Ditching Dairy - what suitable alternatives are there? Anyone else done the same?

[ASecretLemonadeDrinker]

DS1 (5) has something wrong with him, he's been treated for constipation but that's not it. I have attempted dairy free, but I am not clued up on it. Anyway, I have decided I don't actually feel that comfortable with drinking milk for calves and am not buying anymore. What good alternatives are there? How about cheese, and butter? We live on cheddar and mozeralla and butter and margerine! Anyone got any good tips? Thanks :)

Hi Good luck with the new eating plan. Easy to substitute butter - use an olive oil based spread instead of butter (check for lactose, whey powder and any milk products in ingredients) and any oil to cook in.
Cheese - don't know of vegan options - depends what you use it for - I'm sure someone creative will come along. Soya milk, oat milk and rice milk are all good alternatives to cow/goat milk. Will need a bit of tasting to find one you like the taste of. There's dairy free chocolate too!

Haven't found a good cheese substitute yet.

Milk - we alternate soya, rice and oat milk for cereal. Too much soya or rice milk is not good for you but they are much cheaper than oat milk.

Vitalite is dairy free.

We make our own pizzas and just put on loads of great toppings minus the cheese.

It's easy to cook without dairy once you get used to it. And it's much healthier too - and good for the waistline.

Loads of baking options. Nigella's banana and Butterscotch muffins are great if you use dark chocolate instead of butterscotch. Carrot cake doesn't need dairy. One of the ready made butter icings actually doesn't have dairy.

When checking ingredients list remember whey powder and lactose come from milk.

For butter/marg substitutes look for something that is vegan because vegetable margs can still have dairy in them as Bonzo says. We use Pure which is ok for cooking/baking but don't know what it is like just on bread. I'm afraid can't help with cheese substitutes as I have never tried them but my ds has had Provamel dairy free yoghurts and says they are nice. There are also dairy free ice creams like Swedish Glace which are ok. I use Tesco sweetened soya milk as I find that the most palatable but it is a matter of taste as some soya milks are a bit more 'beany' tasting. Rice milk is nice but I'm not keen on oat milk but at least there is plenty of choice and hopefully your ds will like one of them.
My ds had to go on a dairy free diet for a while and his consultant said he could have goat's cheese and milk if he wanted as it didn't have the same effects as cow's milk products, so could this be a possibility for your ds too ?

If you think your child has a milk allergy or you want to convert him to a dairy-free diet, it would be advisable to talk to your GP, ask for a referral to a dietician and get some proper advice. Otherwise, you can think you're giving him good subsitutes and a balanced diet and find you're not.

It's not just for his possible allergy, I really don't want milk anymore anyway now. I have been reading about hemp milk - anyone know if it's any good? Thinking I can probably just ditch the cheese, DS doesn't eat it anyway (complains when he sees me putting it on pizza) anf the other two DSs are too young to have an opinion notice :)

Better look up some sources of calcium for the DCs if you are cutting out milk. Make sure you get enough into them that's bioavailable.