Dairy free cooking

[CharCharGabor]

Hi, am expecting to start DD2 on a dairy free diet once we've had our dietitian appointment. I am feeling a bit daunted by ensuring that she gets all the nutrients she needs while I am still able to cook foods that the whole family can eat. She is just 1 and still drinks a lot of breast milk so I'm not too worried yet, am conscious of when she's older though. We eat meat but I like to cook veggie meals too. What do you cook for your dairy free people? :)

Bump

I use a dairy free cheese with sauce made from Vitalite, flour and water to make a cheese sauce for pasta as macaroni and cheese was one of ds1's favourites before having to go dairy free.

Use Vitalite in cooking instead of butter, and make curries with coconut milk. Have tried soya milk and things but ds1 has never taken to them,

For calcium, he has soya yoghurts.

To be honest, I don't always cook the same stuff for the whole family as I can't stand the dairy free cheese, and the dc seem to like it ok, so it makes a bit extra work, but not too bad.

Oatly is great stuff, I've come to prefer it to actual milk in most recipes.

Cheese is more difficult... I have used finely ground almonds in place of parmesan quite successfully, but it depends on the recipe.

My dh is lactose intolerant so although the dc have cheese and yoghurts, all main meals are dairy free.

Let me think. We eat a lot of tomatoe based meals with either meat/veg or soya mince/veg.

As Greedychops says - curries made with coconut milk. Fish is good too.

Cereals can be had with oat, soya or rice milk. Make sure they are fortified with calcium.

Baking - find recipes that use eiher oil or pure/vitalite.

You will get there. Food is labelled really well these days. Remember that whey powder comes from milk.

My whole family has eaten dairy free for the majority of the last 5 years, as all 3 dc have been intolerant until around age 2 (well, we don't know when dc3 will outgrow intolerance, as he's only 8 months atm).

We just skip meals that need cheese as the substitutes are universally vile. Some meals that we have are:

shepherds pie - add butternut squash and/or sweet potato to normal potato for the topping, and it really doesn't need much if any butter.

chicken and cauliflower curry with coconut milk

spag bol

mild chilli

moroccan chicken

omelette

fish fingers/ fish and chips

fish pie (either make white sauce using oat milk, or make it a bit cheesy using toffuti, a soft cheese which I get from holland and barrett).

salmon and coconut pasta

meatballs

stir fry

fajitas

corn fritters

falafel or sweet potato falafel

kedgeree (I use an old slimming world recipe with eggs rather than smoked fish)

beef or lamb stew and dumplings

sausage and mash

toad in the hole (oat milk makes good batter)

chickena and tarragon casserole (finish it with a splash of alpro fresh soya cream)

carribean peanut chicken

cassoulet

stuffed peppers

pies

As others have mentioned, use pure sunflower spread, vitalite, or M&S dairy free spread instead of butter.
Use Oatly with added calcium for milk (not the organic one, as no calcium). Rice milk is not recommended for under 5's any more due to arsenic levels. You can also get Kara calcium enriched milk made from coconuts, or hemp milk (I've bought some but haven't tried this one yet).
I choose not to use soya milk and would recommend against it for regular use in a child so young.

If you are breastfeeding then are you not giving up dairy yourself too, as cows milk protein does pass into breast milk?

Yes, sorry - I should have made it clear that it is only dh who has rice and soya milk. And he alternates them (with oat milk) so as not to have too much of either.

Wow, thanks for all the replies :) Some great ideas here and simple ones too, I feel a bit less worried about it now. CSWS I am intending to also give up dairy but DD1 and DP wont need to and both enjoy cheese etc so I don't want to cut out all of the things they like. I suppose I will have to cook separate meals some of the time though.

I really hope this is the answer for us, am so exhausted ATM I can't think or function really and judging by the inconsolable crying DD2 has been doing since she went to bed I think it's going to be another awful night :(

Thanks again!

Has she been miserable for the whole year ccg? Dd used to cry or scream pretty much round the clock until we discovered the main problem at 16 weeks.

No it's been in phases until 10 months, when it became extremely intense. Started at 8 weeks with reflux symptoms and hours of screaming and then has been at least one episode a month. As it wasn't constant I didn't put it all together until months later. Now it's pretty much every night, lots of gulping, acidic breath, back arching, screaming, retching. I have been keeping a food diary for 2 weeks and it does look like she is affected by what she eats, obv I could be wrong though, I don't know too much about it. I've been given gaviscon for her but it doesn't seem to help much, I went back for something else but they were reluctant to give anything. It's easy for them, they don't have to hear her howling for hours :( Sorry, so caught up in this ATM.

Oh poor you and her. And gaviscon is such a faff to administer to a breast fed baby. Is it only night times that she's affected? I presume you've already propped up the top of her cot? Have you tried a few days of just really really simple highly unlikely to be allergenic food (for both of you) to see if that makes her any better?

Coconut cream and milk are lovely substitutes when you want something creamy like in a curry or soup :)

Gaviscon is indeed a faff, so annoying as it doesn't really mix in with water, just clumps and it doesn't seem to help anyway. Tonight I gave her gaviscon, paracetamol and anbesol on her gums as her mouth is sore too but she's still been up screaming and arching three times. It used to affect her in the day too but since she's been mobile it has eased a bit. Still fairly clingy, tired and miseable though. I started on a blander diet today as still have 10 days til dietitian and just couldn't wait that long. Gave her cauli at lunch though and her chinwent all spotty :( so not massively successful as yet. So fedup with it all now, can't even sleep anymore as I'm so anxious about the inevitable screaming.

Thanks for your help everyone :)

Interesting that you say you are intending to give up dairy... have you not already? The only reason I ask is because all 3 of my girls were/are dairy intolerant and had to have a prescribed hypo-allergenic formula. I was initially bf them all, but the dairy in my diet was affecting them (reflux & exzema) so the only way I could carry on was to cut dairy out completely myself. I did it for a while with no.1 daughter, and I didn't find it too difficult as I had done it before (I have a mild dairy intolerance too and had to be dairy free for about 2 years when I was younger before I could slowly reintroduce it), but it is exhausting as I was cooking separate meals for my husband and son and you can't just nip into a shop and pick up any old thing without first checking what's in it. I missed cheese, but also little things like scones and pancakes! (I know I could have made them myself, but I just didn't always have the time) After about 2 months I gave up and moved her onto Nutramigen. We were able to introduce dairy very slowly once she was weaned and by a year she was absolutely fine. My 2 youngest daughters were diagnosed at 10 days old and immediately moved onto Neocate. Their reflux improved dramatically to the point that we got them off the tube feeds and home just a few days later. (They were prem and in the NN, and the prematurity was not helped by the fact that they were losing so much weight largely due to throwing everything back up again!) Anwyay, they are now 7 months and need gaviscon too, but I know that if I was still bf it would have to mean no dairy for me. It could be that the dairy in your diet is some of the cause of her reflux. No criticism intended so please don't take offence - I'm just surprised that no-one has said that to you before.

Sorry, forgot about this thread! Thanks for replying 2plus2more. No one has ever mentioned giving up dairy to me, no. I have read some about it before but it seemed like such a big thing to change that I was in denial to some level I think. I have also been convinced that it is that, then it isn't, then it is so this is why it's taken so long to get to this point I think. I have the dieticians appointment on Thursday so counting down to there as she's even worse than before at nighttime and I'm finding it hard to cope. Had to take her off gaviscon as it wasn't helped her reflux and was making her really constipated. Although sometimes I don't even hear her reflux for a while and I wonder if I've imagined it all, then it's back again. Some days I wonder why I go to bed, am kept up most of the night anyway. THanks for sharing your experience :)

CharChar - what help do you have?? Does DP take them out during the day at the weekend so you can get some sleep? Does he do some of the night wakings? Do you have anyone else to watch the girls during the day so you can get some sleep? Sadly you are too far away from me or I'd have been happy to help you out.

Please don't worry about the dairy free aspect, many of us can help you with ideas & recipes etc as you need them x

I hope the consultation goes well on Thursday and that they can do/say something that will start to make a difference quickly!

Hi chippingin, I have not much family help but DP does loads when he is here. He takes girls out in the day and on very bad nights he will take dd2 as well. Sometimes she wants lots of feeds, others she refuses so I'm not always needed, and feel useless anyway as she cries whatever I try. Thanks for the lovely message :) I really hope the dietitian can give us some advice which will help as otherwise I am faced with it having no reason and just having to wait til she improves.

CharChar - how was your night?

Could you afford to put the girls in with a childminder for a few hours a couple of times a week - just so you get a break and some sleep?

I really hope you can get some help on Thursday, you can't keep this up indefinitely :(

I am vegetarian (and don't eat eggs), but I was vegan for three years, it's actually really easy at home - I reverted back to vegetarian rather than vegan because I travel a lot and it's really difficult. At first I just had a bit of dairy when I was travelling, then it crept in at home - now I eat cheese regularly, but still have soya/oat/rice milk and soya yogurt (alpro is your friend :) ) It's really not as daunting as it seems to be dairy free and it helps if you aren't a cheese eating machine I would like to be vegan again as I definitely felt much better when I didn't eat dairy, much much better - but I lack the willpower to stay away from cheese/chocolate right now and the alternative 'cheeses' are revolting. However, that said - in your situation I could give it up if it meant getting some sleep at night!! (not that it's a guarantee or anything - but I'd figure it was worth a shot!).

Anyway, that's my morning waffle

Hi, it wasn't as bad as others actually, thanks :) she was still up and restless and fair bit but not as bad as she has been. Forgot to say in my last post, dd1 goes to preschool every afternoon and I try to get dd2 to nap at least part of that time, she often needs resettling part way through though. I've tried to have a few early nights to keep my energy up but it's a lose-lose thing because it isn't really enough to get my energy back and I feel like I get no relaxation time. Am also finding I'm lying awake a lot worrying about how the night will go, which doesn't help!

Thanks for the insight, am sure I'm overthinking the dairy free thing and it'll be easier than I expect. And maybe it'll help me too, I need to lose weight and am prone to migraines and things.