cutting out dairy....

[Spod]

Hi, my dd has been having terrible trouble with night-time wind. after trying everything else i have cut out dairy for a few days and... no nighttime wind... i dont want to cut out dairy permanently, but in the meantime should i be ensuring her diet contains specific things? ie to replace calcium etc?... she if nearly 9 months and is bf...any ideas?

hi spod

Thought I should post another message here. I started a thread called 'Is soya bad for boys?' in the health section, and someone put in a link to info on soya that you might want to read before using this as a dairy substitute. I didn't know these concerns when I posted my previous message, so apologies! Just thought I'd let you know...

My ds is currently on a dairy-free trial, to try and get rid of his ecxema. The herbalist suggested that you can replace milk with rice, soya or oat milk, some of which are 'calcium enriched', and you can get soya margarine and yoghurt, which are surprisingly nice (DS loves the yoghurt). The only thing that seems hard to replace is cheese. I think if you're careful, you can ensure that your child gets enough calcium and protein from other sources. Lucy Burney has a book called 'Optimum nutrition for babies and young children'. If you're BFing, you might want to think about doing the dairy-free thing, too, as dairy finds its way into your milk apparently...

Good luck

spod, i think as long as you are bf and eating enough calcium rich foods your baby should be ok.
We usually try to stick to a dairy free diet until age 1. we're going to try some soya yoghurt this week. the one exception is we use nanny formula, many baby who cannot tolerate cows milk are fine with goats milk. if your baby is ok with the goats milk you can try goats yogurt and cheese. green leafy vegetables are high in calcium.

You can get non dairy cheese called Cheezley from the Redwood Food Co who do loads of vegie stuff. It used to be available from my local tescos, but now I have to go to Holland and Barrett. It tastes fairly authentic, but the texture is a bit crumbly, and it doesn't go stringy on pizza. Very nice though.

sorry, now i am confused, should i cut out dairy too? or eat more?

this is probably a dumb question too... what about eggs?

it will probably be better to try and cut down your dairy but eat more calcium rich foods such as green leafy veg and sesame seeds. there is a thread somewhere with a big list of non-dairy sources of calcium. or you could take a calcium tablet.
some people find it makes a diference, other people find they can eat dairy and it doesnt affect baby...you could try 1 week each way?

not sure about eggs as i've never eaten them!!

also wheat makes a lot of adults very windy and bloated...might have same effect on kids...we usually avoid wheat until age1.

Also try manchego cheese, this is made from sheeps milk. My DS is now nearly one and has been on a dairy free diet since 19 weeks due to an inherited dairy intolerance. GP reckons he will grow out of it with age, and he may be right as when he was younger he could oly ea one yoghurt a day, anymore made him windy, bloated and very horrible nappies. Now he can eat most stuff with milk products but not straight milk (ie in cereal) as long as the milk has had something done to it (ie cheese sauce, yoghurts etc) it seems fine.However if he has too much dairy it does make his eczema worse. It is hard but get your GP to test for lactose intolerance as this is what my DS has. Basically the stomach has difficulty breaking down the lactose (protein) found in milk. Provamel do soya yoghurts, milkshakes, cream and calcium enriched milk.

thanks for the info..... so eggs arent dairy are they? (feeling a bit dumb!)

DS never has had a prob with eggs yet, however boiled eggs do make me windy and I am the one he gets the intolerance from, but poached or scrambled is fine, may be its just me

eggs are not dairy.
dairy is from cow/goat/sheep...any animal that produces milk

thanks gloworm... in my head i knew that... haveing a dumb few days! .... cutting the dairy is working tho'!!