help with weaning

[bernadette doyle]

hi anyone who could give me advice on weaning etc ive just found out my twin daughters of twelve wks are milk intolerant ive never had to deal with this before with my two elder daughters it would be nice to get some tips :)

[matt]

well i'm sure they'll be some more specific advice given but first and foremost. who diagnosed? if not gp then make sure gp and health visitor fully aware. then get the necessary milk replacement etc etc on prescription. soya versions of wysol i seem to remember from other threads prob others. but important thing is you can get them for free. lots less hassle aswell.


then regards weaning, just the same as for the rest of us. just a mtter of reading the labels and avoiding milk in it's various forms. good news is they might well grow out of it.

try to not get too stressed (yeah right with twins, that's impossible i know) don't take no for answer from health people. some gp's better than others. don't be afraid to see someone else.

keen coming back we'll help as much as possible.

[Pam]

Hi Bernadette, welcome to the site. (4 daughters! wow! what a lot of PMT!)

I have brought up a dairy free baby so I know what a nightmare it seems to start with. My health visitor and doctor were both very helpful, I had Wysoy free on prescription and was referred to the dietician, the health visitor also gave me lots of booklets and leaflets about dairy free weaning. These days doctors usually prefer to go for a hypo-allergenic formula rather than soya as there is a tendancy to develop soya intolerance as well as dairy in some cases. You don't say what stage you are at with the feeding at the moment - are you breast or bottle feeding?

Early weaning is very easy - baby rice mixed with non-dairy milk (either expressed breast milk or formula) and pureed fruit and vegetables. Most of the commercial baby foods are well labelled as to what contains milk etc. so you should find it reasonably easy to identify which jars/packets are suitable. As your girls get older then you will probably have to do more cooking yourself and substitute cows milk with a suitable alternative (soya works well in most recipes and oat milk is good for everything except porridge and yorkshire pudding). Unfortunately cheese is something that will be difficult to replace as most of the alternative cheeses seem to contain a lot of salt and have a great long list of ingredients but don't taste particularly good. The best way to do your own baby food is to take a bit out of whatever you're cooking for yourself but before you add any butter/milk and then blend it up.

If you haven't already got some formula milk on prescription then you should ask for it (some doctors are more willing than others to give it on prescription though) and also ask for a referral to see the dietician in readiness for weaning (professionals recommend that you don't wean until nearly 6 months these days, so you have plenty of time). In the meantime write/e-mail companies like SMA, Cow and Gate and Farleys and ask them for info on dairy free weaning. Alpro, the Vegan Society, Baby Organix etc might also have useful info for you and most will send you leaflets or booklets to help. You don't have to buy their products but you can still use their information to get you on your way.

There is a page on this site, accessible from the homepage, with a list of milk derivatives, you will need to familiarise yourself with these and get used to looking at ingredients lists on food labels as it is quite alarming just where you find milk - processed meat products, bread, biscuits, crisps, most ready meals etc. As the girls get older we can point you in the right direction for suitable chocolate, ice cream, biscuits etc so stick around and let us know how you're doing.