where to start????

[BabySmurf]

Long story short, I had been avoiding dairy, wheat, and soy on account of my DS's food intolerances.  We had an accidental dairy exposure...and DS hasn't seemed to have a bad reaction (yet)....which lead to a total and complete "diet" disintegration on my part.  I expected to stay on a somewhat "restricted" diet for a bit longer (I even felt like he was reacting to something new lately, but those symptoms have passed as well), so I haven't thought enough about how I would like to re incorporate dairy, etc. 

What are some good ways to make sure I do this right? I have a feeling that if I just go crazy and eat the way I used to that his symptoms will return...I kind of want to take things slow-ish and start with cultured dairy.  Are commercial yogurts good? I feel like there is a lot of junk in things like yoplait (or however it's spelled).  Can I find raw yogurt at regular stores? What else should I try?

I really want this to work, since I really haven't been able to adequately replace the calories I lost by taking out the dairy from my diet and I am sick of being hungry and underweight....

[kitchensqueen]

Cultured dairy and hard cheese are probably a good place to start from, as they have lower levels of lactose. 

[Koalamom]

Woohoo for getting dairy back!! My kids were very allergic to it as well as gluten. We cut those out and a few months ago 4 yr old dd tried dairy and is now fine. But sadly 2 yr old ds failed the trial.. Perhaps when he is older we will try again. For our trial we just gave her cheese and enough of it. We wanted the reaction to be obvious if she was allergic still.

To add, I have a theroy that dd' gut healed from the gluten out.

[BabySmurf]

It's crazy, I didn't realize just how wound up I was about watching every bite that went into our mouths! My intuition is telling me that our guts are partially healed, but I think that after a few weeks I am going to have to re-eliminate if I'm not careful about how I do this. Obviously our reactions are really mild at this point, so I'm just happy that I don't need to feel guilty for the exposure :) 

Yay for having to worry about your 4 yo a little less!

[SundayCrepes]

No guilt for an accidental exposure. It happens no matter what. My daughter was exposed to cane sugar and had 2 days of diarrhea. Get this, she was exposed by a VERY careful father of kids with celiacs. He's really good at watching their food. He even made the pizza crust without egg in case my daughter couldn't have it. He assured me left and right there was no cane sugar in the crust. Absolutely none. Oh well, accidents happen.

If you think there is enough gut damage that you might have problems, I wouldn't put your child's health at risk. Maybe figuring out how to eat enough calories without dairy might work better for you.  Give it time. My daughter is gluten, dairy, cane sugar, and tomato free. And we are vegetarians. I LOVE this diet and, other than the tomatoes, have no desire to undo it. I've put on 10 pounds since starting to eat this way. That's MY problem to overcome. 

So, instead of parmesan cheese on our pasta dishes, we have cashews. Instead of milk to drink, she has Rice Dream. (Because carageenan is an intestinal irritant, we avoid that. It's in most non-dairy drinks. So is cane sugar.) I just learned the Silk brand almond milk doesn't have cane sugar or carageenan. I'll try that. Otherwise we stick with Rice Dream, Trader Joe's brand rice milk, Trader Joe's brand soy milk, and Trader Joe's brand refrigerated vanilla almond milk. If you can do cane sugar, there are a LOT more options.

I use a lot of coconut milk. I make my own ice cream and whipped coconut cream out of it. I make creamed veggie soups with coconut milk. I make pudding by blending an avocado, banana, 1/3 c cocoa powder, 1/3 cup non-dairy milk (usually coconut milk,) and 1 to 4 T honey.

Do you use Earth Balance in place of butter?

Look at www.elanaspantry.com for great DF recipes. She uses almond flour a lot. Coconut flour as well. And the food is beyond yummy.

Also try http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/ She has lots of dairy free recipes. That's where I learned to use coconut milk in my creamy soups. (though in the wrong recipe, it gives too much sweetness. I tried making a lemon bechamel sauce with coconut milk. My husband said it tasted like lemon cream pie.)

What about nut butters? When I'm taking the kids out and about, we have rice cakes with nutbutters and all fruit jellies. You have to take the components with you as the rice cakes will get soggy if you pre-make them.

There are SOOO many great dairy free recipes out there that you should not be hungry or underweight because of being dairy free. 

Also, what about DF yogurts? My little one can only do one brand of almond yogurt sweetened with fruit juice as all the other DF ones are sweetened with cane sugar. In addition to soy yogurt, there's also coconut milk yogurt.

If I can help you find more DF foods or recipes, let me know. Otherwise, just google "dairy free broccoli soup recipe" and millions (literally) of choices will come up. Same with any other recipe you can probably want.

The way I figure it, if I can make brownies out of black beans and prunes and have my son eat half a pan in a day, there are plenty of ways to eat what you want in a healthy way despite most food restrictions.

[kitchensqueen]

Do you guys know about the Milk Free Kitchen cookbook? The recipes, especially the baked goods, are amazing. This is our go to cookbook. 

[ashleyhaugh]

wish i would have known about that cookbook, lol. ds is 4, and just outgrew a pretty serious dairy allergy- well the reactions werent serious, but he reacted to any form of dairy. it was a pain, but mostly i just subbed in the kitchen, and learned to read, read, read those labels, lol. he went with his dad this summer, who is too lazy to bother with dealing with food issues (which is doubly annoying, because hes a nurse) but he didnt react this time, so we're good now. its a dairy free for all, lol. he still drinks soy milk, because i havent got the form to change my wic, but other than that, hes good now. its so much easier, but also weird to not be worrying about it after 4 years

[BabySmurf]

So I've come to the conclusion that I am the one with the leaky gut, and DS is just along for the ride...as far as the dairy goes anyway.  I tried a variety of things, and then started to react to it, and just now my son is showing signs.    The reaction isn't as bad as it was when he was smaller, but it's there none the less.  I'm not convinced that he doesn't have another small underlying issue either. 

In terms of dairy free cooking, I think that I have a pretty good handle on it (although I LOVE the sites you gave!)...I just feel like dairy is so calorie dense it would be the easiest way to put on the weight I lost when I cut it.  I'm still 20lbs below pp weight, but it probably has more to do with the fact that I have a 30lbs nursling who still doesn't get a whole lot of supplemental calories from solid foods (I offer, he spits out).  I eat like a (freakishly healthy) teenaged boy. 

Anyway, it looks as though dairy is on hold for the foreseeable future! Now on to look up more info on healing the gut........

Thanks for all of the ideas!!

[SundayCrepes]

Originally Posted by kitchensqueen 

Do you guys know about the Milk Free Kitchen cookbook? The recipes, especially the baked goods, are amazing. This is our go to cookbook. 

Ordered it today. $3.24 delivered from amazon. (I'm part of amazonmoms so I get free shipping.)

[kitchensqueen]

Originally Posted by SundayCrepes 

Ordered it today. $3.24 delivered from amazon. (I'm part of amazonmoms so I get free shipping.)

You're going to love it! And that's a killer deal!

[1love4ever]

I'd do all raw dairy as its more easily digested.  raw goat dairy is also better tolerated and can often be used by those who cant tolerate cow

[BabySmurf]

ugh, i so wish that i could do the raw dairy!!! we had a fail with the reintroduction this time....i am most definitely going to try the raw dairy the next time we try.