'Cleanest' Dairy Free products and Snack Ideas for baby.

[Pippymcphee]

Hi all!

I'm hoping some of you on here have much better knowledge than me in this area and can help.
My baby has CMPA and is also allergic to soya. She is 8 months old now and weaning is going well, but I have two gripes!

1. I'm really not sure about a lot of the dairy free alternatives as they seem heavily processed and full of so many ingredients, and I'd really like to keep things as clean as possible.

I know this isn't always very realistic, but where possible I'd like to try.

I currently buy the plain coconut yoghurt from M&S which is the cleanest I've found, and we use Plenish oat milk for cooking with. Any other brands or products would be HUGELY appreciated.

1. I am struggling to find any convenient snack options for her that are good for the age she is right now. She doesn't actually have snacks during the day, but sometimes I need something for her to nibble whilst food is cooling down etc, and I anticipate as she gets older, snacks will be needed more.

Currently her snack options are fruit, vegetable puffs, and hummus/veggies. I don't always have the time for batch cooking oat bars etc, and would love to have some cupboard back up options!

TIA

Two things really.

1. babies don’t need snacks until they’re 1. No need for snacks.
2. what are you doing about reintroducing dairy? My 9m old has CMPA and we’re on the milk ladder as directed by our GP. Reintroduction is the best way to phase out the allergy (already phased out egg), so unless you’ve been told not to, I would concentrate on using dairy free alternatives only until you’ve phased dairy back in.

On the snack front: chopped veg is more than adequate, I’d think? If you really want to be ‘clean’ (perhaps a word best avoided to ensure child’s healthy relationship with food) then avoid anything processed I suppose. In that situation I give something like breadsticks or just veg.

You can't beat fruit and veg as a snack. Nothing is cleaner than that. Nothing other than that is needed, for babies or toddlers (or adults tbh...she says as she munches on some Doritos..) All the cupboard snacks are processed and unnecessary. Get rid of the puffs!

If you want to add other stuff:

Houmous
Peanut butter/other nut butters
Boiled egg
Oat cakes
Rice cakes
Bread sticks.

I did mention that she doesn't have snacks, just occasionally she'll have some fruit, or some hummus to dip her veggies in whilst I'm waiting for her food to cool and she is hungry.

I'm very well clued up on the milk ladder and her allergies, and we are under paediatricians and the dietician. My baby has an IgE allergy which is quite severe, so she won't be starting the milk ladder again until she's much much older.

I have nearly 2 year old twins who’ve had to date quite severe CMPA and show no signs of being able to complete the milk ladder (or even start it tbh - crumbs of a malted milk set them off!) so you have my sympathies.

I have no idea about Soya so do double check, but with having twins I do need convenience food sometimes and a snack on the go or easily bought.

Quite a lot of the organix range in the baby aisle is DF, we especially like all of the organic baby flapjacks and they come in so many flavours like raspberry/carrot/banana. They also do some little gingerbread men and malted milk type farm biscuits when you need that sort of thing.

Ella’s kitchen do a good oat and fig porridge pouch and a good DF banana yogurt pouch for out and about as a “pudding” when you can’t carry cold yogurt around.

Pom bears (yes not exactly clean) but very good for a treat when they get older. Any of the Organix baby rice cakes in all the flavours Apple/banana/raspberry.

In the adult cereal bar aisle Deliciously Ella’s flapjacks do very well ingredients wise but they’re a bit more chewy I’d say for older toddlers.

Asda do some good corn cakes in the baby aisle that I think are mango.

Just trying to think of anything else. There’s a few good dairy free mum accounts to follow on TikTok if you’re on there just search DF mum and I’m sure they’ll pop up 🙂

Ritz crackers too!

I would move away from plemish milks. Yes they are clean ingredients, but a baby of that age needs milk even in cooking to be fortified. Do you have a dietician?

You need a fortified oat milk for cooking with, one that has iodine in it. Our dietician recommended the asda own brand in a grey carton, or oatly barista, but ideally the growing up milk from Alpro.

Yes we do - As I mentioned in my post, we use oat milk for cooking, as advised by the dietician.

She still has 4-5 formula feeds a day of Neocate Amino Acid formula

Our dietician is fine with us using the Plenish milk. As she still has all of her formula feeds per day too.

She also cannot have Alpro as she has a Soya allergy.

Thank you!!
Someone who read my full post and got it without judgement.
This is exactly the response I needed.
I'll take a good look at all of those brands x

We use it for cooking maybe once a fortnight - most of her meals don't contain any milk which our dietician is more than happy with and she still has all of her formula feeds a day.
She's thriving 🙂

Mine used to have mini rice crackers, baby breadsticks, chunks of cucumber, pear, banana, apple, carrot, organic corn puffs. All of these are really easy to keep in pots if you are out and about all day and running late for her lunch or dinner.

Wasn’t meant to attack, just giving advice as an allergy mum who has been told numerous times that all milk, even when cooking, should be fortified. We must have had different advice.

Alpro do a growing up milk oat by the way, it has a monkey on not a giraffe.

snacks wise :
coconut collab yoghurt with berries.
yoghurt pouches, Ella’s kitchen do a coconut banana one.
Tbh I stick to pouches, even the fruit ones (I try and get the ones with sweet potato etc in rather than pure fruit). I find the pouches have less junk than the finger foods.
i take cucumber sticks with me everywhere too

Sorry I should have made it clearer - the brand is Alpro (annoyingly!) but it doesn’t contain soya, the actual milk is the growing up oat milk for once she’s off of her formula it has a monkey on the front 😊

Oh also Lidl do 2 really good DF porridge pouches one banana and one raspberry.

sorry, not meaning to be judgmental either, but you didn’t specify ige or non and again I speak as a dairy allergy mum who has been told in no uncertain terms not to cut it out. The advice on CMPA is certainly nebulous.

again I’d echo what other people have said - large pieces of veg you’re preparing, fruit and yoghurt (coconut as you said). Mine used to love to gnaw on a crust of bread or pieces or cucumber, it’s good for teething also.