Lactose free diet and a picky toddler

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My 20mo has recently become lactose free. He's going through the classic picky stage, but I'm struggling because I have a severe nut allergy and he obviously has to have specific dairy products and for some reason lactose free yoghurts are making him have really bad diarrhoea so they're off the cards.

He will only eat these things atm-

Breakfast- fruit loaf with dairy free butter/ brown seeded toast with dairy free butter/Cheerios with dried apricots and oat milk

Lunch- ham and tomato sandwich/ eggy bread

Dinner- tilda mild curry rice microwave pouch/ fish fingers and cauliflower hash browns

He has loads of healthy meals for dinner batch cooked in the freezer like Shepard's pie/ pasta bake/ sweet potato and spinach curry but he won't touch them.

Any ideas on how I can include more protein and vegetables? I'm obviously worried but writing it down now I think I could just be worrying for no reason and he will survive on this until he gets past the picky stage. What do you think?

Sorry I forgot to mention he snack in between on bananas, soreen loaves, oat bars and a variety of dried fruit. He loves fresh fruit but it gives him awful diarrhoea so we had to remove that from
His diet as well

If lactose free yogurts are still giving him an upset tummy, then he is probably allergic to cows milk protein and not lactose.
Try removing all cows milk products from his diet.

Why is he lactose free? It’s incredibly rare for a toddler to have a lactose intolerance but allergies to cow milk are fairly common. Around 50% of kids who are allergic to cow milk are also allergic to soya.

Thank you guys. What you're both saying makes a lot of sense but we have had a nightmare with the doctor. They say it's not an allergy as he doesn't have any other allergy symptoms(?!) but the yoghurts were soya so that makes a lot of sense. But he does eat a lot of other stuff with soya in like bread etc to which he has no reaction.

I have been referred to a dietician but I don't know why or how they can help

Sorry I meant to say, they have said it's lactose intolerance brought on by gastroenteritis since the beginning but I'm not convinced it's that at all. We recently tried reintroducing lactose which went great for a while eel but then he started to get really sick again. He was sick for a week after we stopped the lactose as well, so I can't see how it's related to lactose as surely that would stop a couple of days after.

Sorry if I'm not writing very well I'm trying to do it quickly as baby and toddler run riot

For a week*

My son is apparently lactose intolerant too. I'm not really convinced either.

Anyway regarding the food I wouldn't sweat it. You can give him a multi vitamin for toddlers as well to ease your mind about him getting what he needs.

I have found that mine like ultra plain stuff so literally plain roasted chicken with plain rice. But I cut the chicken up really small and mix in with the rice. I'm luck that they both like peas.

Same with pasta, just plain no sauce and I put some chicken in with it.

Plain mince and boiled potatoes.

I always offer cucumber and other salad veg just incase they feel like trying it.

Supermarket puff pastry is usually dairy free. Spread it with a blitzed up can of Ratatouille or salsa or vegan pesto, ham and tomatoes. Slice into strips.with a pizza cutter and roll into individual scrolls. Bake for 20 minutes at 180c. My DF free son loves these and they're pretty much the only source of veg he eats some weeks...

It sucks. Cheese makes veggies taste better and they can't have it!

Also just keep putting things on the plate and ignore whether he touches them or eats them or not. DS wouldn't eat berries for about a year. I would mix them in his porridge. He'd eat them if them were just mushy and jammy all mixed with the oats but he'd pick out the big pieces of fruit. I started adding one or two whole berries and after a year he now asks for a bowl of them to eat! He is particularly adamant about not trying new things. I think most kids acclimatise quicker.

If he is allergic to dairy and soya and eating them it will probably hurting his tummy putting him off food.

Thanks so much guys, some really good ideas.

@Duracellbunnywannabe yes I guess. He doesn't seem in pain though. I'll go back to the doctors and push for allergy testing

It sounds like a none IGE allergy and the only way to test for them is to withdraw the food for at least 3 weeks and reintroduced it and observe symptoms.

@Duracellbunnywannabe ah right okay thank you. What's a none IGE allergy? This is helpful btw thank you

Milk allergy can be either immunoglobulin E (IgE) or non-IgE mediated. IgE-mediated reactions typically occur immediately after ingestion whereas non-IgE mediated are delayed and take up to 48 hours to develop, but still involve the immune system.