Help

[EMMA SIMPSON]

My son is 9 years old and has recently been diagnosed as dairy intolerant to cows, goat & sheeps milk, lactose,coco, colours (orange, red , blue, brown) and E651 Monosodium Glutamate. Any ideas for recipes or meals?
:)

[zoefruitcake]

Hello - and don't panic! :)

it might seem really difficult right now, but soon things will be second nature.
with a little imagination there are lots of yummy meals out there for him. to begin with I would say try to recreate the meals he likes so that there isn't a huge change that makes him unhappy. Replace ready meals or processed food with fresh so you know what has gone into them.
Assuming he eats meat most meals would be free of these items anyway. I mean you can easily make, say, a shepherds pie or fish and chips without any problems.
There are plenty of alternatives out there, we all have our favourites. Personally I enjoy Cheezly soya cheese and Tesco soya milk. Lots of cereals should be free of the items you list, there are many alternatives to sweets and chocolate, we spend lots of time talking about them on here

Sorry no actual recipes (I'm a strict veggie as well as unable to handle dairy)

[EMMA SIMPSON]

Hi Zoefruitcake

Thanks - I'm sure it will get easier.

Emma Simpson

[lyndamc]

Welcome to the site.

I aggree with Zoe, stick to the meals he knows and likes and use substitutes. Your local health food shop will help you and the supermarkets usually have 'free from' sections, but always read the labels!!
Cheese is the hardest thing to replace, the substitutes just don't taste the same!
The hardest part is the 'hidden' milk products, theres a list somewhere on this site that gives all the ingredient descriptions that also mean milk products.
Sorry no recipes as such as i just substituted the dairy products in our meals.
Good luck, hope your son will feel the improvement!

[zoefruitcake]

I'd gone back to my work but was still mulling your post over when I remembered a website I had bookmarked. So try this and see if it is of any help:

http://www.foodyoucaneat.com/food/index.php

:)

[EMMA SIMPSON]

Dear Lyndamc

Thank you - I have found the list of hidden ingredients (what an eye opener). I think substitution into regular meals is the only way to go.

Emma Simpson

[EMMA SIMPSON]

Dear Zoefruitcake

I have popped into the site and registered

Many thanks

Emma Simpson

[Pam]

Hi Emma, welcome to the site, I hope you will become a regular here, we always like to see new faces.

It must be a shock to the system for your son to suddenly need to cut out so many foods. It will be quite a shock to you when you now need to spend so long reading lables before buying food in the supermarket.

What sort of reaction does he have if he has the wrong stuff - is it a major allergic reaction or just a minor irritation? If it is a minor one you can probably afford to experiment a bit more.

As has already been said avoid all the processed foods and ready meals (including things like cooked meats) and get your recipe books out. If you make more of your own meals you can ensure that no naughties are added in, though you will have to watch the things that add flavour eg stock cubes and spices as they may well have msg or colours in. You can mostly use standard recipes but substitute the milk for a dairy free alternative (soya works well in most things, oat, rice, nut, pea, potato etc) and use a dairy free marge eg Pure.

I recommend that you get to know the owner of your local health food shop, most are more than willing to offer advice and many will order items specifically for you even if they don't normally stock it. A lot of them sell much purer versions of normal products without all the additives.

Chocolate is bound to be a sticking point, and I don't know of a dairy free white chocolate yet. You will have to try carob which, although it doesn't taste that chocolatey it is the nearest you will get without cocoa. Just So bars are reasonable and come in three varieties (mint, orange & raisin, crispy rice). I would avoid the unsweetened carob as that is yuck - very bitter and unpleasant.

I can also recommend Foods Matter magazine for people with multiple allergies. They have an agony aunt, recipe pages, kids club and lots of news items. It is only available on subscription but you can see more about it here http://www.foodsmatter.com/

[matt]

hi, welcome to the site. as has been said things appear worse than they really are and the problems can soon be overcome.

i posted a link on a different thread about a website that gives receipes based on things you need to avoid. do a search on the forums if i can't remember to post it again. you just type in what you need to avoid and it'll give you ideas.

plus just ask for any specifics on here. i'm sure someone will have a way of making it that's safe.

don't worry it'll all work out,

[matt]

http://www.dairyfreeuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=492


aspromised

[EMMA SIMPSON]

Hi Pam

It certainly has been a shock to the system, I could cope with my partner being diabetic and intolerant to soya but now for my son to be intolerant to the list above is proving more complicated.

Our local Health Food shop is a bit limited, but I have found a couple of websites that have been extremely helpful (most have been recommended by Dairyfree.com members).

Do you know if there is a site where children with intolerances can chat? My son has only been diagnosed a week and although we have explained that lots of children are intolerant to dairy products, I think it would help him to chat to other chilldren to see that he is not the only one.

Thanks

Emma Simpson:)

[EMMA SIMPSON]

Hi Matt

Your a star. The link has come up with several ideas. I'm going to have hours of fun with this.

Thanks

Emma Simpson

[Pam]

I think Milk Free Kids has a chat room, it is usually only operated by adults but you might be able to get members there to put their kids on. I'm not sure what the address for that site is as I haven't been there for a long time but I'm sure you'll find it if you search on Google.

[Copper]

http://www.milkfree.org.uk/

I think that this is the site that Pam mentioned above.

[matt]

emma, what health food shop are you using?

the one in the market place salisbury quite good and i'm sure they'd order stuff in. holland and barrett have always been friendly and helpfull to me. i also use a small one in fordingbridge where i lived until last week. will still use them as they are happy to order stuff in and i go over there so much.

i'm very wary of any website set up for kids to chat on. too much of a magnet for paedaphiles. very hard to monitor against them.