dairy,egg,nut free snacks, meals etc help?

[hayleyhew]

I am new to all this. I have a 17mth old son with allergies and I am struggling to know what to feed him. Live in UK. Any help or recipes would be really appreciated.
Thanks

[MumRum]

Hi hayleyhew... my son is also allergic to dairy eggs and nuts..
for snacks does your son like..
bread sticks
bourbon biscuits
cream crackers
my son eats all fruit
home made cakes/biscuits
those little sausages

for a main meal my son loves
roast.. (cooking as I speak)
home made spagetti bolognase
bird eye fish fingers (not the batter ones)
sausages and mash/chips
I do a lot of cooking from scratch, then we can all eat it as a family instead of seperate meals...

is he a fussy eater..

[threebob]

Don't think you have to provide lots of different stuff. My ds seems to be happier with a limited choice which changes subtly over time than constantly being bombarded with new stuff.

One thing I will say is that meat and 3 veg meals are easier and more likely to be eaten than a one pot dish, where the smell of something that he may be sensitive to could put him off the whole thing.

[hayleyhew]

Mumrum
Wow he would love all these. Do you have any recipes? The birds eye fish fingers thing looks great. My other 3 year old son (no allergies) has them but the batter ones - will just switch to the others so that they can eat them together. How do you grow to learn what has nuts etc in? I have heard that you can get some sort of list from supermarket - is this true?

[Chandra]

The "nie" thing about nut allergies is that most packed stuff comes with a warning that says "may contain traces of nuts", "contains nuts" etc.

Dairy is more difficult to identify as it could be hidden under the names of whey, anything with the prefix "lact" with the esception of lactic acid, etc. and it could be hidden in many things from plain ham to frozen potatoes.

As for the egg, you can substitute egg with banana and orange juice if baking deserts. For savoury dishes you can use Orgran No Egg, and egg replacer that can be found in many health shops. Egg can be hidden as albumin.

Please remember that the fact that one product of certain brand is safe doesn't mean that similar products will be, so have a good look at the list of ingredients.

[Chandra]

"nie" = "nice"

[MumRum]

Hi Hayleyhew... I wouldn't bother about the lists from supermarkets, as all the ingredients are listed nowdays...

I cook things and substitute the milk for soya milk and use pure soya marg for butter.... I haven't got round to trying eggs substitute yet.
I'm going to make scones later

[Groveregg]

My ds has the same three allergies and recently we have branched out into cooking with rice milk (with added calcium), and I use Pure margarine - this week I've been making white sauce with these and he has loved things with it. It is surprisingly good, especially with a bit of mustard powder or nutmeg to perk it up (I wouldn't normally have it myself without heaps of cheese in!).

Lots of the Organix range of snacks are good eg. animal biscuits.

If I think of anything else I will let you know.

[gigwig]

Dairy and Egg free foods:
Some ideas for snacks/puddings:
Jam tarts.
HobNob biscuits.

You can get Yeast flakes from health food shops which are a good alternative to grated cheese for use on toppings of pasta etc.

Risottos are good as you can use all sorts of veg/meat. I often do croutons instead of cheese as a topping.

[alison222]

Meat and several veg here too.
You can breadcrumb meat by dipping in yoghurt first (soya obviously)
Home made burgers - just use mincemeat and a grated onion and press into a burger shape.

Be careful with bread as it often contains milk. We ended up buying a breadmaker as DS was also allergic to soya at the time and buying bread was nearly impossible - fortunately he has outgrown that though.


Echo what everyone has said about reading the labels though. Milk products are everywhere in the most unexpected places.

"cheaper" bicuits often don't have milk in amd are made with vegetable oil rather than butter.

make pies, jam tarts etc using vegetable margerine.

Lots and lots of fruit and vegetables.
Pasta with tomato based sauces
rice dishes.

[tatt]

you'd have to check for egg but sainsburys jaffa cakes are nut and milk free. They also sell a nice dark chocolate, again don't know if there's egg in it. Those and bourbon biscuits are always in our cupboard along with rice cakes and bread sticks. Watch out for egg in noodles but the rice ones might be OK.

[alison222]

Jaffa cakes have egg
There is a recipe for eggless,milk free etc sponge here
I use ordinary self raising flour though and extra vanilla.
The rest of the site is good for ideas too.

[hayleyhew]

does anyone know any bics or snacks that you can buy that do not contain eggs,milk and nuts and does not say 'may contain traces of nut' or 'produced in factory that uses nuts' ?

[PeachyBobbingParty]

perhapd you could make popcorn?

[hayleyhew]

could try - where do i get it from where it doesnt say anything about nuts? do you know?

[alison222]

just buy pooping corn in the supermarket and pop your own - its really simple and only takes a couple of mins. Or you can buy it too, but you would have to read the labels for each brand.

The allergy advice for sainsburys ginger snaps just says contain wheat and gluten. They would be fine. Its all I have in the house at the mo to check I think rich teas were OK too.

one of the best places to look is in Tescos - they do a huge free from range.
Sainsbury's do some too, and health food shops too.
HTH

[MumRum]

hob nobs have may contain traces of nuts on the packets now....

hayleyhew what supermarket do you shop at....

Tesco's own bourbons are dairy, egg and nut free..
Tesco's own mini breadsticks are ok as well...

[hayleyhew]

Hi
We have only got Asda and Morrisons - cant seem to find any there. Haven't looked through them all yet - always have one of the boys screaming at the time.

[PeachyBobbingParty]

Holland and barratt?

[alison222]

Truefree is one brand that a lot of the supermarkets and holland and barrett etc stock. They do say that they are produced in a factory that uses nut ingredients but don't say contains traces of nuts on the packets.
It depends if your DS has anaphylactic reactions to the slightest of traces of nuts and whether you want to risk it. SO many now put this on a packet as another part of the factory may use nuts. Its really difficult to know what to do for the best.
My DS is allergic to almonds so we have been told to avoid all nuts. As he doesn't have a reaction to the others and thank god isn't anaphylactic as yet to them I would buy if it said there were nuts in the factory but not if it said may contain traces of nuts IYSWIM. I assume there is a difference in the likelihood of contamination.
The only thing we have real problems with is chocolate as this often seemsto be contaminated so we avoid it in and on everything.

[hayleyhew]

we do have holland and barratt so will check this out. I have been looking at some choc called kinnerton - they have their own website - nut free.

[tatt]

galaxy chocolate is nut free as are kit-kats and I think aero and smarties. Galaxy ice cream bars contain peanut and almond traces. Kinnerton are wonderful.

We had some biscuits from Liddl once that I think were egg, dairy, soya and nut free. Can't be totally sure about egg. I bought them when a very allergic child was visiting but I'm not sure if I knew about the egg allergy at the time. They were bourbons and a fruit shortcake.

A lot of Tesco's "free from" stuff is free from one allergen but not all. They quite often have nut or milk warnings

[MumRum]

OHHH the kinnerton chocolate is bloody lovely... I grate it on warm flapjack so it melts... MMMM
I've got some at the moment that I'm going to make chocolate crispies at the weekend...

[hayleyhew]

Have you got any recipes to share Mumrum?

[BumMum]

Hi hayleyhew

I just go through cook books and swap the dairy for soya milk or marg...

my kids favourites are
flapjacks.... with grated chocolate
chocolate crispies, with kinnerton chocolate and cornflakes
fruit scones
home made bread rolls go down well too...

let me know if you want the recipes...