Dairy free diet

[Clairgod]

Has anyone got any recipe ideas for my lactose intol son?
Especially ones that won't mark him out too much at nursery / home from his eat anything friends and sibling?

You need a book by Barbara Cousins called 'Cooking Without' you can buy it from Amazon.co.uk. I have given my daughter rice milk with calcium (by Rice dream - I'll post the number tomorrow) which you can use in cooking and is similar to skimmed milk in consistency. It is tricky to get the with calcium variety but most health food shops will sell rice dream.

I have bought the "What should I feed my baby" by Susannah Olivier (also available via amazon) - and found a lot of good recipes. It is generally an excellent book if nutrition is an important topic for you.
Can your son have goat's milk ? If so, try Nanny Goat milk (formula) or regular goat milk of the shelf (easily available) to replace milk in your preparation. I also only use sheep or goat yogourt.
I found my nursery very supportive but they tend to cheese stuff !!!! But my son is now more tolerant of cow's milk so I am not so worried (they say that most children grow out of it).

Is he alright with soya milk? I find provamel do a good soya range, but my daughter only likes the chocolate flavoured stuff. They do a really good choc. mousse which I give instead of yoghurt. There is also a choc. milk you can get, I think its called 'so good' or something. Sainsburys put it with the normal milk drinks, so you have to check the carton to recognise it. Sainsburys also do dairy free smarties & chocolate (yes, dd is a chocolate lover & thats what she misses most). We also found our local health food store had a really good range of dairy free stuff, including ice-cream and ready made custard, but the dairy-free cheese is awful, both soya & rice. I found that childrens parties are the worst times, as they always seem to have chocolate & ice-cream. I have compromised & allowed dd to have them on these occasions, but stepped up the moisturising etc routines, as I know her eczma will get worse. She is getting more tolerant as she gets older though. Sorry non of these are actually recipes, as regards cooking, the whole house now has dairy free spread instead of butter, and soya instead of cows milk, when you have to cook with it. Also things to bear in mind, you can make a great chocolate cake without using dairy products, and stress the fact that this is a special treat for your little boy. He will soon regard it as a bonus rather than a problem!

Treats very important! My small had plain choc (ordinary Bournville) by the crateload when milk choc or any trace of whey etc brought her out in hives. I made lollies (GLTC hav a nice kit) for the freezer in summer and quick-set jelly (Rowntrees sachets) is delightful to make and to eat with friends,you can put fruity bits in it too either fresh or straight from the tin, just like Gran used to make. For healthy eating we got into the habit of having cheese as an optional extra so that we weren't cooking different stuff all the time. Bought loads of Provamel Yofu as well, v. popular with everyone.

I have been using 'great healthy food lactose free' by knox and lowman (available from amazon) which has a chapter for children and includes burgers, cakes, biscuits, milk shakes etc. It might give you some alternative ideas for meals you can eat as a family.