Dairy free weaning

[Hamnvik]

I have just started weaning my 6mo DS and we are doing dairy free weaning. I am really struggling with what he can eat, I am a terrible cook and am quite a fussy eater (and was a very fussy child). I don't know where to start with cooking meals that we can all eat.

Has anyone got any tips/recipes/book suggestions? I feel completely out of my depth with all this!

Well do you want to try baby led weaning or traditional weaning or a mix of both?
Is there a particular reason for no dairy?
What about starting with easy veg?
Carrots, sweet potato, parsnips, potato. These can be cooked and mashed/puréed. Or roasted/steamed in finger sized (adult fingers!) chunks and he can just have them to chew on.
They can have any fruit or veg puréed/mashed. Toast.
Obviously things like baby cereals....

You can get vegan 'cheese', yogurt and 'cream' to use as substitutes. Just make whatever you feel like, with plenty of veg (cooked til pretty soft for LO) and put it on the high chair tray. Your LO will play with it and eventually eat it. Doesn't usually take them long to work it out.

Just don't cook with salt (and avoid premade sauces as they tend to be high salt also). :) have fun.

Is baby definitely CMPI? Only asking because its such a faff, milk is in everything!

Have a look at this FB group, if you are on FB.

How about using a bit of stuff from the Sainsburys free from? They do a korma sauce in a bag, you could add cooked chicken and veg and serve with rice. They also do dairy free bread, although you need to watch the salt levels in bread. Have you been told to avoid soy too?

How about toast with a nut butter? Not the crunchy ones though as the bits of nuts will be a choking hazard, but smooth ones are fine.

We love blueberry pancakes made with almond milk.

Thanks for the suggestions. He is on Nutramigen formula, he has a lot of the symptoms of CMPI and DH had it as a baby so they think its quite likely.
He also has silent reflux and so far veg puree has made this a lot worse so we have stopped that for now.
I'm also a complete worrier so I'm not great with BLW so far we have just done purees but I will maybe try some soon.
I will have a look for that oatly sauce that would be handy, where do you get it from?
Have you got any suggestions for lunches? I think ham etc are mostly out aren't they?

Hi - my son had a CMPA and I did purees, rather than BLW with him initially. This was for 2 reasons - firstly our dietician advised us that co-existing allergies are common, so we had to make sure we introduced one new food at a time. 2nd (and most selfishly), dairy free "alternatives" don't always taste that great to people who usually eat dairy. In particular, DF cheese is foul! To be honest, we did a lot of your very traditional meals (eg stews, mince and potatoes, roast dinners) which don't really have dairy in (he also has an egg allergy which complicates things!). I started a thread on the allergies forum about surprise DF foods which is handy for when your DC is a bit older. Feel free to PM if you want any support or to ask anything. Am now weaning a non-DF DD (BLW this tim!) and can't believe how much more stress free the whole thing is!

I'd push for proper allergy testing. As mentioned above, if your child is CMPI or CMPI they may have other issues. You should really be under a Paed and have access to a dietician.

You may be nervous of blw, but even if you feed purees you should really be offering finger foods to a 6 month old too.

Ham should be fine, just check the allergy advice.

My DD was diagnosed with a type 1 allergy to milk when I weaned her (she had been bf until then). Since I was still bf as I introduced solids, I had to go on a dairy free diet too! Therefore I switched the whole household over to non dairy. I BLW her by just offering things off of my plate - no purees at all!

There are a lot of dairy free foods out there, so start off changing to a DF marg, soya milk (if DS can tolerate that) to cook with. the only thing I found impossible to swap out was cheese - there just was no alternative, but there maybe one now.

You don't have to make this complicated - in the next few months he can try bread, cucumber, tomatoes, apples, bananas, chicken, fish...in fact the list is endless. Don't worry about having complicated meals or indeed serving him a hot meal everyday. His milk feeds will still account for a large percentage of his needs, and provide the comfort he needs, just as a hot meal is comforting to us.

If it is any comfort, my DD now has a fantastic range of foods that she can eat - she was even eating smoked salmon sandwiches, olives and lychees by 18 months - the only thing she doesn't like is cheese! And she has grown out of her allergy.

Thanks very much for your help. We have just moved to a new city so are waiting to hear about a new pead but I will ask about allergy testing when we get an appointment. I think I am more nervous as I have a lot of food allergies as well so I'm worried DS will too.

Think if you have allergies, it can be easy to keep searching for evidence that your dc have them, when if fact much of what they do can be normal baby behaviour. That's why getting the testing is so important.

I agree with jilted on this. Cutting out a major food group (or 2!)
should be a last resort. Introducing one new food at a time should minimise risks and dabbing any potential big issues (eg egg or milk) to check for skin reactions first is an option too. When I first gave DD a bottle of formula she puked it all back up and I immediately panicked that she has DS allergy too. Turns out was just a coincidence and she had a bug that day. Was so paranoid I even posted on here about it