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Allergies and intolerances

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How to 'feed up' egg/milk/peanut allergic baby

9 replies

cuppachar · 02/09/2008 16:15

DD (11 months) is putting on weight rather slowly and I feel it may be because her diet is too low in fat and protein, as she can't eat cheese, milk or eggs. Does anyone have any good suggestions of how to make her diet more nutritious? She is still breastfed (3 times a day) and has porridge for breakfast made with soya milk plus two other meals and occasional snacks in between (usually rice cakes). We have a dietician appt in December but I don't really want to wait that long! thanks...

OP posts:
madmarriedNika · 02/09/2008 16:25

Coconut oil- it is very high in fat and is like butter- can be spread on toast, added to food etc. You can buy large tubs of it in large health food shops e.g. Holland & Barratt. My DD has cystic fibrosis so we're in a constant quest for more calories.

Also I recommend feeding her lots of avocadoes! My DD likes it mashed with kiwis, or bananas.

We also add olive oil to lots of things.

Does her peanut allergy extend to other nuts? If not we use cashew nut butter, almond butter, ground almonds etc. to boost calories.
Try making dairy-free pastry using soya based marg and if allowed goats cheese to make "cheese straws"- these are always great finger foods and lots more calories than rice cakes. If you can home bake some dairy free biscuits etc. use these instead of rice cakes, which are quite filling but have virtually no calories (or else start spreading dairy free marg onto them!)

Can she have goats yogurt? Both my DCs love this and again it's high calorie? St Helens goats cheese (available in Sainsburys) is quite hard and can be cut into fingers...

Good luck x

trixymalixy · 02/09/2008 17:41

You can cook with pure spread and olive oil to add fat.

i also feed my DS fattier meat and fish like salmon and lamb. Also get tuna in sunflower oil.

Avocadoes are good (although my DS won't eat them!)

BalloonSlayer · 03/09/2008 07:56

My DS2 is much the same age and though not as far as I know allergic has to be treated as such until futher notice as his brother was allergic to egg, milk and nuts. We have similar problems, he is a skinny little chap.

With my eldest's nut allergy, I was never going to risk giving him any nuts in case he became allergic to those too, so personally I would not try other nut butters (DS1 is allergic to peanuts, cashews and almonds I think.)

What about biscuits instead of rice cakes as snacks? Lots of biscuits are fine for egg/milk/nut allergy sufferers, unless you are having to avoid everything that may contain traces of nuts (we were told not to worry about products with this on unless DS1 actually reacted to them). And as we all know they have quite a few calories!

All bourbons and ginger nuts seem to be ok, many Rich Tea biscuits seem to be ok but not all (McVities's are NOT ok).

THere are some soya chocolate puddings in the special section which are nice, though DS1 would never eat them.

I used to buy the dairy free chocolate and make crispy cakes with them, although I shudder at giving something messy like that to DS2.

You can make a decent cake without eggs would you believe. I do have a recipe but there was one on here further down the page which looks good too.

Pure spread can be mashed into mashed potatoes, make into garlic or herb bread.

As for protein, we always think of meat but there is protein in bread too.

Will post again if I can think of anything else but the egg/milk free diet does tend to be rather low calorie and your DD will probably just be skinny.

BTW make a food diary before your dietitian's appointment. Our paediatric dietitian was able to put DS1's diet into their computer and work out whether or not he was getting enough of everything in his diet - I was so worried. Even if they don't offer to do that for your DD, there's a good chance that they will ask you to do one.

williamsmummy · 03/09/2008 09:32

my son has reacted to nut traces in biscuits, and i dont recommened eating products with may contain labels.
cakes , biscuits, cereals and confectionary are high risk with regard nut lumps/traces.

different biscuits share the same lines, for eg, nut based biscuit, then a batch of plain shortcake biscuits.
lines arent cleaned in between, in the way that we think.

I would also recommend contacting the food companies for further info on some products.

madmarriedNika · 03/09/2008 09:46

Just another thought - you can buy pumpkin seed butter in health food shops- very high calorie...could be added to mashed foods etc., a bit in mashed potato etc (made with pure spread)- not sure if nut allergy sufferers are also allergic to seeds?
In Asda's section for gluten, milk free etc. diets they do a peanut free peanut butter (can't remember brand name sorry), made entirely from sunflower seeds (plus of course sugar & salt, but not huge amounts of these)- and it tastes pretty good! We used this when DD was under a year and were avoiding peanuts but needed lots of calories- I'd add it to mashed food or spread it on toast, rice cakes, oat cakes etc.

Think you may need to do some home baking to make biscuits that'll be safe for your DD- but they are good for calories if you have time, and a bit of sugar really won't do her any harm...

madmarriedNika · 03/09/2008 09:52

Another thing! We also see a dietician with our DD regularly and always have to keep a food diary for a week before we see her so she can check on everything (DD also has blood tests to check her vitamin levels etc.) so agree try to make a diary before you see yours.

Our dietician is very keen on avocadoes as they contain so many vitamins & minerals as well as "good" high fat content. DD has 1 every other day, and although won't eat them mashed on their own if I combine it with mashed/pureed fruit she wolfs it down. Kiwis, banana, papaya or apricot goes well. I read somewhere babies will eat mashed avocado, banana and tuna!! keep meaning to try this, but sounds just wrong!
Also out of the fruits after avocadoes bananas are highest in fat content.

KerryMum · 03/09/2008 09:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

cuppachar · 03/09/2008 13:57

thanks - that's given me quite a few ideas! I've realised recently how so much of the food she eats is chicken, fish, vegetables, rice, pasta etc which is very low fat and the kind of thing you eat while on a diet! I'll try some of these suggestions...

OP posts:
oxfordblue · 08/09/2008 10:53

pasta is another good one. You can also get gluten free pasta.

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