Is Anyone Here Also Doing A Dairy Free Diet?

[mjibuwait]

A little history on my little one - he was screened for food allergies around age 1 and found severe allergy to dairy, which we already had known this since he was a newborn. I had eliminated all dairy from my diet for bf, and his symptoms almost all went away. I say almost because the one "symptom" we continued to deal with was reflux and restless sleeping. Fast forward to now at 31 months - he has completely fallen off the growth chart, whereas as an infant he was always in the 50% range. He is dangerously skinny, and starting to falter in gross motor function (falling, unable to climb like the other kids, etc). He had a little bit of speech delay but is talking much better now the last few months. He is sick a lot, it seems every couple of weeks he has something. He also has asthma, but does not flare up unless he is triggered by a. MIL smoking or dogs or b. some illnesses.

Earlier this week we went to a nutritionist who thought it was odd that he did not like to eat bread or other carbohydrates. He is an extremely picky eater, and even when he likes a food it is hit or miss if he will eat more than 1-2 bites of it at any given time. The nutritionist thought screening for celiac would be a good idea.

Anyway, I'd like to chat with some other parents who are both gluten-free and Dairy free. I need some ideas on recipes, etc just in case we have to go gluten-free. Thanks

[elle's mom]

Anyway, I'd like to chat with some other parents who are both gluten-free and Dairy free. I need some ideas on recipes, etc just in case we have to go gluten-free. Thanks

[missy'smom]

Earthbalance spread is CF and they have one that is also soy-free. It works well in baking as a substitute for butter. So Delicious coconut milk is drinkable, in a carton and mild, creamy and neutral flavored. I haven't tried it in baking. Chicken broth works well in place of the milk in mashed potatoes. Vegan Gourmet cheese works well on things like pizza. There are some wonderful coconut milk ice creams and icecream bars in the markets. There are some premade baked goods that are gluten-free/CF.

[mjibuwait]

Thanks for the replies! I forgot to mention my son is also mildly allergic to peanuts and eggs, although the egg allergy is probably waning. He does not like eggs, so those are out unless cooked in something. I think he can also detect them in french toast and wont eat it. He does not like POTATOES!! He will eat a tiny bite of french fry just to get the ketchup but doesnt like baked or mashed potatoes. He will eat sweet potato sometimes. Squash gives him a mild reaction too although they were not on the screening we did. For carbs, he likes homemade apple cake, banana bread and pumpkin bread which are all medium calorie. We really need to find him something that is very high in calories and fat that he likes and will eat a lot of. This seems to be impossible, he just doesn't like to eat period. He doesn't really like sweets, other than mango sorbet and the occasional soy ice cream sandwich.

[missy'smom]

I don't blame him for passing on the french toast. I don't test allergic but I have a very strong aversion so usually avoid eggs. For baking, you can use flax meal as an egg replacer. There are instructions on the web. Also, some vegan recipes are helpful as they don't use eggs or dairy and have engineered some yummy things. Not all aer gluten-free but we can substitute our gluten-free flour blends with good results. If P.B. is out, would sunflower nut butter be a possibility?

[OptimisticMom42]

Some of our favorites - almond milk, almond butter, chocolate almond milk, Betty Crocker Gluten free cake mixes cooked with zucchini squash in it, rice cakes with jelly, gluten free pretzels, corn chips, bananas, apples, peaches, pears, apple sauce, peas, green beans, rice with brown sugar, nuts and raisins, rice with chicken broth....

Like the other posters said, once his tummy starts to heal so eating doesn't make him feel bad, he'll start eating. Just give him a protein (meat or nuts), a starch (rice or corn based) and a fruit at each meal. Oh, there are a lot of cold cereals that are gluten free like Fruity Pebbles, Rice Chex and Gorilla Munch