Suggestions for dairy-free alternatives please

[ElmMum]

My niece has severe food allergies so I'm being careful with DD. We're trying BLW and I'd like to use something like cream cheese to make a lentil/bean-pate-type-thing to go on rice cakes but I'm not giving her dairy for now.

Any good, baby-safe alternatives to cream cheese?

And yoghurt, while we're at it?

Cheers

We're on dairy free at the moment for a minor intolerance and it's tough! We've found a product called "Sheese" at Sainsbury's in the dairy/cheese section that's soy based. They do a faux cream cheese and a sort of regular block of "s"heese. The biggest problem with these and the other soy based products is the amount of sugar added to them - not to mention the whole soy and hormones thing which I haven't really read up on but probably should. There are also soy based yogurts - both plain and preflavored - again, watch for the amount of sugar/sweetener. Today we found one of the Sainsbury's brand soy milks has added calcium and no added sugar. I'm going to have to get a new glasses prescription for reading all the ingrediants labels. There are also lactose free products which also have the same sugar issues. With DS (9 months) I use the soy milk to make his porridge and then he might get one other soy based product during the day. Some people have suggested using goat's milk but when I mentioned it to my HV last week she said the goat's milk industry isn't as regulated as cow's milk. She also suggested using the milk that comes in non-refrigerated cartons (sorry, I can't remember the exact name but the Parmalot stuff) because the more it's treated, the less lactose it keeps (or something like that). I'm wary to do that based on DS's lack of dairy tolerance. I'm curious to see what else is suggested.

laraeo - get rice or oat milk with added calcium to keep soy intake down.

ElmMum - there's a cream 'cheese' called toffuti available in Holland & Barrett which isn't too bad.

Thanks both of you.

For my purposes, the alternative doesn't necessarily have to be like cream cheese, just do the same job i.e. make mushed up lentils or beans a bit more stuck together to make pate.

Not sure what would do that?

toffuti is really nice, almost identical to Philly.

Soya yoghurts are nice too.

i would suggest if you are using soya yoghurt and cheese that you use rice or oat milk rather than soya milk to keep down the soya intake.

My DS developed a soya allergy after being given too much soya.

Once we finish this container of soy milk (sorry, it's the American in me, I just can't type soya without really, really thinking about it) we'll switch over to the rice or oat milk. The last thing I need is another intolerance/allergy problem.

Ooh, I make custard for DS, but never thought of chilling it!!

great idea thanks!

Oat milk makes a good white sauce as well.