Have to keep DS 18 months dairy free for next two weeks. Any advice would be great.

[Stokey38]

Hello, went to see specialist yesterday about our DS who has been off his food, weight loss and vomiting and he thinks it sounds like a dairy intolerance (we'd been giving him soya milk for last week or so and there had been a real improvement). He is really happy with the milk, yoghurt and spread but he really doesn't like the cheese alternative and have to say I don't blame him as it tastes horrible! Does anyone know of anything else I can give as a cheese subsitute or one I can cook with. Also any tips on dairy free recipes or anything your DCs have liked which is dairy free would be great. Thank you. (I have also posted this in Chat)

It's daunting when first told not to have dairy but if he's taking soya milk & the spread that's half the battle. I have never bothered with dairy free cheese for my ds as don't like the idea of it myself. He takes oat milk so breakfast is cereal, lunch is a sandwich with ham, chicken or banana. Beans on toast, tinned spaghetti or soup. Dinner I tend to make us all the same thing & when you think about your family meals many are dairy free or can be made that way eg spag Bol, shepherds pie, curries. The biggest problem I always have is planing ahead. You always need to know what you are making for dinner although fish fingers are a good freezer standby! You will get used to reading labels & it does get easier!

Well it's only 2 weeks so I don't think it should be a problem not having cheese for that time. My dc was dairy free for quite a few months. We just skipped the cheese. We used to go to the FreeFrom section in Sainsburys for dairy free chocs as a treat etc.

I don't think you need to be making new recipes for him. It's only 2 weeks.

Thanks Clara, to be honest we are just really relieved that something is working - poor thing has been so ill for ages now and off his food and being sick all the time and he has just been on soya milk for over a week and hasn't been sick once and is eating loads and just so much happier so if cutting out dairy is the way to go then happy to do it. We grated some of the horrible 'cheese' on his pasta yesterday and he seemed to quite like it. Back to see the specialist in a couple of weeks and so he will let us know if it's all dairy or if can introduce some king of dairy back in. Today is the first time in ages I haven't had to come to work with some sort of vomit on me and it feels good!

It's not the end of the world if he had to avoid dairy for longer. Just check about soya milk though because we were advised not to give as main drink & can't remember if it was just under 1 or older than that. It has been mentioned on here before so have a search.

You can get a dairy free cheese sauce mix called Free & Easy from the freefrom section of the supermarket - I make it with oat milk and give it to my son on with pasta and veg. It tastes OK (the solid vegan cheese made me gag although he will eat it).