My baby is allergic to dairy products

If she’s allergic I would recommend going to your GP and asking for a referral to a dietitian. My daughter has severe CMPA and other allergies we are under a dietician, allergy clinic and consultant

My little girl had a milk allergy which meant no dairy There’s LOADS of vegan things in store atm Vegan Philadelphia was a huge hit We used oat milk in foods Most margerine spreads are vegan Tesco and Asda do vegan yogurts

We use a lot of vegan alternatives as we also have a milk allergy and waiting to start the milk ladder x

@Sophie honestly for a milk allergy alone I found the dietician rubbish 🤣 everything she gave me such as other words for milk and the milk ladder and the recipes etc could be found online I think a lot of GPs won’t refer unless it’s a severe allergy because the wait time is so long and they reject so many referrals

Same as above vegan stuff we use a lot of! Plant based cheese/oat milk ect. To be honest, its surprisingly not as complicated as you think it will be We are at stage 3 of milk ladder atm🤞🏻x

I didn’t bother with the GP as I was breastfeeding. But recently it came up with the health visitor and they’ve done a referral to a nutritionist, and the nutritionist is sending us for allergy testing. Nutritionist has just recommended getting alternatives high in calcium and fat, so Oatly barista is good. If you’re breastfeeding then I was told to take a multivitamin with calcium in specifically. My girl had dropped two centiles over 3 months (of which 2 I hadn’t figured out the dairy issue and another 3 weeks had a bug). They suspect the dairy issue has caused her slow weight gain. I’d just get the alternative staples, butter, milk and cheese, and you can have a fairly normal diet otherwise. If she’s formula fed then you’ll need to speak to the GP for prescription formula, if she’s reacting to store bought stuff.

@Sophie I'm on the waiting list for a allergy specialist but the wait is long.

@Mica it really is. We’ve waited 10 months and finally have an app on 17th feb! X

Like the others, there’s loads of vegan products - I look for ones that say “fortified with calcium”… and we use oat milk for cooking with and his bottles x

i know some people are a bit iffy with arla at the moment, but both milk and cheese wise i thought theirs is the best! i’m very lactose intolerant, and never really liked oat milks, and vegan/dairy free cheese is normally TERRIBLE but i love the arla one. you’ll just have to try out the different dairy alternatives and see what your baba likes x

You have to wait a minimum of six months to try again if she reacted. My son had a dairy allergy that we found way back when I was breastfeeding as a newborn. (He reacted to the dairy I ingested) We introduced first step of dairy ladder at 9mo and he had a severe reaction. We only just recently got cleared on our third try by his allergist (they did a blood test for cmpa) and did an in office dairy challenge. No longer allergic but is lactose intolerant so we avoid lactose as much as we can. He’s now 22mo. I found it easiest to mostly stick to things that are naturally dairy free like meats, fruits, veggies, etc and just made sure to use carbs/fats that didn’t have dairy like checking ingredient lists etc. when I made a recipe or something that called for dairy we just did oatmilk (now lactose free milk) or plant based butter etc in place of the dairy. It’s hard at first but it does get easier as you go since it’ll become second nature to avoid/use certain things respectively.

@Jade not all milk allergies are to lactose, some are to milk protein

@Emmo i completely forgot i’m so sorry! i think lactose is the more common one so the milk proteins just slipped my mind 😢

@Jade don't need to be sorry, it was just a reminder as that's what my brother in law has

We use oatly whole for milk. Then instead of butter it depends what I'm making, either flora spread, Coconut oil or olive oil generally. I'm not a fan of vegan cheese, but I put nutritional yeast on pasta and things for a hit of savoury/cheesy flavour. Most milk allergies in babies are to the protein rather than lactose (the sugar). Breastmilk has more lactose than cows milk, but unfortunately food grade lactose can contain the protein (which includes teething powders)

It's easy really, as supermarkets often have a decent range of vegan alternatives! My baby can't have dairy, so I buy vegan cheese, vegan spread and vegan soft cheese, plus oat milk. Whatever recipe I use I just substitute any dairy products

Thank you ladies. You've helped massively.

I'd go with almond or almond/Cashews. Millk steering clearance of the vegan cheeses though. They're awful on the body

@Laura only the supermarket ones are bad, since they're almost entirely completely coconut oil. But there are loads online made of nuts or tofu.