Eliminating dairy when breastfeeding

[7costanza]

My 10 month old is allergic to milk, eggs and peanuts, diagnosed about a month ago. I haven’t cut any of that from my diet, but am going to try to eliminate dairy as he’s often pretty grumpy and I want to see if it’s related to what I’m eating. If you cut dairy, did you stop eating stuff like bread too? Any good dairy free recipe sites you recommend? I usually eat a good amount of butter and cheese, and drink milk with dinner so I think this will be a challenge...

[Poppy]

Oh man, those are identical to the allergies my son had. I'm sorry!

The good news is that there are lots of alternatives for milk and butter products. Unfortunately, cheese is pretty hard to substitute. We did mostly Smart Balance for margarine and olive oil or coconut oil for cooking. I found some coconut milk coffee creamer, which was my biggest vice. I often added the search term vegan when looking for baking recipes.

I did eat bread, although most bread is dairy free and egg free anyway, actually. Woohoo!


It's tough but you will figure it out. To provide another glimmer of hope, my son can now eat milk and eggs! Peanuts are still a no go but they're easier to avoid for everyday stuff. Hugs!

[Poppy]

Also my favorite alternative milk was chocolate almond milk. In terms of sugar it was comparable to regular milk but it felt like a treat.

[rooster222]

Earth Balance Butter is really good, I think it tastes just like real butter.

Dave's Killer Bread is my favorite bread. I like the "white done right.". It's expensive but really good.

Fake cheese is not ever going to taste like real cheese. I don't really like anything store bought but if you want to get fancy there are some things you can make at home that might get you through.

I like Almond Milk for cereal but I don't drink it plain and don't think I'd like it plain.

[fayeelle]

I cut dairy for quite awhile d/t DD's MSPI. I second the recommendation for Dave's Killer Bread. It's still the only kind I buy nearly 4 years later. Fake cheese will always and forever be inadequate but I did find myself eating Daiya pizza and Amy's Dairy free mac and cheese quite often and didn't hate it. A surprising source of hidden dairy for me was lunchmeat so I only ate Applegate Farms. My favorite milk alternative was CalifaFarms Toasted coconut almond milk. And when switching to "milk" for DD I stuck with Oat or Hemp milks as they had the highest fat.

[7costanza]

Jul 26, 2020 11:32:29 GMT -5 fayeelle said:

I cut dairy for quite awhile d/t DD's MSPI. I second the recommendation for Dave's Killer Bread. It's still the only kind I buy nearly 4 years later. Fake cheese will always and forever be inadequate but I did find myself eating Daiya pizza and Amy's Dairy free mac and cheese quite often and didn't hate it. A surprising source of hidden dairy for me was lunchmeat so I only ate Applegate Farms. My favorite milk alternative was CalifaFarms Toasted coconut almond milk. And when switching to "milk" for DD I stuck with Oat or Hemp milks as they had the highest fat.

Interesting about the lunch meat! I’ve been really good about checking labels since we first suspected the allergies, but didn’t even think to look at the meat we’ve been feeding him.

[Poppy]

We did Dave's Killer Bread Good Seed for awhile until DS got picky about the seeds. Now we do Rudi's Honey Whole Wheat.

Oh! Oreos are dairy (and egg) free! They were our go to treat for awhile. If there's anything else you are dreading cutting, post it and one of us will probably have a sub. (Except pizza... sob.)

[sdlaura]

I’ve cut dairy after each of my four kids were born (including right now). My kids are also sensitive to wheat.

I like unsweetened original rice milk as a milk alternative for cereal. As a treat, target carries a brand of chocolate chips that are free of allergens (Enjoy Life brand). Whole Foods also carries M & Ms from the Unreal brand that are dairy free.

Lara bars and a lot of the kind bars are also good snacks.

I eat a lot of guacamole - it can often replace cheese on things like tacos or salads. For takeout I get chipotle bowls with guacamole instead of cheese and sour cream. Sushi is good too. Basically any meat with veggies on the side can be a good meal if you cook with olive oil instead of butter. This pumpkin turkey chili recipe is one of my favorite allergen free meals:

www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/pumpkin-turkey-chili/

[shoeless]

I like so delicious’ has great coconut coffee creamer and yogurt. For ice cream I like nada moo (Whole Foods) or so delicious coconut ice cream.

Earth Balance for butter and flax seed milk for cooking

Also second the recommendation for using the vegan term when googling for alternatives

[estrellita]

My daughter has a milk allergy, although she never "technically" reacted to my milk (she had eczema that looking back was probably related). I agree with PP that mentioned Earth Balance butter - I really like it! Most bread doesn't have milk in it in our experience, but you have to watch the labels. We use original soy milk, which I also like to drink, or almond milk. Ripple milk (pea milk) is a good sub too but wasn't A's favorite. I haven't found cheese I like, but A eats Daiya shreds and slices. And she really likes the Annies vegan mac and cheese.

The nice thing about avoiding milk is that it's usually labeled pretty well. But you really have to read every label. We recently have her Pop Rocks to try. The next day, H looked at a package and said they had milk in them. I thought he was kidding, but they do! She didn't react, but still, who would have thought, haha.

[dreamcrisp1]

Yes you have to cut 100% or it won’t help. Read every single ingredient. Things like lunch meat, chips, wine, etc. It’s really crazy. But seeing the change in your LO makes it 100% worth it. And if you cut it now, it will heal their gut and they may outgrow it. I cut it at 5.5 months and it was a huge difference. We are doing a dairy challenge in hospital at 1 (in September) to see if he has outgrown it.

My favourite substitute cheese is violife. It’s amazing. Sourdough bread shouldn’t have dairy and it’s amazing. Paleo recipes. But also I just sub oatly cooking milk or coconut milk in recipes.

We also have many food allergies so it’s tough but I cook so many amazing things for him. Pinterest is so helpful. I’m actually going to start an IG for recipes I think because it’s helpful to see what other moms cook. Everything I cook for my LO is dairy, egg, soy, peanut, cashew, hazelnut, and wheat free.

[mskitkat]

The biggest hidden sources I encountered were in “non-dairy” products. Non-dairy usually means no lactose, but it may contain milk protein like whey. French fries were another surprise.