Help for fussy 12 yr old with milk allergy

[Kflomy]

Hi I am hoping that someone can help. My DS has recently been diagnosed with EoE meaning he is allergic to milk. I have tried substituting it with soya, coconut you name it but he is so fussy and doesn't like trying anything new.
I think it's because he was so used to eating milk products and his age when he was diagnosed is difficult to completely change his diet.
Do any of you have any good ideas on getting him to try other products? Or even other foods that I can cook using alternatives that are not chicken nuggets or chicken breast?

Ds is nearly 12 and been dairy free for 3 years. We've never found a decent cheese replacement but he'll drink most milks especially with milkshake mix in. Spreads we use vitalite or pure mostly and lots of biscuits, crisps etc are dairy free if you check carefully. Mostly ds eats same meals as us we use his spread for example in mash and if doing anything with cheese we just take his out.
What does your ds like to eat?

@confusednorthner what milk do you use?
Yes I agree with the cheese substitutes they just don't taste the same at all. He loved macaroni and pizza which was great for quick dinners during the week but obv can't have this now.
I like to cook from scratch like beef dishes etc but he is jut so fussy at choosing something different. Suppose I have done it to myself by giving him choices of dinners all these years 🙈

We go between milks to be honest mostly soya but oat and others too. Lots of special bits around for veganuary at minute so might be a good idea to try them now.
Asda and Morrison's pizza counters do dairy free cheese and son says it's ok once cooked and Aldi have some in at minute we are testing too.

Can she have oats? The chocolate oatly is amazing and just like a creamy chocolate milkshake. I hate soya on it's own, it has to be the chocolate one to eat it. Yogurts, the koko fruit ones are nice, but the plain one is just coconut flavoured. Best 'cheese' is the Sainsbury's spreadable one or the violife sliced and toasted.

Soya apparently isn’t great for boys in large quantities (something to do with hormone balance and oestrogen?) so I try to avoid it when i can and use Oatley for DS.

For pizza, I use Mozzerisella, which is wha they use in pizza express and Zizzi. It’s by far the best we’ve found, and we keep a stock in the freezer.

Violiife spreadable is definitely the best, I haven’t found a cheese block that tastes like actual cheese yet. Also Mini moo chocolates are lovely and taste just like proper chocolate!

You have to look carefully in the free from sections of supermarkets as a lot of it is gluten free but not dairy free. Most of them make frozen dairy free pizzas and we make our own garlic bread. Naturli vegan block butter is good for cakes etc.

I found that by shopping around and buying nice tasting treats such as chocolate, ice cream and milkshakes made my DC realise that they could still have tasty food and it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t want them to feel like they were missing out.

Forgot to say, you can also now get vegan magnums and Ben and Jerry’s!

Oh yes and Swedish glacé ice cream is good, my husband says it's as good as real ice cream. Morrison's are doing tubs of their dairy free ice cream cheap at minute as well.

Aldi has vegan magnums in this week. Dad tried one today and said it was good.

The violife sliced cheese tastes fine in a toastie but I could never eat it uncooked. You could put some vegan cheese on pizza and disguise the different taste with lots of toppings unless he just likes cheese! The butternut squash macaroni 'cheese' is supposed to be really good, there are loads of recipes online. Starbucks do a really good one, tastes quite cheesy to me. Re milk, we use almond in porridge which I force them to eat every morning but it's definitely not 'milky'. I think soya is the best substitute but agree with not giving too much to boys. My son has the nesquik milkshake powder with almond milk. Google 'accidentally vegan foods' although I guess you're more on the lookout for meals. My son is so fussy and has 15 food allergies so it's a right pain. He normally has chicken or salmon with fried potatoes or pasta and veg which I make him eat. He loves fish and chips and as lovely as it is to see him enjoying a meal, he can't live off that. I just bought an Aldi air fryer so I can try and make my own chips without the guilt of all that oil. If you're seeing a dietitian they should give you a list of calcium rich foods too.

Thanks everyone for responding. Given me so many new ideas. It's as new to me as it is to him!
Thanks again