Hos to persuade an autistic child to have dairy free milk?

[unlikelychump]

He has terrible gut issues with dairy milk and things improve marginally with lactose free and a lot more with oat. Problem is that cereal is one of his safe foods but he dislikes all the milks we have tried - oat and almond. We can't have hazelnut due to someone else allergy, but I know he will hate it.
I will try soya and am considering choc flavoured soya.
Unless anyone else has a suggestion?

I would use flavoured if they will drink it but one of my autistic DC won't drink any form of milk. I just let her eat the cereal dry. Will he have any form of yogurt? My DC has frube yogurts alongside her breakfast cereal.

Water
dry
soya yoghurt

You can lactose free milk from Aldi. It tastes like normal milk.

Rice milk? You can get it plain as well as in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate flavour, my dc is dairy free and they prefer rice milk. You can get chocolate oat milk as well, Soya milk is rank it’s extremely bitter and tastes like sour cows milk.

Just realised my suggestion of yogurt was daft for someone who can't have dairy. My non-dairy lover also likes the coyo (coconut) yogurts.

We’ve been through them all and found the best subs for cow’s milk to be Oatly Whole (from the fresh cabinet not UHT) and Plenish cashew milk. In terms of both taste and texture.

I was dairy free whilst breastfeeding dairy allergic DD. Cashew milk was the closest tasting I found, it was the only one I could tolerate in tea. I used alpro brand, but I suspect others would be fine. There's an age limit on rice milk as a drink (not for under 5s? ) but if your DC is over that, it would be worth a shot too.

My son likes oatly barista. Any other brand or variant he rejects. You do need to try one for a few days I found as first try if any changes always a no. Now he’s used to Oatly barista he won’t have dairy. One you try chocolate milk that will be it and for me that wouldn’t be an acceptable solution. The chocolate oatly is delicious if they still make it but strictly as a treat. The only other milk he’s accepted is over Covid we got oat milk in glass bottles delivered which was delicious.

This is great thanks. I didnt have rice milk on my radar, will look that up. Also cashew although dh is allergic to that so we will have to be careful.

Im hoping he can keep on with yoghurt if I can solve the milk thing. The trick is to not let him replace cereal wifh yoghurt. My dd had a dairy allergy (not intolerance) for 5 years and all the yoghurt were basically gross. She also hated soya which was why I had forgotten it.

He is 10

I’m lactose intolerant.

they do all taste significantly different from cow’s milk.

pea milk by M!ghty is good. I wouldn't tell them what it is though

We were out today so I have bought some of the soya aimed at 1-3 yos. He has declared it delicious, it tastes vanilla-y to the rest of us. Time will tell..

Have you tried koko.

Its based on coconut but tastes nothing like all coconut milk or any other strange taste.

It's more like a skimmed cow milk without a cow taste.

Someone recommended it to me went i went DF 5 years ago and its the only milk I can tolerate on cereal. (I use oatly in tea / coffee)

I only like the no sugar (orange) one. Give it ago.

I hate almost all plant milk but this one doesnt have a strange taste of anything else at all IMO.

You can get tablets to break down the lactose - I use lacto joy - you can get them in Amazon.

Porridge masks oat milk well, flavoured ones or with honey to make it more appealing.

My (otherwise perfectly normal) adult friend used to eat her cereal with orange juice. Sounds disgusting to me but she liked it! Or maybe just dry cereal?

Alpro My Cuppa tastes just like milk. You honestly cant tell the difference

Nothing tastes anything close. I think the thing with dairy substitutes is to not think of them as a poor replacement for dairy, think of them as something different that can be nice or not. So stop calling them all milk, as they really aren't.

I usually have dry cereal, black coffee but I have soya or almond in hot chocolate. I accidentally bought oat 'cream' recently which was actually very nice on cereal. There are at least a tonne of options now!

Soya in larger quantities can have similar gut affects to dairy for those affected, so keep an eye for that.

Oatly whole, properly cold, on weetabix or readybrek were my transition options. They both mask the difference in taste better and oatly whole has the same texture as the proper stuff.

shake it well. Always shake it well.

We use Almond breeze which the whole family like. I also find the cheaper the milk is, the less strong the taste - e.g. I can't have Alpro Almond as it tastes to almondy for me, but supermarket own brand ones are normally good.

We also like Vita Soy which I get in Asian supermarkets. And they do individual cartons of chocolate and strawberry too, which my children think are dairy.

I noticed some people suggest lactose-free milk, but digestive issues could also be a milk protein intolerance or allergy. There are so many plant based options around now which I think is fantastic.

Koko milk is the most realistic one I’ve came across. It’s coconut based but I can’t taste the coconut like you can in other brands.

Is he any better with goat’s milk? What’s the exact nature of the intolerance?

The soya has been ok although he doesn't like it very much. Something has bothered him today though and he hasn't had milk or yoghurt... he says.... im now looking suspiciously at the Nutella.

It is runny poo basically, but he isnt continent so there is a LOT of pants washing...

Lactose free milk doesn’t look smell or taste any different to normal milk. If they wouldn’t see the carton I’d just use that. If they would I’d be tempted to “recycle” a carton and fill it with lactose free.

Nutella has milk in it.

Worth keeping an eye on if issues overlap with the soya milk. They do for some people who have issues with dairy.

If you haven’t already come across it, worth having a read on the milk ladder. It gives a good insight into which forms of milk are easier to/ harder on the gut.