Share your tips for living with food intolerance with a2 milk - £300 voucher to be won NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

Whether you have experience of living with your own food intolerance or your child’s, it can be a difficult and confusing experience that you’ve probably now learned a lot from, and a2 milk would like to hear the tips you now have for living with a food intolerance. Maybe you’ve found foods which are surprisingly okay for you? Or sneaky foods which you thought would be fine but weren’t? Perhaps you know about places to eat out which are especially accommodating? Whatever your tips for living with food intolerance, share them with a2 milk below.

Here’s what a2 milk have to say: “If cows’ milk doesn’t agree with you, you might be astonished to learn that not all cows’ milk is the same. a2 Milk™ is healthy cows’ milk with a difference. Gentle on tiny tummies, easy to digest and less likely to trigger symptoms of milk intolerance. Our milk looks the same and tastes the same but there is one important difference - it is naturally free-from the A1 protein found in regular cows’ milk that can cause problems from bloating to indigestion to wind and even eczema. It’s 100% natural, delicious and nutritious that’s why we say ordinary on the outside – extraordinary on the inside!”

All those who share a tip for living with food intolerance with a2 milk below will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher from the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

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We're lucky because we were able to reintroduce dairy successfully but my sister is dairy intolerant and has incorporated it brilliantly into her life.

Her top tip is Sheeps yoghurt! She uses it as a cream substitute in cooking and finds it the best alternative.

At Christmas she goes to a specialist cheese shop and gets a brilliant variety of sheep and goats cheeses and that's been brilliant as it adds variety to the cheeseboard and everyone tries new ones without realising or caring they are not cows. (Beenleigh blue is my all time favourite).

I used to be dairy intolerant however in pregnancy I craved cream and since then I seem to have been cured which is amazing.

When my DS was a baby he suffered from a Milk Protein allergy and had allergies to egg and banana. My top tip is to read all labels!! Not all allergens have to be listed in bold on the packaging. (but having mastered the art of scanning food labels I am now in a great position to buy foods for my vegan step son!)

Cooking from scratch is the way forward as you know what has gone into recipes. Look on blogs for different diets - the Low Carb and Paleo blogs have a lot of wheat free or dairy free recipes and offer great alternatives for essential ingredients.

The supermarket Free From sections are actually really good now and they are adding more and more to them!

We have multiple allergies and I always check labels , even if I regularly by the product as companies are forever changing things. I also make more things at home. I make bread as its cheaper and there is only 2 kinds I can buy.

I'm lactose intolerant, so I buy Lactofree milk and I use soya products. When I'm desperate for an ice-cream I take lactase tablets from Holland and Barrett. I've found though that the suggested dose is way to low.

Be the Mum who always makes a picnic and cupcakes for parties - We do and my toddler thinks it's so exciting!
Always ask the party parent to put out fresh fruit and veggie sticks, so your little one can be involved
Want to eat out? We have found that Wagamama's is best - great allergy awareness and will go the extra mile to help and provide
Include, not Exclude

DS has a milk allergy and DH can't have gluten, so as a predominantly vegetarian (DH isn't but would rather eat veggie than cook!) household we're a bit restricted if we want to enjoy the same food together. We like trying new things but found it really useful to have a back-up plan for a week's worth of quickish meals and even snacks with all the ingredients listed too, so if we have an unexpectedly busy week we can do a quick online shop and know we all have something we can all eat every meal time.

I'm still learning about dairy free but have got a better grip on gluten free now after several years of experiments.

It took me ages to get used to gluten free baking when I met DH. A few things that worried for me were:

Cakes and biscuits recipes that involve Golden Syrup seem to work much better than those that don't (Pineapple upside down cake and Delia Smith's Jean's Gingernuts were very successful)

Double the quantity of whatever flavouring you're using (cocoa, coffee powder, lemon zest, spice etc.) as the gluten free flours seem to absorb a lot of the flavour.

Chickpea flour (gram flour) makes great pasta (about one cup of flour gradually added to a beaten egg before rolling and cutting) and mixed with cold water, and optionally some kind of seasoning, great pancakes too. I've heard it can also be used as an egg sub in some recipes too although I haven't tried it.

Nutritional yeast is a good substitute for a parmesan type flavour in things like pesto. We used that anyway as it's a lot cheaper than the vegetarian alternatives to real parmesan.

My daughter had an intolerance when she was very young, I found it ok to just avoid it. But I found telling other people about it Important so that they didn't feed it to her without realising they shouldn't.

I have a medically diagnosed wheat allergy but am lucky that my children are free of any food intolerance/allergies. When I was tested with the skin prick test I had an arm full of pricks which must be hard for young children and I also had to remove many foods and slowly introduce them. I was given a special, revolting flavoured drink to ensure I didn't lose too much weight. I would state that this should always be done under medical supervision. It is much easier to cope with wheat or milk allergies than it was because there are lots of decent products and the prices are better than they use to be. There are some great cook books and most of the recipes can be served to the whole family which means I don't have to cook lots of different meals.

The supermarkets have a pretty good range of free from foods these days so always check them out.

When I was young it was difficult how ever these days I never feel I hve to miss out as there's normally a supplement or replacement. Lots of places speedily cater now to milk intolerance, I've been to s few ice cream shops !

You can get some alternative treats in Holland and Barratts and health food shops, so that children don't have to miss out and can feel included.

Always check ingredients look for recipes and advice online

Me and 2 of my kids are coeliacs so I find it easier for us all to have gluten free including hubby and other 2 kids I make my own bread and cakes as it much nicer than store bought ones just find if we all keep to gluten free it's easier than being tempted to have the good stuff and getting sick if the kids accidentally have the wrong bread ,pasta,cakes etc none of us miss out because it's nice being able to let the kids get involved in making cakes,bread ,pizzas etc

go for simple nutritious meals that you can also mix and match. chilli con carni and veg curry. all rice., but variations. Include the family in these meals .

try to make things from scratch as much as possible, be imaginative. Read all the labels!

Coconut oil is another good non-dairy alternative for fat. KTC doesn't taste of anything, so I mostly use that and keep the expensive coconutty ones for when we want the taste, such as in DS's favourite lime and coconut cupcakes.

My daughter and I are both gluten intolerant. I am also milk intolerant. The main thing is to have a system to avoid cross-contamination and mistakes. For example we have a toaster with four slots and the left hand two are for me and my daughter and the right hand ones for the boys (We remember by left for ladies). We also use toaster bags for a lot of things. Seperate chopping boards (colour coded). The milks are in different containers in the fridge which are easy to identify but we try and make sure each has its own position as it is easy to pick up the wrong one without thinking.

We cook nearly everything from scratch and batch cook and freeze - we have an extra little freezer to cope with the amount of freezer space we need and every drawer has a designated purpose to make it easier to know where to look.

Always, always read the labels. Manufacturers often change ingedients. Also some items labelled 'gluten free' may contain a tiny amount of gluten (legally up to 2ppm) but this can be a problem for those who are really sensitive.

Looking online is the best idea in my opinion, there are so many helpful tips and ideas :)

use the internet, mumsnet and your health visitor, I make all my own meals (mostly on a weekend) from organic produce, you know exactly what is in the meals. There are so many recipes and ideas on line with advise for you.

I use a leading supermarket free from range. I find the prices are around the same as "normal" food and they have a wide range of products including rolls, cereal, chocolate bars, cookies etc.. I don't personally find it more expensive and my children enjoy eating the same as me. I do think they need to make a better free from cheese though as I don't enjoy eating rubber 😆

Just be adaptable - you can easily change most things without losing any appeal or flavour

I find cooking from scratch easier because I can source my own ingredients. I find it time consuming when shopping if I have to constantly check ingredients. They are often written so small it is difficult to make out.

My niece uses soya milk instead as she is allergic to Cows milk, but we find alternatives, she is allergic to eggs but you can find lots of alternatives and still make delicious cakes etc.

Living with Crohns Disease I have to be very careful what I eat and drink, unfortunately most healthy foods are not good for me as is dairy not good for me. However I have found A2 milk to help a lot in tea, coffee and at breakfast time and I also find that eating frozen vegetable's is gentle on my tummy compared to fresh