I won’t go into detail, but let’s say that events over the past few days have shown that poor Claire has a bad reaction to dairy proteins in my milk. I’m now wondering if even low levels have been affecting her, causing her to be extra fussy pretty much since birth. So I’m going to try to cut out every scintilla of dairy from my diet.
My problem is I love cheese, yogurt, and pretty much all things milk-based. It makes me sad to contemplate months and months without pizza. My breakfast of cereal with milk and Kefir to drink is right out the window.
I’m thinking of trying to go Asian with lunch and dinner at least - that’s food that is naturally delicious without dairy. I generally don’t like attempted substitutions like soy milk and cheese. I’d rather do without.
So where do I go from here? I’m not very experienced with Chinese/Japanese/Thai cooking at all. Oh, and the other problem is that with a four year old and a fussy four month old, I can’t spend much time at all on meal preparation. I’d love to be able to spend a few hours a day making meals with fresh vegetables and fruits, but it’s just not going to happen.
Anyone have experience cutting dairy out? Any recipes, or cookbook suggestions? Luckily I have a Borders gift card burning a hole in my pocket!
My youngest son has been lactose intolerant since birth, and I since age 16. We can both usually tolerate a bit of milk, and some cheese, but there are some sacrifices to make. He still eats ice cream, but he accepts the risk of pain and diarrhea later. The big sign of the intolerance as a newborn was constipation- small, hard stools along with obvious discomfort and crying after meals. There are products out there that help, such as lactase enzyme pills or milk with lactase added. If you work at it it’s still possible to get the recommended amount of calcium and vitamin D.
I’m not sure if or where breastfeeding affects lactose intolerance, so I can’t help you there.
And, good news, yogurt contains bacteria that digests the lactose, so you can eat all the yogurt in the world and it won’t hurt.
Our son had colitis when he was breast feeding, this reached a crisis point when he was about 6 months old.
After two emergency room hospitalizations in less than two months the smart doctors at Children’s Hospital in Boston gastroenterology diagnosed him with sensitivity to dairy, and possibly soy proteins, that were passing to him through my wife’s milk. They advised us to cut out both (since we were modifying our diets anyway to get rid of dairy it was little extra work to avoid soy which according to them was the next most likely source of problems).
They gave us a printed sheet of paper of foods to avoid. Very importantly the list included a list of “code words”, words that are often listed on packages of ingredients that indicate the presence of dairy or soy proteins inside.
So in addition to avoiding things like “milk” or “dairy solids” we needed to avoid “casein”, “whey”, “modified vegetable protein” (which can be soy) and I think even “natural flavors”.
Our best resource turned out to be Whole Foods. In general the less processed foods are, the shorter the list of ingredients, and the less likely they were to include any of the forbidden items. Obviously vegan foods aren’t going to have dairy at all, so as long as they were soy-free we were good to go. We were lucky in that it was just the three of us, and I was used to doing a lot of the shopping and most of the cooking anyway, and there was a Whole Foods between home and work. I just paid attention to the labels and didn’t buy highly processed stuff. We ate things like steak, rice, plain vegetables. Bisquick pancakes were out but bacon was still good (provding it wasn’t flavored in any way) etc, etc.
My son grew out of this problem by about 2 years old, and today (age 8) he has as much of any kind of food he wants (within reason of course).
Obviously I am not a doctor, let alone your doctor. You may not need to worry about the soy issue at all, I don’t know the particulars of your situation, etc, etc.
Apologies if this sounds presumptuous, but is this something your pediatrician should check out, before making big changes? Maybe something else is going on. Is Claire throwing up?
My third baby was fussy and colicky and started spitting up a lot and then vomiting. We changed formula (on doctor’s orders) but nothing helped. Turned out he had pyloric stenosis, a fairly common birth defect. I can’t remember for sure how old he was when the doc finally figured it out – I’m thinking it was at about three or four months, but it might have been earlier.
Well, there’s always brujaja’s tried-and-true method of finding out which Asian dishes you like best – try them all!
My favorite aspects of Thai cooking are the ones that involve coconut milk (it’s not milk), basil, lemon grass, garlic and/or peanuts. Simmering chucken in coconut milk always comes out wonderful. Adding ground (or chopped) peanuts to soy sauce with a little sugar and maybe some ginger makes a great stir-fry sauce.
You will probably want to invest in a small selection of condiments like black bean sauce, chili-garlic sauce, hoisin, oyster sauce, etc. They are not expensive, and they really impart an authentic flavor.
Don’t forget that if you leave off the cheese and sour cream, you can also eat Mexican food. They have delicious flavoring ingredients like tamarind, cilantro, lime, mole, etc.
I love looking at cookbooks; but what I usually end up doing is improvising with what I have in the house, and my selection of sauces and condiments.
This is a good point, thanks. But actually I took her in at 2 months or so because if she wasn’t asleep, she was crying, and she wasn’t sleeping great at night. Basically they said it’s colic. I thought it might be silent reflux, but in any case, the doctor said one of the first interventions in both cases is cutting out dairy for two weeks or so to see if it gets better. At the time I wasn’t convinced enough to go to those lengths. However, over the past 3-4 days I drank a lot of milk, and Claire has been screaming for no apparent reason, having tons of gas, and green poo, as well as a diaper rash, when she hasn’t displayed these things before.
Her well-baby checks have been perfect, she’s gaining weight well, her belly looks and feels normal. The doctor wasn’t pleased that she only naps for 30 minutes at a time, but couldn’t actually offer a way to fix it. Now over the past few days the napping has been much worse, and that makes me wonder if she’s been having a low-grade tummy ache all this time, and it makes her sleep lightly. (Or, she could just be a light napper - my older one seemed to be. That’s the problem with babies - it’s so hard to know what’s wrong!)
But yes, if she keeps up with the new symptoms and they don’t get better in a few days, I’ll check with the doctor.
Whew. Those symptoms aren’t anything like pyloric stenosis. One of the symptoms is projectile vomiting, emphasis on projectile. Seriously, you didn’t want to be within five feet of the kid after he ate.
Alice the Goon said yogurt is okay. That should help with the calcium and vitamin D. I was wondering how those would be replaced in a non-dairy diet.
I’m sorry you have to go through this, but it’ll be worth it when Claire’s tummy settles down. It can’t be much fun for either of you right now. Good luck!
If you don’t like soy, try nut milks like almond or hazelnut milk. They don’t taste the same as cow’s milk, but they are delicious in their own way. I actually prefer them to regular milk and they don’t upset my stomach.
i’ve recently been put on a prescribed diet that cuts out all grains, and severely limits dairy. My breakfasts are usually a large apple, with a couple tablespoons of natural peanut butter sweetened with honey. It’s yummy, and the apple has enough fiber to keep me from getting hungry.
There’s also soy yogurt available if, in spite of the bacteria in yogurt, you just feel like going totally dairy free. It’s pretty good stuff, although you still have to read the ingredient list to avoid dairy proteins. Most brands are dairy free, but at least one or two aren’t. Same with if you’re looking at frozen processed foods for any reason. There are a bunch of frozen dinners that substitute soy cheese (not to my taste anyway) for real cheese and yet still have added milk solids just to piss off the vegans, I guess.
I personally love the kid sized containers of flavoured soy milk. Sugary, though.
I am lactose intolerant AND live with a vegan. We eat vegan at home. The pizza issue has not been resolved to my satisfaction, although you can fake up feta with tofu sort of handily for a greek pizza. Otherwise I have come to appreciate some simple, non-cheesified flatbreads as alternatives. But you’d be surprised how fast you can get used to dairylessness in every day living. I thought it’d be much harder than it has been, and I’m much more likely to indulge in meat products when I’m out than dairy products.
My son and husband are lactose intolerant and though they are drawn to pizza like a moth to a flame, we have made subtle switches in our fridge with little complaint.
Soy or Rice Milk ( flavored). Make sure it is vitamin fortified.
I can’t beleive it’s not butter is a very good spread subsitute.
There is soy cheese ( like the kraft singles, not bad, but lacking something.) and another Cheese Like Processed Food Slices that I found from Kroger’s that is alot cheaper than the Vegetarian cheese stuff and equally not meh, but not great either.
We don’t do yogurt any more. That was a tremendous filler for my kids. I realized I was relying on it a bit too much and would buy 4 packs of 6 whatever was on sale or had a coupon for. The kids went through it like water.
Since I cut yogurt out of our household budget ( it’s been 2 years.) we haven’t had one cold. Phlegm City for everyone.
There is a book that I am trying to remember that is about what you need to know about Cow Milk and how it isn’t meant for human digestion for an indefinate use.
Not much to say, except I’ve been there.
Miss Cricket had similar issues when she was little, which led me to cut dairy out of my diet for about 3 months.
I tell you, the baby weight just fell right off…but it’s damn hard to keep yourself fed while breastfeeding without dairy!
My doc mentioned that almonds are a good source of calcium.
And soy milk tastes like ass.
I had to cut all dairy products out of my diet when I was breastfeeding, as my son is allergic to milk protein (not lactose intolerant, but a true allergy). It was really hard. I can’t stand any of the milk substitutes, and because there is also a history of nut allergy, I was told by the docs not to eat anything soya-based either.
There are a couple of really good cookery books:
‘How to cook for food allergies’, by Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne is the best one. It gives detailed explanations of substitutions you can make for cooking, and has some pretty tasty recipes.
‘The complete food allergy cookbook’ by Marilyn Gioannini is also quite good, and tends towards the more wholefood approach.
I went through the whole colic/reflux palaver before my son was diagnosed, but once I had gone dairy-free he was a much nicer baby! I breastfed for a year, and when he was weaned I went on a massive milk-chocolate binge…
Sadly, at the age of 2 and a half, he is still unable to eat dairy, eggs, nuts or seeds. The dr says he probably won’t grow out of it, either. Sigh.
Waitaminnit – if a woman is breast-feeding, isn’t her milk supposed to have “dairy proteins” in it? And wouldn’t they be there regardless of her diet? If the baby is reacting badly to the milk, wouldn’t it make more sense to switch to formula or something?
No, dairy proteins are only present in breast milk if the woman’s diet includes dairy products made from cows milk (goats milk also contains the same proteins). Formula milk is made from cows milk and is therefore unsuitable for any baby suffering from milk allergy or lactose intolerance - there are several hypoallergenic formulas for this, one of which my son gets on prescription from the doctor.
I also meant to mention that there is a website called Milkfree.org which is a pretty good resource for recipes, etc.
Thanks for the advice and support, it really helps!
And yes, sadly yogurt and such are not going to work right now, because it’s the proteins the baby is sensitive to, not lactose (almost all babies can digest lactose). BrainGlutton, as CrowJane said, the problem is not that the baby is sensitive to something that is naturally in my milk, but that some of the proteins from cow’s milk I’m drinking gets into my milk. Cows make dairy proteins, humans make human proteins. I know it’s confusing because it’s all called “milk,” but they are very different.
It’s good to be reminded that bacon is on the “OK” list. And chips, salsa, and guacamole. Between the two, it takes the sting out of the pizza thing. Oh, and I tried some Almond Breeze on my Cheerios this morning, and it was good! I wouldn’t drink a glass of it straight, but it’s good for cereal, which is very helpful.
And yeah, I think I’m going to have to sample a lot of Asian cuisine, you know, just to make sure I know what I like best. Tonight will be chicken and Kermit eggplant in red curry coconut broth, over rice. Not too shabby.
I’m definitely checking out the allergy cookbooks and milkfree.org - thank you. My husband’s family has food allergies (not milk though), so cooking ideas will be useful beyond the baby’s needs. Hopefully through breastfeeding and delaying solids I will help her avoid food allergies when she’s older, but my MIL’s and husband’s issues are here to stay.
Check the ingredients on the “I can’t believe…” spread - many, many margarine products contain dairy ingredients (whey, at the least). We have to look extra-hard to find ones for Dweezil who is on a reduced-dairy diet for other reasons.
The soy cheese slices all contain casein to help them melt like real cheese slices. If casein isn’t the issue (i.e. if lactose is the problem), then they might be OK for you. We avoided them as well because the casein was in fact the problem for us, rather than the lactose.
In my grocery store, the ONLY entirely non-dairy margarine is Fleischman’s Unsalted, which I may have just misspelled. The Original flavor contains dairy. I believe that in fancier stores, you can find an entirely non-dairy, non-trans-fat margarine, but I don’ t know the brand name.
