VEGAN yoghurt starter - intolerant to dairy but want to make yoghurt

[misscutandstick]

DS5 is intolerant to wheat/gluten, egg, dairy, soy and a couple of others - but he has some formula babymilk, was really hoping to make some yoghurt/ice cream from it. Can it be done? whats the bacteria that turns milk to yoghurt, and can it be bought NOT in a milk source?

any advice greatfully received. thanks XXX

I really hope someone finds an answer for you. I thought of doing this myself for ds1 using my breastmilk, but the only bacterial culture I could find had cow's milk in it (and the people in the healthfood shop definitely thought I was very wierd ). As far as I am aware the way the bacteria work is by converting lactose to lactic acid so I suppose they should work on baby formula but have never tried.

I had some soya-free vegan ice cream recipes somewhere which I never used. They mostly seemed to involve cashew nuts if i recall correctly and you might not want to give your ds5 nuts so early in life.

A bit of Googling has found this blog:
veganicecream.blogspot.com/ and she certainly has gluten free recipes there so you might find ideas in that. Also I'm sure the cook at ds1's old nursery used to make soya free, dairy free 'ice cream' for him but I have no idea what she used!!

thanks mummypig - you're right, with the foodie probs he has im in no rush to try him with nuts!

there must be something out there, surely?

if i find anything will come back and share.

XXX

Just to encourage you, ds1 seems fine with milk now. I was really careful and it seemed to pay off. I only started to introduce goat's cheese at about 4yo, then cow's stuff later. I suspect he still reacts to soya if he has too much, but we try to avoid it at home still so that it's only when we're out or if he's at someone else's house that he gets any soya. Anyway he's doing well enough that I don't have to warn anyone before he goes to visit them. He's quite fussy but that's a different story.

You may know all this, having 5 kids already, but I hope it's encouraging if you haven't been over this particular hurdle before.

thanks mummypig, none of my others have had any probs with food before (apart from DS1 who has ADHD, we had to avoid additives to stop him bouncing off walls but nothing as serious as this).. oh and DS2 has wheat/gluten intolerance now too - i think its been brewing for a couple of years from his symptoms and with hindsight, but thats under control now too.

yes i do find it hopeful - (there are a lot of foodie probs on my mothers side so i suppose its fortunate that only one child has so many difficulties) - that i do hear of children 'growing out' of intolerances, when the dietician cant give any firm answers at all.

wow, its been some time - but i think i may have found a possibility...

just here

just one thing bothers me slightly, the name: "lactic acid", this sounds extremely milk based, and although it would be fermenting 'milk' that is suitable for DS5 would the bacteria itself be harmful? what is LACTIC ACID?

DS5 has a problem with casein, milk protien, so am i correct in thinking this stuff would be ok for him?

This is what it says on Wikipedia about lactic acid.

"Although it can be fermented from lactose (milk sugar), most commercially used lactic acid is derived by using bacteria such as Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, or Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus (formerly known as Lactobacillus bulgaricus) to ferment carbohydrates from nondairy sources such as cornstarch, potatoes, and molasses. Thus, although it is commonly known as "milk acid", vegan products can contain lactic acid as an ingredient."

I guess to be on the safe side you can email the company and ask what the lactic acid source is. It would be a bit odd i think though to advertise it as a starter for soy and rice milk yoghurt and it come from a dairy source, but best to be on the safe side.

Thanks for that link I think I might order some and give it a go as well.

Let us know how you get on if you do go for it.

The 2nd paragraph on that link says "In order to have almost dairy-free yoghurt..."

So it doesn't sound 100% dairy-free. I guess maybe it depends just how bad your DS's milk allergy is?

If you want to make dairy-free ice-cream, this is really easy. I bought an ice-cream maker (the basic ones only cost about £25 or so) and after keeping the bowl of the ice-cream maker in the freezer for 24 hours it only takes around half an hour or so to make ice-cream. I use either oatly cream (not an option for you), coconut milk or neocate to make the ice-cream with and just puree in a good handful of fruits and a small amount of sugar (to taste). As a replacement for yoghurt I sometimes make a kind of blamange with either calcium-fortified rice-milk or neocate.

AcademicMum can you come over every evening and cook for dd2?? Always full of good ideas..

cant do neocate, tried that but he wont touch it.

rice milk, he quite likes.

He doesnt have an "allergy", but he is autistic and has 'leaky gut' - hes to avoid milk and gluten. Hes also extremely intolerant to egg (projectile vomit), soy (diarrhea and sickness), wheat (as for milk), bananas (sickness) and annatto (violent stomach cramps and projectile vomit). When he has milk he gets extremely 'autisicy': spins, flaps, stares blankly, violent constipation, self harming, etc.

"...To start the next batch, keep back ¼ cup of your homemade yoghurt. Let it come to room temperature before using as a starter. You can do this about 12-14 times before it weakens and you need to use dried starter again..."

i was hoping that perhaps by the second or third batch that there really wouldnt be much dairy left at all, or is that just wishful thinking?

Thanks .

just wondered if anyone had had any luck with this?

i have tried once (time is always short!) and the result was less than appetising to be honest!

However i read somewhere that to make it extra 'creamy' (and boy does rice-milk lack in the 'creamy' dept!) to put a couple of spoonsful of milk powder in the mix. Great! i thought, i will stick in some of his babymilk powder that'll do the trick... forgetting completely that his babymilk has special enzymes added to it.

it DID NOT thicken at all, and kinda 'curdled' in watery swirls. I tried stirring and leaving for longer - it was 'baking' for 16hrs at that point, but it was still like dishwater. .

will try again, but without the babymilk!