Milk Allergy - Gray, ME

Hi K.,
I just found out recently too that my daughter might have a milk allergy (she also can't have wheat or soy). She is 15 months and I don't breastfeed anymore, but I know how hard it is to find new things to eat. Luckily there are a lot of dairy free options on the market. My daughter has rice milk, which is actually very tasty. Almond milk is also very good. You can get dairy free cheese slices (VeggieSlices I believe is the name), dairy free ice cream. Tofutti makes a lot of those types of things, even dairy free cream cheese. I would say just pay close attention when you go grocery shopping and you'll probably find a lot of things to replace dairy items that you didn't even think were possible. Good luck!

Hi K., my daughter also has a dairy allergy, yes I feel limited too. She is a bf baby so I have to stay away from dairy. You eat everything but dairy, I won't lie I do have a very small about on average per week, for example a slice of cheese. But I’d stay away from the serious stuff like ice-cream, smoothies, mac and cheese. Just eat everything else, it's not as bad as it sounds. My daughter is 6 months, I found out at about 3months..so far so good...and still some more months to go. But it's okay to sacrifice now for baby's benefit, you can do it..lol. That's how I look at it. Good Luck

Hi K. -

What a tough situation - you want to nurse the baby, but you need to accomodate an allergy - yikes! Something that might help you - when you are shopping, look for foods labeled "pareve". In hebrew, that word means "neutral" - that the food product does not have meat or milk producs in it. I keep kosher, and that is one of the symbols I often look for. It is on many products, including breads, cookies, snacks, etc. When buying margarine, look for the Fleishmans green box of margarine sticks - the red box is dairy, but the green box is pareve and does not contain any milk. The taste is the same as regular margarine and can be used as a substitute in cooking or baking. Also look for soy products, like milk, cheese, etc. - can be found at the grocery store, too. The word Pareve is a good word for a milk-free diet! Good luck -

K.,
my son is 4 months old and we started the dairy free diet 3 weeks ago; just last week we added the soy free diet as well; I was also planning to breastfeed for the first year, but the addition of the soy free diet will probably change this--its too restrictive; my best advice is to visit Whole Foods, if there is one close by; they will print out a 20 page list of all the dairy free foods in the store, which will save you a ton of time; I was surprised at all of the foods that have dairy--even the so-called non-dairy creamer I was hoping to use in my tea; good luck!

Hi K.,

Well you are going to have to go on a total Dairy Free Diet. It's going to stink for awhile but you should think about trying the Silk Brand Soy Milk which also has a yogurt. The other thing, Fleishmans Unsalted Margarine is great on anything. You will have to read every label, which they make it much easier to read. This might be difficult but have you thought of putting the baby on formula? If she is allergic to milk your best bet is to go to a Soy Formula. The brands of formula Nutramagin contains Casein which is a milk protien.

My 5 year old was diagnosed with food allergies at 13 months old. I didn't breast feed but we had him on the Nutramagin and who knew from the time he was 5 weeks until about 10 months he was on it and allegic to it the whole time! Poor baby, but I did switch him to an All Soy Formula, which was good because there are so many choices for Soy Milk now. He had Milk, Egg, Casein, Peanut & Cashews but out grew all but the peanut. He does not drink regular milk to this day unless I sneak it in his Oatmeal or other foods but loves Soy Milk! Check out this web site http://www.foodallergy.org/ they have some great help because if your used to eating a certain way it is difficult to make the switch.

Good Luck .. Let me know how it all works out!

A. W

My daughter also has a dairy allergy which we discvoered about the same time. I ended up nursing her for almost 4 years! I am a HUGE cheese lover so it was hard but totally doable....

some good things to remember most good dark chocolate has no dairy
for when she is older a great book we love is vegan cupcakes take over the world.
there are lots of soy products out there my daughter eats soy, yogurt, cheese like singles, A.'s frozen no cheese pizza.

I'd be happy to chat with you off line.

A.

I was in the same situation when my daughter was an infant. She's now 5. You have to look for vegan "dairy products" as these items are milk free. I've found Whole Foods to be wonderful. There are many milk-free/vegan substitutes for yogurt, cream cheese, ice cream, butter, cheese etc. Most of the items are rice or soy based. They even have have milk free mac and cheese right next to the regular mac and cheese. Many of your bread products are dairy free, you just have to double check the labels. You don't have to worry about fruits, veggies, non processed meats and pastas, these are safe. I too was overwhelmed in the beginning, but it does get easier.

My daughter was diagnosed with a milk and soy allergy at 2 months, it took us 3 months to get her totally cleared up which involved going to a specialist (ped. gastroenterologist) and 2 weeks of special formula while I pumped. We are now back to breastfeeding (well, she won't nurse but is taking breastmilk in a bottle). The diet is very tough, but doable. Keep in mind almost half of all babies with milk allergy will also be allergic to soy. If you google "milk allergy diet" or "milk elimination diet" you will find a bunch of links to what to avoid. Here's one good list:
http://www.breastfeedingonline.com/allergy.shtml
Keep in mind, it takes 2 weeks for an milk products to get out of your system. Also, check your medications. I found my thyroid medication had lactose as a filler (I switched to generic). Good luck!

I became a big fan of vanilla rice milk (at least for cereal and even drinking. Also, for breakfast i began to like instant kashi oatmeal with berries on top and brown sugar. I also think it's a good idea to come up with special indulgences that you CAN have in order to compensate yourself for the lack of old favorites. Some of mine were steak tips, thai food, french fries, overpriced berries at the supermarket etc. I found that for me it was as much a pyschological disappointment (after having to cut out food during pregnancy) as it was a nutritional one.

Hi K.,
I never had my daughter diagnosed with a milk allergy, but when I was nursing her I did notice she was really fussy and colicky when I ate or drank anything with dairy products in it. I went with Soy. The refrigerated Silk in the red carton tasted the most normal to me. I also found a product called VegiShreds or something like that and it is like tofu cheese, but tastes normal and melts almost as good as real cheese. My husband is lactose intolerant too, so it was not a huge shift for me at the time, but I wanted you to know there is hope and the time will fly! Besides I heard Soy products are so good for you - lowering cholesterol and preventing breast cancer. You cannot go wrong! good luck!

I am dairy-free, as well as soy/corn/wheat/nut-free for my nursing baby. There is a lot you can eat. It just takes time to make changes and to find things that are easy and satisfying.

I use my crockpot a ton to make lots of beans & rice dishes, chicken dishes, etc. Eggs & toast is an easy breakfast, as well as whole grain cereal with soy or rice milk. I make overnight oatmeal in my crockpot as well.

We're over 6 months into this restricted diet and I'm able to continue with the help of some good Trader Joe's dark chocolate! Feel free to send me a personal message for more ideas. Feel free to include what typical meals would look liek for you.

This is a must read article to all those with a supposed "milk allergy". It explains the real problem is the body rejecting a chemical hormone used to make cows produce more milk, thus entering our dairy foods. Purchasing dairy that uses no hormones in the care of the cows are totally fine with these children labeled with an allergy to dairy. Doctors should tell patients this....but, sadly they do not.
http://allergykids.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/got-milk-alle...

Hi K. - Kudos to you for continuing with breast feeding! My son had a ultiple protein allergy and I had to cut out all protein while I nursed him. (dairy, wheat, egg, soy,nut, fish, etc) Go to the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network website and they have a bunch of great recipes that can be made dairy free etc. I switched to rice milk and used that to cook etc. Of course I was even more restricted so I know you can do it if you want to. Lots of health food stores also carry dairy free products. There is so much out there for allergy laternatives now. I managed to nurse him until 13 months and am so gald I could. Good luck,

S.
Mom of 9 & 6 year old boys

I had to go off dairy for a couple of weeks when my son was about 3 months old. They thought he had a milk allergy, but it turns out it was something else. I had a really hard time finding things to eat since I was/am such a "dairy" person. A friend of mine told me to look for Kosher foods with "Pareve" on the label. That means that there are no dairy products in them. It helped tremendously. (I swear there is diary in everything --even things you wouldn't suspect. I was crazy with reading labels.) Hope this helps.

My son was diagnosed with a milk allergy when he was 3 months old. I wanted to continue nursing, so I was on a dairy-free diet, too. I nursed him until he was almost a year old. I am so glad that I did it! He started eating dairy at 11 months and whole milk at 1 year. He was tested again and no longer has the allergy. I also lost an extra 30 pounds on top of the pregancy weight! As far as the diet goes, you have to become a good label reader. Look for the obvious words like milk, cream, or butter, but also whey, lactose and casein. I had soy milk (Silk plain and 8th Continent Chocolate were may favorites), soy yogurt (Silk, Whole Soy & Co., NOT Stonyfield because it contains milk), some rice and soy cheeses (not very tasty, stay away from veggie cheese because it usually contains dairy), soy ice cream (Soy Delicious, Tofutti), dairy-free margarine (Earth Balance, Smart Balance, make sure it's labeled dairy-free or vegan, most margarines contain whey), Tofutti dairy-free cream cheese and sour cream, breads and english muffins that do not contain milk ingredients, bagels (not generally made with milk unless they have cheese in them), fresh fruit and vegetables, organic dairy-free frozen waffles, pancake mix that you have to add the milk (use soy), pasta, red sauce. I could keep going. Please feel free to to e-mail directly if you want more info or advice. I usually found these items at Stop & Shop or Whole Foods.

HI K.,
Our daughter had severe reflux her first year. I exclusively breastfed for the year, but was put on a strict dairy and soy free diet. You really should ask to see a dietician/nutritionist which the baby's health insurance should cover. I did thru Children's hospital and it was extremely helpful.
It's all about reading labels... You'll get to know the U, parve symbols and many more which are really on all food packages.
Because the diet is so strict (in fact I was not permitted to eat or drink foods that were even processed in plants that had soy or dairy in them which I found a bit extreme), you really have to force yourself to eat enough calories. In fact I really had a difficult time maintaining my milk supply at the end.
I strongly encourage you to Just Do It. If you're committed it will work.
Also after the year our dgtr still needed weight gain so she was put on Nutramigen (hypoallergenic) formula. I transitioned from breast milk to that formula for 1 month, then transitioned over to soy milk over several weeks then finally organic cow's milk ( a slow but successful transition.)
Hope this helps. Please feel free to contact me if needed.
God bless!

Hi K.,
Try not to worry! I had a similar experience. When my little boy was only about four weeks old, we realized he had a milk sensitivity. His doctor refrained from calling it an allergy--he said it was too early to worry about that and that plenty of babies have a sensitivity to milk early on that they grow out of. He told me to cut out all the dairy from my diet. I agree with you--it felt totally overwhelming, because dairy seems to be in nearly everything you eat! But after a couple weeks of getting used to it, it wasn't so difficult. I used non-dairy creamer in my coffee, substituted water for milk in scrambled eggs (and cooked them with a little vegetable oil instead of butter), used jam instead of cream cheese or butter on bagels, etc. I really missed eating cheese and drinking milk. Maybe the biggest sacrifice for me was no ice cream all last summer! My doctor predicted that I would have to avoid milk for an entire year, since I planned to nurse that long. However, I was lucky and at six months my son stopped being sensitive to milk. He's just about to turn 1, and we're winding down the nursing. I'm planning to start him on whole milk in a couple of weeks. So no worries--your child will likely grow out of it!
Hope this wasn't too much info...good luck with everything.

Hi K., take heart! With some research and label-consciousness, you'll be able to nurse your daughter as long as you both want. My son has multiple food allergies including dairy and while it was an adjustment, he nursed until 15 months. I would greatly advise you to see a nutrionist who can give you a list of all the ingredients to look out for, as well as lists of "safe foods" and web sites. For example, whey and casein are pseudonyms for dairy, so you'll need to exclude any foods that list those in their ingredients. I had luck with foods labeled vegan, as it pretty much assures you that there is no dairy in them. My son was also allergic to soy, so we had to have a special prescription formula to supplement my breast-milk; most over the counter formulas contain some traces of dairy, even if they are soy based. Again, you'll need to look at labels. I drank Rice Milk and learned to really enjoy its light flavor, but your daughter may be tolerant of soy milk in your diet. There are many options out there for dairy-free diets, especially if you can have soy, but even if you can't, like me, I had a lot of variety in my diet. Good Luck! M. M.