Breast Feeding a Milk Allergic Child – A Personal Experience

**This is not medical advice. Please contact your doctor for specific information related to your child.**

Since Luella was 4 weeks old, we have known that she had a several food allergies, She was chronically ill during the first several weeks with many colic symptoms.  Our integrative based pediatrician suggested that we begin a food elimination diet.  We started out eliminating all of the common food allergens.  At about 7 days, we were seeing vast improvement.  Her skin rashes were clearing up, she was still fussy but not as unhappy has she had been.  It was clear that we were on to something but how could I go without eating all these foods for the next year.  After several weeks of eating nothing but rice, fruit, vegetables and meat I began to add some of the common enemies back into my diet. After some trial and error we determined that Lu was definitely intolerant to milk and some forms of soy.  The one that surprised us in the end was egg.  Unfortunately, whenever I ate eggs, I tended to do it in conjunction with eating out and always assumed that I had “gotten dairy” into my meal via cross contamination.

Throughout the 14 months that we breastfed I kept a strict no dairy/soy diet.  While this was challenging, I feel this was the best choice for our family.  My daughter was thriving and breastfeeding went very well considering all the adjustments that we had to make. 

During this time, I spent hours researching and documenting information on food allergies. I have compiled a cheat sheet of information that I have been asked to share with several other people. I am adding it to my blog to see if it might help you. I am open to comments, opinions, other ideas. 

Again this information is not medical advice. Please read labels carefully and always express your concerns when eating out.

Note:
Most kids who have a dairy allergy/sensitivity also will develop a soy sensitivity. That is because everything that isn’t dairy is soy and soy in such large quantities is not naturally digestible in some babies. While I am not anti-soy. I am soy cautious so I would encourage you to start paying attention to how much soy you are using to replace the dairy.

Milk supplements:

Soy Milk (very good for cooking)

Almond Milk

Rice milk

Oat Milk

Yogurt:

I prefer the Coconut Yogurts. (I can only find them at Raisin Rack and Whole Foods)

**almost ALL the Soy yogurt has milk in it. Read the labels carefully.

There are NO cheese substitutions. They all taste like cardboard.

Frozen Food:

Amy’s Organics dishes for quick lunches etc. They are clearly LABELED on the front. Look for vegan items.

Tyson Chicken Nuggets/patties are dairy free

Orieda French Fries have many dairy free types. Some of the seasoned ones have dairy

VANs dairy free-egg free waffles, pancakes and other breakfast items.

Meats:

Packaged meats often have lactose in them.

Look for Kosher products as they will not cross dairy and meat.

In the Deli anything that has a sweet coating like (honey ham),  often will have a caramel glaze that has lactose.

Snacks:

Pringles/Potato Chips

Wheat Thins

Honey Grahams

Ritz Crackers (*I know it is odd since they are called butter crackers)

Tortilla Chips (NOT LIME – HAS MILK)

Salsa

Hummus

Nature Valley Granola bars (without chocolate)

Jello

Guacamole

Peanut Butter

Breads:

Kroger does not use dairy in almost ALL of its breads. (white, wheat, hot dog, etc).
Many flour tortillas for like wraps are dairy free.

Pillsbury in the refrigerated section…crescent rolls, bread sticks, dinner rolls, pizza crust

Pillsbury “holiday” cookies (like Easter, Santa etc). They come in a square box and are little round drop cookies. (*nice sweet to have when you are craving something)

Cereals:

Cascadian Farms have several non – dairy cereals

Life

Cheerios

Raisin Bran

Other stuff:

Prego/Kroger spaghetti does not have dairy.

Most Kroger brand pastas don’t contain dairy.

Campbell Golden Mushroom soup does not contain dairy. I use that in recipes that call for cream of mushroom.

I use chicken/beef broth for of dairy substitutes. Like if I want to make mashed potatoes, I use chicken broth in replace of the milk.

Flieshmans UNSALTED MARGARINE does not contain dairy. In the bars. I use that for stick butter substitutes for everything.

Rice, Couscous, Potato