Would you be interested in a dairy/soya/lactose free baby food brand?

[DarcieS]

I have a 1 year old little girl with dairy, lactose, soya, and sugar free dietary requirements as she lost 80% of her small bowel just after birth as a result of a rare bowel complication.

I’m wondering if you think there’s demand for a new start up baby food range that’s exclusively dairy, lactose, and soya free?

I found the standard ranges on the high street are limited in terms of DF LF SF options. So many convenient baby meals have added milk or butter in with no obvious need (chicken veg and noodles have added milk powder - why?!). Fine for some babies, but rules it out for mine.

It’s hard to find decent diary free options that aren’t full of water (and therefore have less vitamins) which bulk it out.

If this DF LF SF range was available online and in most supermarkets, age 4 months - 12 months +, clearly labelled with high quality and high nutrition food- would you buy it?

If so, I’m seriously considering investing in a start up business.

Thanks for reading 😊

I think you might be better making it DF rather than LF. Very few babies and children are LF.

Thanks for feeding back - you are right, it will be marketed as dairy and soya free.

No - and I think you would struggle to get licensing from the government. Children’s food is very closely regulated and monitored. I think it could be dangerous parents buying this food when it wasn’t medically necessary.

Why would it be dangerous? It’s just dairy free.. a ham sandwich is a dairy free meal. Chicken roast veg and potatoes is dairy free? Is that dangerous?

Dairy and soya yes!

Yes!

Dangerous because children need dairy in their diets - unlesss medically told otherwise. some parents might wrongly misdiagnose a dairy allergy and put their child on a no dairy diet causing great harm.
I really don’t think you’d get the licensing for it.

Dangerous because children need dairy in their diets

Have you got any links for that Red?

Parents can put their child on a dairy free diet without a medical diagnosis now!
I would be interested in child friendly dairy free food, especially deserts and ice cream. I always find that's the hardest to cater for. Yogurts with child friendly and toddler packaging would be great

Red my products are purely optional. They do not promote a dairy free diet, they simple support those who have to have one. I’m not a vegan, despite vegan products being all the rage right now.

As a parent, I make educated decisions based on facts not purely on branded marketing materials.

I have quite a big repertoire of desserts I make for my daughter (14 months old) that could be market friendly. Thanks for the feedback, I’ll definitely add desserts to my list.

Yes df and sf given the increase in allergies in babies I think u would do very well.

Yes please! Ours is DF & LF because of a severe allergy and Soya is often only other option but he has a mild reaction to that too. Apparently reflux & colic are both often signs of Dairy or Lactose reactions so it's more common than ppl realise.

I hate having to read all ingredients in everything we buy, I'd be thrilled to know there was an entire range I didn't need to worry about. I'm sure one of the big supermarkets would pick up the range too.

You could even do a re-introduction to dairy range but the ladder to dairy range works I suppose (tho we're still stuck at step 1).

www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2003/3207/contents/made

You’d had to read this quite carefully to make sure you could sell what you wanted to

I would be all over this. My son is now 2 1/2. Was EBF until 18 months. Severe CMPA. Failed milk ladder miserably several times. He is so scared to eat things for fear of what could happen. It's truly miserable. So hard to buy things and end up buying the same thing over and over again.

Thank you for the link Red, I do appreciate it as I want to do this properly. I genuinely believe it can alleviate some of the stress experienced in a family with a CMPA child like mine.

Don’t get me wrong op - I think there’s a place for such products - I just worry about people using them inappropriately.
The protein contents you’d need to meet are in the schedules.
There might be other relevant legislation around marketing etc. you’d need to research it well definitely

Would it not be better to launch a branding exercise instead? A cows milk allergy friendly sticker or similar? You could act as a kite mark like the vegetarian society do - labeling existing products which meet your needs rather than selling new ones. Just a thought!

You would need a massive investment.

The legislation is strict, you would need to set up professional production facilities, and dealing with supermarkets is not easy.
You will be up against some multi national companies.

THis is not a cottage industry.

Ignore the haters.

My DD is extremely allergic to milk. In any shape or form. Soya, too ( similar protein group)

I'd LOVE to see DF meals ...and don't forget these children turn into adults....

YES. My DD has CMPA and it was a bloody nightmare until I learnt all the tricks (like bourbons being df)

Who are the haters?

It is not a simple to develop, produce, market, brand . sell to supermarkets.

The investment needed to take an idea to supermarket shelves would be extremely expensive.
If the OP has a few hundred thousand to invest ( and in reality probably more) the it may be worth trying.

Speakout I’m aware a very large investment is required to make this work. However - I do firmly believe real families (forget the term “market” let’s remember this is about humans) need this.

Ella’s Kitchen has a turnover exceeding £100million - starting with 25k of savings and a lot of hard work. Can you imagine if Ella’s Dad decided to stick to his day job because one day in a few years his kids wouldn’t need the mushy jars of low nutrient baby food anyway?

I’m not saying I have all the answers. But I have the ambition, the entrepreneurial spirit, and the determination to try.

My daughter’s life was saved 3 times last year over the space of a few months after she was born - she was fed intravenously via her heart and she had 8 operations. Statistically she isn’t supposed to be here. But every damn time they whisked my newborn off to the operating theatre I whispered to her that if she stayed strong enough to come back to me it’s because something good will come of having her on this Earth.

And to add to the mix - she’s set the record with her gastrointestinal team at the children’s hospital we’re under for the combination of least amount of bowel left and quickest amount of time ever to come off intravenous feeds and be able to thrive and survive on purely oral feeds. I made sure every single mouthful she took was with good purpose.

So I don’t think the word ambition quite does justice to how I feel about this.

Thank you everyone for your input, every comment is useful to me.