[ladybugchild77]

So my 2yo definitely had a diary allergy. I am cutting it out of her and my diet. I posted in the allergies section but am wondering if there is anyone els eout there with "toddler friendly" recipies or ideas they can give me. I have no clue how to replace the toddler staples of cheese and yogurt for instance without turning to all soy alternatives...what foods will your dairy-free toddler eat?

 

[bauchtanz]

We went dairy free for several months before we figured out she was only allergic to dust mites.

:

First off, I didn't subsitute, I just fed us diffrent foods. For example, most asian foods do not have any dairy in them. Also, you can get the calcium requirements by eating things like spinnach and beans. I did take a supplement for calcium, and because I was nursing DD I figured she was getting it from me.

We ate things like:
Stuffed green peppers
Spagetti and meatballs (look for premade sauce that has no cheese in it)
Hamburgers (some buns have dairy, some don't you just have to read labels)
Hardboiled eggs
Almost any veggie she would eat, but she loved sweet potatoe fries and brocolli
We grill shishkabobs all the time using chicken, her favorite
Chilli (she wasn't crazy about this because she has a thing against crumbled meat -

but yours might like it)
Tacos (just without cheese) (just make sure there isn't any whey in the seasoning package)
ham and Beans and rice
Many types of lunch meat don't have dairy preservates
Pot roast
pork tenderloins
Gulash (replaced mac and cheese)
Salad
creamy chicken and dumplings
This porkchop and tomato sauce thing I make
Fried potatoes (with ground sausage, onion, and green pepper)
Hummus and pita bread (replaced cheese cubes as a snack and a good way to get fats and protien and calcium)

We ate stiry fry, medditeraian food (goat cheese), and indian food (uses coconut milks) all the time. I have a million diffrent chinease or thai or vietnamese recipes now.

We did have to use an alternative for butter, because it is so necessary in cooking. I did use olive oil quite a bit. I used like rice milk for baking sometimes, I am not sure if it is the best alternative.

Make sure they get lots of fat. I did this with eggs and avacados.

 

[hottmama]

My 4 yr. old is allergic to dairy and it really isn't a problem at all. We do eat soy, but it's not really a huge part of his diet. He eats soy yogurt for breakfast and aside from that, we use soymilk for milk but I've done that since before he was born. He likes a variety of food-- fruit, veggies, pasta, meat, etc. When we go out to eat we have to ask whether or not things contain dairy, it's easiest if we go to places that mark vegan options on the menu. He loves Indian food but you have to make sure that it doesn't contain cream or paneer. I make our bread but it's not hard to find bread that doesn't contain dairy. We make pizza without cheese (or Amy's makes a DELICIOUS frozen vegan pizza). Cooking with soymilk and earth balance instead of milk/butter pretty much makes most foods dairy-free.
He's really good about it and generally asks people if food has dairy in it before eating anything when he's away from me. His dad always forgets and feeds him dairy, which drives me nuts dealing with the aftermath. It really isn't that big of a deal to not eat dairy.

 

[BellinghamCrunchie]

DD just developed either an allergy or intolerance to dairy; even a little tiny bit of cheese or milk gives her diarrhea for several days.

I read that if you culture your own yogurt and culture it for 24 hours, the lactose is completely converted and many people can tolerate this kind of yogurt. I have been doing this for 3 weeks now and DD seems to be able to tolerate it just fine. So you might be able to have yogurt (I learned about this from the Specific Carbohydrate Diet). You could also use goat milk.

I second a PP's suggestion for Amy's vegan pizza... it really is pretty good!

 

[HelloKitty]

Fresh fruit and veggies (Dehydrated fruit and veggies are a big hit here too!)
Hummus with pieces of pita bread or a celery stick
Crackers with peanut butter
Toast with some soy butter on it and cinnamon sugar
Mini waffles with syrup for dipping
Potato pancake bites
Mini bagels
Graham crackers
Fruit and cereal bars
Chewy granola bars
Coconut shreds - my kids love to just eat these out of a little dish
Avacado or chips and guacomole

 

[maryeb]

Hummus/pita, or hummus and veggie sandwiches
Apples, oranges, strawberries, frozen blueberries
Almond butter sandwich
Smoothies with almond butter and flax oil
Steamed veggies with olive oil and sometimes lemon
Dried fruit bars
Oatmeal
Cashews
Cold rice or quinoa, it kind of balls up and ds can grab a bigger handful
Bean and veggie soups, especially lentil
Bean spread with nutritional yeast and fresh parsley on corn tortillas
Coconut curried soups
Stir fry with black beans
raw veggie strips, like carrot, zuccini, red pepper

When I bake muffins I use rice milk and it tastes fine.

Mary

 

[mclisa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BellinghamCrunchie DD just developed either an allergy or intolerance to dairy; even a little tiny bit of cheese or milk gives her diarrhea for several days. I read that if you culture your own yogurt and culture it for 24 hours, the lactose is completely converted and many people can tolerate this kind of yogurt. I have been doing this for 3 weeks now and DD seems to be able to tolerate it just fine. So you might be able to have yogurt (I learned about this from the Specific Carbohydrate Diet). You could also use goat milk. I second a PP's suggestion for Amy's vegan pizza... it really is pretty good!

Please note that this person is talking about lactose which is the milk sugar. I think the question was talking about a child with a dairy allergy which would mean an allergy to the protein. There is a difference.

Clair is a gluten-free vegan. She can't tolerate soy either. She enjoys beans and rice (especially black beans), kidney beans, green beans, dehydrated fruits such as raspberries, blueberries, apricots, mangos as well as fresh grapes, apples, bell peppers, cucumbers, and sweet potatoes. Raisins and craisins are good too.

 

[lactavia]

I'm 28 and I'm deathly allergic to dairy!
So there's tons of alternatives out there.
First find any recipie you like and use some basic subsitutes for key items such as:

soy milk, coffee rich for milk
Willow run margerine for butter (really works great and is excellent in cooking nobody will know the difference)
If you are into chocolate use Tropical Source found in whole foods or your local health food store. This is 100 percent dairy free chocolate and (again nobody will know the difference)
Also take a look at the packages the symbol "p" or "k" or "paurve" will be your new best friend. Usually standing for kosher no meat or dairy. And there really is no meat or no dairy in those items!! A true life saving device for me...be wary of the u d symbols though that means dairy free manufactured in a dairy facility but not necessarily on a dairy machine and of the u d.e. which means dairy free on dairy machine...I can't have those.

Good luck!

And keep a bottle of Benyadryl handy incase of a reaction.

 

[yentroc]

DD has been dairy free most of her 2 yrs.

What are some of your dd's staples? I'd bet most of them can be dairy free. My dd is a very very picky and LIGHT eater, but will snack on most of the above suggested foods.

DD doesn't really drink milk but as far as a "milk" for drinking or cereal or oatmeal, etc we use the unsweetened Almond Breeze almond milk. It's really good. And then when I have the time I make homemade almond milk for a real treat.

For baking I always substitute coconut oil for butter, it's so yummy. I actually substitute it for butter on toast too, yummmmm. Dd will eat it by the spoonful.

One more thing about the dried fruit... our Whole Foods has "Just Veggies/Fruit" freeze-dried fruits and veggies. HUGE staple for us. DD LOOOOOOVES the freeze dried organic corn and peas ('crunchy corn/crunchy peas') The apricots and strawberries are a huge hit as well.

HTH, it's daunting at first cutting something out but actually now I don't miss dairy AT ALL.

 

[yentroc]

sorry just saw the part about your dd's love of cheese and yogurt, that will be challenging... I've heard of making homemade yogurt from coconut milk... you could make some low-sugar homemade puddings from coconut milk...

Trader Joes has great prices on canned coconut milk. FWIW.

 

[papschmitty]

We've been dairy-free since DD was 4 months old. If either of us ingest even a hint of dairy, she's up all night screaming in pain and plagued with mucousy diarrhea for days. It's not pretty. I second the suggestion for using Willow's Run soy margarine. DH eats like crap and is always leary of our "hippie food". I sneak the Willow's Run by him all the time. Tofutti makes a pretty decent soy cream cheese and sour cream. I substitute rice milk or coconut milk for baking. We try to avoid a lot of soy but DD loves soy yogurt. We tried goat's milk and she reacted pretty badly to that too. Be very careful trying goat milk products; the proteins are very similar to cow's milk and many people will react to both. You need to be very vigilant about reading labels. Even things that aren't made with milk will often have milk proteins (casein, whey, etc) as ingredients. All the soy cheeses I've found have milk proteins. Only the ones labeled as vegan seem to really be dairy-free, they're made with rice milk. In my personal opinion, they taste like styrofoam.

My DD is the second pickiest person in the universe (DH is #1) so finding anything that she'll eat is always a challenge. I just ordered this cookbook:http://www.dairyfreeeggfreekidpleasingcookbook.com/page1.html
but haven't gotten it yet so I don't know if the recipes are any good. Good luck and happy dairy free trails!

 

[LaughingHyena]

We use soy yoghurts sometimes but we've also made custard with rice milk which is good with fruit as a replacment for yoghurt.

We also made pancakes with rice mlik, I find that adding an extra egg helps as there is no protien in the rice milk.

DD also had lots of bean dips/spreads with veggies or on toast

 

[kandkrose]

banana chips

fruit bricks (3 envelopes unflavored gelatin - 3/4 cup boiling water - 1 can frozen apple, orange OR grapejuice concentrate: dissolve gelatin in boiling water - add juice and stir until mixed. Pour into lightly greased 9x13"pan [you can grease with your choice of oil] - chill for several hours. cut into squares for building blocks or use cookie cutters to make interesting shapes to play with)

trail mix

ants on a log (celery with peanut butter topped with raisins, carob chips or peanuts)

Fruit leathers

Strawberry Pudding (1can apple juice concentrate, 2 cans water, 1 tbs honey, 1/4 cup cornstarch, 2 cups fresh strawberries, chopped: combine juice, water, honey and cornstarch. cook over med heat until mixture thickens and boils stirring constantly. add strawberries and boil one minute, stirring constantly. remove from heat and pour into individualized dishes. makes 4 servings)

Banana Oatsies (4 bananas, 1/2 cup oats, 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts, 1 tsp vanilla: mash bananas and add other ingredients. mix well. drop by tsp onto ungreased cookie sheet. bake at 350* 20-25 min. makes 2 1/2 doz.

baked apples (4 small baking apples, 2 tbs chopped walnuts, 2 tbs raisins, 1 tsp cinnamon: cut apples in half and hollow out core. place in baking pan. combine nuts, raisins and cinnamon in a small bowl. stuff into apple hollows. cover and bake at 350* for 30 min. serve at room temp or chilled. makes 4-8 servings)

Super Hero Snacks (2 eggs, 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce, 2 cups granola: beat eggs and blend into applesauce. add granola and stir well until mixed. spread in 8" square pan that is lightly greased with oil of your choice. press firmly into pan. bake at 350* for 20 min. cut into bars and serve)

Cocobars (1 can [20oz] crushed pineapple, 1 egg, 2 cups coconut, 3/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup wheat germ: drain pineapple, reserving 3/4 cup juice. beat egg in mixing bowl. add pineapple juice and beat until blended. add pineapple and coconut. stir in flour and wheat germ. pour batter into greased 8" square pan. bake at 350* for 40 min. cool and cut into bars about 1 1/4"x2" makes 24 bars.

Fruit Chewies (3 ripe bananas, 1 cup chopped dates, 1/4 cup oil, 2 cups oats, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, peanuts, or pecans, 1 tsp vanilla: cut 2 bananas into med size chunks. mash the 3rd banana. combine all ingredients and stir until mixed. let stand for 10 min. drop by tsp onto lightly oiled cookie sheet. bake at 350* for 15-20 min. makes 2 doz.

Hawaiian Rollers: (1 can [8oz] refrigerated crescent rolls, 1/2 cup pineapple preserves, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 cup coconut, 1/4 cup chopped walnuts: separate dough into 2 long rectangles. divide preserves and spread evenly over each rectangle. sprinkle evenly with cinnamon, coconut and nuts. roll up dough lengthwise, and seal. cut each roll into 1/2" slices. place cut side up on ungreased cookie sheet. bake at 350* for 10 min. makes 24)

those are a few of my favs

i got them out of the book "healthy snacks for kids" by Penny Warner

she has a lot of books on amazon, so do a search for Penny Warner - i love all her ideas

hth!

 

[bauchtanz]

Another way to get fats is to make pudding using coconut milk.

 

[proudmamanow]

we are just making this transition with dd, almost 2, who also LOVES her dairy, esp. cheese and yogurt. We are not trying to eliminate, but cut way back. What's worked so far:
-almond milk on cereal! She really likes it...and rejects all other milk analogs
-chickpeas for snacks (replaces her beloved cheese sticks, which we do not keep in the house anymore--although she did ask me to go to the grocery store to get more today

)
-yogurt instead of cottage cheese or fromage frais, but this is not replacing dairy, clearly, just getting a more digestible format.
-she likes and will eat a lot of meatballs and eggs (scrambled, boiled whatever).
good luck! it has been much easier than I thought with our little dairy addict.