Dairy Allergy... Suggestions?!

Both my 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 year old are allergic to cows milk and dairy products. They drink rice milk. Try going to a organic health food store, you can find great alternatives there.

Hi D.-

My son (2yrs) has a 'dairy sensativity' and I do as well. Instead of milk or soy milk (which he hated-even the flavored kinds) we use Lactaid products instead. He has been great on the Lactaid and drinks up to 4 cups a day w/ no adverse reactions. For me, I am much more sensative so I can only drink it in 1/2 cup portions at a sitting. It tastes exactly the same as regular milk and comes in all the same varieties (full-fat, 2% fat, etc). At the holidays, its all I use to cook w/ so my son and myself can enjoy the same mashed potatoes as everyone else. My advice is to give it a try-start w/ just 1/2 cup to see how her system handles it and then you can adjust the amounts up if she tolerates it well.

Hope this helps!

My 4-year-old daughter have peanut/tree nut allergies and my 1-year-old son and 2-year-old niece both have dairy allergies. It's very important to educate yourself about food allergy especially if you're new to this. A lot of people don't take it as seriously as it should be. Check out foodallergy.org for helpful info. I believe they have recipes in there. Also check out cookingallergyfree.com and foodallergykitchen.com for recipes. Good luck!

My son had a dairy allergy that he out grew. We tried all the differant types of dairy free milk, cheese etc. The one he liked best was the rice milk. Rice dreams has a great ice cream. If you are worried about calcium intake, our ped. said to give him one tums a day. They make some with calcium.

my lil' guy also has a dairy allergy....he loved yogurt but he can't have it anymore....V8 makes an awesome strawberry/banana smoothie...dairy free with calcium! they also make kiddie tums for a supplement...it's a hard transition at first but once you get used to it...not so bad. dark chocolate chips and usually if the milk is not one of the first 3 ingredients, or if the milk is cooked...also some harder chesse's may be okay...good luck!

Try Silk Plus Omega-3 Soy milk. Its BETTER for you than cows milk, and its all my kids drink. And its delicious. Also, Soy Delicious is a dairy free company that makes 'ice cream' and now yogurt. All dairy free!! Chocolate Obsession is AMAZING. You can find them at health food stores and also the natural food sections at most stop and shops.
Tofutti makes cream cheese and some frozen novelties. Oh, and frozen pizza. All dairy free.
There is a cheese called Follow Your Heart. Its packaged similar to kraft singles. Again, you can find it at most health food stores. Its BY FAR the best dairy free cheese on the market. IT MELTS!!
Silk also makes yogurt. I find it at some stop and shops, but mostly at the health food store.
There are single serve puddings in Choco and Vanilla. I cant remember the brand name, but there is a picture of a panda bear on the packaging. You'll need to go to the health food store for that one. My kids love it.
Earth Balance is a 'margarine' that is dairy free and delicious. You can bake with it, and use it as a spread. I find it at stop and shop and the health food store. Soy Garden is also available. But, I prefer Earth Balance.
Also, a lot the 'generic' brands are dairy free. Dairy costs more, and to save on prices, they skip it. For instance for a while Oreos had a milk product in it, and the Stop and Shop brand Twist-os did not.
Thats all I can think of right now. I hope it helps.
OH, Silk Chocolate Soy Milk is out of this world!!
:)

Dear D., an instant solution would be to buy Tofutti products which are available in some supermarkets and also health food stores. This product tastes very good and is available in cream cheese, sour cream, ice cream like product in a number of flavors. If the problem is lactose intollerance, then you will find that Kraft Cheese that hangs in the bag usually shredded has an no lactose(read the back). Also, yogurt is usually tollerated. After being dairy sensitive, severely, for 40 years, I did try a product on the internet called Lactogen. After using it exactly as directed, I now can have any dairy. I wish you the best. I do have other suggestion if needed. B.

Hi, I would have the little girl go grocery shopping with her mom to pick out a new food item for them to taste together. (ie sherbert instead of ice cream, soy products, fruit bars...whatever) If it is something for her and her mom to do together it may make a new scary thing a special bonding experience instead.

Hi Daecilyn,
So sorry to hear about your neice's allergy. Allergies to dairy are very common. You can try almond milk (which is high in calcium and magnisium) or soy in place of dairy. I would suggest limiting the amount of soy. If you are worried about a calcium deficency know that greens have a lot of calcium and she doesn't need to get it from dairy.
I'm a massage therapist and nutritional consultant specializing in women and infants. If you give her a supplement make sure it also has magnesium and it should have twice as much calcium as magnesium.Hope that helps!
L.

I have a child who WAS lactose intollerant. My daughter, Katie, was severly lactose intollerant. Her drastic reaction to lactose even had us in the emergency room several times thinking her appendix had burst. She was actually being prepped for surgery one time! After seeing a pediatric gastroenterologist and determining her condition, she went onto a healthy (but unhappy) life of eating many of the foods that the other mom's mention in their response to you here. And I spent hours at the grocery store reading lables and fretting while eating out.

Just this past summer, my mother ran across a product online called Lactagen (lactagen.com.) I read all of their information. I was extremely skeptical. Afterall, if there was a cure for lactose intollerance wouldn't my doctor tell me??? But the product is all natural, so I figured I had nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying it. I purchased lacatogen (which is expensive, btw, $130 and yuckie tasting.) My daughter was so overwhelmed with hope of eating ice cream again that she was the best "patient" ever. She followed the 30-day regime precisely and never complained about the taste.

Well, it worked. She's "cured." Our lives are so much happier now. I take Katie to Ben & Jerry's everytime she scores on her basketball team, which isn't often. :( And everytime I hold my breath waiting for her reaction that never comes. I'm still in disbelief.

I understand lactose intollerence is different from a dairy allergy. I don't know if this product will help you, but if you can probably find out more from their website or email them with a question.

Best of luck.

http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/?gclid=CKa9jNHJgpECF...

http://www.dairyfreeliving.com/

These sites have a ton of recipes and such that would help with meal planning.

My daughter was also told she was highly allergic to dairy and cats,her freshman year at college. Guess what she completely outgrew it. Go figure. K.

I was a dairy allergic child too growing up but nowadays they have so much more to offer for dairy intolerant kids than they ever did back then. They now sell soy and rise based everything (milk (regular and flavored), ice cream, cheeses, etc so although it may be an adjustment for her taste-wise, she will eventually learn to like them. Hopefully, as I did, she will grow out of the allergy. Try buying products that are kosher (parve) which never contain any dairy in them and use Margerine instead of butter and eggs are a safe food as well.

J.

There a product called Vance's DariFree that I use with my children. It comes in chocolate flavor as well. You can order it on-line at www.vancesfoods.com

Both my kids are allergic-dairy, soy, peanuts, almonds. Look out during passover. Nestle's makes a GREAT "frozen dessert" that is a dead ringer for ice cream. Also, there is another kind of "ice cream" bar covered in safe chocolate you can find in Black Forest Acres off 33. If she is ok with soy, there is a soy whip cream from 365 at Whole Foods. I don't like it, but people do.

We use Smart Balance Light for a "butter" to sread or fry in and we use Fleichmanns Unsalted Margerine for baking. Works GREAT!

Like someone else said, try to stay away from soy. My older was NOT allergic to soy, but I think became so when we went heavy on the soy to replace the dairy. I asked the pede allergist and she said it is a definite possibility.

You can get Mac and Chreese, which isn't really that good, but if the kid is desperate..my kids will eat it, but they don't know what the REAL stuff tastes like. Wegmans has it.

Oreos are dairy free, btw.

There are soy yogurts, but there is only ONE that we found tolerable, but I don't know the name of it....we used it and that's how we found out they are ALSO allergic to soy...

Soy cheese is ok, but there is a "cheese" made by Galaxy Foods. MY kids won't touch it, but it's an option.

I belong to a Dairy Free Recipes yahoo group too. They have been great. Do a search and they will come up.

We uce Rice Milk (West Soy is one of the cheapest). Mixed with some Hershey Syrup and it's totally decent.

If you have any other questions, email me!

Jenn

Thankfully there are a lot of dairy alternatives out there these days. For subsituting milk, soy milk is most like cow milk in thickness, but she may also try rice, almond or oat milks. They come in regular flavors, plus usually vanilla and sometimes chocolate/carob.
Earth balance is a dairy free butter substitute that tastes fantastic. Melts very nicely, great for cooking, baking, on popcorn- she won't know the difference.
Nutritional yeast is something you can sprinkle on top of food and has a cheesy flavor and is also loaded with vitamin B-12, which is found in dairy. If she is going to be dairy free, you'll want to be sure she's getting her B-12.
If she's feeling challenged or upset about the change, see if they can make a list of all of the things she CAN eat that she likes and put that up on the fridge, it will help with meal planning and keeping a positive attitude about the transition.
I do a lot of work in this area, please feel free to contact me if I can help with further questions.
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Hi D.. I am, as well as my 11 yr.old, lactose intolerant. Although, it is a different problem , here are some suggestions." Silk "soy milk, chocolate and vanilla are really good. Sometimes, I even use the vanilla silk creamer for cereal. It tastes really good!!! Black Forest Acres, Health food store, in East Windsor, and the bigger store, in Hamilton has lots of dairy - free items." Tofutti" frozen dessert is also quite good. "Sharon's Sorbet"( i believe you can even get it in Shoprite) is yummy, esp. if she likes chocolate!! And, yes, you can bake and cook with silk soy milk. Shoprite even has their own soy milk brand, which doesn't taste much different than the Silk brand. Can she have food with whey in it? Whey is a derivitive of milk, but she may be ok with it, as some products have the whey in them. Because I'm lactose intolerant, besides my younger daughter, there is a children's lactose chewable at cvs, but it sounds like she can't have dairy, at all." Rice Dream" is another product, that could substitute for milk. That comes in chocolate and vanilla too. "Rice Dream "you can bake and cook with too. Check Black Forest Acres, or, shoprite for that item(down the cookie isle) . If your daughter is a picky eater(i don't know?) and she likes chocolate, start her off with one of the above items that way. There is plenty of calcium in all the mentioned products. "Sweet Nothings "frozen dessert is very good too( at Black Forest health food store) Good Luck! It will be easier than you think! And good luck with Baby bean #2!!!