Is there such a thing as veggie cheese?

[MunchMummy]

I ask because my DD2 has been told to go on a dairy free diet for at least 2 weeks to see if it helps her ezcema.

I've been told by the HV there is such a thing as veggie cheese, but I can't find it anywhere. I've found goats cheese and she hates it (don't blame her), but no veggie cheese.

Is there anyone who knows if it exists, and if so what is it called and what does it sit with on the cheese aisle?

She loves cheese and its a shame she can't have any at the moment. Any help would be much appreciated.

Soya chesse? yup waitrose sell it as do tescos-I used to have it when we were all vegan, not the best stuff but ok for a savoury flavour.

I recommend the uncheese cook book tho if you really crave that cheese taste (or your dd)

well, most cheese is vegetarian. milk is vegetarian!
what you need is vegan cheese.
but a word of warning, it's truly vile! I have not yet found any that's even vaguely edible.

if you want to try some go to holland and barretts. but it really tastes nothing like regular cheese so she may not really like it!

Just for further dairy free info- I used to shop alot from this website it is a wonderful dairy free emporium!

the vegan cheese is called cheesly iirc

Yeah, OK, silly question. Of course cheese hasn't got meat in it .

Its just the HV used the term vegetarian cheese so I've been looking for that term on the packets in the supermarket. No wonder I haven't found it .

Vegan cheese really does sound discusting.

Maybe I should just accept that cheese is something she may not beable to eat.

Will look in Holland&Barrett and see what it looks like. If it looks gross then I'll give it a miss. I'm sure I can think of something else tasty she'll beable to eat instead.

Many thanks mumsnetters...

Soy cheese is vile vile stuff imho - do not touch with a bargepole. TBH, if you are just on a two week trial dairy free, I'd just cut out cheese totally.

Thing is tho vege cheese does exist as alot of cheese uses animal rennet in it-vege cheese obviously uses vege rennet!

but that point isnt relevant here!!!

vegan cheese (cheezly) is generally pretty bad, although I think the mozzarella one is just about passable in a pizza situation (with other stuff there to disguise it)

has your dd tried all of the goats and sheep's cheeses? it is hard to get over the goatiness but there are some lovely mild hard goat's cheeses, some authentic feta is made with sheep's milk, and delamere do a very very mild and delicious soft goat's cheese which is kind of like fluffy cream cheese.

Not vegan myself, but am told by vegan friends that Redwood or Toffuti make the nicest ones.

Goodness Wholefoods sell a lot of different types, as do veggiestuff.com.

Not a silly question - lots of cheese isn't vegetarian (made with rennet which is taken from calves stomachs).

I've recently gone dairy free but I wouldn't touch vegan cheese to be honest, the ingredients are not great, (lots of palm oil) and I wouldn't put it in me, let alone a child! They can substitute most things well (excelletn vegan custard, desserts etc) but if you can't have real cheese you're better off with nowt IMHO.

Many thanks for all the opinions. I've tried feta and hard goats cheese, neither of which she liked and she's not a fussy eater.

I think I'll keep off cheese all together then and give her fish/meat instead. She loves a bit of smoked fish (strange tastes my 20 month old!!).

Not sure what halloumi is made from? DS (15 months) adores it (though it is high in salt), but then he likes goat's cheese, brie etc as well.

Halloumi is made from sheeps milk, sometimes goats milk. My DD got eczema type condition when she went onto cows milk. Gave her goats milk, she flippin loves it - higher fat content too but more expensive. Apparently closer to breast milk too...

goat's milk has very similar proteins to cow's milk and a lot of children allergic to cow's milk have similar reactions to goats.

bearing that in mind I would probably not give ANY kind of dairy whilst you're figuring this out as it could change any results you see.

for the record though, donkey milk is apparently the closest animal milk in composition to human milk. not much is made of that though
however, buffalo milk is similar. my dairy intolerant 2 yr old can now take small amounts of buffalo mozarella

we also tried buffalo milk (waitrose sell it) but the taste was SO strong it made me want to gag

I've heard suckling from a cat can be good for them too.

Facetious. Sorry.

Buffalo milk does taste like licking an ox. Best avoided.