Help! I have to take dairy, soya, eggs, bread and more out of my diet!!

[Honeymoonmummy]

Hi all,

I have just seen a paediatrician with my DS who is 28 weeks and has reacted to dairy, eggs and a few other things by coming out in a rash, itching and irritable. He has said he needs to get DS skin back to 'normal' before doing skin spot tests and so I have to give up the following (am BF):

Cows milk products
Soya
Goats milk products
Eggs
Wheat
Gluten
(possibly yeast? - he didn't mention)
Nuts

I need lots of advice and quick as to what the hell I CAN eat, other than potatoes, rice, veg and meat!!

Also he told me to use rice milk, not oat milk - didn't rice milk have some arsenic scare?

What can I have for a snack, other than fruit?

Is there any kind of bread I can have?

Dammit, I had rice krispies and rice milk for breakfast! I actually also bought some "free from" cereal.

I used to do crispie cakes for a g-free kid at my nursery a few years back and they were fine then, they must have changed the recipe. Why do they have to mess with stuff and put unnecessary ingredients in?

Hi Honeymoonmummy . I see you've already had lots of great advice from the wonderful ladies on the board. I just want to say I do sympathise. I had to do this previously and it was difficult, no getting away from that, but you soon get used to it and it becomes 2nd nature. I mainly lived on:-

Corn/rice based pasta with home make tomato sauce & chicken/bacon
Basically any meat & potatoes and veg
Home made soup (Kallo stock cubes)
Risotto
Crisps (even some flavours of Sensations ones are allergy free)
Haribo
Plamil Chocolate (also soya free, other dark choc contains soya)
Lots of fruit and dried fruit - honey coated banana chips are lovely
BAked potates with tuna(mix in some ketchup)/chilli

I'd say breakfasts are the most difficult. You could try Goodness Direct for some gluten free cereals/muesli.

Good luck!

Hmm, I have done that diet except the wheat/gluten and it's tough, but doable. For breakfast ideas I found a great book 'your allergy free diet plan for babies and children' by Caroline Hamilton. It has totally allergen-free recipes with ideas such as American pancakes
1 1/4 cups buckwheat flour
1/4 cup potato flour
1tbsp gluten free baking powder
Pinch salt
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 1/2 cups dairy free milk (I was told rice milk was ok for me to have just not to give to ds directly)
Mix all dry ingredients then add milk to make batter. Fry and serve with golden/maple syrup.

She also suggests using quinoa instead of oats to make porridge and millet flakes fried over a moderate heat for a few minutes then added to raisins and honey with 'milk' to serve to make a crunchy cereal.

Where necessary we use Ener-G no-egg egg replacer (I think it is allergen-free). I also swear by my 'Dairy and Egg free cake recipes' book by Katie Crookstan - though I've not tried substituting the flour/baking powder for wheat/gluten free ones. I'll try today and let you know if it's worth your while using those recipes! If not the book I mentioned earlier has some recipes.

I have to admit, it's tough having to plan ahead and not have takeaway etc but you get used to it and I don't think about it now when I cook for ds. The diet plan book I mentioned above has been my saviour and the most used of all my cookbooks! It also tells you what to look out for on food labels, tbh most of the free from ranges are tricky because they tend to be free of some things but not others - we have found eggs/milk a tricky combination they are either free of one or the other! I tend to ignore them and cook from scratch.

But you need a dietician's referral ASAP both for you and ds. All the substitute milks are the equivalent of skimmed milk so if he is on them long-term after you have finished bf then you will need to make sure his fat intake is high enough, and for you - make sure you are getting enough calcium, maybe get your gp to prescribe a supplement?

Ok I am waffling now and ds2 has finished his feed so I'm heading back to bed. Hope that helps, Let me know if there are any other types of recipes you need!

For stock - Marigold Veg Bullion powder is free from lots of things and very delicious too.

Thanks all. Ekka/ anyone else, do you have a recipe for the breadmaker? I want some bread (and to give some to DS!!)

He's reacted to broccoli and carrots too in the last few days I've been living off ready salted crisps and marshmallows, feel like crap!!!

Ekka I've seen the local dietician when I went DF with DD and they were rubbish, am going to rely on friends and lovely MN ladies instead! I just need to get a few recipes under my belt and frozen, quite hard for someone who NEVER cooks from scratch!!

Hmm, right, I've found some bread recipes in the book I recommended, but none specifically for breadmakers. Have you got that book because the recipes look pretty good! Apparently Dove farms do a gluten free white bread mix if that helps you?

I always have some stews and bolognaise in the freezer which can have all the veg in them and then only need the rice/potatoes etc cooked up. You can also freeze cakes/cupcakes when baked which is a godsend both for you when you need a sweet snack and when the dc get older and go to parties and need to take some food to eat! What other sort of things do you like to eat? I can look out some recipes for you if you need me to?

If you are having problems tracking down ingredients I found Goodness Direct a good source and there is also Dietaryneeds-direct
Also, there is a website for kids with food allergies which has information and recipes that might help you out?

I have a fact sheet about calcium - if I can get our scanner working I could scan it in and email it to you! It is interesting and has a useful section on how much calcium we all need and good sources of it...

Thanks Ekka, I haven't received the book yet but I will check out those sites

Ohi feel for you - I am on this diet long term at the moment as 5 mo DD reacts to everything and then doesn't sleep for 2 weeks afterwards..helpfully she won't take a bottle as she would be on neocate by now but we are going to start weaning her this week very slowly before my ability to survive on 4 hours sleep a night runs out.

I have rice cereal for breakfast with rice milk, lunches are harder but the tomato and Rosemary soup from duchy doesn't have any allergens in, otherwise I just have salad with either chicken or salmon etc. Again duchy burgers are ok but DD seems to react to gluten free sausages for some reason.

Evenings are easier, I make stews and stir fry a lot, rice noodles with veggies in vegetable stock with prawns is yummy and super healthy. I also use gluten free pasta which is nice. Sweet potato chips with roast chicken, roast veggies, quinoa, rice based meals like Thai green curry etc.

Puddings I make rice pud with jam, roasted or stewed fruits, strwberries with a bit of sugar.

Eating out tends to be steak and chips / salad.

Good luck!

Thanks Bubandbump, it sounds like you've had a really tough time of it!