How do you cope with dairy-free diet for an underweight child?

I'm beginning to suspect DD (almost 18mo) is dairy intolerant. She's recently been diagnosed with a peanut allergy too, and reflux, and is also a bit on the small side and her paediatrician told me to make sure she has 'cream stirred through everything' etc. I've spoken to the paed again since I started to suspect the intolerance, and he's told me to cut down on the dairy a bit until our next appointment (early April) but i hate the thought of continuing to give it to her if it's making her uncomfortable, so i am thinking of cutting it out entirely. I just worry about where she will get her weight gain from without the dairy. I also worry about what she'll eat, she is a cheese/sour cream/butter addict and that's how we usually persuade her to try something if she's not sure about it!

Any experiences/info you can share would be most welcome!

Hi,
I feel that it is better for weight gain to come from healthy fats rather than saturated fats (like dairy). So, I would suggest foods like nuts, seeds, avocado. Does she like almond butter? Or sunflower butter (made from sunflower seeds)? I grind up linseeds and chia seeds in our coffee grinder and sprinkle them over cereal. This is any easy way to get seeds into my kids' diet.
Have you looked at the non-dairy alternatives to cheese and milk? You can buy non-dairy cream cheese (Tofutti brand).There is a brand of non-dairy spread called Nuttelex.
Good luck.

ETA I have just realised you are in Sydney. You will have no trouble finding non-dairy cheeses - look for Cheezly brand. Tofutti also make non-dairy sour cream and sliced cheeses. Check out an online store called The Cruelty Free Shop for lots more dairy free options/ideas.

Ash, this is fantastic advice, thanks so much! I just had a look at that website and will be making a few purchases. I've bought some nuttelex and tofutti imitation cheese spread, both of which she turned her nose up at, but she's accepting the nuttelex now and I'll keep working with the other one. I'm so so so relieved to hear that there's imitation cheese available. We have a big whole foods grocery store called about life down the road and I hadn't had a chance to check it out yet, but I bet they'll carry a lot of these products too. I bought some rice milk for her to try today too.

She had a peanut allergy confirmed a few weeks ago, and we're not yet sure about other nuts. I'm waiting on our allergy dietician's appointment and was told to avoid all other nuts in the meantime, which is a shame because I keep hearing how great almond based products are.

I'm trying to stop freaking out about this and start seeing it positively, DH and I used to eat really healthily but it's slipped over time so I think we could benefit too.

My DD is nearly 7 and has been Dairy Free since she was 6 months old....

We use
Nuttelex or Margerine (Many of the home brand Margerines are Dairy Free, just check the ingredients have no milk solids)
She LOVES Soy Life Yoghurt (and has had this since 6 months old, Vanilla is her fave)
She LOVE her Soy Milk (Her fave is So Good)
We have never found an alternative cheese that she likes, but it was recently suggested to me to try Buffalo Cheese....apparantly it is really nice, just a bit exxy, so planning on giving that a go.
As a treat she has Sweet Williams Chocolate (available in the health food aisle in Coles and Woolies)
I make Garlic Bread with fresh garlic and dairy free marg or nuttelex.
She lived on Hommus (we buy a really yummy local dairy free version by Castlemaine Dips, they also have a Sundried Tomato & Hommus version which she loves!) with rice crackers or carrot sticks when she was really little, and still takes this to school sometimes.

For meals she has and loves things like Risotto, Pasta bakes, Hokkien Noodle Stir Frys, Pumpkin Dahl, I make a yummy Chicken Curry using the SOY Carnation Milk.
If I have a recipe that requires cream, I just use Soy Milk (for instance a Honey Mustard sauce that might use Sour Cream or cream, I just add Soy Milk...it still tastes pretty much the same).
I make a yummy Garlic Creamy chicken, I just dish hers up before adding the cream & parmesan to ours, and she LOVES it.
Mashed Potato....I just use dairy free marg and soy milk........I sometimes put this on top of my pasta bakes or cottage pies.
Her fave dessert is Apple Crumble...again Dairy Free (just use dairy free marg).
She loves the So Good Ice Cream (this is actually really nice!)
She has the sorbets at Wendy's when we get ice cream.
She loves hawaiin type pizzas, just without the cheese.
Most of the low fat Mayo's are dairy free.....

I make healthy option slices with dairy free marg and dried fruit & oats etc etc, or banana bread....

And obviously she fills up on Fruit & Vegies, and Chicken etc etc...she doesn't miss out on anything much really....cheese is the only thing I find hard to replace.

We are really lucky that our creche (that dd went to 2 days a week when she was little) has a very dedicated chef that cooks gourmet meals for the kids....curries, pastas, risottos, dahl etc etc....and the kids lap it up!! And she always has a dairy free option. Anyway, she put out a cookbook with all of her recipes....I use most of the recipes as a base for what I cook....my kids love them. Thats probably the thing, you really have to cook most things from scratch...I never use packet mix cake mixes....and only use the occasional casserole base mix etc.... otherwise I start most meals off by sauteeing some garlic and onion and fresh herbs...

Hope this helps!

More fantastic advice, thanks so much faithful mamma for taking the time to give me all that info!

It's a shame about the cheese - DD is a cheese addict!

One of my concerns is that so many dairy free options are made with soy, and I remember reading on here a while ago that there are issues with giving soy to kids. I can't remember the details, I'll have a look back and see what I can find...

Hi :)
My ds1 is dairy, peanut and egg allergic

I use meadow Lea dairy free marg, tastes MUCH beter than nuttelex.*
Can she have eggs? That will help bulk her up :)
carbs are good too most pastas dont have milk :)

There. Is two cake mixes I have found that don't have milk, safeway select brand and the woolworths brand in plastic bags y your feet in the isle. It's cheap and really yummy :)
I don't believe his stuff about it's dangerous to feed kids soy,,, the Chinese have lived off soy for, well forever....
My son has been on soy since 5 months. It's all he knows.*

The main thing about dairy is that it's sneaking put into products, soy cheese has dairy proteins in it and whey powder is used as a filler in aOt of foods.*
There are alot of packet mixes for things *like apricot chicken and shepherds pie out there without dairy and the health cos isle has great things :)

My son has milk flavor straws to flavor the soy. They have no artificial flavors and no preservatives. They are inthe milk additive section. ( I she doesn't like the taste of soy)

Try mixing stewed/ fresh fruit into the vanilla soy yogurt :)

And you can gt gelativo gelati at the supermarket for frozen treats :)

Good luck and I hoPe you get an answer sOon :)
Sent from my iPhone

Hi I have the same problem with my 15 month old DD but for a long time she also couldnt have wheat have just reintroduced that untill we get test results back. My DD is on mostly rice milk and I use the sunflower spread and tahinni as the diatician recomended these as higher in calcium and protien for good weight gain

My youngest is dairy intolerant and I follow much of the advice given above, but in addition I found dairy free yoghurts difficult and expensive to source so I bought a heap of small plastic tubs and fill them with fruit (usually tinned peaches) and jelly. They have about the same amount of sugar as a yoghurt but no dairy and are handy for lunchboxes, picnics, etc.

Thanks girls, this is all great info.

Aligater, how did they test for the intolerance? I am just guessing that's what the problem is here, knowing that dairy intolerance often goes hand in hand with reflux, and she keeps having a few days every couple of weeks where she does poos like chopped spinach!

I know this is an old thread but consider it a bump.

We have recently learnt a lot about dairy and its so called 'good' - 3 of the 6 of us have issues tolerating dairy so last year we decided enough was enough. While on our dietary reform we also decided to do away with meat and only occaisionally have fish.

We rarely eat any processed foods, have a huge amount of legumes, nuts and whole grains compared to before and eat and drink plenty of soy. The concern with soy is for under 2 year olds it cannot be used as a milk substitute i.e. Babies cannot drink full bottles of Soya milk in replacement if breast milk or formula bottles (*Soy milk based formulas are made for dairy intolerant bottle fed bubs*)

Far from losing weight our main concern (Daddy!) has put on a bit of healthy weight. looks 5 years younger at least and has not had any major depressive episodes since the dietary change. Our 2 children (both of whom have always been in the underweight category) are tolerating ALL food far better than before and the younger one has started gaining weight slowly (about 1.5kg in 4 months for the 2.5yr old) the 11yr old has not gained weight but is feeling healthier and not complaining of stomach pain, which was previously so accute it lead to many tests including an endoscopy.

I have lost more than 10kg since changing our diet which for a very obese person has been very encouraging, even with a back injury (meaning limited to no movement) I continued to lose weight.

We found a lot of conflicting opinion on the net about getting rid of dairy but two things I found very good were the new "Healthy Eating Plate" by Harvard school of Public Health - Healthy Eating Plate - The Nutrition Source - Harvard School of Public Health It states "Limit milk/dairy" and is not included 'on' the plate as such.

And by far the most convincing and researched info we came across was by Amazing Discoveries and it is a (long) video called Udderly Amazing - 304 - Udderly Amazing - Amazing Discoveries TV If you need to justify your dairy rejection to anyone this is the way to back it up, it is worth the long watch. They have quite a few health videos available.

All of the kids eat so much better, they are healthier, happier and surprise me more and more everyday. I used to LOVE my full fat latte and never thought I would give it up but I now love a decaf SOY latte and can't even stand the smell of the fatty milk coffees. Our kids eat all the veges we can buy, they try anything, of course we had resistance at the beginning, I remember a big girl crying over the insistance that soya milk be tried on cereal! But they took barely any time to adjust and we are all reaping the benefits.

Sarah :)