Baby with a Milk Allergy

My son is allergic to milk and soy protien, so I understand completely. He eats a lot of fresh fruits and veggies. Trader Joes has "Cat Cookies" and has recently come out with some animal crackers that are good, too. I've found that "gluten free" products are lifesavers for us. Dierberg's carries a good selection. As he gets older, if he doesn't outgrow the allergy, rice milk is a good substitute for milk and tastes pretty good, too.

go to walmart and get a tiny mixer, then mix up anything you eat (use soy milk in his)then give it to him. My son was on table food at 4 months old with that method.

I went through this with my 2 year old and am going through it with an 8 month old as well. I always felt like I was giving them the same old things as well. I fed my little girl lots of applesauce and bananas (both things she really loves to this day). I also tried the instant mashed potatoes by Hungry Jack, they taste just like real mashed potatoes but you make them with water instead of milk. She was able to keep them down without any problems and so far so has my son. So, I am thinking that they must not have any milk in them. I would also make her meat that I thought would be easy to chew and swallow, most of the time that was some sort of chicken, usually grilled chicken. But, my husband also helped me by telling me this, babies aren't used to having a wide variety of foods set before them so they aren't going to care if they have the same thing two or more times per week. Good luck!

Hi J., The best book for you and I suggest it to everyone as well: "The Super Baby Food Book" by Ruth Yuron.
My husband was allergic to Milk as well when he was a baby, this was back in the 60's when there were not any great advances, anyway, his mom used "goats-milk," has your ped, ruled that out as an option, yet?? In the mean-time, I really suggest the book to get you on the way, you can find it on Amazon for about $14 or in the bookstores for about $19. I would not be giving tator-tots either, too many diaper issues from that product, unless you are making them from scratch :] with natural butter only.
God Speed, M. N.

J.,
Both of my kids are sensitive to dairy.
You can give your baby soy and rice milks. After he turns 1yr old, he can have almond milk. Also goat products have proven the best for my family - milk, cheese, yogurt
.
There are cereals and breads that he will be able to have - kind of have to watch for wheat though, so maybe after he turns 1yr?

But really, other than fruits, veggies and grains, there's not a whole lot else he needs at this age. His main nutrition should be from breastmilk/formula until age 1. Foods before age 1 are for exposure to tastes and textures, not really counting a whole lot towards nutrition.

If you're worried about calcium intake, there are veggies that have good amounts of calcium. Goat's milk is easy on baby's stomach's - milk, yogurt and cheeses are all easily available at my local grocer (so probably yours too).

There is a pretty tight triangle between dairy, wheat and peanut allergies. Are there any wheat/gluten or peanut allergies in your family? If so, then keep an eye on his body for any reactions to foods that contain those (spinach, broccoli, fig, date). I shred spinach and broccoli in my food processor and put it in with the yogurt. Samuel doesn't care for spinach too much, so I typically add peach or banana or some other strong-flavored fruit to help cover the taste.

As for recipes for after he's one, I really like allrecipes.com for recipe ideas. I simply substitute milk for soy milk. In most cases, that works fine. Cheese is probably the most difficult thing. My kids like goat cheese pretty well. I was told by vegan friends that soy cheeses and other 'alternative' cheeses taste awful and aren't worth the money.

Here is a link to kellymom.com. This article specifically mentions bf'd babies, but regardless of whether you are or not - in the 2nd or 3rd section there is a list of things (protein, fat, calcium) that one can get from cow's milk and it tells where else you can find those things.
http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/toddler-foods.html

HTH and if anything I wrote needs clarification or prompts more questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
K. H, mama to
Catherine, 4y
Samuel, 14m

J.,
three out of four of my boys were in the same boat! Anything
i would use milk in,,i would do theirs with soy formula and
so they had mac/cheese,mashed potatos,,gravy,,,,,,and i used
a blender alot!!

Hello!

A few things my son likes...
scrambled eggs (no added anything... just eggs in a pan)
sweet potatoes
bananas
blueberries
cut-up grapes
applesauce, apple slices
mashed potatoes (I add chicken broth instead of milk and butter)
black olives
pastrami (weird, but he loves it!)
turkey lunch meat

Good luck!

I have 2 boys with a milk protein allergy. A lot of products contain milk you would never think would even have milk in them. It will depend upon the sensitivity your child has to milk. I would suggest going to an allergist. I have found my sons are allergic to casein. Many products may say lactose free but contain casein. Watch for that in the list of ingredients. Shop at larger health food stores for best selection of soy or rice produts. When your son is ready for milk at age one try Silk. My doctor suggested this one. It is a lot cheaper at Wal Mart and Target. The grocery stores like Hy Vee and Price Chopper are sometimes $1.00 - 2.00 more. Also, I found a webiste called Divvies.com that has fabulous milk free products that taste wonderful.

I have a quick and easy fix. Both of my boys were allergic to milk also. My chiropracter treats allergies. From one visit, he was able to completely get rid of their milk allergy and we have been doing other allergies at next visits. He has gotten rid of my cat allergy, I used to get VERY sick just to walk into a room where a cat has been, now I can sit and pet them and I feel great!!

I don't have worry about a set menue b/c they can eat anything now!

He is great with kids! He has 6 of his own. His staff is wonderful also!

Life Chiropratic
Dr. Fred Clarke
13849 S Mur-Len Rd. Ste. E
Olathe, KS 66062
###-###-####

Good Luck J. and happy eating for your little boy!
S.

Do know much about organic food? My kids only drink rice milk-they have never had milk because I am allergic to milk and so are my kids!! Can your baby eat Cheerio's,bananas-natural fruit bars-they are really soft,applesause!! My kids mostly eat organic food-lots of fruits and veggies!!

J.,

Since he has a milk allergy, start cooking his foods with Lactaid. It is a soy milk that does not contain the hormones and other contents that causes Lactoise problems which can be found in any grocery store in the milk and cream section. You can make mashed potatoes, infant cereal, gravies and more. My son had the same issue as an infant and has now grown out of it.

Thank you,

E.

Check with your pediatrician first however my daughter is ALSO allergic to Milk and Soy. There is Almond Milk which at your babies young age most likely would not object to such a change. Again ask your pediatrician but you can find Almond Milk in almost all stores. It isn't in the dairy section however, you can find it next to Teas and Coffee typically.
Just an idea.
Bren

You can make homemade mashed potatoes and instead of mashing with milk use water. It isn't as good as being mashed with milk, atleast in my opinion, so we would mash a small portion with water for our oldest and then mash the rest with milk. If the doctor is okay with table foods at his age and he has teeth you could give him small little pieces of hotdogs. Best of luck. C.

Have you ever tried the Soy milk/formula? They also have ensure type of drinks to help with these type of problems. If it's not a soy formula, I prefer Silk Soy Milk...it last alot longer than regular milk too. Good luck & God Bless!

Hi, my daughter also had a milk allergy that was diagnosed at age 1. I used the internet as a great resource and just started reading labels! This may sound funny to us, but my daughter loved beans out of the can (rinsed off), cut up tofu, and Rice Dream. I believe that is the name of it. It is rice milk sold on the shelf (Walmart has it) and it tastes like melted ice cream. I even enjoyed it.
I was so overwhelmed when she was first diagnosed, but I just started researching different foods and it became second nature. She had a large variety to eat. I also got a wonderful book for cooking with allergies.
She is now 6 and has long outgrown this allergy. I will warn you that she now has peanut/tree nut allergies. So, by all means stay away from peanuts until he is at least three!!

If he can have soy then you can try Boca original vegan burgers. They are really soft and mushy. Most other Boca and Gardenburger type products have some sort of dairy in them. If he tolerates wheat then you can make your own zucchini bread because that uses oil and not butter.

My son couldn't have dairy, soy, or wheat his first year. A safe dairy and wheat free finger food is puffed rice. I'm not talking about rice crispies but actual puffed rice. It is large enough for him to grasp and work on the pincher grip (no wheat=no cheerios). You can buy rice bread and bake it at a really low temp (200 or 250) for a couple of hours and make your own teething biscuits. I know some people are anti-Gerber but they have a turkey and rice stew that is dairy and wheat free. However, it is in the gerber graduates line so it wouldn't be something for him right now.

i have a small at home day care up to 9 children at times. they have all thrived and cut their teeth on a good old fashioned dill pickle. we also put black or green olives on our fingers and play little games and suck the olives off. smaller children get chopped olives they love sqwishing them up and stuffing a few down [creepy poop, when the olives don't digest]

Our daughter loved cut-up tofu (uncooked). I think it's bland uncooked, but she always loved it. Of course, it's an EXCELLENT protein source. Loved beans (kidney, black, etc.) as well. Scrambled egg bits were a big hit, too, as was avacado. You can mix in extra cheese (a non-dairy, kind of course) with the eggs for even more protein. I loved giving her avacado because of the high amount of good fat that babies need, and the omega-3s. Is he just allergic to cows milk? There's lots of products made with goat milk.

It is true that they don't need a whole lot before age 1 that breastmilk doesn't give them....except iron. Formula has iron added, but if he's just on breastmilk, he may need extra iron.
A large percentage of babies who are not formula-fed are anemic by age 1, I don't remember the percentage my dr. told me, but it was pretty substantial!

have you tried goats milk? my daughter couldn't have any dairy products either, but goats milk is very healthy. you can buy it in stores every where.

Oh, i feel for you. My son also suffered from a milk allergy. I gave him dry toast, cheerios, soy yogurt, cut up apples/pears, baked sweet potatoes/yams to eat as well. My son still has a food allergy (nuts), but because of the allergy we all eat healthier. I tend to cook from scratch so I can have better control of the ingredients in my kids food. Also, some things to keep in mind...you might want to do a food panel on your son. We knew about the milk allergy, suspected an egg allergy but we were blown away by the peanut allergy. We had followed the advice of our dietician to avoid certain foods until our child reached a certain age. Avoid milk/egg products until age 1. Avoid peanuts and nuts till age 2. Our son was 18 months old when we did the food panel. We think we may have saved his life by following the recommendations.

Good luck with your little boy and hopefully he will outgrow the allergy.

h

I have a 6 year old with a milk allergy and she eats everything that we eat just made with her own special ingredients. Ex, soy milk or rice dream rice milk, they have fake cheese, butter ice cream, Bunny bread contains no milk certain cake, pancake mixes etc contain no milk either. I have 4 kids so I understand that this will be hard but go to the store alone and look at the stuff you buy and look at others around it to see if there are others without milk you would be surprised! Also Trader Joe's Whole Foods and other stores like that have great alternatives at unfortunately slightly higher prices but alternatives are out there. Also watch lunch meat and hot dogs may use milk as a filler, PaPa John's pizza uses no milk in sauce or crust no fillers in meat and will make part of a pizza without cheese!Sorry so long hopefully it helps!

I babysat for my nephew when he was a baby/toddler and he had the same severe reaction to milk products. We used soy formula and Vitamite milk (it has less of a soy taste than other soy milks). The Vitamite milk is getting hard to find, but there are many other non-dairy milk options out there.

We also found that my nephew's allergy was only to raw milk, so if we used milk in his food and cooked the milk before it was eaten, he didn't have the reaction. You might try preparing things that way. You can also cook some milk and keep it in the fridge for him to drink.

Pureed fruits and meats are a good option for kids your son's age. Mashed bananas, applesauce, and peas & carrots were my kids' favorites. You don't have to buy the prepared baby foods. Regular applesauce is fine and as long as you mash the foods either with a fork, grinder, or in your blender your son can eat almost anything. Doing it yourself will also give you more control over the ingredients so that you can make sure you don't accidentally trigger his milk allergy.

On the plus side, he's now 7 and has somewhat outgrown his milk allergy. He can eat a regular serving of ice cream, yogurt, cheese, etc. He does still get diarrhea if he has too much raw dairy and he still drinks Vitamite instead of dairy milk. Good luck!

Hi, J.,

Try soy milk and then you won't have to stretch your menu. There is no difference in taste when used for cooking and very, very little difference when it's used alone for drinking.

All of my kids (9), liked peas when they were babies. Your pediatrician can probably give you ideas for what to fix your baby as well.

What about soy milk or other milk substitute? This will allow some home-produced foods if he is tolerant. Also have you used you search engine to look up milk allergy menus, products, etc. With milk allergies being relatively common, there should be some reliable sources of good foods out there for him.

Oo hunny i feel ya ..my daughter has it too weve only known for 2 months but we use alot of soy like instead of snack pack pudding they have soy yogourt....soy chesse ..soy ice cream ,but oreos dont contain milk ...lipton i think it is has side creations ther in a packet in grocery store they have some with noodles ,some with rice ...but they take like 7 minutes to make and there great when your making a meal they cant eat ..but read the lables some do contain milk like the alfredo ones

I can help! My 5 year old is allergic to milk, eggs, peanuts, and wheat! First, always READ THE INGREDIANTS of an item to make sure that it does not have milk-you'd be suprised where you find it (like McDonalds fries and some fruit snacks). Also, check the label everytime-ingrediants will change without notice. Here is a short list of ideas, some that aren't good for your son right now since they are choking hazzards, but will be useful in the future!
Cheerios Some types of Noodles
Raisens Some French Fries
JetPuff Mini Marshmellows Soy Yogart
Fresh fruits and veggies Other cereals
Chex Enjoy Life Cookies
Many types of crackers Tofutti Soy "Cheeese"

Also, if you have not done so already, take your son to the allergist to make sure he has a true milk allergy. If he does, you will need to take extra precautions and get a prescription for an Epi-pen JR. in case your son accidentally ingests milk. My son can quite breathing if he ingest milks, eggs, or peanuts, and this symptom can occur with a true allergy at anytime, even if it hasn't happened in the past. Once the allergy is confirmed, please take some time to go to foodallery.org, the FAAN website. It is the best source for information and support that you can find. Good luck!!

Hello, I have a website I got from a friend and it may be able to help you out. I haven't gone to it yet due to my child is only 6 months old. Here is the website i hope it can help you out. http://www.annabelkarmel.com/Default.aspx

Good Luck,
M.

I discovered my son had a milk allergy at one year old. He was then switched to soy milk products. From soy milk we went to powdered milk products. At 16 he has now lost the taste for powder milk products. We are now using almond milk, rice milk and protein drinks for his milk products. Milk and dairy products are not good for our bodies. We have also had to discontinue eating cold cereal products and bad carbohydrates. We try to stay with fruit, vegetables, brown rice, yogurt and walnuts. I no longer fry his meat and he eats sour dough and rye bread. The new diet was the suggestion of a holistic doctor. He cannot have chocolate, carbonated beverages and as previously stated must monitor his carbohydrate intake and the eating of processed and preserved foods. Eliminating as much sugar out of our childrens diet is ideal. Including the substitute kind. So far Splenda does not have Aspertine. So I use it. My son does not like it. Learning to eat healthy can be a task. So the earlier we start the better. I hope this helps.

My son is also allergic to dairy. Take an unseasoned portion of the food you prepare for yourself and run it through the blender; add a little liquid as necessary. Of course, don't puree foods that babies shouldn't try yet. Be watchful for other allergies; wishing you the best.

Hi J., My son is 2 years and 4 months and is allergic to milk, eggs and peanuts. The milk can not even touch his skin or he will get welps. You can make mashed potatoes by using a little of soymilk. There is a bran out there that is the instant mashed that does not contain milk. It is Idaho in the round container. Just read the labels to make sure you get the right one. I buy my son chicken tenders that are in the frozen section. My son eats lots of vegs, fruit, and stuff like stars, grahm crackers. I have a cook book that shows recipes on how to cook without milk, eggs, and nuts. I will try and remember some other things I gave him to eat. Just know you are not alone in this. It is a hard process.

You may want to try goats milk or soy milk. Of course, ask your doctor first.

Hi, my name is Jean, I had allergies most of my life, When I was small I was allergic to most everything...Milk, chocolate and cheese was my worst food items...I remember the Dr. I had told my mother that I could have milk only if it was boiled first...Maybe this could help your lil boy, worth a try.

My son, now 2yrs, is lactose intolerant.

(Please note that Lactaid milk is still cow's milk, just with the lactose made inactive with the addition of another enzyme).

That said, I would first work to get your son into an allergist. There are a few different types of milk allergies you could be dealing with - intolerance all the way to milk protein allergy - 1st step would be to know what you're dealing with!

Also, since you have a little boy - there are some people (me included) who suggest you not overdo it with the soy. Scientists don't know yet how the normal plant estrogens affect growth & development in young children, especially little boys. We use rice as a substitute whenever possible. The plain rice milk is a big hit and I find it at HyVee 10 for $10 occasionally. Almond milk is a treat as it has so much sugar.

When it comes to things like cheese and yogurt though, soy's your only choice. We like o'Soy in the 6 pack. It has live active cultures good for digestion and if you set your finger in the middle and drain the water before stirring it's just like the real thing! Applesauce with some fortified rice cereal flakes. Roll bananas in chopped up oats or cereal. Chicken fingers, frozen peas for snacking (great when they're teething and great for the pincer skills). Rice Checks. Honey Whole Wheat pretzels at Wal-Mart or Trader Joe's (let's all lobby for a trader joe's in the kansas city area, okay) You can even make rice pudding with rice & vanilla soy milk - a favorite in our family with some chopped up dried fruit!

Keep thinking creatively and you'll get there. For now, you're on the right track - and I'm going to check out some of the websites listed by the other moms! Hooray for Moms!

T.