most of your recipes that call for milk or butter are pretty easy to handle. You can substitute water, juice, or soy milk in most cases. We buy Blue Bonnet Light to use for toast and things like that. It doesn't bake well though. It works okay for my homemade brownies but not for my homemade cookies.

I'm studying (yeah, right) for a Psychology test right now. Later on when things settle down, I'll brainstorm and try to think of some more information for you. If you have been handling the nut allergy fine, the dairy allergy should be a walk in the park once you get the hang of it. And he very well could lose weight at first. There is quite a bit of fat in dairy products and our entire household lost weight right after she was diagnosed. Believe me, we have all put it back on.

 

[syko]

For local shopping Whole Foods is great, if you want on line I shop at: http://www.veganstore.com

I can recommend the Sheese Vegan Cheese, Vegenaise Dairy-Free Mayo, Mimic Cream Substitute, SoyaToo Soy WhipTopping box.

For Mac and cheese I make my own with Sheese and Mimic.

For milk I love Silk, much better than the other brands and they do one just for kids. Or coconut milk.

For ice ceam I like Purely Decadent made with COCONUT MILK, but they do soya too, look at there web site:
http://www.turtlemountain.com/products/products.html

For yougort I have Wholesoy & Co and for "butter" I use Earth Balance.

Everthing I have mentioned, except for Mimic can be bought at whole foods.

 

[Canyon girl]

I had to take my daughter off of dairy for a couple of weeks to test her for a milk allergy last year. I was appalled to find that a lot of imitation cheese at the local health food store still had casein in it. Also, there are some soy milks that don't have the calcium in it, too. Just an FYI. I wish you lots of luck with this. Just the couple of weeks showed me how difficult it was. I hope all goes well with you guys. Hopefully, he will grow out of it.

 

[figment41]

I have a daughter who is allergic to wheat eggs and milk so I feel for you.

There are many brands that carry entire lines without any dairy in them. Enjoy life has some great cookies and chocolate bars. they even carry dairy free breakfast bars.

Silk soymilk is all that we give to my daughter. We talked to the DR about using some rice milk and she said the nutrients were just not there.

Glutino makes pretzels that taste just like other pretzels and have no dairy in them.

Toffuti ice cream does not have dairy in it and it tastes like you are eating a bowl of vanilla frosting. Check there are many sorbets out there that do not have any dairy in them.

Ener G breads are dairy free.

We found some dairy free macaroni and cheese but they put so many other spices into it it was to strong for my DD1. It was even to strong for my husband and I. We tasted it and could still taste it the next day in our mouths after eating several things and brushing our teeth many times.

Amys is also a great brand. they make a Dairy free pizza it only takes 8 minutes to heat up and 2 minutes under the broiler for crunch and melting cheese. They also have some pasta bowls that are dairy free.

Be very careful with yogurt even if it is soy many many of them use dairy products to grow the proteins that makes it yogurt.

Cherrybrook farms make some great frosting and cake and cookie mixes.

Whole foods has been a life saver.We also have local store named Woodmans they have a great selection I do not know if they are in other parts of the country.

Suprisingly I have found a lot of these products on my own through spending hours at the grocery store but also from the list of allergy products that they offer at Disney.

Good luck. If I think of anymore I will send it on to you. Feel free to PM with any questions

 

[turkeymama]

I have a daughter who is allergic to wheat eggs and milk so I feel for you.

There are many brands that carry entire lines without any dairy in them. Enjoy life has some great cookies and chocolate bars. they even carry dairy free breakfast bars.

Silk soymilk is all that we give to my daughter. We talked to the DR about using some rice milk and she said the nutrients were just not there.

Glutino makes pretzels that taste just like other pretzels and have no dairy in them.

Toffuti ice cream does not have dairy in it and it tastes like you are eating a bowl of vanilla frosting. Check there are many sorbets out there that do not have any dairy in them.

Ener G breads are dairy free.

We found some dairy free macaroni and cheese but they put so many other spices into it it was to strong for my DD1. It was even to strong for my husband and I. We tasted it and could still taste it the next day in our mouths after eating several things and brushing our teeth many times.

Amys is also a great brand. they make a Dairy free pizza it only takes 8 minutes to heat up and 2 minutes under the broiler for crunch and melting cheese. They also have some pasta bowls that are dairy free.

Be very careful with yogurt even if it is soy many many of them use dairy products to grow the proteins that makes it yogurt.

Cherrybrook farms make some great frosting and cake and cookie mixes.

Whole foods has been a life saver.We also have local store named Woodmans they have a great selection I do not know if they are in other parts of the country.

Suprisingly I have found a lot of these products on my own through spending hours at the grocery store but also from the list of allergy products that they offer at Disney.

Good luck. If I think of anymore I will send it on to you. Feel free to PM with any questions

I wanted to comment on the parts of your post that I bolded.

First, my daughter was allergic to eggs, yeast, and dairy when she was born. She quickly outgrew the egg and yeast allergy, so there is hope that they won't have to live with these things forever. Don't get discouraged.

Also, I'm glad you pointed out that many items can be found in regular grocery stores. A lot of the specialty stores and Whole Foods stores can get expensive really quick. I only go to our local health food store for Tofutti products. Everything else I can easily find at our local grocery stores and it is much cheaper. It just takes a little practice at reading labels.

And to the OP, sign up for the free alerts from Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network website. From time to time, food products are recalled because they contain undeclared allergens. Not too long ago the Tofutti cuties were recalled due to undeclared milk. I never did find out why they were contaminated, and I found it odd since there is supposed to be no dairy anywhere in their manufacturing plants. I'm assuming they're fine now.