Reflux & dairy - help with diet please!

[Chulita]

DS is bf and has reflux - he's hard work, always wanting to be held and screaming even when he is, not sleeping for long, not feeding well, projectile vomiting or throwing up and swallowing it again, writhing in pain etc etc. I've got a 22 month old but I just can't give her the attention she needs because DS wants to be held sucking my finger or he screams which winds us all up. He's been prescribed Gaviscon but that clogs him up completely so he's screaming trying to poo.
So, after reading a bit about it I've decided to try and cut out dairy but I know I'm going to miss foods cos it's such a part of daily life. I've done 3 days without milk in my hot drinks/toast instead of cereal and then realised that the 3+ choccy biccies a day are full of dairy
Can anyone just quickly suggest things that I should avoid and what I can replace them with? I want to try and do this properly!
TIA

Hi sorry to hear about the reflux.

You should ask to try ranitidine as it helps neutralise stomach acid making things muchmore comfortable for your son. It's also easier to give than gaviscon (I found gaviscon faffy with BF).

Also have you tried a dummy?

Also don't put your DS in trousers and nappies loose to avoid anything cutting into his stomach, making things worse.

Anyway, back to your OP! avoid all biscuits/cakes except hobnobs and bourbons (dairy free). Also ready made foods will usually have milk in.

Don't use soya. If there's a dairy intolerance, it's likely to be accompanied by soya intolerance too. You can use calcium fortified oat milk (oatly).

You can get a spread called pure sunflower. Margarine has milk in.

Generally if you make meals from scratch you'll be ok. Make sure you keep up your calcium intake though. I had a cup of ovaltine a day with oatly milk, plus porridge drowned in oatly to keep me covered!

Sorry I meant keep nappies loose.

My DS lived in dungarees til he was 1 as had reflux.

Dungarees and babygrows!

Check all labels - milk powder and butter is in loads of things.

Try rice milk - it's nice in tea and makes utterly delish porridge!

Most supermakets have "free from" sctions these days where you'll find lots of biscuits, etc that are dairy free.

I've had reflux issues myself and can't tolerate Gaviscon at all, so I'd definitely ask about Ranitidine (Zantac) or the other meds available.

I've had to go dairy and soya free for 9wo DD.

Vitalite spread and Oatly milk (calcium enriched if you can find it) are both good.

I've had to start making most of my meals from scratch but it quite do-able once you get into the routine of checking labels - milk is in lots of things you might not expect including some sliced meats and gravy granules!

It's worth going the whole hog, cutting out all dairy has made a huge difference to DD.

The only thing I haven't managed to find a really nice alternative for is chocolate (it all contains soya) but it's helping me lose the baby weight

I think some dark chocolate is dairy free? I'm not sure but I thought I read on here a while ago that Green & Black dark choc is OK? Sorry if I'm giving false hope ...