help please on dairy free baby weaning

betterlife

hi, ive just found out today that my baby is allergic to dairy and it wont be reintroduced til he is 18mths. he is coming up to the age of weaning, an although i generally cook from scratch i could do with any advice you may have. i have been told we are getting refered to dietician but i no sometimes can be a long wait. i was also wondering where i can get the best range of dairy free food like snacks etc at the best prices, also is dairy written as something different sometimes in the ingredients. and if you have a dairy allergy can you please let me no things which have milk in that i might not of thought of. i have 4 children and have weaned them the usual way, purees, then lumpier etc but ive been told that i can do baby led weaning and it works really well ( for you that dont no what this is which i didnt, its when you basically start straight away on finger foods, like soft slices of fruit and veg, toast etc) all advice greatly welcome thankyou

nadnad

baby led weaning site is great http://babyledweaning.blogware.com/
and http://babyledweaning.com/. can he take soya milk etc? i know a lot of babies if allergic to one are allergic to the other. if he can take that then that would help a lot.

Kimitatsu

try dietry needs direct - you can sort by diet not just dairy free but gluten free caisen free etc etc.

Delivery costs are by weight but the service is very good - they have a phoneline and the people on the other end are very knowledgable.

http://www.dietaryneedsdirect.co.uk/

good luck

ladysparklexx

HI

My daughter is allergic to dairy, wheat, gluten and nuts. Our dietician is brilliant, our daughter is seen very regularly to make sure she is getting all the vitamins she needs. You make well be offered a powder called neocate, this is a subsitute for baby milk although this doesnt taste very nice my daughter loved it. They also will let you know all the information about soya and rice milk, and which will be the best option for you. My daughter now has unsweetened soya milk with added calcium, she also has a calcium syrup each day.

There are loads of different products out there and food labbelled has hugely improved over the years. Sainsburys, Tesco and Marks and spencers all have an allergy box under their ingredients which state if they contain milk or not.

Good finger foods off the top of my head are obviously fruit and veg but if you look in the baby food section in your supermarket at a rang called goods they do things like carrot sticks (bit like crisps) and different flavioured rice cakes. Sainsburys are the cheapest for their free from range for things like biscuits etc. As your little one gets older they also stock things like dairy free chocolate buttons, easter eggs and I have for our first year ever got a dairy free chocolate advent calendar for her with high school musical on she thinks she is the bees knees with that one. The cheapest dairy free spread that we have found is vitalite, which is about 70p a tub.

Yes milk is listed as other words, I will do a hunt on the net for you.

What is worth remember is to avoid cross contamination in your kitchen, the amount of times I have stuck the butter knife from my sons toast in the jam pot and then cant use it for my daughter. Its very expensive buying two of everything so what I do is have loads of little tubs and when I open a new jar of something like jam I put some in one of her little tubs in the fridge.

Please dont worry to much once your in the swing of things and a routine it will be easy, make sure everyone is aware so they do not automatically give your child a biscuit etc. My daughter is now six and does cooking at school, knows more about whats in food than any other child her age and it doesnt stop her from doing anything.

Good luck, let me know if you want anymore help or msg me.

cazscoob

i was advised not to give my baby soya milk as it produces hormones that can cause problems with babies growing breasts etc. i was told to use lacto free milk.

if you stick to the fruit and veg weaning and you could add things like pasta and gradually build it up when you have advice from the dietician

vegankris

Try looking at vegan websites for advice as there will be a lot of tips on avoiding dairy and finding alternatives, plus recipes that will also be applicable to lactose intolerant people.

fernliebee

I'm vegan and am weaning my baby at the minute, I don't want to give her any dairy until she is at least 18 months if at all ( bit of a debate in our house at min) I find a good source of calcium is sesame oil. Oil is better than seeds as the seed's go through us undigested so we don't get the benefits. Also it is a good source of fat's as without dairy you need to try and get the fat in where you can. Avocado is great for this too, as are seeds, but many are tricky to get into a babies diet without crushing or using the oil. I agree about the vegan websites, they have lots of recipe's and I don't miss out on anything just a bit more work sometimes. I use oat milk which is really creamy and I like it, but not sure if this is any good if he can't have soya??

Forgot to say 'pure' non dairy margarine is a great base for cooking many dairy free dishes and doesn't taste too bad in cooking. I find that most supermarkets have a free from aisle. With baby led weaning I spread stuff onto rice cakes like avocado or hummus etc and she can lick it of.

Savvy_Sue

While waiting for the dietician please ask your HV for any guidance she can give. I managed it for all 3 of mine until 12 months in the hope of averting eczema. While pg with DS2 I also took part in a trial to see if avoiding dairy while pregnant and b/feeding was worthwhile: he's the only one to have any sign of eczema (although mercifully it's VERY mild compared to DH!)

Also I think this will be better on the Health board so I'll move it over there.

emmadibbs

Both my children have been allergic to dairy, the youngest is 10 months now and on Neocate. The eldest had soya but they don't recommend that now. Neocate was my saviour becasue he was incredibly sick before going on to that and I was at the end of my teather!!! When you wean them just continue to make all your own stuff but avoid using normal butter, milk, etc (you can get soya butter). If you are using Neocate then have a look at their website for some recipes cos you cannot boil the milk so it is hard to use. If I use milk in a recipe I simply use soya (as that is what the rest of the house have) but he cannot have this a main drink until 2 years as it is very low in fat.
If you need to get the odd jar every now and then then they are all labelled as to whether or not they have milk in, same with things like rusks. farleys do not have milk in now but most of the other types of biscuit do.
I find it generally doesn't cause a problem myself and if you need any advice feel free to drop me a mesage.
Enjoy the weaning LOL Orange faces and clothes all round!!

vegankris

If you want to avoid soya too, Pure make a sunflower based margarine that's got no soya in it (and it tastes nicer than their soya one too!)

skint-student-nurse

my daughter was allergic to dairy but thankfully she was slowly re-introduced to dairy at 18 months and has no roblems with it. i found that tesco have a wide range of dairy-free foods,although it often got expensive! i made my daughters own food just to double check an be reassured there was no dairy in it, as some jarred foods contain milk. i avoided soya milk as well an gave her lacto-free milk.