Dairy/Soy Allergic Daughter won't drink milk alternatives

[goatvillegirl]

My 14.5-month old daughter is allergic to several things, the most relevant (for this question) of which are dairy, casein, soy, and peas.  She is still breastfed, but she has been cutting back, really taking breastmilk only in the morning and evening.  This past week she started day care too which has continued this pattern.

Though she will gleefully sip water from sippy cups, she refuses to drink any of the dairy alternatives from either a sippy cup or bottle (she has never taken to bottles even with breastmilk).  We've tried almost every variety of hemp, coconut, sunflower seed, and rice milk to no avail.  I even broke down and tried a chocolate variety but she still was not interested. She typically takes one sip and then pushes it away.

The only dairy-alternative food she'll eat is coconut yogurt, but even then it's only half a container (3oz) which isn't really enough for an entire day.  

Do you have any advice?  We can't do non-dairy cheese because there tends to be either soy, casein, or pea protein in it, all of which she's allergic to.  I'm at a loss!

[scsigrl]

Dairy alternatives aren't necessary.  My allergic kid/s drink water.  BF till 18 and 26 months each but never any alternatives.  Get her eating a balanced diet and nursing should cover her.  Add a multi vit if you want.

[kjbrown92]

are you worried about fat? certain nutrients like calcium? because there are other ways to get them.

[goatvillegirl]

I guess I am just hung up on having an easy way to get fat, protein, and calcium in liquid form.  My daughter eats plenty of avocado, olive oil on pasta, sunflower seed butter, and other sources of fat. She gets protein from beans and occasionally meat.  We're trying to get her to drink some calcium-fortified OJ, but maybe we should just have a multi-vitamin to make sure she's getting everything she needs.  

Other suggestions?

[kjbrown92]

We do bone broth for calcium, and salmon, greens like spinach and what's the other one... broccoli? Calcium fortified oj is probably about the same as calcium fortified milk if you're having pasteurized milk. What I've done in the past is use fitday.com for two weeks and see what we're having and if anything is missing nutrient wise over that time, and change accordingly (because she may be getting the right amounts of things already).

[goatvillegirl]

Thanks for the link! I'll definitely check out fitday.  Unfortunately she's allergic to spinach and we've been told to avoid all fish until she's 3, so it narrows the choices a bit.  Luckily she likes broccoli.

Do any of you have a recommendation for a good multivitamin should we find we need one?

[Mylie]

I was in the same boat..My L is allergic to Dairy,gluten and soy..When she went off her special formula I put her on Rice milk original..She drank it if I watered it down..Not much fat in that at all..So I just subbed with other things..Like I made sure I mixed a bit of olive oil in her noodles for extra fat..It was touch and go for awhile..She is 4 now and still won't drink alternatives..She loves her water and will pretty much drink nothing else..The coconut yogurt is good.L loves that too..Can you offer her the other half later on the day? Or mix it in cereal/oatmeal..My L wasn't a big eater and with her allergies and being so sick from the gluten intolerance her Ped was almost ready to label her failure to thrive..I didn't like that..And she was so so tiny...so (I know alot of people don't care for the babies cereal but I did what I thought was best to get extra fat/calories in her)I fed her Earths Best Organic Rice cereal with organic pears or vanilla coconut yogurt in it in the am for breakfast and before bed for a snack.Helped get her iron stabilized too..She still is a little peanut but she is healthy..I beleive that your little girl will be okay too.But I understand your stress..I did it too..I give L Little Critters Mulitvitamin..It is a gummy vitamin(no iron which doesn't make my ped happy but it doesn't do me any good to put that liquid crud down her throat when she promptly gags and vomits)..She won't take a chewable..Doesn't like the taste/texture.I like them because No HFCS/artificial colors/flavors and they are affordable.I buy them at Walmart.

Good Luck..Your little one will be okay.Try not to stress too much..

[Suzanna]

Thanks Mylie ,for your share i was looking for something like this. I will try hope help to me too.

[heatherdeg]

My son is now 7-1/2yo and hasn't had dairy since he was 5mo.  And when he stopped nursing, he pretty much went to water and that's where we've been ever since.  Only in the last year did we introduce coconut milk and that was just to buy us some convenience in the morning so he could get himself some cereal (we usually eat eggs in the morning).  We are dairy/casein, soy and corn-free with profoundly limited gluten in addition to following Feingold (so no apples, oranges, tomatoes, berries, grapes... oh yeah, good times).

Ironically, it's all the mainstream Western medicine docs/specialists (my son had plenty of issues as an infant) that I thought would give me crap about non-dairy and no supplement, but none of them ever batted an eye over it.

[NewBeginnings1]

I bought a liquid infant multimitamin that I can slip into meals as needed.