Whose difficult child eats dairy-free?

[mattsmum]

My difficult child tested off the charts on a blood panel for a dairy-sensitivity. The naturopath advised me to pull him off all dairy, egg and soy for two months. That has been difficult because most dairy-free items use soy...ugh!

I have also heard medical doctors tell me it is hogwash...yet I read all the posts from parents saying it has helped.

So, I gradually began letting difficult child have dairy and egg again. As time has gone on, his behaviors have worsened.

So, we are back on the dairy-free/egg-free diet. I am not going to stree about the Soy at this point.

I was just wondering who else is dairy-free...any suggestions?

Linda

 

[busywend]

Linda, have you checked this out on the Natural Treatments forum?

My difficult child had trouble when she was very young with lactose intolerance, but it lessened as she got older.

 

[meowbunny]

I have a friend whose entire family is dairy free due to some hereditary issues. If you need some recipes, lmk and I'll check with her. She sent me a really good one for pizza dough (no eggs, either).

 

[TerryJ2]

We try but often fail. If we eat at home, it's great because it's all controllable.
We went out for Italian tonight. Guess who had pizza? Sigh. :crazy:
The good thing is, I know what to expect now so it's not like it all comes as a big surprise.
We have not yet tried to go soy-free. We're doing all this gradually.
Good luck!

 

[Josie]

My 2 kids are both dairy free and gluten free. easy child is also soy free and I am trying to make difficult child be soy free, too. Since I already cook soy-free, it doesn't seem like it will be too hard for difficult child to be, but she is resisting. I am also gluten, dairy, and soy free. I have not tried the egg-free diet because easy child didn't test positive for that. I haven't checked difficult child because she seems to be doing mostly ok and I can't imagine giving up eggs, too.

My own doctor was skeptical about the gluten free diet but I can feel a difference in myself. The whole diet has made a huge difference in our family's ability to get along. We have been doing it for 15 months and I can't imagine going back to "normal" eating. Even difficult child admits that she feels better.

True, we almost never eat out. I am irritable, anxious, and tired for 2 weeks after eating out if a mistake is made. And they frequently are, so it just isn't worth it. The kids' behaviour also changes for the worse and the combination of all of us reacting isn't pretty.

I have found it is easier, and tastes better, to just make things that naturally are dairy free. I was never a big cheese lover, so I don't miss it. Instead of using butter, I mostly use olive oil for cooking. For baking, I use either shortening or coconut oil. I finally figured out how to make pudding with the right consistency and I think it still tastes good, using coconut milk and Vance's DariFree milk substitute. It uses Kraft pudding mix, so I think it is egg-free also. I also use almond milk when I need milk in a recipe.

There is some ice cream made by Rice Dream that is dairy and soy free. difficult child and I think it tastes kind of funny but easy child likes it. When we want something like that, I buy sorbet or popcicles. I do not buy it if it says it may contain traces of milk because I have found difficult child reacts to even that.

Let me know if you have any specific questions about replacements.

 

[skeeter]

NF is allergic to milk - finally got a straight diagnosis at age 3 and he's been totally milk free since then.
We read EVERY ingredient label - no milk, whey, casein, sodium casinate, butter, butterfat, etc. He's allergic to the casein - the protein portion of the milk.

He can now tolerate a "small" quantity in something, such as baked goods, if he's not had any for a while. But as soon as he becomes lax in his eating, he'll either get nauseous, vomit, get hyper, or have skin problems such as hives, eczema or subcutaneous acne.

As for pizza - he just scrapes all the cheese off of it and put the pepperoni back on.

 

[Steely]

We recently had to go back to a dairy free diet due to difficult children allergies - he was on it when he was younger, but we have had to restart it. At 16 it has not been easy cooking for us - but we have made it work. I shop often at the Whole Foods health food store - which in your neck of the woods I think would be similar to Wild Oats. There they have a ton of choices for people that want soy and milk free diets. When my difficult child was younger we found tons of little snacks he loved, and he had no idea they were good for him, he just thought they were "treats".

I think it is a good move to eliminate soy and milk from their diets if they tested as allergens in their body. Their body is trying to tell them something, and if you ignores it too long, not only their behavior but also their bodies will begin to protest. My sister developed Chrohns (sp?) Disease after years of undiagnosed milk and gluten allergies.........I am positive had it been picked up earlier, she would not have had to go through what she is going through now.

 

[hearts and roses]

When difficult child was about 2 yrs her test results showed very high readings for lactose interolerance and so we went with a lactose free diet for a long while. Gradually, we allowed her one or two dairy items each week. Ironically, when she was a baby she never cared much for milk or cheese products. Her big thing at the time of her diagnosis was mac-n-chees. She was devastated that she couldn't eat those so those became her once/twice weekly treat. If she had more than that, we could notice big chnages in not only her behavior but her digestion. Our nutritionist warned us about hidden dairy products and by-products like whey and casien. At that time, difficult child ate tuna fish and it has casien in it so we had to buy different brands.

We never had any problems with soy, howver celiac runs in my family so for a short time we did an elimation of gluten just to see, but then we were all tested and the test came back okay. I'd say staying gluten free is way more difficult - I watch both my sisters and neice live it and I don't envy them.

Best of luck - it can be done. It seems overwhelming at first but then it gets easier. Hang in there.

 

[mattsmum]

There they have a ton of choices for people that want soy and milk free diets.

I am having a hard time finding products that are both soy and milk-free. I don't think we have one of the stores you mentioned in this area...but I will check. We do have a place called "A Market" the next town over.

 

[Steely]

In addition to Wild Oats, you could also try a place called Trader Joes.........Again, we don't have that here, only Whole Foods, but both Wild Oats and Trader Joes are huge in the NW, so maybe the same applies for the NE. Any big health food store should definitely have soy and milk free products because there are many people in your shoes. They have a lot of rice products, like rice milk, rice ice cream - and cheese made from a variety of inventive sources like veggies. The health food industries are really creative nowadays - and surprisingly it tastes good!