Milk allergy / intolerance & cooking

[AngelDog]

I've been trying a dairy-free diet to see if
14 m.o. DS's eczema improves, and it turns out that I have a dairy intolerance.

My GP said that cooking denatures the proteins in milk so cooked products are less likely to cause a problem, but that cheese might be more likely to trigger a reaction. Is this right? I'd heard about the cooking thing with eggs but not with dairy.

How much cooking would it take to stop milk being a problem? When I've reintroduced dairy to my diet, it's mostly been in 'cooked' things (porridge, pasta bake with cheese etc) but I've still reacted. Is that because they're not cooked for long enough, or does it suggest I'm sensitive to dairy in any form?

Hi Angel

I think it depends on the level of your intolerance. Also the cheese thing makes sense because milk isn't cooked to make cheese. However I have read that the dairy intolerance can be a reaction to the casein or the whey or both. I don't know details as it was a long time ago I googled.

I've given up dairy myself for DS and found that we both react more strongly to fresh milk and yoghurt but less so to cheese. With foods that have cooked milk in, it's a mild reaction. I think dairy is difficult to digest any so if you stop it, in my case, your body finds it harder when it's exposed again.

With his ezcema, have you considered whether it's the time of year? I've found that DS gets flare ups in the winter but in the summer it was almost non existent. I think part of it is the central heating drying him out - in the summer obviously not an issue. Also keeping his legs bare (where it was at it's worst), seemed to help. I had also read about dust mites causing problems so I'm militant about his room and bedding now too!

Anyway it's worth checking out the casein/whey thing!

I'll have a look, thanks, Iggly. He's had the eczema for 8 months now and it's generally just spread from a small patch on one cheek to over lots of his face (and a bit of his leg) so it's hard to know if there's a seasonal element there.

So far experiments suggest that one bite of a milk chocolate bar is enough to make me uncomfortable. :( It's a good job that DS is sleeping better nowadays as Cadbury's Dairy Milk was what kept me going before. I'm sure it'll be good for my waistline...

Silly question but are you sure it's eczema on his face? DS gets really bad rashes like this but I think it's drool related as he drools in his sleep. I try putting aqueous cream then a barrier cream over the top which clears it up (until I forget then it comes back). Just a thought.

Maybe you'll have to try dark choc

The GP says it's eczema and I think it is, as he's had patches on his arm & leg too. But I suspect some of the face problems are drool related. He sleeps on his stomach at least half of the time, so of course the dribble ends up all over his face.

A surprising amount of dark chocolate (e.g. Bournville) has milk in it - but fortunately there are some types without. Phew.

There are loads of dark chocolates withour milk in (not a professional chocolate eater here Oh No!!) Green and blacks used to be until they sold out- were bought out by cadbury's.

Lidl do some nice ones (surprisngly). I don't know how you react? DH reacts to cows milk but is a ble (mostly to tolerate sheep goat and a small amount of buffalo (proper mozerella) milk so we did substitute most of our cheese in cooking for with goats cheese or feta etc.

Unfortunately dd1 still seems to have problems with this so we are going back to a more 'pure' dairy free diet again (was enjoying pizza!)

Ooh, I might try buffalo mozarella and feta - it'd be nice if there was something I can have. I get an upset stomach after eating dairy, but not so dreadful that I feel I can't try out small amounts of things to see if I react.

DS and I were off soya too as I know lots of children who are allergic to dairy are allergic to soya as well. It is surprisingly difficult to find dairy-free, soya-free chocolate. I need to reeducate my tastebuds in the chocolate department: everything but Dairy Milk has always been second best.

Lindt 70% is dairy and soya free but DS seems to spend half the night awake now if I have any caffeine at all (sob.. sob...)

:( That's miserable.

DD is severely intolerant to dairy & soya and i found a bar of chocolate on the freefrom website.

Can't do links sorry

Its made by a company called plamil organics and is made with cocoa solids, sugar & rice powder.

DD likes it but she does not know any better, don't know what it would be like if you are used to cadburys