Dairy free weaning

[mumsiemoo2]

DD is 6 months and had a severe allergic reaction to what we think was dairy. She swelled up like a balloon, it was terrifying!

We are awaiting allergy tests. In the meantime GP has advised me to trial being dairy free also as I am breastfeeding and she has had eczema. This has definitely improved since I cut the dairy also.

I am looking for advice on dairy free weaning and meal ideas. I feel like I give dd the same couple of things on repeat! I have also always liked is to all eat the same meal together (we have a 5yr old too) as I ideal long do not want to have to prep two different meals each day, especially when I go back to work.

Thanks for reading, any advice appreciated.

We are doing a mix of baby led and spoon feeding.

My 11 month old is dairy free - she didn't have any severe reaction though, that sounds scary! I've found it to be ok but I do find it hard not being able to give her cheese! I use oat milk and flora buttery where I would normally use the dairy versions. We haven't found a good alternative for yoghurt. We did try sugar free soya yoghurt with mashed strawberries mixed through but we thought it tasted awful. Other than that most things are pretty straightforward to make dairy free.

Would some of the coconut yoghurt brands work? High in fat, tasty, and it's possible to get ones with minimal stuff added. Peanut butter is another way to add fat to whatever they are eating. I also noticed that Aldi and Lidl do dairy free yoghurt pouches for those mornings when you just need something instant. I find I add Greek/natural yoghurt to quite a lot of things my baby would otherwise turn their nose up at, so I can see why it's a pain for you.

The Joe Wicks weaning cookbook also has dairy free suggestions (lots of avocado-based food!) and recipies like this for when they are a bit bigger - my baby is seven months, not dairy free but really liked these spinach and sweetcorn muffins broken up into bite size chunks https://www.tiktok.com/@mum_on.the.move/video/7104746650932972806

I'm DF too. Here are some of the things we eat that you could probably all eat:

Blueberry pancakes make with almond milk if you could try oat milk?

Spag Bol

Roast Dinner, just watch the gravy for milk

Ocean Pie if you swap the quark for Flora Buttery

Fish Goujons

Beef stew

Vegan Pizza

Ohh thank you some much for the replies. Some really useful ideas.

I completely agree about the cheese- yuck!

We haven't tried the yogurts yet, but we do use the Ella's kitchen fruit pouches and they do some with coconut milk also which she seems to like.

I am stuck on breakfast ideas, she has fruit pouches or avocado toast, I find all the baby cereal/ porridges contain dairy.

I also love the taste of oat milk in coffee, permanent change for me!

Thank you I will take a look at the Joe wicks recipes.

Dd who is 5 loves pizza, lasagne, cheese pastas she's basically Garfield so will be gutted if I don't make these anymore.

for breakfast you could give ready brek or weetabix made with her normal milk.

There is no need to buy "baby" cereals

Banana pancakes are good, but I also saw scrambled oats on instagram which my baby loved. Really simple to make and good for baby to pick up and apparently safe from 6 months. I make porridge using normal oats instead of any baby porridges although I'm sure some of the pouches are dairy free. I can't remember which. Maybe Aldi? Porridge made with coconut milk and chunks of frozen mango stirred in at the end until they break up is really good. Or toast, peanut butter and banana on a lazy day 🤣

@Herpesvirologist I didn't even think of the fat intake! 🤦🏼‍♀️ possibly explains why at 11 months my baby hasn't dropped much, if any, of her milk yet! I think I will look at Joe Wicks cookbook and have a word with myself. Thank you for inadvertently getting me in line!

Just do porridge for breakfast with alt milk and add some fruit? At 6m though does she need 3 meals a day? Maybe just drop one for now to make life easier whilst you get to grips with being df

Both of multiple ones are allergic to dairy. I find the oatly yoghurt okay but cheese i have never found a good sub for.

There are tons of recipes options but i know what you, when you need to think of them your mind goes blank.

For breakfast i find/found overnight oats good as i could prep it ahead of time and do a few days worth at a time. Baked oats are another handy option.

The dairy-free mum on Instagram is good for ideas.

You can buy dairy free oats from Tesco free from section if your little one likes porridge

Hey Op We too are dairy free from only a few weeks old same as you I BF and had to cut out all my dairy (worst thing ever haha)
just a note as we are many years down the journey now (Altho your baby may grow out of it) there are plenty of ‘dairy free’ foods out there now but many, many of them masquerade as ‘healthy’ and are indeed not and have very high levels of salt and sugar for little ones. I found it very confusing at the time.

the only dairy free milk (we avoid all dairy so cows / goats / etc etc) we have found to be non UPF (IE not full of rapeseed oil etc) is Plenish milk. There may be others but just read the ingredients and avoid any with oils in.

you may also want to get a supplement such as Nutrigen Vitamix powder as being DF it is sometimes hard to hit all the vitamin quotas.

I must admit we found it difficult at weaning stage and eating out was literally impossible (for me and them). My sympathies are with you it’s very very difficult but I’m sure many people here will have some fantastic weaning recipes and ideas x

https://www.ocado.com/products/plenish-organic-gluten-free-oat-drink-long-life-442005011?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=21130335351&utm_content=non-brand&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADi6iHkyQ8LACOD7WPr655_wWA7W3&gclsrc=ds

this is the milk they also do a coconut version, as I said only non oil / UPF one I’ve found but others may have more knowledge

Thank you everyone for all your replies.

I think I am massively overthinking this and need to keep things simple.

Just to add a bit of context to this, DD had a very bad (swelling) allergic reaction to wholemeal bread and butter. I stupidly gave her the gluten and dairy together thinking she wouldn't have any allergies because I eat this and I am exclusively breastfeeding her (literally eat toast over her sometimes!)

The hospital advised for her to avoid both until allergy testing because of how severe the reaction was (which we have done).

DD also has some very sore eczema patches, I went back to the doctor to try some different creams and he suggested that I also go dairy free (which seems so obvious now!) I am now dairy free also and it seems to be clearing up, so my assumption is it's probably dairy.

Allergy testing is in a few weeks times- hopefully have some answers.

I just feel stumped with weaning at the moment. She has veg with meat and fruit, but I really feel like I should be doing more.

Thank you for the free from oat suggestion, great idea with some breastmilk. Will give this a try.

Sorry for rambling!

The swelling must have been so worrying. How are you finding being DF? It takes a bit if getting used to doesn't it

My daughter has been dairy free for 5 years due to a milk allergy.
Petit filous do dairy free yoghurts we buy them in Tesco, they are not cheap (£2.50 for 4) but my daughter loves them
Violife is the best cheese we have found and daughter will eat
Pure is the best spread!
Aldis own Jaffa cakes are dairy free as is their angel cake
Always check packages of 'normal' food. All the supermarkets sell dairy free food that you can buy normal ones and doesn't contain dairy ie Jamie dodgers!
Aldi do snack packs of party rings and their own Jamie dodgers snack packs which again are both milk free.
Mr Kipling have apple tarts that are dairy free and the jam tarts too.
M&S have nice white chocolate made without bars - my daughter prefers white chocolate over dairy free milk chocolate as it's sweeter.
For dinners we cook her food with ours and just separate when needing to add dairy and give her her alternative cheese or milk ect.
For her milk my daughter has the alpro soya growing up milk.
Hope this helps x

Oh also Aldi do a cramilised biscuit cereal and spread that is also dairy free which is a hit with my daughter x

Don't beat yourself up. Are you avoiding bread altogether or using gluten free?

Anything that would normally be served with pasta I would do with rice or potatoes if you don't want to use gf pasta (reading between the lines here but maybe getting it wrong). Baby won't know it's a bit weird.

Are you concerned about finding allergies you don't know about yet? I don't think there's any harm in playing it safe until your allergy appointment. You can still expose her to herbs and spices and different textures to keep things interesting for her.

@mumsiemoo2 please don't worry about giving the same foods. Babies/toddlers without allergies can be quite picky anyway so you end up giving the same few meals at various points. They also change what food they like, sometimes on a daily basis. We often have pasta and dairy free pesto, the Tesco dairy free yoghurts, noodles with veg (especially peas and sweetcorn), lentils, lots of different fruit. Crackers are also good for lunches. I find with cheese we go through phases of him liking it and then not liking it. The soft dairy free cheese can be used in pasta. Although can also make macaroni cheese as well using the hard dairy free cheese.

Friends with coeliac tell me potato is a very good way to replace the carbs - so maybe things like cottage pie would be nice and suitable for the whole family?

I know this isn’t what you asked, but I had to go dairy free for a few months while breastfeeding too. Just to add, don’t forget to make sure you have plenty of calcium in your own diet to make milk with, otherwise there can be a heightened risk of osteoporosis. I didn’t do this and my GP told me off, but too late.

Really agree with this. If you're taking Calcium of also taken Vitamin D too.

Have a look at this from the BDA about how much Calcium you need each day

Thank you so much for this!
I was completely unaware and just work out my calcium intake which is well below the recommended 1250mg.
Luckily it's only been two weeks and I have just been and bought the pregnacare breastfeeding supplements.

dont forget you can cook with whatever milk you are using.

You can make breast or oat milk white sauce / rice pudding / custard (using custard powder) etc.
Loads of things are naturally dairy free.
and loads of things that you might assume have dairy in dont.
join the accidentally vegan facebook group for inspiration of things that you might assume contain dairy but actually dont. (these things are also typically normally priced rather than have an imflated place due to being labeled freefrom / vegan etc)