Dairy (lactose) Free diet

kippers

I just wanted to say a big 'thank you' to everyone who contributed to this thread. My dd has developed a diary intolerance and we are waiting for a hospital appointment now. She has been diary free now for 4 weeks and she is a different child, it is so lovely for her not to feel sick all the time or have endless tummy aches.

I have done alot of reading and i have converted most of my old recipes to make them diary free, using 'pure' marg and soya milk. Our doctor has really been hopeless and no help at all...all he has said is "I don't really know anything about diary intolerances"!

This thread has been helpful and i wish i'd found it 4 wks ago.

Anyway, thank you

Flibsey

don't forget, soya milk can make some things a bit too heavy, like yorkshire puds. Oat milk is good for those (not for gluten free diets though) ad rice milk is excellent.
I use vitalite for everything as I don't like the taste of pure and I've found it to be unstable in things like icing.

also, check EVERYTHING. even things you don't believe could be related to milk will have a milk byproduct in. for instance: Asda ow brand tomato ketchup. sweetened not just with sugar, but lactose. !!!!!! asda?!
crisps and snacks are really difficult too as most of them contain whey as a binder and/or lactose as a flavouring. even salt and vinegar ones.

My family wern't keen on dairy free chocs that come in the blue packets; the funky after taste and oversweeteness made all of us feel ill. so we switched to lindt 75% cocoa, ate less of it and cooked more with it. they do a caramel hazelnut and an orange pieces one. both are lovely.

THEN Asda started bringing out their own version of dairy free chocs, using rice milk instead of soya as replacement milk. We tried Moofree before, they're a company who aparently use the same technique and their chocs are horrible, BUT Asda's are lovely! my DD can have milk chocolate again and I am completely in love with the choc orange buttons.

hope this helps.

Justamum

kippers wrote: »

Our doctor has really been hopeless and no help at all...all he has said is "I don't really know anything about diary intolerances"!

That doesn't surprise me. Doctors don't really learn anything about diet and nutrition when they are studying. Often interested amateurs who read about it know more than doctors.

Skint_Catt

Please can you help me?
I'm fairly certain that my 15m old DD has a lactose intolerance - whenever she has cheese/cows milk we have a horrendous night with her being windy & restless & having stopped these for some weeks now (other than small amounts in cooked foods such as porridge/scrambled egg) she is so much better in herself. She's also constantly hungry which I've read on another website MAY be a symptom also.
Anyway, my question really is what are the best tasting substitutes for milk/cheese? She does love her cheese & it makes a great snack for when we're out, but I just can't bring myself to give her Babybels/cheddar anymore. I've seen Alpro Soya Milk with added calcium on My Supermarket, but if she doesn't like the taste it's going to go to waste as I hate soya milk. Is rice milk maybe more palatable?
Any other suggestions to help me with this?
Many thanks
C xx

trolleyrun

You can get lactose free milk in most supermarkets. It's called LactoFree and is cow's milk with the lactose removed. It tastes like normal milk and comes in "full fat" and semi-skimmed versions. I have a lactose intolerance and this milk works really well for me.

Cheese-wise, there are some cheeses you can give your little one which are lactose free. The company that makes LactoFree milk also make a cheese, although I haven't tried it. Also, mature cheeses such as Jarlsberg, Emmenthal, Parmesan are naturally lactose free. Mature cheddar from the West Country is also lactose free (but it has to be only ths one, others might have lactose in them). Basically, the longer the cheese matures, the less lactose is in it. Therefore, soft cheeses and semi-soft cheeses aren't suitable.

Yoghurt wise, you can get the Alpro soya yoghurts which are nice, or the same company that make the LactoFree milk also make lactose free yoghurts which are lovely too.

katieowl_2

My DD is severely lactose intolerant....she's 23 BTW!

Have you tried goats milk cheese, yog etc??? Mine eats these quite happily, but the merest whiff of cows milk, cheese, butter etc makes her really poorly (She's pregnant ATM so having lots of fun throwing up anyway)

I might be wrong, because it's a long time since I had a babby in the house, but I thought you weren't meant to give them a milk substitute (like alpro) until they were older??? I'd speak to your GP or health visitor, as I'm pretty sure you can get non-dairy formula on prescription.

Kate

flipper_72

My DS was diagnosed lactose intolerant just after his 2nd birthday so we have known for 2 years now.
I chose a few different types of milk - lactofree, soya, rice and let him try them, he liked the lactofree best so we have stuck with that. (i used up the ones he didn't like in cooking). We also bought lactofree cheese spread and cheese (although he can now cope with small amounts of normal cheddar) and the smooth Alpro yoghurts (he didn't like bits). We also buy the Alpro desserts that are in the "free from" section - they come in vanilla, caramel and chocolate.

I found it was a total lifesyle change as it is amazing how many foods have milk in them, our menu had to change massively as i used to do a lot of cheese/milk based sauces from packets etc, now everything has to be from scratch.

Good luck getting it sorted - our doctors were great, they did the test when we told them our concers, just a pity iti took us so long to work out what the issue was

Skint_Catt

Thanks all. I'm not holding out much hope with the Drs as we went to see him on the advice of our Health Visitor to check for physical problems to her sleeping & all he did was listen to her chest & tell us it was a battle of wills that we were losing! I knew it wasn't so walked away disappointed, & it's why I've been doing the diet removal myself. She had a Babybel yesterday for the first time in weeks (I was short of snacks in the house due to snow) and we had about 4 hours sleep instead of the normal 7ish. I don't think she's severe, but it does have an affect that I need to remedy!

Sounds like Lactofree is the first one to try. I've been reading this morning & found that goats & sheep milk/cheese is as bad as cows milk so didn't even consider it. She doesn't seem too bad with the little fromage frais that I was giving her, but haven't tried them again for weeks. She likes the Organix pots of fruit for now, which I'm happy giving her. She loves her fruit, but not so good with the green, calcium rich veggies that she will need more of now!

I presumed once they were ready for cows milk, then soya/replacements were also suitable, but I will look into this more, thank you.

Will try the hard lactofree cheese with her first, but glad they make a cheese spread too

I appreciate your time to reply, C xx

RAS

Hi

I cannot eat cow's milk (not lactose - it is the fat that is my problem).

There are some very good goats and sheeps cheeses now, although they tend to be expensive. Try her with goat's milk cheddar style - sainsbo and the co-op both do it.

Skint_Catt

RAS - the fat problem - I'm assuming its not you trying to lose weight, its that the fat reacts badly to you? If so, may I how you feel when you have cows milk? I've never heard of that before, so would be interesting in trying to help my daughter.
C xx