Dairy-free childrens recipe book/ website/ ideas

[Fmm]

Just a call out for ideas, please. My 8 month old son is allergic to dairy. He has more or less eaten a pureed/ then mashed/ now chopped up version of whatever I or my 3 year old daughter eats, except when we are having something with milk or cheese in it. I never thought we ate much cheesy stuff, but it turns out I am having to resort to jars more often than I'd like because he can't have what we're having. Anyone know of any resources of use, or have any suggestions preferably of recipes that the whole family can have? We can't have a roast with trimmings every day!

[newtoedf]

My little boy also has a dairy allergy and a big sister who doesn't! I try to ensure that all of our meals are dairy free so he can eat the same as the rest of us, it's not too tricky when you get used to it. I don't think you necessarily need specific dairy-free recipes as you can just susbstitute (I use oat milk and dairy free vitalite instead of milk and butter.) We probably eat more Asian food than we used to as those recipes don't need dairy anyway. I have recently started buying cheezly mozzarella substitute so he can have pizza "cheese" but he was quite happy with just tomato sauce and toppings.

This site has some interesting recipes: http://www.godairyfree.org/

A lot of processed meat products contain milk derivatives so sometimes I've found it easiest to look for kosher products eg. Hotdogs

The biggest issues I have found have been with trying to ensure the boy doesn't eat the half chewed biscuit his sister left on the floor... I think it gets harder as they get more mobile but at 20 mths he's starting to understand when we explain that he can't have something because it is bad for his tummy. It's probably a good idea to start training your daughter now so she doesn't generously offer her baby brother a spoonful of yoghurt...

If he is on a prescription formula like nutramigen then he'll be getting all his calcium needs from that so you don't need to panic about every meal being nutritionally balanced.

Anyway, there are quite a few threads on here about dairy-free small people so it's worth having a bit of a search if you haven't already.

Feel free to pm me if I can help

[Fmm]

Thank you very much newtoedf. V helpful. I hadn't actually thought to search the forum so will do that now. he's on a soya formula(prescription)so hopefully that has sufficient calcium - I'd forgotten i was worried about that. and yes, daughter already trained in not feeding baby her cheese sandwiches and yoghurt!

[Knomester]

Hello Fmm. Although Baby Knomester isn't dairy intolerant, his Daddy can't have milk and I'm not a huge fan so we eat lots of meals that are dairy free. If you'd like me to email you some of our recipes (many of which are good for family meals as well as baby) then feel free to PM me your email address.

[midivydale]

My 6mnth old is also allergic to dairy. Does anyone have any breakfast ideas for him as he gets older?

[susyp]

It sounds very daunting when they are first diagnosed, and you definitely have to do a lot more cooking - but actually it becomes second nature pretty soon (I have a 4 year old who is dairy and soya allergic). Sometimes we use oat milk in cooking but most things are without - lots of tomato based recipies! We make cakes using Pure Sunflower Marg. She has Cheerios every morning with her formula (neocate) on top. But actually would probably be ok with oatmilk. She is not so keen on drinking neocate now so after school I give her (high sugar !) chocolate nesquik with oatmilk just to help with the calcium intake. She has calcium fortified OJ. At school they often give out chocolate/cakes for a child's birthday but the teacher always has subsitute sweets for my daughter. I think I explained it to her when she was 2 and that made it a lot easier. She has pizza with no cheese, it's not a problem when we are out. But actually most recipies don't have dairy in so it's not too bad - we just don't have macaroni cheese any more!! Look for tomato based dishes - they seem to work the best .

Susypx

[Fmm]

Thanks for all the responses. V helpful. And thanks Knomester for the offer to share recipes - I may well take you up on that!