[TigerTail]

yes, i am asking for vegan help & advice! (or orthodox jews, also, for pareve products that come to mind.)

my ds's excema is not making any headway, slathering him with dermatop (topical steroid), elidel, bi-weekly appt's to the fancy-shmancy nationally recognized dermatologist, etc. this has been going on for three years (since his birth.) the only thing giving his poor skin any relief is occasional prednisone, & for obvious reasons (like i've had a beloved dog die of cushing's, & don't want to foist it on my beautiful little son!) i would rather not go there.

i'm sure the dr will pooh-pooh the idea of an elimination diet, but i have got to get drastic here in trying to find some way to help him (and if you've kept up with me here, you know that eliminating butter, cheese, yogurt etc from our diets is going to be MAJOR. and being that he still nurses quite often, i do mean 'our'- i'm certainly not going to wean him right when removing all milk-products but me from his diet!)

i know there have been various threads posting about various products over the years, but can anybody briefly recommend in one thread what the best dairy-free 'replacement' products are that they've found?

we liked the almond cheese, but of course it has the ubiquitous whey (sigh, being a vegetarian was a lot simpler than trying to figure out where they are hiding all the damned whey!) and i already like tofutti; is there a plain vanilla product easy to find, for root-beer floats & stuff? (i know i can find lots to choose from at wild oats, but being that it is an hour drive, it is not my first choice to buy frozen desserts!)

help! omg, no more ranch dressing, cheese goldfish, arghhhh. every favorite food that child has (and he is a picky eater already, way too slim) is now nixed!

thanks, suse

 

[sweetpeasmom]

for sour cream- Tofutti sour supreme
they make one for cream cheese too, but I don't like cream cheese anyways so never tried it.
butter- Earth balance- much better than butter imo
cheese- I use a recipe from new farm book for mac and cheese using Nutritional yeast
there's a recipe I have for vegan ranch dressing- have yet to try it though.
I know there are vegan dressings in my market but they didn't have ranch but creamy italian which is good
I don't care for the soy yogurts myself-can't help ya there
For ice cream- i get tofutti or rice dream

 

[tricia80]

Susey...

come to the dark side.... :LOL

ok im done..sorry to hear about ur ds's excema issue.. khaila was the same way.. but when we went vegan it went away.. so im happy and shes happy.... i didnt feel good about giving her a topical cream.. when the dr is saying ohh make sure it doesnt go near her face and dont put too much on or something could happen... i was like well why the heck u giving this if its sooo strong... and it didnt even work...

anyways back on topic here...

i eat the above things suggested...

there are vegan ranch dressings.. health food section.. sorry dont know any brands off by heart...

i buy alot of jus regular things are vegan anyways.. u would be amazed at whats vegan out there... PETA has made a list... i will go and find it and link you...

ETA: Food list of regular foods that happen to be vegan

 

[Quirky]

Honestly, I wouldn't try too hard to find substitutes for things that you really love, like cheese, that just don't work very well IMO vegan - rather I'd shift the focus of your eating or recipes to emphasize things you do like. I think if you're constantly using the "fake" things you're just reminding yourself you can't have the real stuff.

Try to think of substituting like mouth-feels - like using avocado slices instead of cheese on sandwiches, Mexican food, etc. Ethnic cuisines like Indian, Thai, Japanese, and Chinese are great for doing dairy-free and flavorful.

Also, your ds may be sensitive to soy as well as dairy (the two often go hand in hand) so I wouldn't start eating a lot of soy products just in case that proves true.

With that in mind, some fake things are better than others -

I ditto the Earth Balance recommendation.

Sorbets, frozen fruit bars, homemade juice popsicles, and homemade dairy-free frozen desserts (do a search for cathe's frozen banana-berry "ice cream"

) are good in their own right, so to me they don't smack of "desperately trying to imitate ice cream." We do like Tofutti Cuties (little ice cream sandwiches) but I don't like soy ice cream.

I can't stand soy yogurt, but to do the probiotic thing you could get kefir grains (or use some of the ones you have) to do the kefir water/kefir juice thing. See http://users.chariot.net.au/%7Edna/Makekefir.html Once you switch them over from dairy, though, you can't take those grains back to dairy.

Amy's makes a good veggie burger that's vegan and has no soy - the California burger.

I have had a "sour cream" I think by Rice Dream that's pretty good.

Hummus is a great dipper for veggies and crackers - my son will eat it by the gallon. It also makes a good sandwich spread.

Check out Erin Pavlina's website www.vegfamily.com for forums and lots of recipe ideas.

HTH, and good luck! I think you're very smart to check out the dietary links. Have you had any allergy/RAST testing done?

 

[PikkuMyy]

We have cut back on soy as the main part of our meals but still use it in comdiments, and some main meals.

Toffutti Better than Cream Cheese and Sour Cream
Wholesoy yogurts are actually really good
Wholesoy ice cream is also REALLY good - they have two vanillas, french and vanilla bean. Vanilla bean is best and would be great in a float.
Rice Dream ice cream pies and pops, also ice cream but this is very sweet and almost too much to take in large amounts so that's why I like the smaller treats.
Vegan Gourmet Cheese (by Follow Your Heart) actually melts and has a pretty good flavor. (Mozarella and Nacho are the best)
Mac 'n' Chreese boxes
Earth Balance for butter

The follow your heart vegan caesar dressing is really good.

I also lost most of my eczema after eliminating allergies as a small child, and later as an adult. However, not all of the eczema went away. What got rid of it for good is taking GLA (gamma linoleic acid) one of the Omega fatty acids found in Borage oil (the highest concentration), evening primrose oil, black currant oil. The adult dose of Borage is only 1/4 tsp per day so a child portion would be really small. Whenever I stop taking it for a few weeks, a bit of the eczema on my hands comes back. Whenever I'm taking it, I have no eczema. Before I started to take it, my husband used to call me "lizard hands" and I'd often have to cover them up because they were so gross. Now watch out QVC! I could apply to be one of those "hand' models.

 

[toraji]

First off, hugs to you! Eczema is a horrible thing to deal with. DD also suffered from eczema early in her life and after eliminating a lot of suspects and keeping a thorough food journal, we traced it to allergies to cashews, sesame, coconut, and pet dander. We wrote down what we ate, her moods, if we'd been outside in the pollen or pets, etc. etc. anything that we might possibly think of and finally a pattern showed up. I think it took about half a day for food allergens to transfer through my breastmilk.

ITA with Quirky. I don't like using a bunch of fake dairy substitutes. I am a big fan of using nut/seed milks for creaminess, though for some people certain nuts can be allergenic as well. Sunflower seeds, however, seem to be pretty low on the allergenic trigger. We make vegan mayo out of overnight soaked sunflower seeds blended with water, garlic, lemon juice/vinegar, mustard, salt & pepper, and a bit of sugar. There is also a sunflower sour cream recipe in the Wild Fermentation book that is kefired though I have not tried it.

ETA: I have also heard that if you are sensitive to certain grains and/or soy, if the milk you are getting comes from an animal that eats these things it can pass into the milk and cause problems.

 

[TigerTail]

thank you guys so much for all the ideas & encouragement! (i am gonna try the sunflower sour cream in wf, i have it right here.)

thankfully we already use things like tofu in instant pudding (i know, i know; i have been really busy lately with home repair, & we still have to EAT), gardenburgers, etc, so it will be more a loss of things than suddenly having a bunch of new things to get used to...

jane, i don't have time to recheck dom's site right now, but i really can't put my kefir grains in dairy after a non-dairy thing? mine were fine after the coconut milk kefir... is it just because they will be purple from grape juice or whatever, lol?

i was just going to start with dairy & see if it makes a difference; i'll try soy, nuts, wheat, etc going down the line until i find something that makes a difference (hopefully not pet dander!!!)

i knew you guys would come thru,

thanks again! suse

 

[Quirky]

I am a kefir novice (just got my grains from Ms. Doula a couple of weeks ago!

) so I haven't tried going from one to the other, but I think Dom's site says once you transfer them to water you shouldn't transfer them back. Although since mine are propagating quite well in milk I would probably just split the grains in two (by volume, not literally) and have different batches dedicated to different purposes.

 

[TigerTail]

???
i will have to re-explore dom's site, since i have been storing mine between uses (for short periods of time) in (filtered) water! dom is definately the kefir king, but i think the info in wf is more casual about what one can & cannot do (sandor katz fermented GOAT MEAT & ate it, he is more ballsy about experimenting than i am, for sure!)

bi-lo has a crappy vegan section

they used to have soy cream cheese and stuff, but not today when i looked.

i was able to get some veggie booty (which ds fortunately already likes) for when everyone is having their cheese doodle snack at preschool; sigh, i hope this first experience with peer pressure is not too hard on the little guy (he was already the weird kid with the brown cow yogurt & organic string cheese, i guess he'll do ok.)

suse (wild oats run monday; one good thing about having to drag ourselves to the dang dermatologist! it's across the street!)

 

[Mylie]

My guy had severe asthma and terrible excema all over his body when he was smaller.We tried everthing in the form of creams and meds.The only thing that worked was when we switched to a vegan diet.By taking out all the dairy it not only took care of his asthma and excema but also the nasty sores and fever blisters he used to get on his lips and around his mouth constantly.Took care of his ear infections and allergies also.I didn't realize dairy was the culprit until I added it back in and the symptoms slowly returned along with the me seeing that he actually really craved dairy like it was a fix.(Ever heard of the specialist saying that that is the quickest way to find out what you are intolerant to..What food your body craves?)So this is what we use.

Vanilla Rice Dream..For cooking(makes a yummy white sauce and gravey),cereal and drinking
Original Rice dream..For cooking
Chocolate Rice dream..for drinking
For cheese for pizza,noodles ect...I; use a recipe of Bryanna Clarke Grogans off of VegSource.
Ice Cream..Lots of choices..I buy Rice DReam,Soy Dream (lots of yummy novelties also)and I make/buy natural sorbet and fruit popcicles.
Use dairyfree choc.chips for cookies and granola bars.
I use Shedds willow RunSoy Margarine or Earth balance for replacement of butter.They are really quite good.
Sour Cream/whipped topping..I make my own from recipes I got off other sites.
It isn't hard once you learn to read labels and am able to locate the products you need or learn to make them yourself.I highly recommend VegFamily and VegSource for recipes and great support.It helps so much.Good luck.Love Mylie xx

 

[TigerTail]

well, that's optimistic (and will be a consolation when he weans himself, lol); i hope it is something as simple as that.

btw, does goat milk affect him too? i'd heard of course that yogurt, cheese etc were not as common a culprit as milk per se, but he really doesn't *drink* milk; cheese, butter etc ARE the only dairy he's getting (other than possible allergans in my coffee milk coming through.)

i am going to have to read the labels on cremora, blech. i like soy & rice milk in tea just fine & will prolly taper off to just tea, but soy in coffee is not tasty to me (nor is rice, almond, etc.) so much processed crap i wouldn't touch before i am going to be using as a crutch till i get used to the diet. cremora!!! please tell me it has the insidious whey so i am forced to get on tea.

if goat cheese does not contain the allergans in cow milk i may try it; he already loves it & it may keep him satisfied losing some other stuff.

oh, watch our health improve immeasurably all round
i will be so pissed, lol (please be soy please be soy please be soy... corn would be ok, wheat, too, i bake with spelt... but my dairy craving! argh!!!)

we'll see! suse

 

[PikkuMyy]

Soy milk sucks in coffee but the Silk soy creamer is GREAT!!!!

I am more allergic to goat's milk than I am to milk - so watch out. I get an immediate reaction in my mouth. He may be allergic to one, both, or neither. Time will tell.

 

[Mylie]

Ditto here with the goats milk/cheese.When I realized my boy couldnt do dairy at all I tried the goat milk products.Same reactions.Sigh...But it could go either way.Depends on the sensitive individual.Good luck.Love Mylie xx

 

[TigerTail]

well, so far so good...

one boy told sam his veggie booty looked 'old', but sam laughed it off (and ate it up), so that's ok (you should have seen the multi-colored cereal crap the rest of the poor kids were eating for snack! i should've claimed 'allergy' a long time ago!)

wholesoy CULTURED frozen dessert- oh yeah! (one of my issues with soy is the uncultured thing.) really good, & the wild oats fishguys gave me bunches of ice to keep in my cold-bag, so even going to the zoo afterwards it stayed reasonably good.)

i have been afraid to try the silk creamer, lol, but got some. (and yes, cremora has whey. thank god.) maybe *my* skin will clear up too.

the dr thinks it won't do 'much', but apparently he doesn't think it complete quackery (and i got a new tube of something that costs $190! even with insurance it is still insane! i hope going dairy-free will be the deciding thing in his treatment after all, dang!)

and the er, earth balance? is that it? omg, it is ok (if you can get used to the taste of margarine), but SALTY, for someone used to cultured organic unsalted butter! it is a lot more of a change than say, someone going to it from some buttermilk-based 'i can't believe it's not butter' thing. when sam is weaned i am going back to butter, even if it does mess up my skin too! i'm not *that* itchy!

but on the whole, we are happy with the products we've tried.

suse

 

[TigerTail]

cheese. a whole wall of 'veggie' cheese at kroger's, chock full o' casein.

now THIS bothers me 'ooh, we'll eat 'lite' & eat this fake-o cheese.' it's not for people who are vegan for ethical or religious reasons, it's not for people who cannot eat dairy, why does this product exist??? (and why is it the ONLY product available?) i couldn't even find any at wild oats!

i did get the tofutti cream cheese tho', and today sam has his first soy yogurt at school. (and he had his organic shredded wheat with soymilk, & loved it.)

any of y'all know about lactic acid? i've seen 'lactic acid, non-dairy source' on a few veggie items, but in the majority of things i'd be getting it would be like, the lactic acid starter culture in salami... i don't expect the vegans to be up on sausage, but maybe some folks with dairy allergies know? (i didn't get the cream stout, either! uh, for me

not sam.)

suse

 

[PikkuMyy]

Lactic acid usually comes from beets.

Earth Balance tends to be a little spotty in the salt department - we've been eating it for 4 years and have had to throw out about 4 tubs for being too salty. But considering how much of it we use...

I'm glad you are liking some of the non-dairy products! I really like that the wholesoy is cultured.

 

[mpeel]

We use olive oil or coconut oil in place of butter. On toast, just mix a little olive oil with minced garlic and brush on with pastry brush. Or use peanut butter. Cheese is hard. I have not found a good cheese sub that is dairy and gluten free (gluten is also a common allergen). I have found for use though that raw organic cheese does not cause a reaction. The "raw" part may have to do with it. But, I am glad we can do it but I do not overdo it.

 

[TigerTail]

mmm, a goodly portion of his milk/cheese consumption was already raw...
thankfully ds is already an olive oil afficianado on his bageutte; just want to make the transition easier (like when he had a bagel like his brother today, he got 'cream cheese', just not the usual cream cheese.)

would lactic acid be unlikely to cause any kind of milk-allergy reaction then? (I know, i ought to go to 'health', but am being too lazy today. i am making 24 pt of jam & they are IN PROGRESS, so i only have a minute, lol.)

suse

 

[Nursingnaturalmom]

we are also doing Dairy Free for my toddler and her rashes and bowel habits.

I have 2 cookbooks, THe Milk Free Kitchen and the ultimate UNCHEESE cookbook.Both AWESOME!!

My Toddler took to Goat Cheese (cheddar flavor) and soy yogurt very well. We get whole soy yogurt. Berry and Blueberry

 

[TigerTail]

thank you for the book titles! (between dh's low carb- please, no flames, he's lost a ton & eating much healthier without the donut food group- & ds's dairy-free, i am working with some limitations i am not used to! i need all the help i can get!)

suse