Milk intolerant 10mo, I'm running out of ideas

[IWorshipSatin]

I'm really struggling now with what to feed my DD (10mo). She's milk intolerant. I want to give her what we have but we have a very cheese-heavy diet!

At the moment she gets:

Jacket potato with beans
Spaghetti bolognese or other pasta bake type meal
Thai chicken curry
Roast and 2 veg type meals
Mexican chicken or other chicken meals.
Cottage pie

If we're eating anything different (ie. cheesy or otherwise too unhealthy) then I tend to give her a Hipp meal but I feel I'm relying too heavily on these Doing 2 proper meals a day for her and making it varied seems impossible.

Desserts I'm at a total loss - she has fruit or jelly but no real variety.

I try to give her finger food snacks of toast, fruit, a couple of chips, veg sticks, cucumber, those organix crisp things, but again not a lot of variety.

Breakfast is the same every day - weetabix and fruit with Neocate.

I'm doing so badly and she's very up for eating so I'm failing her completely.

She's not sitting up yet and only just getting food towards her mouth (she's virtually blind) so mealtimes are very stressful for me. We also have a toddler and I'm off back to work FT soon so I want to plan and get it sorted to make things as easy as possible.

Should add I'm still mushing her main meals and spoon feeding her, is this normal? She will accept lumps and is a good eater, very keen.

Do you know exactly what she's intolerant too - could you substitute with Lacto-free yoghurt/cheese etc (that's how we weaned), or soya yoghurt/milk?

Between beef, chicken and veg you probably have more variety than you think. Nowt wrong with the odd hundred Hipp/Ellas meal either.

What about fish? Home-made fishfingers? Salmon pasta bake?
Lentil curries/loaf?
Make some fruit loaf/banana cake using non-dairy butter?
Can she have eggs? Frittata? Eggy bread?

You really are not failing her! That sounds like a varied, yummy diet.

She is only 10 months and you say she is visually challenged so I would say spoon feeding her is going to be the best way for now.
Will she be sitting up I the next few months? You can try finger foods then

What about eggs? You could do potato frittata

You are doing great!

Could u get yourself a slow cooker? A joint of meat would be really soft and easy to eat for A 10m old.

Butternut squash soup (or any soup really)

Lentil Dahl

Home made meat balls with tomato sauce (u can mush up into te sauce or leave as finger food)

Pizza without the cheese, make the base, top with a roasted veg and tomato sauce and meat/veg of choice

Currys with coconut milk

Bean chili

Rice pudding
Make puddings with a dairy free marge. A fave here is choc and pear sponge. (4oz marge and sugar, 2 eggs, 3oz SR flour, 1oz cocoa pour over tinned pairs in an overn proof dish and bake) serve with soya ice cream.

Google Annabel karmel's mango and strawberry salad with passion fruit sauce. (My kids love this)

OH, and take it easy on yourself. You are NOT doing crap. Mine took ages to sit, use finger foods etc, had lactose intolerances etc (prems), and did not have any sight issues, which I can only guess makes the process harder. If she likes eating and you're doing a good variety of meat/veg/pasta/rice/potatoes, which you are, you are doing AWESOME. Everything else will come.

There are also a lot of dairy free substitutes for things if that is easier to get your head around: you can get dairy free cheese/cream cheese, dairy free milk, dairy free yoghurts...

Thanks all for the responses and ideas! Loads of stuff I hadn't even thought of.

She's never even tasted fish so I need to get that in somewhere - will do something this weekend.

I hadn't even thought about dairy free yogurts etc so I went to Tesco yesterday to try to get - could not find them anywhere :( Tried the fridges and the 'free from' aisle. Do I need to go to special shop for these?

I did find dairy free milk and dairy free custard so it wasn't a total waste of time

No idea what it is she's allergic to. Dietician told me to just avoid all dairy and all soya. However I have given her soya with no reaction. When I try dairy she reacts. I'm doing the 7 step programme from hospital but not got beyond step 1 yet.

I hadn't even thought about dairy free yogurts etc so I went to Tesco yesterday to try to get - could not find them anywhere sad Tried the fridges and the 'free from' aisle. Do I need to go to special shop for these?

Alpro is pretty mainstream and usually just sold with other yogurts. Holland and Barrett is also pretty good for dairy free stuff, I think they sell Provamel yogurts - make sure you check the dates though, they are rubbish at stock control_rotation

How about for dessert rice pudding or bread pudding made with coconut milk and spices like cardamom and cinnamon?

Try the Alpro yoghurts. The Lacto free are different, that's without lactose. Which is different from a cmpa. Alpro is in with the normal yoghurts.

Vitalite is dairy free.

alpro yoghurts have soya in them though which she is supposed to be avoiding

When I was weaning ds, also milk free, I did use some jar food as they tell you exactly what is in them!! Personally one jar and one home cooked meal per day was ok for me, I used his formula to cook with and then moved to using soya as he is ok with that, but would oat milk or similar work better for you? Weaning is hard enough without this too!! Sounds like you're doing great :-)

We think dd might have become dairy intolerant and so we are trying dairy free.

She has her own milk for cereals/drinks (we swap between unsweetened almond/rice/soya/oat to avoid too much soya (a vegan friend's dd became allergic to soya as a toddler, so I'm wary of soya now.)

She has her own alpro yogurts and dark chocolate.

No cheese in meals, we have it grated to add to dishes if people want it.

Tuna pasta bake has become tuna pasta. (I used to use double cream and cheese on top to stop the pasta drying out, now just cook it as we need it, with the tuna in a tomato and veggie sauce.

Are eggs ok? If so, omelettes with cooked potato, onion, spinach and chopped ham.

Chilli con carne or bolognese or stew with rice or mash or pasta. Cottage/shepherd's pie.

Risotto using stock and herbs, no dairy. (Added roasted chicken and veg).

Roast dinner.

Fish and chips. Egg and chips. Sausage and chips.

Couscous with 3 chopped veggies (spinach, tomato, olives, sweet peppers, sweetcorn, onion, herbs, mushrooms, brocolli, green beans, peas.)

Puy lentils with similar (other) additions as above.

Meat pasties with potato, spinach, gravy or chopped tomato to stop them getting dry.

There are dairy free milks in the long life section (where the custard is) and others near the fresh milk section (yogurts by tge dairy yogurts too) at our local Tescos.

be aware that rice milk isnt advised under the age of 5 due to arsenic levels