Daughter has milk allergy, advice plz

becky81

Hello
My daughter is 6 and today i found out she is allergic to milk. Im looking for any information about it tbh as i know nothing at all! Is there a website for milk allergies in children. I did have a look but theres so many, all saying different things! Some say they CAN have food with powdered milk, and some say they CANT. Im confused before i have started, so any advice would be fab xxx

Thanks

Alcmene

I'm allergic to cow milk. I avoid it at all costs. You may find that some people do OK with goat milk. I do not drink animal milk at all, I use soya. My favourite is Alpro Soya.

skylight

Mine has an intolerance to milk proteins; it brings on her ezcema and too much makes it very bad for her. Its quite easy really and luckily its not a proper allergy so she doesn't explode if she does have milk based items, this means that in the summer time can have the odd ice-cream from the van!

She always sticks to Soya Milk - the supermarkets do a cheaper own brand these days. Alpro do soya chocolate flavoured milk so she can still have a cold shake with her sisters. Soya yoghurts too; Asda do their own brand here and Alpro do some good flavours. This all may take a bit of getting used to flavour wise, especially with a 6yo!

You can get dairy free chocolate again Asda and a place called Kinnerton who also do special limited dairy free Advent calender as well as online stuff. Dairy free ice cream though is expensive so we stick to sorbets instead.

There is a whole range of "Free" foods in Tesco and other supermarkets and many of these are dairy free.

If in doubt with anything, then cook it yourself!

And it does depend how severe the allergy/intolerance is. With E, we can get away with McDonalds but not a KFC and chocolate (with milk) on the same day. And its easier with the school too; she can have the odd chocolate at birthdays and as long as I know about it then I can ensure she has a milk free evening.

RAS

Hi

You need to know what sort of milk allergy and how bad. Some people react to the protein in cows milk, some to the sugars (lactose intolerance) and some to the fat.

Sadly lactose is a very common ingredient in convenience foods, so it means you have to learn to read the labels for a living, or make your own stuff. I understand that lactose is present in most milk, not just cows' milk.

If she is allergic to the fat in cows' milk, then goats and sheeps products will probably be OK.

meritaten

my son was dairy intolerant and i found it very difficult to get information on dairy free products. this was twenty or so years ago and its much easier now. especially with the internet.
If you havent found much info on the net then i suspect its how you worded the search - actual milk allergy is quite rare - i would search 'dairy intolerance' or 'lactose intolerance' or even 'dairy free diet'.
learn to read the labels on food - if its a true milk allergy then you need to learn how companies 'hide' milk products in food. avoid anything which contains lactose, whey or milk protien solids.
labels are so much better these days - many of them will state whether its dairy free - but still check hun.
also be suspicious of any sweets - you will be surprised how many contain condensed milk for example!
pure chocolate is fine just check it doesnt contain milk solids. carob is a good substitute. after eights used to be dairy free but as i havent had to buy for my son for a few years I cannot say which particular foods are dairy free.
dont assume a product will be dairy free just because it wouldnt make sense to put it in! some brands of tinned spaghetti contain either milk or cheese products (it bumps up the protien content). always read the ingredients list!
good luck - if you have any questions you can PM me!

LJM

my friends little girl is dairy intolerant and she cannot have anything with milk produce,powdered or non, it makes her have terrible stomach aches she is now 8 and was diagnosed at 3 years bless her but she is used to it now

freyanneke_2

My son who is now ten grew out of a milk and soya intolerance only a couple of months ago. We used to write to every store (a.o.Tesco and the healthfood store) that we bought most of our shopping and some big manufacturers and requested a list of the products that were without milk and soya. That made shopping a lot easier. You still have to check the labels, 'cause recipes do change. Also thank you letters to manufacturers who don't use milk in their products are welcomed and usually you get a voucher or a free sample.
It is important to find out if your child is intolerant or allergic and if it is to the milk sugars or the milk proteins. I found milk in shampoos and other products that you might not think would contain any, so reading all the labels is quite tedious but important.

brians_daughter

becky81 wrote: »

Hello
My daughter is 6 and today i found out she is allergic to milk. Im looking for any information about it tbh as i know nothing at all! Is there a website for milk allergies in children. I did have a look but theres so many, all saying different things! Some say they CAN have food with powdered milk, and some say they CANT. Im confused before i have started, so any advice would be fab xxx

Thanks

Is it specifically milk or an ingredient in the milk? ie ds2 has probs with lactose in large amounts ie milk so has goats milk or lactose fre milk. hes ok with cheese and yogurts in small amounts.

I assume if its taken 6 years to find shes allergic to milk she isnt truely allergic? Do you mean intolerant? A true allergy will have her to A&E, she would be in severe pain and in most cases being fed something you are allergic to would mean severe weight loss (but not always) where as an intolerance will bring discomfort, a rash etc Its very important to distuinguish between the 2, or so the pead told us.

The confussion re powdered milk will depend on if allergic or intollerant.I have spent the past 2 years tweaking my sons diet so am self taught in many ways with such issues lol. You may find your child is ok with the odd oz of milk, say in a sauce etc but when given a bottle of milk will react badly.

The best thing to do is keep a food diary. Have 2 colums 1 with everything she eats..if its homemade have the ingrediaents written down.. then in colum 2 the symptoms she suffers, how severe and how soon after eating she gets them. I would do this for 10 days, take it to GP and ask for ref to dietician... if GP is aware already i am suprised they havent ref'd you already.

Also, to add has she only just developed this reaction? If so has she been ill? Many ppl when ill (ie stomach bug etc) strip the stomach lining which contains enzymes that help break the milk down, so maybe(hoping) it will be a temporary thing for her?
Out of interest how did she get diagnosed?

Adelicia

I really rate Tesco value soya milk (in UHT cartons) which I think it's about 60p a litre. It's unsweetened and doesn't have the same vanilla taste to it that Alpro stuff has.

It's worth looking at https://www.cookingforvegans.co.uk as this has a link to supermarket product lists of products which contain no animal products (hence no dairy) which can be a godsend when you are trying to get used to a new diet.

System

I was intolerant to milk and milk products (whey powder etc) from the age of 5 to 10 ( got it after a bout of gastoentristus and i grew out of it). I used to have soya milk and soya margarine (from a health shop), oh and anything with UHT milk was ok for me (ambrosia desserts for example). For the most part it was trial and error on my parents front.

becky81

Thanks every1 very much for replying xxxx
I have also started a thread reguarding dairy free, lactose free, gluten free food/drink items on promotion. So im hoping this way we can save some money as the food is soooo expensive.
heres the link https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/40976134#Comment_40976134