Questions about eliminating most dairy

[clairebeautiful]

Hello. I am new the forum, though not new to cooking and eating!

I have three children, ages 6 down to 11 months. Discovered about 4 months ago that my breastfed baby boy's eczema was linked directly to milk, ice cream, and yogurt in my diet. Eliminated all that back in July. The eczema is basically gone. (Cheese seems to be fine, sour cream in small amounts is fine.)

It makes sense. My husband is lactose intolerant. So, on a whim, I cut milk and yogurt from the entire family's diet. It seems that over night, my oldest daughter stopped complaining of tummy aches and gas after every meal. (Go figure.)

So anyway, this baby boy is going to be a year old in a month. Old requirements said whole milk is the fat necessary for brain development. If I have cut cow's milk, how do I get enough fat (and calcium) into my kids on a daily basis? Or, is the milk requirement even valid anymore? *He will receive breast milk until my frozen supply runs out, otherwise he is basically weaned now.

FWIW: we aren't juice or soda drinkers, we're relatively healthy eaters (lots of fruits and veggies), and we do eat meat.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

From an infant's point of view and dietry requirements I can't really help you (and I suspect your best option would be to speak to your GP if you are in the UK and ask for a dietry specialist referral for advice), but I can tell you that I am not surprised at all by what you are saying. My OH no longer snores (unless he has been away from home on business) since I developed a dairy allergy - he has gone over to soya milk and is also dairy free when at home (it just makes life easier, simpler, safer and less expensive). Cow's milk is my major issue - mild anaphylatic shock. cow's cheese, sheeps' dairy or goats' dairy is just an intolerance causing my asthma major issues at night. When I was able to drink goat's milk only, whenever family visited, they only had my milk and didn't know it. After a couple of visits, my mother-in-law asked me what was so different when she came to visit because all of her sinus issues cleared up at our house. My sister-in-law also asked the same thing - both of them now have goat's milk.

One thing I have had to become aware of is enriched produce options for non-dairy milk's. I had prefered to have the orgainc oat milk, which is the same price as the non-organic enriched oat milk (in the UK), but the organic version has no added calcium whatsoever and therefore has essentially no calcium in it at all, so now I have to buy the enriched ordinary version (I have to watch my calcium intake carefully because of steriod use to control my asthma).

I do know that a lot of vitamins and minerals require fat in the body for them to be stored and used as needed and I would suspect that the same is true for an infant - probably more so.

Have you tried him with Goat's milk? I ask because it could just be a cow's milk & cow's milk products issue rather than a full dairy allergy and both goat's and sheep's milk are actually better for you and contain more nutrients than cow's milk. In the UK, Nanny goat's formula is for sale in supermarkets alongside the standard baby milk formulas and goat's milk is readily available in all supermarkets with 2 out of 3 of the full cream, semi-skimmed and skimmed milk versions usuualy being available - the one I usually struggled to find was the skimmed milk version, but that won't be suitable for him. Bare in mind that goat's milk is richer than cow's milk and I personally found that the semi-skimmed goat's milk was around the same richness as full-cream cow's milk.

But I really do think you probably need medical advise of this matter.

You may also find your daughter more tolerant of goat's milk even though it contains lactose simply because it is more digestable.
This may be an interesting read for you - regarding your daughter. http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=38646

 

[clairebeautiful]

^^Love it. All of it. Thank you.

I'm in the US, where goat's milk is probably more expensive than a quart of oil, but alas. I'll check Whole Foods. We've switched to almond milk, which tastes nothing like milk. I've actually just had them drink water at meals and it isn't a big deal, but I will say, a cup of milk was filling, and now they are eating more food.

I will talk to our family doc next month at his one year appt. Sadly, however, I find that most Western medicine "professionals" are the least informed about alternatives to the ease of living in the United States, where pharmaceuticals basically dictate the FDA and everything else. It is frustrating. I'm not trying to be one of those super "crunchy" obnoxiously holistic moms, but for the love of pete, it is getting to the point where a "well-balanced" diet no longer necessarily means healthy, you know?

Never thought of goat's milk though. I'm going on a mission.