Kara Dairy Free for baby cereals?

[lookout]

Ds2 is 9mo, dairy allergic and still breastfed. I have been using Kara dairy free (the coconut one) on his cereals as that's what I use for myself. Is this ok? Or should I rather use oat milk? We have a hypoallergenic formula but it smells so rank that I can't bear to put it on his food! He's so fussy as it is, I just know thta would make it worse! Grateful for any advice. Thanks.

Same boat here. I use oat milk for me and expressed milk for DS. I express enough for weetabix in the morning and custard for dinner. I confess it only works because DH gets up with the kids and does their breakfast thus giving me an hour to express. If he finds a job either i'll have to get up much earlier or use formula I guess if I can get one. Is dairy & sit-free formula available over the counter or is it prescription only?

I think it is available over the counter but quite expensive. it is honestly disgusting though. I don't have the time to express and in any case, my ebm doesn't store well (turns soapy within 6 horus ) so would be very difficult to do. I was worried about the sat fat in Kara. What do you think?

I am in a similar situation. Expressed until DD was 9 months and I could take it no more... I use oatley on her weetabix now and Kara or Oatley for cooking - Kara for sweet things and Oatley or sometimes soya for savoury. I feel happier knowing that I'm not relying too much on any of them and that seems to work. I still BF her... Someone else might have a more scientific answer... dieticians seem to be recommending Oatley these days (when my DS was small they pushed soya for us) from what I have seen on these threads. The one I know they don't recommend for babies is rice milk...

I would say it's fine . From 6 months they can have cows milk in cooking and mixed in cereals so one would assume the milk alternatives would be used the same( except rice milk do not use under four) I have been using oatly but Kara would be fine too. It's designed to be in line with cows milk with the added vitamins and iron. I totally agree the formulars are revolting in cooking!!!!! Kara makes pretty good custard and porridge as does oatly :)

Just to add that when my dd was just over a year we finally saw a dietician and she said that she could either have Kara or the alpro junior plus (suitable from a yr) as a replacement drink from formula :)

In terms of fat content - my sense if they are all much lower than cow's milk, as they are marketed as 'healthy' options... which I always find a pain as one of the things that are hard to replace in a dairy free diet is fat which growing children do need, especially if like my DS they eat like a tiny bird

Maz I think your feeling re: relying on one more than another rings bells with me too. I much prefer Kara for myself (Oatly sucks in hot drinks) so I just use that for him, but perhaps chopping and changing would make me feel better about it too. He can't have much soya without a reaction so I prefer to steer clear of that if I can. I can't work out where to add fat either! I ply him with margarined toast about 3 times a day, poor lad, but otherwise am at a bit of a loss Somebody mentioned nut butters on rice cakes but have yet to try.

Wheresmycaffeinedrip (love the name, that's how I feel ALL THE TIME ) We're not that far off a year so will keep going with the Kara I think. I found my custard came out too thin with the Kara, but will try again if it worked for you i did do it in the microwave as very lazy so maybe that's why it didn't work!!

Thanks for replies. Feel reassured that I'm not doing any harm

:0 opposite problem with oatly custard u kinda have to undercook it or it goes really really thick. Found with Kara too that y can't let it sit or it will thicken lol but hey if the kids like it who cares. If they haven't ever known any different they won't mind and both dd's happily eat the dairy free versions :)

That's exactly it. He's never had yogurt or 'real' custard so seems perfectly happy to have dairy free with fruit and baby rice mixed in (had to do this to thicken, but it worked, so I'm sticking with it!)

Alpro soya yogurts and Swedish glace vanilla soya ice cream are both very good too :) ( yogurts suitable from 6months). And tesco do a freefrom cheese sauce powder thing which is quite pleasant and easy to make :)

Thanks for the tips. We give him Alpro 'natural' yogurt from time to time which he loves, but sadly anything past 3 times in a row and he reacts I'll try the cheese powder thing though, sounds interesting.

And... Buy oatly fortified rather than organic oatly which bizarrely doesn't have calcium added. Oatly cream is also excellent and nice enough to have poured on puddings, fruit salad, to make a pasta sauce creamy.
Semolina pudding works well with oatly as does simmered rice pudding.

Ooh, rice pudding, that's a good idea too. Thanks for the tips!

The reason oatly organic isn't fortified is because it is impossible to have organic calcium, etc...

Really reassuring to think this through with others - thanks all :)

Lookout, in terms of fat - the dietician we saw with my son recommended layering marg on bread with a trowel :) M&S now do a dairy free marg which tastes really 'buttery' so I feel better doing that than with pure which is a bit grim... She also recommended cake and biscuits at every opportunity and to swap them for fruit etc as a 'healthy' snack in my mind for DS... but he was very underweight! She also recommended eggs fairly often. DD2 is allergic to eggs so I'm struggling without my default quick meal of scrambled eggs :-/

Ds is definitely not struggling with weight , which is why I was prob a bit worried about the fat content. But I guess he'd be getting a good dose of fate from milk anyway, so there's prob not that much of a difference. We've been advised to stay off eggs til 12 months, so using egg replacer to bake endless banana loaves to feed him!

Is he ok with oats? Was told by dietician for our DS that ready brek- again made with the trusty hot oat milk!- is a good choice as it is fortified with vitamins and minerals. Porridge, also successful with oatly, is not as strong a choice as its not fortified...

We are on holidau atm and using oat milk as Kara wasn't available. He seems to be fine with it. Must try ready brek too, thanks for reminding me!

Holland and Barrett do a pea protein yoghurt that Ds likes (he reacts to any soya), it's about 70p tho, so he doesn't have it often! Got it when they had the buy one get one half price on.

Waitrose do an olive spread that's absolutely delicious!

Have you tried hummus to add fat?

Yep, he loves hummus, so muchs o that he sucks it off whatever vehicle I choose to put it on and then leaves the vehicle . I worry about the salt in that though? Will check out the yogurt, sounds interesting!

I worry about the salt in it too, the reduced fat versions have less salt but obviously they're reduced fat!

Thankfully I don't need to worry about weight... monster!

Oh and yeh, he does that too, then he throws it away!

Ds is pretty chunky too, which is why I worry about him putting on too much with the sat fat etc, I don't get him weighed that often though, so don't really knw if he's in the normal rnge or not. Must do that before I start worrying too much!