dairy free products

Hi all, my daughter has headaches every day for the past 10 years. We had kinesiology done today and he said not to have any dairy, milk or milk solids, soy milk or coffee for a month.

Need some ideas for dairy substitutes and list of foods she CANNOT eat.

Thank you in advance, Jane

Replies

  • stuffinmuffin
    stuffinmuffin Posts: 985 Member
    Do you know why she can't have dairy? Excuse the question but as a child I was actually allergic to cow's milk and would come out in rashy hives and have a severe gastric reaction if I had any in any form or quantity including chocolate : ( Anyway I grew out of the allergy around the age of 8 but have been left with quite a bad intolerance to lactose - meaning I don't have the enzyme to digest it causing bloating, doscomfort, gas and the trots (excuse the detail - it's just the way it is!). Anyway headaches never factored in this dairy problem so hence my question.

    I use Lactofree milk/cheese/butter products as a 'replacement' as I can't stand soya milk or other alternatives and have a great fear of goat's milk from my childhood (it's VILE). You can get dairy free chocolate products - they're called moo-free. There is also almond milk which I tried the other day but made my coffee curdled so not doing that again. You can buy dairy free margarine (Stork is a dairy free brand though god knows what it's actually made of...?). Anyway hope there's some ideas for you! x
  • inkandsheep
    inkandsheep Posts: 101 Member
    Try oat milk, almond milk or rice milk.

    You could read about vegan foods as dairy (along with eggs and honey) is one of the big things to avoid.
  • bathsheba_c
    bathsheba_c Posts: 1,873 Member
    If you are trying for absolutely dairy-free, it could be worth your while to learn a little bit about reading kosher symbols. Anything labeled either "meat" or "pareve" is completely free of all dairy products, including additives and things like that. This is really helpful for things like breads, chocolate, and processed foods (for example, frozen chicken fingers won't have dairy in the batter).

    As for dairy substitutes, unfortunately, the one's I know are all tofu-based. :(
  • trijoe
    trijoe Posts: 729 Member
    Our family is dairy free (amongst other things). The hardest part for our daughters is going without cheese. I've tried and tried, and not found a worthy dairy-free cheese substitute.

    I would highly recommend a few trips down to your local Whole Foods store, or whole foods - type store. They have many items that make going on restrictive diets easier, AND their labels are second to none.

    We've switched to almond milk. The girls like the 365 brand the best. Be very careful when buying, you really have to read labels so carefully. Watch out for words like "casein" or "whey". They're all a form of dairy.

    I wish you and your family good eating and better health. It can be done. It may not be easy, and the toughest part could just be getting your kids on board. With our daughters, once they could physically feel more healthy with our new diet, they became much less interested in eating the same old offenders (no matter how yummy the rest of the world might find them).
  • momtokgo
    momtokgo Posts: 446 Member
    This is a list of ingredients you need to look for on foods that you buy, if you want to be 100% dairy free. Dairy is in so many things.

    Acidophilus Milk
    Ammonium Caseinate
    Butter
    Butter Fat
    Butter Oil
    Butter Solids
    Buttermilk
    Buttermilk Powder
    Calcium Caseinate
    Casein
    Caseinate (in general)
    Cheese (All animal-based)
    Condensed Milk
    Cottage Cheese
    Cream
    Curds
    Custard
    Delactosed Whey
    Demineralized Whey
    Dry Milk Powder
    Dry Milk Solids
    Evaporated Milk
    Ghee
    Goat Milk
    Half & Half
    Hydrolyzed Casein
    Hydrolyzed Milk Protein
    Iron Caseinate
    Lactalbumin
    Lactoferrin
    Lactoglobulin
    Lactose
    Lactulose
    Low-Fat Milk
    Magnesium Caseinate
    Malted Milk
    Milk
    Milk Derivative
    Milk Fat
    Milk Powder
    Milk Protein
    Milk Solids
    Natural Butter Flavor
    Nonfat Milk
    Nougat
    Paneer
    Potassium Caseinate
    Pudding
    Recaldent
    Rennet Casein
    Skim Milk
    Sodium Caseinate
    Sour Cream
    Sour Milk Solids
    Sweetened Condensed Milk
    Sweet Whey
    Whey
    Whey Powder
    Whey Protein Concentrate
    Whey Protein Hydrolysate
    Whipped Cream
    Whipped Topping
    Whole Milk
    Yogurt
    Zinc Caseinate

    Goats milk is on the list too, its not dairy, but I was told by my doctor that goats milk is so similar to cows milk that you will probably react to both if you have an intolerance/allergy.

    My daughter has a milk intolerance, my second daughter has a more severe one and my son has a really severe one. One m&m and hes miserable for the next 24 hours. It took a long time to figure out what has dairy and what doesn't. One thing that reallly surprised me was rice cakes. Every flavor we looked at has dairy.
  • Some of my favorite non-dairy substitutes:

    Mashed potatoes using non dairy creamer and soy butter. (You can't even tell the difference)
    Soy&C0. soy yogurt
    Almond ice cream
  • JD2000
    JD2000 Posts: 16 Member
    My son and I are DF. We use Silk Almond Milk (dark chocolate being our favorite). We also use substitute cream cheese, sour cream, & shredded cheese. I use the sour cream to make him dip for his veggies. For cooking/baking I use Nature's Balance butter and regular Almond Milk. Some other products I was so happy to find (as was my son): grated parmesan, chocolate pudding, coconut milk yogurt, and a variety of ice creams.

    Enjoy Life is a favorite brand of ours. My son loves the cereal bars and we all love the granola. Ian's makes a Mac n No Cheese frozen product. I find it pricey so only buy it for him once in awhile. Amy's frozen kids meals are DF & GF. The only thing I have not been able to find is a cheese cracker substitute. I have also found DF & GF donuts!

    It can be very overwhelming at first. Make a list of the things that are major dairy products that your daughter eats on a daily basis and go from there. It's a life style change for sure, but it has actually made our family eat cleaner. Good luck!
  • abbielle
    abbielle Posts: 17 Member
    lactofree milk,. also do yogurt, cheese and ice cream
    rice milk
    oat milk
    if you go to health food shops you can get milk free chocolates (lived off these as a kid)
    sheeps milk
    goats milk
    mozarella cheese
    feta cheese
    urmmmmmmmm I can't off the top of my head think of any more, no thats a lie
    Dark chocolate (again lived off these as a kid so it may be I'm used to it, I know a lot of people dislike it)
    I found lots of things like sausage rolls and the like had a milk in but often if you look at veggie versions they are milk less.
    And after re-reading I'll cut out the soya stuff.
  • Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. :smile: We have had every medical test under the sun for the cause of her "daily headaches", even had her adenoids taken out. There is nothing medical wrong. The chiropractor does kinesiology as well and suggests that her "gut" is reacting to certain foods which might be causing the headaches. This is only a months trial to see if there are any changes in her headaches. He tested various foods under a magnet on her belly. Luckily wheat and gluten were fine.

    He just wants "for now" to cut out diary, products that contain milk or milk solids, coffee (not that she drinks it, but likes iced coffee). I asked about replacing cows milk with soy milk, he tested it and said no soy milk and suggested rice milk instead. Eggs are fine to have, just have to cut out those three products (dairy & coffee & soy milk)

    Seeing she is not allowed soy milk, alot of my pantry/freezer ingredients contain "soy protein", is that the same thing?. He didn't ring me back last night so not sure. If it does, she will starve..lol. She is a very fussy eater at the best of times.

    Again thanks for the advice. He didn't say she was dairy intolerant, just working through foods bit by bit. If this doesn't work, not sure where I will go next. Something has to be causing these headaches since she was 4 (now 15). Maybe visit a psychic?!.
  • knittnponder
    knittnponder Posts: 1,953 Member
    I'm coming to this thread late and only found it after searching for "dairy free" since one of my daughters (16) is eliminating it to see if it's the source of her issues. We are already gluten free as my older daughter has an intolerance. I wanted to chime in and encourage you to try going gluten free if the dairy free doesn't offer any relief. My older daughter has had headaches her whole life including many migraines so bad she'd throw up. We went dairy free with her first to see if that made a difference but it didn't. So then we decided to try gluten free and it has been magical for her. Not only are her headaches a thing of the past but the dark circles under her eyes are gone, the fatigue is gone, the muscle aches and depression are gone! She's like a different kid! She told me she had no idea just how crappy she felt until she went gluten free and felt better. If she gets glutened she is just miserable for a few days until she gets it out of her system. All of that and no positive tests for gluten issues.

    I have a friend who extremely sensitive to gluten and is 10 times worse than my daughter if she gets contaminated and yet all her testing came back "normal" too. According to her doctor her tests said she had no issues. Fortunately her doctor has common sense and told her that no matter what a test says, if she gets sick when she eats it she obviously has a problem with that food and should avoid it.

    All that to say, regardless of what the testing has said, don't rule out gluten or other possibilities. They could still be very much an issue. My whole family is now gluten free and I personally have experienced improvements in my health from it. It was hard to admit that I needed to cut it out myself but shouldn't be surprising since these things often run in families. I hope you find the cause of your daughter's symptoms and she gets relief soon!
  • Hi all, my daughter has headaches every day for the past 10 years. We had kinesiology done today and he said not to have any dairy, milk or milk solids, soy milk or coffee for a month.

    Need some ideas for dairy substitutes and list of foods she CANNOT eat.

    Thank you in advance, Jane

    well besides the obvious like cheese & yogurt...

    don't order omelets/scrambled egg at restaurants (they usually add milk)
    mashed potatoes
    Some restaurant rice (check and see if they have an allergen menu...friday's adds milk to theirs!)
    any cream based sauces (alfredo, white sauces)
    Pudding
    most baked goods
    granola bars (check ingredients, stick to the fruit & nut kind that SAY they are dairy free)



    I'm lactose intolerant and I pretty much just avoid all of these things. EXTREME cases of LI cannot eat butter I believe but that's not the case for me.

    OH and big one for me SUSHI ROLLS. Authenic asian food is dairy free (most asians are LI) but beware the Philadelphia Roll and it's cream cheese lol that one took me many stomach aches to finally realize...duh!
  • Mellie13
    Mellie13 Posts: 424
    I have a serious dairy allergy and I use coconut milk in place of milk, coconut oil in place of butter (in baking), and I eat coconut milk ice cream. I'm allergic to almond otherwise I've heard almond milk is good. Check out my blog for more support/information. http://foodallergiesandrestrictions.blogspot.com/
  • Enigmatica
    Enigmatica Posts: 879 Member
    After years of daily headaches and frequent full-blown migraines I finally got a wonderful doctor last year who figured out that both cowmilk and wheat gluten were triggering my headaches. I can't tolerate either of them even in small amounts mixed into various products like protein bars, vegetarian cheeses, etc. But I have no problem at all with sheep milk cheese and yogurt.

    I mostly use almond milk because I love the stuff and it doesn't make me sick. Sometimes I make my own at home - it's easy. Cashew milk is even easier. There are almond milk ice creams out there too.