Dairy (lactose) Free diet

meritaten

My son was dairy allergic from the age of 3 until he was well into his teens. He is now 24 and can tolerate some dairy products.

I had to learn about a dairy free diet by myself as at the time many medical professionals and nutritionists didnt believe a person could be allergic (or rather, intolerant) to good old wholesome milk! It is much easier these days as foods are labelled rather better and the cows milk substitutes are available in supermarkets and even some corner shops!

Also, you will probably find cookbooks etc about dairy free diets in your local library (or they will order them for you), on amazon and even in local charity shops! there is also a lot of info online if you google dairy free, milk free or milk substitute - I do so wish I had had the tinternet when son was young! most of my recipes came about through trial and error as I felt completely on my own!!!!
First of all, your sons favourite foods are going to be dairy as its the foods they crave the most which is the most bad for them. Sounds crazy but thats how it is!
so, it will be easier for you if you can find dairy free substites which taste like the foods he likes. for example, ice cream. You can buy dairy free ice cream in most supermarkets or if he likes sorbet then substitute that, I used to make ice cream for my son using custard based recipes and substituting soya milk. later on i found he could tolerate goats milk so used that instead which gives a lovely tasting ice cream.
chocolate too can be high on their craving list! Carob is a good substitute but my son loved after eight mints which contained no milk solids, lactose or whey (all dairy products which should be avoided).
everyday foods like tinned spaghetti shouldnt be taken for granted they dont contain milk - some brands do in the form of dried milk, or whey protien. or even cheese! usually the cheapest brands are dairy free. (but things may have changed over the years and I have long since stopped checking for forbidden dairy when shopping).
obviously cows milk cheese is forbidden, but buffalo mozzarella is usually tolerated as is sheeps milk cheese, and some dairy intolerant kids can easily tolerate goats milk - in which case you are lucky as the supermarkets usually stock these products. I always had to travel miles to specialist stores to find them for him and they were usually extremely expensive.
another problem is eating out or birthday parties. my son was the only child who TOOK a goody bag to birthday parties as he couldnt have sandwiches (I didnt use any spread only the olive oil one which i purchased in health food stores) ice cream, cakes or jellies (he was highly intolerant of colourings and flavourings too).

It IS hard at first, but you have to think outside the box and adapt family meals so that his dairy free version can be dished up first then any butter cream or cheese added later for everyone else - or all have the dairy free version. It doesnt do anyone any harm provided you make sure that the rest of the diet includes calcium rich foods (oily fish, dark green veg etc). the doctor will prescribe calcium tablets if you are worried you arent getting enough in your diet.
PS. son had a bone density test recently for osteosporosis because of his diet and steriod intake as a child and he was absolutely fine - so it shows that cutting out dairy doesnt have to mean brittle bones later on.

I wish you all the best hun, my sympathies are with you as I KNOW from experience how hard it is to work out diets shop and cook when one member of the family is dairy allergic. but it is worth persevering and have him checked to see if he can tolerate goat or sheeps milk, and to have him tested every few years as sometimes the allergy goes away.
I will be happy to help you with any questions you may have (feel free to PM me anytime).

Emm-in-a-pickle

I can reccommend the `Oatly` brand milk substitute and their cream as well, Tesco always has both. I don`t NEED to use them now as DGD has happily outgrown her allergy, but I still buy them as `standby` staples because they are both great in cooking, and also a healthy alternative to help lower cholesterol.

Teresita_2

Thank you to everyone for your responses. The more I read and get advice the less daunted I feel. Am just happily ploughing through the net trying to get alternatives for his favourites, Jaffa cakes (apparently tesco and co-op's own brands are dairy free!!), nutella ( I have found a recipe to try out. So the challenge now for me is to see what I can get him to eat without him noticing the change in wrappers. Will start with making the dairy free version of nutella and storing it in a nutella jar.

Am waiting the dietitians meeting so will take it from there.

Think it was the fear of the unknown more than anythingxx

lizzy1950

Hi, the vegan society has a good website with recipes and advice that will also be suitable for dairy-free diets. They also have a list of vegan approved foodstuffs, which will all be dairy-free. Hope you manage to find foodstuffs and recipes that he enjoys and, hopefully, can use for the whole family.

Teresita_2

lizzy1950 wrote: »

Hi, the vegan society has a good website with recipes and advice that will also be suitable for dairy-free diets. They also have a list of vegan approved foodstuffs, which will all be dairy-free. Hope you manage to find foodstuffs and recipes that he enjoys and, hopefully, can use for the whole family.

Yeah my main aim is to have everyone be able to eat the same thing without having to cook different meals for everyone!!

Justamum

I'm also vegan, and cook everything from scratch, and once you get used to it it becomes second nature. There does seem to be an obsession in the west with dairy products, but once we are weaned we lose the ability to make lactase and can't actually digest the lactose in milk anyway - after all milk is designed for babies (and cow's milk is designed for calves, not humans!). I bet most people who drink milk wouldn't put human breast milk in their coffee or on their cereal, but think it's perfectly normal to consume the milk of another species. We humans are very strange!

Justamum

Teresita wrote: »

Yeah my main aim is to have everyone be able to eat the same thing without having to cook different meals for everyone!!

That shouldn't be a problem as they probably won't even notice the difference - if you are going to use soya, etc for everybody it might take them a few days to adjust to the taste, but after that I bet they won't even like cow's milk any more. There are plenty of yummy cakes and biscuits you can make which are even nicer than ones with dairy in them! My children prefer the vegan pancakes to the 'normal' ones for instance.

alwayspuzzled

Hi, it is hard work but you'll find you quickly adapt to scanning every label before adding it to your trolley and after a few months will do it so automatically it doesn't even make the shopping take longer. Don't assume that because it was ok last week it still is, they love to keep changing their recipes.

I have 2 children who had milk protein intolerance, luckily both have nearly outgrown it but we still need to limit their intake. You will still find a lot of resistance/ignorance through the medical/health services. I was repeatedly told it was impossible for cows milk proteins to pass through my breastmilk but trial and error proved otherwise. I had a paediatrician who after reading ds's notes at his 3 monthly review stated "diary intolerant - so he can't have any milk or eggs" (didn't appreciate being asked if he'd ever heard of a cow laying eggs).

For us even soya milk was no good as the soya proteins are too close to the milk proteins but ds could tolerate the sweddish glace as a special treat.
Watch out for sausages most seem to have whey.
Good treats are store brand jaffas (as you've already seen) but also store brand bourbons, party rings, hobnobs and jelly tots.

Don't know if we were just lucky but when DS started school I filled it out on his admission forms and after consultation with the school cook was able to confidently send him for dinners. They did make the occational mistake but as it was an intolerance rather than an allergy its wasn't the end of the world. Unlike DD's nursary who after 2 weeks of upset bloated tum, sleepless nights and the aweful behavior that accompanies her feeling poorly I had to challenge the manager on her diet. I was devestated to be told 'oh one of the new staff gave her milk on her cereal by mistake last month and it didn't seem to bother her so we've just let her have the same as the rest":mad::mad::mad:

smileyt_2

I can't add much to what's already been said except to say that I became vegan about six years ago and since then my health has been much better in terms of coughs/colds/common infections etc. It will become second nature to you, and you have the added feel-good factor of not being involved in the dairy industry. Dairy-free needn't be difficult. But just a warning - go easy on the vegan cheese, especially at first - it tastes nothing like 'cheese' and some varieties are revolting!

You can also get soya yoghurts which are lovely. Alpro do them and also Asda have their own brand version. Plus in health food shops you can get soya choclolate milk and chocolate mousses. They're obviously more expensive than cheapo 'smartprice 'versions, but as a treat they are lovely. I could eat them until they come out of my ears!

Good luck and enjoy experimenting.

Justamum

smileyt wrote: »

But just a warning - go easy on the vegan cheese, especially at first - it tastes nothing like 'cheese' and some varieties are revolting!

I've found that the Redwoods melting cheezly makes nice cheese on toast and is good on pizzas. I wouldn't have any of the other cheese substitutes on a sandwich though (yuck!) except for the cream cheese ones - tofutti do some nice ones.