Non dairy alternatives......rec's please!

[Jenni1894]

My ydd has a milk allergy or intolerance.  What happens when she has dairy of any kind is she gets really congested, and wheezy.  Which then leads to an ear infection.  She'll get itchy/rashy skin, warmish almost feverish.  And then a big hard belly which then leads to diarrhea.   (TMI)

She drinks almond milk.  

I've bought the veggie/soy cheese.  She's only 2 (3 on St. Patty's day!).  But I'm wondering about things like mac & cheese.   We had Alfredo yesterday for lunch.   Wouldn't ya know she's all congested today.   :(   I feel so bad b/c dairy is in things I don't even think about.  

She loves cheese and does understand that things give her "bad bad poo poos"  (Her terms not mine!!)   I also feel bad b/c she is only 2 and while she understands that something;s she can't eat.  Of course she loves mac and cheese and yogurt.   I get her almond yogurt and we don't do much if any processed foods.  But having kids, you know how mac & cheese is a fav!!  I get the boxed kind (have made it from scratch also).  Usually Annie's or Nature's Pathway. 

I have heard that raw milk and cheeses could be good.   I've bought raw milk cheese before, but I haven't given it to her.  

What are your thoughts on raw milk and do you have any other alternatives?  

[GreenVariety]

My son will be 3 the day before St. Patty's :-) I want to give you a bunch of information here but I am going to be frank mostly because it's nap time and I only have so much time to write this.

I did want to respond to this on many levels. I would be very shy of anything containing soy partly for the hormones and then partly due to genetic modification and the potential for contamination. The Weston A Price Foundation has a whole lot of information on the drawbacks of soy. Another thought with those cheeses are they are very processed as are the yogurts from milk alternatives. They have lots of sugars and other binders in them including many things that can completely undo a whole foods diet. Here's one article - http://theprimalparent.com/2012/05/16/additives-almond-milk-how-to-make/

If she has issues with pasteurized dairy she may very well be fine with raw. Some children are. My son was not one of them unfortunately. But they do help a lot of children heal especially when you utilize things like kefir. Does wonders for congestion from what I understand.

I use coconut milk. I buy a 25 pound bag of coconut flakes from Wilderness Family Naturals and make my own.

http://www.mommypotamus.com/how-to-make-coconut-milk-from-shredded-coconut-video-tutorial/

I turn that around into yogurt for my son using grass fed gelatin as a thickener (also beneficial for the gut) - http://www.smallfootprintfamily.com/2009/04/25/homemade-coconut-milk-yogurt/

To make "mac and cheese" we get Andean Dream Pasta and make a creamy caesar dressing. It isn't exactly cheese but it's creamy and delicious and it hits my hubby's and my mac and cheese (or other cream sauce) craving. No crunchy top but it does the trick. A lot of times with food issues it's near impossible to recreate certain things. That's as close as we've come. Every once in a very great while we will get raw cheddar which is safe on the SCD and GAPS diets because of how long it's aged. We will put some of that shredded on the pasta but we never cook it as that would kill all the beneficial stuff in the cheese...

Hope this helps! (at least a little!)

[missmagoo]

The New Yorker published an article in October about Dairy allergies (well really on allergies in general), and one study did find that you could 'heal' a dairy allergy through introduction of small amounts of cooked dairy.  Starting with something that has butter in it and is baked like a muffin, and moving up to the point where the child the profiled could eat regular pizza.  

Raw milk products are supposed to be easier to digest.  I probably wouldn't start with milk, but you could try a small amount of raw milk butter on veggies and she how she does and gradually go from there.  

[GreenVariety]

I'm curious, do you think the haling they were speaking of in the article is perhaps more preservation of the organism? An "okay you aren't going to stop feeding me this stuff I have an issue with so I guess I better just get used to it and build up defense mechanisms within the body to compensate for this irritant." That may sound totally off the wall but I am curious about the biological aspect there. Our organism (the human or any other) is designed to survive generally speaking and if you aren't listening to initial warnings that are subtle it often goes deeper into the system (I think of dogs that I used to work with on bad diets - I was a technician in a past life - and then eventually they would have thyroid issues or diabetes or some other issue). Not to hijack the conversation or anything but I found that interesting.

As a side note, it has been shown in many articles I've read that we tend to crave the things that are worst for us. A sorta "feedback loop" if you will. You eat it because you love it (to the point of not being able to give it up) and then you don't have it for a while, your liver starts to detox it from your cells (it's been shown that our liver throws off toxins into fat cells) and you start craving it again. Eat it and the whole thing starts again.

[Jenni1894]

GreenVariety....thank you for the link to primalparent!! (learning interesting things about the Fish Oil I and my ADHD son take!!)  and your response!!

Yes, the soy cheese.    We aren't big soy fans here.  In fact I was surprised when my DH balked at my purchase of "veggie cheese'.  I have friends/family that do soy products and I thought well, they are "crunchy" they seem to be okay with it....I've read some not to lovely things about it...but maybe I'm crazy.     

It's nap time here also, and I'm about to wake my sleeping "baby" to get the 5 year old from school.  So I will revisit this post this evening.   :)  And I'll probably have more questions for you.  :) 

Side note, I did a quick google search on allergy/intolerance.  My Dr. Mom instincts are telling me it's an allergy.  Reading some of the symptoms explains her potty accidents, super long naps and crabby-ness at times.  Seems it's all milk related! 

[GreenVariety]

This isn't cheese specific but doing some research and came across:

http://www.foodrenegade.com/healthy-milk-substitutes-with-recipes/

Glad you liked the Primal Parent. I love her research.

My son had lots of potty accidents, with him it was night shades, not dairy. I literally watched him eat a tomato and proceed to pee his pants with out a warning before it was finished and that wasn't the only occurrence. His are all in tolerances. Or at least that's how I classify them. Pasteurized dairy treats him WAY worse then raw dairy but he still doesn't do great with uncultured raw dairy and only does "okay" with cultured.

He had severe constipation which seemed to be directly related to the dairy (or his grain issues coming through the dairy - haven't been able to pin that one down as he has huge issues with corn and soy and it's fed to almost all dairy animals as grass fed dairy is nice but not totally sustainable for production purposes).

Great group is FoodLab on yahoo. But I didn't derive a ton of help just some clues from the group. It took a lot of removing, adding, experimenting and observation. I also pulled him off all foods and put him back to exclusively breast fed at about a year to see what I was eating that was causing his issues. One diet was a lot easier to control then two. Incidentally I figured out all my issues as well. Handy thing a nursling can be.

Dairy also caused sleep issues with my son, mostly not wanting to sleep. Tossing and turning. Karate kicking us in the heads and all around miserable to sleep with. No dairy, no issues. Potty issues crop up when he has something developmental going on or is cutting a tooth but it doesn't last long.

[pek64]

Dairy free substitutes. There is another thread, right now, on this subject, so look there, too.

For butter, I like olive oil. Coconut oil is for when saturated is needed or wanted.

Milks : oat is thicker and richer, then there's rice, and nut milks. Experiment a bit to find which milk you like for which thing.

Mac and cheese is history. You can make the elbow noodles but nothing is going to be the same. When she's a couple years older and no longer remembering the old taste, you can try substitutes. Until then, I'd recommend avoiding it.

I agree about using caution with soy. Buy organic and use rarely, as she can become suddenly allergic to soy if it's used too often.

Also, check online for dairy free and vegan recipes. Good luck.

[GreenVariety]

Just to add to pek64's comment regarding dairy free vegan substitutes. I would be very careful with nutritional yeast and make sure it's not grown on sugar beet molasses (it's very hard to find non-gmo sugar beets in the US based on talking to my feed company that was trying to find a source for over a year to no avail).
 

[dovey]

I've been experimenting with some really tasty non-dairy "cheeses."  A lot of non-dairy cheese isn't actually fermented, so it lacks the right flavor.  Miyoko Schinner's book "Artisan Vegan Cheese," has lots of information about making fermented nut cheeses at home.  My favorite one (not actually her recipe, but pretty similar), is very easy. 

Almond Ricotta

Take some slivered almonds - the kind that have no skins on them, and soak them overnight.  Sometimes I boil them at this point to make sure that they don't have the wrong balance of bacteria, but you can do it raw too.  Put them in your blender with a little salt, just enough water to blend them (less than you might think) and a few tablespoons of plain, unsweetened yogurt.  I use Unsweetened Whole Soy Yogurt, but if you're concerned about soy, you could probably use those little packets of Yogourmet yogurt starter or dairy yogurt.  Blend the mixture until it's smooth.  Put it in a glass jar with the lid on.  Turn your oven light on, and put the jar by the light to keep it warm.  Leave it there for 6-24 hours, tasting the cheese every so often to see if it's sour enough. 

Hope that helps!