Advice on children’s allergies? - how to navigate a possible dairy allergy

[Foreveranxious22]

My DD5 has been showing signs of dairy allergies, took her to our GP today and they’ve said to cut out all dairy and eggs and wait for a referral to the hospital. We already don’t give her cheese and have switched to dairy free petit filous yoghurts. Does anyone have advice on how to navigate this? I’m just feeling very overwhelmed on it all, even Yorkshire puddings she can’t have! I know it’s for the best but how do families incorporate this into their weekly shop and meal times? My DD seems fine with it but not sure of how the reality of it all will play out. Any advice will help me so much, thank you!

My children have intolerance not allergies so slightly different in that if products don’t have milk in the ingredients but says may contain milk in bold at the bottom I still give them the food not sure if that applies to you or not

but cutting out milk has been easier than some of the other intolerances they have as free from is pretty good in most shops

I’m lucky as mine like ‘boring’ meals
meat mash veg so dairy free butter in mash (they can’t have tomatoe to meals tend to be pretty plain ish sauce wise anyway)

if they can have soya then Tesco is the place to go for all things chocolate just be careful as 1/2 of mine can’t have soya and the other can have little bits but not loads so probably introduce things like that slowly
Tesco and Asda also do a nice carbonara sauce if they like sauces
mine like the Asda bread

Thank you so much! I think I mean intolerance!
My GP was helpful in he referred us with no fuss but I feel like I left with more questions! Can I ask @Mannilea did your children get referred to the hospital when you suspected an intolerance, my GP said DD will go to the hospital for bloods first of all and then we’ll go off them results I guess - and see how she is when we cut everything.
I didn’t even think of bread 🤦🏼‍♀️ we shop at Tesco and I’m due to do an online shop tomorrow so I’ll have a good look. Is there anything that you can think of that wouldn’t be overly obvious to have dairy in that I’ll miss. I’m panicking I’m going to give her something without realising.

My 9 month old is allergic to dairy and as I’m breastfeeding we’re both dairy free. I know it feels overwhelming but you’ll get the hang of it. I use oat milk, coconut yoghurt and dairy free margarine (Stork) in place of anything dairy. I cook and bake as normal with those alternatives.
The only one I’ve found hard is cheese. Cathedral City do probably the best alternative but I wouldn’t be having it on a sandwich. It’s fine cooked in things though when it’s not the main ingredient!
I’m a big chocolate eater so I’ve switched to sainsburys basics brand dark chocolate as that’s dairy free and low enough in cocoa solids that it tastes fairly close to milk chocolate. Watch out for other supermarket equivalents though as I know the tescos one contains milk.

Most baking is quite easy with simple switches of dairy free milk and spreads.

My son was egg, wheat and dairy allergic at one point - that made for some interesting cake experiments

In my experience it is daunting and exhausting to begin with, but once you have built up a repertoire of safe foods /recipes it becomes quite straightforward.

Main thing to watch for is that lots of "free from" stuff will still contain diary. Eg. "Free from" chocolate bars that are gluten free.

Nomo chocolate is good for a chocolate boost
Jammie dodgers and Oreos are dairy free
Violife cheese works well on pizzas /toasted sandwiches

Most sliced bread (hovis etc) is actually dairy free , obviously check ingredients but once my son outgrew his soya and wheat allergies we didn't find bread too tricky

Sorry just seen it's milk and egg. Don't worry it's still doable!
lucysfriendlyfoods.com/

This is a good blog for ideas, and she has written a book too.

@SweetSakura amazing! Thank you so much for all your information! The website looks fantastic.
How old is your son, if you don’t mind me asking. I’m now just wondering how it works in the school, are they accommodated do you know? Not sure if it’s just going to be easier to put her on packed lunches but I know she loves school lunches. Trying to work out the logistics of it all seems overwhelming right now.

@Bee49 Thank you for your reply! My DD isn’t a big cheese eater really, but loves pizza. Do you make your own or are the vegan ones good do you know?

Be careful with stork. The block is dairy free but the soft spread isn't. I use flora - not the buttermilk version. I prefer to make own pizza as vegan versions arent great. The marks vegan pizza is ok. Also pizza express and zizzi are great for allergies if you eat out. Always check ingredients as milk and egg can be in lots of things that you don't expect. I use oatly barista milk as it's got a good nutritional content. You want to be referred to a dietitian to ensure she is getting what she needs in her diet. There are alternatives for egg in baking like flaxseed or chia seeds. You will soon get the hang of checking things and knowing what is safe etc. There are many people on Instagram worth following with lots of advice.

I second pizza express and Zizzis for pizzas. If we eat there we order them big pizzas and take the rest home for the next day. Or violife works ok on homemade pizzas.

My son is 12 and his sister is 9. They are both anaphylactic to milk and egg and have been since they were tiny (my son also has a lot more allergies).

School will cater for them provided you have a hospital letter (in our area). But mine both take packed lunches as that's what they prefer.

One easy way to know that something is egg and dairy free, is to buy vegan/vegan friendly products. So if it has the vegan tick, it's fine.

Buying specifically vegan cakes, biscuits etc would be expensive for all the family, but he could have his own special packets of things. There might even be vegan frozen Yorkshire out there!

My brother was highly allergic to cow's milk as a child (this was back in the 60s) and it was really tricky. But these days with all the vegan alternatives like oat milk, it would be much easier..

You probably mean allergies. NICE guidelines refer to iGE and none IGE allergies. Be aware than over 50% of babies with CMPA are also allergic to soya as the protein is very similar.

@saraclara vegan products can still contain traces of dairy. It’s a different threshold.

There is a really good Facebook group for cmpa. Lots of the people posting on their have babies but don’t let that put you off.

check sausages, gravy (particularly chicken), stock pots, bread

Sainsbury's do nice chocolate cake slices in the free from section
co-op pies fresh are dairy free, as are their sausage rolls and frozen (not fresh) garlic bread
m&s do a nice vegan margarita but better still I buy small pizza bases and make my own
asda oat milk or co-op oat milk are reasonably priced

i don't look for egg free as dc don't have this issue so you'll have to check these for eggs.

When my son was dairy free I found a good Facebook group that had a long list of normal (as in not ‘free from’ products) products that happen to be dairy free. I used to bull buy them so I always had a stash of dairy free options.

lidl is doing vegan stuff this week, so might be worth having a look there if you have one local.

I just tried to look at what we normally ate and adapt it a little.

@Foreveranxious22

mine were both younger when I suspected baby cried 24/7 bad belly bad skin etc so dr just said babies cry they don’t ‘believe’ in intolerance so we did the hair test and cut out what that told us to so no dr/hospital involvement for either of mine

mine can’t have wheat and tomatoe so that’s good if normal bread doesn’t include it much easier

you may already be aware but the thing that surprised me the most was some sandwich meat chicken ham etc has milk

If shopping online with tesco, you can filter by dietary needs which helps!

As pps have said, be careful about soya as many with a dairy allergy also react to soya.
Re school meals, most will accommodate medical needs but you will most likely need evidence from your doctor that they need to avoid dairy / eggs. For ours they then develop a personalised meal plan. You should be able to find info on the meal providers website. It may be more practical to switch to packed lunches for a few weeks she you get that sorted out as it can take a while.

Also worth sending in a few 'treats' in a labelled box for school if they allow kids to bring in sweets etc for birthdays. Often ours couldn't have whatever was on offer so had a box of alternatives.

@upfucked oh Interesting thank you. I honestly don’t know much. We had the appointment yesterday, feel like I asked a million questions but I still have a million more. If it is allergies rather than an intolerance do you know if it could lead to anaphylactic shocks? I’m allergic to some types of penicillin but it’s pretty easy to avoid these. I’ve heard horror stories in the news about peoples food allergies and things not being labelled correctly.
I feel a lot better this morning! Like it’s a lot less overwhelming. But yes, when doing my own research I read about soya. Guess it’s just about her avenue to look down!
I guess vegan food isn’t as safe because it’s not regulated like allergy foods have to be? No idea 🤷🏼‍♀️

Thank you so much for recommending my website and book. I hope you find it helpful and makes allergy life a little bit sweeter. X

how old is your child? My daughter has a severe dairy allergy and yes has had anaphalysis (she’s 14) but she was very poorly and hospitalised from a new baby, so has never got as far as eating cheese etc.

Most children do grow out of dairy and egg allergies so try not to panic. School have been good. She used to take a packed lunch at primary school and now has school dinners as she’s not allowed to take packed lunch to her current school.

She won’t eat out as that’s where she’s always had issues. Holidays are a nightmare as we take out food with us. She’s ended up in hospital several times on holiday over the years.

Kirsty’a pizza tastes good apparently and she likes the Sainsbury’s cheese the best. Nomo and moo free chocolates are good. The range has improved dramatically in the last decade.

@menareallthesame DD is 5. She was a fussy refluxy baby but we seen improvement when we switched her to comfort formula, which is reduced lactose.
School have been amazing! Her teacher was straight to the cooks when I first mentioned it, I have put her on packed lunches now tho just for ease.
Thank you for your recommendations!

I wouldn’t worry too much about anaphalysis then if she’s 6. It’s pretty unusual to have such a severe reaction to dairy and although I’m not an expert (only in my own child!), mine was floppy after an oz of formula and had to be blue lighted to hospital twice before she was 6 weeks old so it was evident from birth.