Meal Ideas for Baby with Dairy Allergies

Our family doesn't have allergies but we are mostly on a soy diet. Our 22 month old is also drinking soy milk and eating soy yogurt. I cleared this with our pediatrician and she had no issues about the lack of dairy in her diet. She's been on soy milk since we stopped nursing. I do recommend the Organic Valley soy milk over the Silk. The Organic Valley has a creamer taste and is less "soy" tasting. And after taste testing many, many soy yogurt brands we found that Whole Soy & Co is one of the best. My daughter just loves the mango flavored one. And we haven't tried the soy cheese yet (it's our only dairy weekness) but I have heard good things. All of these items can be found at Whole Foods or Vitamin Cottage. Oh and as a special treat, my husband and daughter just love the spray soy whipped cream in the can. Can recall the name of it but it is carried at the Vitamin Cottage. They also have many varieties of soy and rice milk ice cream, all are tasty.

As for cooking it in your food...anything that calls for cheese, maybe you can mix it in after you've finished. That way if you don't care for the soy cheese/milk you can mix in the traditional cheese.

It is a transition but it's fun to experiment and your daughter will surely appreciate your efforts :) Good luck :)

My dd has allergies to peanuts and eggs, but she did have a high sensitivity to milk. I had to use goat milk yogurt, and I did a mixture of soy and rice dream. She loved them both. I went a nutritionist fir her and they suggested thin deli meats,crackers, soft ravioli(with just meat). the vienna sausages. I did banana bread and some muffins for my child. She is now going on 2 and she is able to eat a little bit of eggs with out breaking out. I hope this helps and gl.

I feel for you, girl! My daughter had a milk sensitivity until she was a year, and I modified my diet to breastfeed her. I ate one thing while my husband got Ranch dressing, ice cream, butter on his bread, etc. It would be really sad to be a little one watching your parents eating the good stuff and not be able to eat it.

Do you know what she is sensitive to (whey, lactose or casesin)? If she is not allergic to all three, you can read labels and have some options. My local library had some cookbooks for people with food allergies that ranged from no nuts to no dairy. Our pediatrician recommended an acidopholus drink (for the life of me, I can't seem to spell that word today - sorry) that comes from the health food store.

If you can find a protein that she does like, go with it - just cook it different ways. We do chicken 4 times a week or so and just put different seasonings on it to make it taste different.

I hope she outgrows it, and you find a solution in the meantime! Good luck!

A lady I know adopted a baby who was sickly to begin with. She fed him on a diet of raw goat's milk with carrot and celery juice that she juiced herself. Her son really came around with this and he is really healthy and happy now. This was recommended to her by a doctor who specialized in nutrition because he saw the need for better nutrition in his patients.

Hi,
here is another idea:
we raised our two boys from babyhood on Coconut milk instead of dairy or soy. The best brand out there is Thai (no chemicals added), use the full fat coconut milk, because the fat carries most of the nutrition, which is especially important for children. I use it straight or diluted in recipes asking for milk, you can dilute it with pure water (1:3 ratio) and add a bit of vanilla, salt and sweetener (I use stevia extract, but agave syrup works great too - don't use honey for small kids) for "regular milk" to pour over cereal or enjoy by the glass full. We love it...

Will she eat tofu? The great thing about tofu is, it has practically no taste, and you can put it in all sorts of things, and it is loaded with protien. One easy way to make it fun for kids is to cut it into slices, then dredge the slices in corn starch, and fry it in a tiny bit of oil (not deep fry) until the outside is crispy. You can sprinkle salt and pepper on it and serve it with hummus or another type of dip. Even my husband, an avid meat eater, will eat tofu like this.

My son who is only three and half months has dairy and soy allergies. Since I am nursing, I have to cut out ALL dairy and soy products. I just substitue milk and cheese with rice milk and rice cheese, in recipes that require it. You can hardly notice the difference. They also have rice butter which tastes great. There are also alot of other rice based products that taste great and are acutally so much more healthy than the traditional foods.
An FYI... you have to be cautious of processed meats. Many of them contain dairy as a filler. Even lunch meat sometimes has dairy in it unless you get 100% natural meat.