Anyone eating a DAIRY FREE Diet

[pixiefish]

dd 9 months has horrible eczema all over her face. Have gone down the conventional route with steroid creams etc and also trying essential oils at the minute. A friend has recommended I try going dairy free for a month to see if it makes any difference- this is for her and me as I'm still bfging. Have bought rice milk, dairy free marj, dairy free mayo, soya yoghurt and a few other odds and sods to start me off and am conscious of looking at labels to make sure I don't have any milk or milk products (whey, lactose etc). I know I can eat veg, fruit and meat and am going to eat seeds.
Hovis bread is ok to eat as are fruit shortcake biscuits .
Anyone else eating a dairy free diet that can give me any hints and tips

are I say you could try gluten free, this has worked for a mate of mine.....another tip that's not dairy related, is a woman over birmingham way (it was on Central News so you could try their website) who has brought out her own cream, based on her experiences with her dd's eczema, which is being hailed as a miricle cure by most who are using it, sorry I can't remember the name of it, or her co, but it was on the news as she's being persued by the BIG Co's who sense MONEY.....hope this may help?

Don't have any real tips, but my brother has very bad asthma and has found that a dairy free diet has dramatically improved his symptoms, so much so that he won't even eat pizza with cheese on top!!!good luck with it all, and let us know how you get on!!!

the rice milk tastes ok in coffee

My ds is dairy free due to a cow's milk intolerance. As well as the items you've mentioned I give him the Alpro/Provamel custards and he just loves them, taste like real custards. Many breads are OK. Pitta bread. Bourbon biscuits are dairy free and rich tea fingers. Lots of the baby organix range of snacks etc.

If you enquire at the customer service desk of your supermarket or contact the head office they will provide you with a list of their own brand goods and allergy information. I haven't done this myself and it was the dietician's suggestion. I have all the tel nos if you want. HTH and I'll add things as I think of them. I went dairy free too and got so used to rice milk that I can now no longer use cow's milk in coffee and cereal. It tastes really fatty and makes me want to gag!

Thanks portree- if you've got the telephone numbers handy I wouldn't mind them- my email is thepixiefish at yahoo dot com.

Dairy is in so many everyday products and even though I try my best to give her homemade food sometimes I need to give her jars- had built up a little stock in my cupboard which are all going to waste if she does prove to be dairy intollerant- The heinz organic have some without dairy, not checked them all out yet as this has only been decided today.

By the way my lovely supportive h said 'make sure you get 'proper' milk in for me- lovely or what

Liddl have dark chocolate digestive biscuits if you can't do without a chocolate fix Their own brand mince pies are also dairy free and nut free. Co-op and sainsbury jaffa cakes are dairy free. All for you rather than the baby, of course. It is possible to get lactose reduced milk - we have not yet tried it as any lactose may be too much. Have tried oat and rice milk and they are definitely an acquired taste (that my family shows no sign of acquiring).

chocolate is one thing I can do without- never been a massive fan of it.

rice milk ok in coffee so far- off to tesco this morning as apparently the soya milk tastes better.

Her face is all bloated this morning and I'm feeling like crap because of it. I've been given a blend of essential oils to try and was told it would get worse before it got better but I've been up a lot in the night with her and we're both tired. her little eyes are swollen and I don't know what to do- give up on this cream and go back to the steroid cream or give this cream a fair trial- today will be day 5. There's nothing in the cream that can harm her but I'm worried that by not putting the steroids on I'm harming her in some way

asda jam tarts and lemon curd are fine too as is.....hellmans mayo-you don't have to put up with the yucky dairy free mayo(out the mouth of my dairy free 4 year old)
watch out for lactose in crisps
my dd was a different child when it was proved that milk and lactose were affecting her....
good luck

you've made my day telling me that hellmans mayo is ok- have bought some of the other stuff though. I love hellmans mayo. Have been to Tesco's today and am shocked nay surprised at the foods that have milk in them

it is pretty hard to avoid milk isn't it! We've had to give up just about any ready meals although sweet and sour things are usually OK. Found some Knorr sauces that are OK - ale and mushroom and another one. Others had milk in though.

I work 2 days a week and as a treat I have ready made salad (also can't be bothered with the prep etc)
Got to Tesco's today to buy it- the majority have milk in them and the 2 that didn't had today's date on them. Asked at the till and the woman there said that was all they had- obviously they wouldn't last till Tuesday would they.
Got to the car and that combined with the bloating in dd's face made me burst into tears.

People haven't stopped staring at her today

well the eczema is better BUT I don't know whether that's the cream or the diet- will persevers with the diet though- it's not too bad.

persevere i mean not perserves

Hi, my DD is allergic to milk and egg and suffers from eczema too. With her eczema I started seeing a homeopath when she was 10 months. Tried various remedies with varying degrees of success. But I was told from the outset that I may have to see her for a number of months. The trick is your homeopath finding the right remedy. We know they work, cos she very quickly found a teething remedy which works extremely well. DD cried and cried with the pain. I give her a remedy and she will settle and if it is the middle of night will go back to sleep immediately. I would recommend you try a homeopath. DD's eczema is much better than it was, but still there a little on her wrists, which gets aggrevated by touching anything that has had milk in it.
Found a great supplier of soft cotton clothes and sleep wear made especially for babies and children with eczema. T-shirts have mittens and all have flat seams so they can't scratch against them and damage the skin further. Go to eczema clothing
As for the food, well I've been surprised what is bulked out with whey powder and milk derived products - Swiss Bouillon stock contained lactose! So annoyed I rung them. I think the Knorr Vegatarian one is OK and so is Oxo. DD loves Alpro Soya Yofu junior yoghurts - no bits in them. She drinks sweetened soya milk, cos it tasted closer to the breastmilk she had for ages. When your DD is older, Birds Eye fishfingers are dairy free. Good luck.

It takes about 6 weeks to get the dairy completely out of your system, I think it's more like 4 but they give you a buffer to have a few "mistakes" in the first couple of weeks.

Just stopping steroid creams can give an initial improvement, followed by a relapse. They should be tapered down to avoid this. I know you hate using them but if it comes back with avengence you will have little choice, so tapering is the way to go.

I would also give probotics to yourself and dd, along with falx seed oil. Also have any of your jars got egg or tomato in, these are best avoided in atopic babies of this age. Citrus, kiwi, pineapple and fish can also cheerfully be missed.

I wouldn't give her wheat at all until a year, but you don't have to avoid it yourself.

I found it fairly difficult to avoid dairy but it did help ds ezcema loads. i discovered a taste for soya ice cream in the process. sounds horrible but it's really nice. most of the supermarkets do it - it's called Swedish Glace. It contains no dairy products and is therefore free from animal fat, milk protein, gluten, lactose and cholesterol. I'm still eating it now even though I stopped bf.

kinderbob- have found that she has a flare up when she eats anything with tomato in it- even homemade pasta sauce made with natural toms from the garden. Have been avoiding these for a while. Interesting about the egg- do youthink I should avoid egg as well?

Greengage- have ordered a catalogue- many thanks- cheers also for the tips on the food. Am slowly expanding what i can eat- walkers ready salted crisps are ok, cheese and onion are not. Funny how there's a variation in different brands as well

I'm eating more linseeds and seed oils as heard that omega 3/6/9 could help my breast fed
4 month old with his eczema - BUT it seems to have got worse so perhaps he is allergic to seeds?!

Don't want to take fish oils as worried about build up of pollutants (eg PCBs) in breastmilk.

Is there any other way of getting omega 3/6/9?

Also does anyone know of a natural moisturiser for eczema that does not contain nut oils? I've heard that babies can become sensitised to nuts by using them especially if the skin is broken.

I am also trying dairy free - provamel fruit yoghurts and chocolate puddings are yummmmy.

the omegas are in flax oil- not sure which ones though. The dairy free isn't as bad as i thought it would be. the provamel fruits of the forest is ok isn't it ecomum?

Yes it is pixiefish but chocolate pud is my favourite. Have also discovered that Sainsbury's do a soya milk chocolate bar . Recently tried tofu cream cheese which was amazingly just like the real thing.

Dairy free has cleared up my allergic rhinitis but am still not sure what effect it is having on breastfed baby, especially as his eczema is now infected - looks like impetigo!!

Checked out the national eczema society website. They reckon there's no evidence to show that changing the mother's diet helps breastfed babies. However I am sticking with dairy free a little longer just in case.

May also take the linseeds again (think flax seeds and linseeds are the same thing).

For info the NES reckon its a myth that babies can become sensitised to nut oil, and that its OK to use. Unless baby has a nut allergy (difficult to tell when you're just breastfeeding!). They also say that aromatherapy (assume this means essential) oils are not OK as can cause irritation.

Pixiefish did you try your essentail oil treatment? Did it help?

My ds is allergic to cow's milk BUT is quite happy with goat milk. So I have switched to goat milk butter, yogurts and milk. That has improved a lot his behavior (No more bouts of crying and refusing to take any milk at all) but hasn't cleared his eczema completely.
I found out that he is allergic to eggs too but I suspect that there is something else too. His eczema is always clearing up when he is ill and not eating normally !! I am trying to have him tested via the NHS for allergy but otherwise I think I will just go private.
In the mean time, I am cooking a lot for him, always have his meal with us and some ruch tea biscuits as they are one of the rare ones without milk in it !
Good luck

Pixiefish, you asked below about a moisturiser with no nut oils. I don't know if you've tried the Green Baby baby lotion but I'm fairly sure it doesn't have nut oils in it. I've been using it on both sons instead of Oilatum/Aqueous cream or whatever other stuff the doctors have prescribed over the years.

Have found a soya yoghurt with live bio cultures including acidophilus and bifidus which are supposed to be beneficial for allergies. Its by SOJASUN. Tastes ok - I'm eating it as I type.
Also read that 'lactobacillus' is important, but not sure where to find this, especially in dairy free food. Ideas anyone?

Hi SamN it was me who asked about nut oils. I checked the catalogue and the greenbaby lotion has sweet almond oil in Does anyone know if shea butter comes from a nut? Sounds like it does but not sure.