Allergic to Dairy

My 2 year old is allergic to dairy, wheat, soy, eggs and peanuts, so we've been very limited in what we can feed her. As far as snacks go, there's a brand called "Enjoy Life" which you can find at Whole Foods and Gluten-Free specialty stores (there's one called Delicious-N-Fit in Plano). My daughter loves the cookies and bars - especially the Snickerdoodle cookies. They're free of dairy and all the other items she's allergic to.

Good luck!

1 mom found this helpful

I know where you're coming from. I was allergic to cow's milk as a child and to this day still have trouble with, though it's not as severe. While looking through the cook books at my local library, for new ideas, I found some wonderful Dairy-Free Cooking books. I really liked this one - The milk-free kitchen : living well without dairy products By Kidder, Beth.
Although, this one is pretty helpful, too. Dairy-free cookbook : over 250 recipes for people with lactose intolerance or milk allergy By Zukin, Jane. Hope this helps.

We live mostly dairy-free in our household. You will probably need to familiarize yourself with the "Nature's Market" section of Kroger for dairy-free snack ideas. Also, a monthly trip to Sprouts or Whole Foods or other specialty grocery store will keep you stocked on things he can eat.
Our pediatrician said we could just continue giving our son formula until he's 2. You can get the "Step 2" kind of whatever formula you were using. Or just give him the same formula. I read the labels of the regular vs. Step 2 and they're not any different except the Step 2 has a little more calcium.
I don't know why your doc would have recommended rice milk. I don't think it has any fat in it, and babies/toddlers need the fat for their brain development.
My older child drinks the Silk brand "Very Vanilla" soy milk. It is fortified with calcium, so I mix a little in with my son's formula at dinner time.
As far as making dairy-free meals, if I'm making something that includes cheese, I just leave cheese off of his portion. Even when we do homemade pizza, one quarter of it is cheese-less.
I could send you a list of things we eat for snacks that are dairy-free (Oreo cookies are a yummy treat occasionally! No milk in them!)

Hi - My kids are now 18 and 15. I didn´t have enough milk when they were borned so since they were 1 week of age I only gave them soy milk. Even when they already ate some other food, I kept the soy milk until they were like 5 years old. Healthy and smart kids - never sick (unless a few colds).

I have never heart about soy producing cancer - on the contrary, I read it reduces the risk of cancer. Anyway, nothing could be totally good or totally bad.

If I have another baby or for my grandkids I will go for soy milk - BLINDFOLDED!!

Good luck!! Dairy allergy sometimes dissapear after a few years. I know there is also no lactose dairy which could be another possibility!!

One thing that comes to mind (after all 3 of my kids were on soy - sigh) is that soy is a plant estrogen which may create a body environment that leads to cancers in some women...plus do you want to give your young, growing son estrogen several times a day? Had I known, I wouldn't have.

I'm surprised at how the mainstream still whole heartedly promotes soy as healthy when there is a plethora of studies suggesting otherwise. I'm glad to hear that your doctor said no soy. I guess you have to follow who makes money. Soy is a big idustry.

My husband wants all of us off all dairy but I haven't been able (willing) to do it. He says we will all feel much better.

I may be totally wrong, but it's my two cents for what it's worth.

Hi. When my daughter was little, we used LactoFree baby products for her main mllk supply. You can still get it, I think. Also, you can try peppermint tea.
Hope this halpe.
N. K.

Try goat's milk. It's been a godsend here b/c our son reacted to cow's milk and soy milk and it's closer to cow's milk and without some of the risks of soy

My daughter had asthma very young and was taken off of milk. She has always loved cheese and because of her diabetes we needed "free" carb foods. I found veggie cheese at Whole Foods - made from veggies not cow's milk...also if memory serves they had cheese made from rice milk as well.....they were a great resource......

Do you know what it is in the milk that he's allergic to? My daughter is allergic to something that's in milk but not in yogurt or cheese, which she loves. I give her soy milk, but there's also almond milk and a couple other options. Do you have a good healthfood store near you where you can go look over some options and maybe talk to someone there?

My chld has multiple allergies, including dairy.

Yes, soy is questionable. Many dairy-allergic children are also allergic to soy protein, plus the estrogen issue some others mentioned is something to be wary of. Good for your doctor, looks like the medical field is catching on!

You might try oat milk that's fortified with Vitamin D and calcium, or if your child takes fortified rice milk that's fine too. In my daughter's case we just let her eat other foods with fat, like bacon, etc. after she had some teeth. We were also able to give her goat cheese from Central Market (they have a cheddar style brand called Alta Dena).

Other snacks we feed our daughter are the freeze dried Gerber fruits, we take plain puffed rice cereal and mix them in sometimes. (I had to get creative because she can't even have the wheat in Cheerios!)

If your child won't do the dried fruit, the organic section of the grocery store (Kroger's is good) should have some Earth's Best Sesame Street cookies, etc. that may be dairy-free. There should also be dairy-free foods for adults in the same section, including cookies. Hope this helps.

Oh, and the last and best advice I can share is www.foodyoucaneat.com - you enter the food your family needs to avoid, and get tons of recipes in every category. You'll love it!

Your son's doctor may not recommend soy because a certain percentage of children who are allergic to milk are also allergic to soy. The trouble with rice and soy milk is that the protein is not as readily digested as the protein in cow's milk. Also the calcium content of these milk substitutes is not naturally high. Make sure the rice milk has added calcium. The third thing is that cow's milk has Vitamin D and A. You may need to put your child on a multivitamin to make sure he is getting enough of those two vitamins, especially if he doesn't eat vegetables. Since baby's frequently outgrow milk allergies, you may want to get him tested in the future to see if he outgrows his allergy.