Help with Food Allergies

I've found a great line of products made from the company Enjoy Life. I don't know if Whole Foods sells them, but I buy them at Woodman's grocery store. All the products are free of the 8 most common allergies...including gluten, eggs, dairy, soy, fish, shellfish, and all nuts. They're really tasty and I feel safe giving them to my 2 year old who has ecezma flare-ups after eating eggs and dairy! Good luck! Also, rice milk is high in sugar. Almond milk (as long as she can have nuts) and hemp milk are also good alternatives!

My son is allergic to soy, milk, egg and peanuts. PHEW! it takes a learning curve. You'll be suprised. MANY breads don't have those ingrediants... usually the healthier versions (look for whey/casiene/milk etc). So the hearty wheats w/nuts and twigs (ha ha). Chicken tenders usually do NOT have these ingrediants believe it or not (but don't go in restaurants cuz they usually have both milk and egg). Avoid anything w/batters. We do graham crackers and ritz crackers and teddy grahams, there's an animal cracker out there that doesn't have milk in it too.... some cheap version believe it or not. My son is lower on the weight side too... so I try not to worry as much about things like HOT DOGS, which he eats a lot of. Many cereals like chereeos and kixs are ok. BLACK STRAP molasses is really good ( i can't remember why we use that though) on oatmeal. There are actually very few foods that have vitamin D or calcium naturally that aren't dairy. Fortified orange juice... We do vitamins just to make sure (my son is about 2+ now though... we've been doing this for 21 months now!). My husband gets anaphalaxis (sp?) from peanuts but for some reason has figured out he can eat peanut flour and peanut oil and does eat things "made in the factory of". I personally would not take any risk like that with my child of course, and my hubby has made some mistakes that ended up in the ER (usually with candy or in a restaurant)... I have another friend who's child is very allergic to peanuts and she avoids all "made in factory of...". My son's allergy is mild to peanuts so we don't usually look out for that, just the ingrediant itself. Oh. and there ARE chocolate chips that are dairy free that don't cost an arm and leg, just gotta read the label. You know... to make chocolate chip cookies and cup cakes (I've learned at birthday parties and such i need to bring our own substitute so he's not left out). AND there are great recipes out there for vegan baking and that aren't bad!!! any ?'s just ask : ). Once you learn where things are in your store and what your child likes, the only hard part is eating out or at other peoples homes. Its just like anything else. OH! Buckwheat pancakes are good too... and another hint: you can shop in the organic healthfood isle.. BUT you can also look on the lower shelf of the regular isles and find much cheaper versions that don't necessarily advertise they don't have those ingredients (market different). It used to take us more than an hr to shop, but now i know : )

After 18 years as a nurse, 28 years as a mother, and 5 kids of my own, i found that many doctors do not want to diagnos infants with food allergies. But, the truth is that more and more children now a days are developing allergies to nuts, milk, soy, and corn. You can supplement the rice milk with fresh steamed vegetables such as broccoli (which is very high in calcium),potatoes also have a lot of vitamin d, and also, add at least 2 servings of orange juice with calcium and vitamin d added per day. Instead of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches; my son developed a liking for cashew butter and honey sandwiches. Buy your bread at a bakery that does not use corn syrup as a sweetner in their bread. All store bought bread has some kind of milk products and corn products added. Call the food allergy network. They have wonderful tried and true recipes like pear brownies, etc. And you can get on their mailing list for their newsletters--loads of information from great experts. If you have a wild oats supermarket in your area or trader joes you should be able to find luncheon meats that are all natural with no additives. Good luck!

My two small kids have allergies too. I like shopping at Whole Foods because many packaged products will boldly advertise what they don't have like "VEGAN" or "EGGLESS". I've found many breads contain milk. Two I have right now that don't are Sara Lee Honey Wheat and Rudy's organic honey whole wheat. I believe Van's frozen waffles are dairy free. I know they have no egg which is one of my daughters allergies. I'm just figuring all this out myself too so I'm curious to see your responses.

On the peta kids web site you can print out a list of vegan foods which will take care of the dairy part of the foods. You will still need to watch for peanuts though. I have one daughter whose's vegan and my other daughter at 16 years old is finally out growing her milk allergy. Be careful when you eat out sometimes there is hidden milk in products. My daughter had a hamburger at a fast food place once and the next thing I knew she was having a reaction. Of course we were on vacation and on the expressway at the time. I found out later that some places put dry milk in their hamburgers. After that it was only McDonalds. Google cooking milk and peanut free and you should be able to get some great ideas. On the good side children tend to out grow milk allergies.

Sorry, no advise. It seems as though reading labels is the only way to go. Be careful too of the "flavorings" that are added in things too. Those may also contain what she is allergic to. My mother in law is allergic to seems like the world. She has to read every label and call the companies and resturants to see if they use certain things in cooking. It is tough on her....and tough on us because we have to serve only all natural no anything when she is with eating with us. We can't even open certain brands of potato chips and the like because of the MSG or sodium glutimate that is added. In other words, be happy that is is just to dairy and peanuts I guess. It could be a lot worse. Keep reading and making sure.

Look on Whole Foods website - they have grocery lists that are sorted by "dairy free", "peanut free" etc. It was very helpful when we were doing a dairy free diet in our house. Good luck!

My son had the same issue. You have to be careful with rice milk because it is low fat, and the fat in whole milk adds to brain development. Our allergist recommended making sure he got two tablespoons of something fatty each day. So even though it sounds gross we added olive oil to things like applesause. Try shopping at Whole Foods they have a far greater selection of dairy free foods (like fake sour cream, cream cheese, cheese, butter, etc). Also, some people who cannot tolerate cow's milk can tolerate goat's milk, so you may have her tested for that to see.

Good luck, my son actually grew out of most of his problems (milk and eggs ) by age two after being diagnosed at 6 months because of severe eczema.

It's actually not such a big deal - its more the initial shock and change which is totally traumatizing. Been there done that. We have wheat, spelt, oats, rye, dairy, barley, and all other grains allerigies so that's even more challenging. Dairy and peanuts are actually not bad staying away from. You should talk to her school though when she starts or daycare if she is in one cause peanut allergies are often lethal. With regard to the other things check out whole foods - they will help you out a lot if you talk to someone there and they'll show you brands etc. I would also try to still nurse if you can or go back to it if you've stopped. It'll help her get the nutrients a lot better than rice dream. If you need any specific help let me know - I'd be happy to help!

My kids drink goat's milk. It is available at Jewel and Whole Foods. It is more similar to human milk than cow and if introduced early, they hardly notice the difference. Also, Whole
Foods is a great place to shop. It can be a little more expensive but a lot of items are comparable in price to Jewel. They do a really good job of easily labeling items. Hope this helps.

my son is 14m and has dairy soy nut wheat orange egg allergy and his alergist has him on a formula called neocate one plus i dont know if it would help you but it might be worth a shot. you can find them online under neocate.com the formula is expensive but it has lots of nutritonal value i would ask your nutritionlist.

My daughter has a milk allergy. I actually found at first that it was just easier for me to make everything from scratch. I fed my daughter avacado. She loved it and it is full of the good fat. Be careful, alot of things that claim to be dairy free is not necessarily so. I learned to make bread and all kinds of stuff. I found that the simpler the food (like veggies and meats) the easier it was to not worry about it. You will get used to it. The milk allergy really is not that big of a deal. My son had it and outgrew it by the time he was 3. There is a line of cakes and things at Meijer. It was called red barn or something like that, I will find out the next time I go, but as far as simple and carbs, it was really good.

I know it can be quite a shock like what are you going to feed your child. My little guy is allergic to soy, wheat, p-nuts, and egg. I almost started crying when we got the results back. We found out after the blood test when he was about 6 months old. We went the allergy route when his exzema started flairing up pretty bad. Actually- the orginal Betty Crocker cook book has the best recipes in it. For us it just really comes down to old fashion cooking and subsituting ingerdients (it does take longer though). Also Barnes and Noble also has quite a few cookbook for allergy free cooking. I know the your first responce is oh no-but it does get easier when you lean what you can feed your little one. Good Luck it does get easier when you know what you can feed your little one and the nutitionist will be able to help.

Hi L.,
I myself have a severe nut allergy and also have a gluten intolerance. There are several health food stores that carry nut/gluten free procucts.(that is the actual brand name) Most are also dairy free and free of other common allergens. It is hard but you get used to it. We are finding out our daughter has allergies too at 7 months. It is stressful isnt it? Also, who is the nutritionist you are going to see? We might be in need of one very soon. She is also on the tiny side. I also just read what you wrote about the soy formula and the EXACT same thing happened to my daughter at 6 months. She had tried regular formaula and broke out in excema ALL over so we continued only breast milk. Then when we tried soy she vomited and we actually called 911 freaking out. We had her tested only to find she is tecnically allergic to eggs and bananas. The soy and milk came back negative on both scratch test and blood work which can be wrong I know. So, what formula did you end up giving her? Neocate? That is what our Doc suggested but it is so $$. She is still getting breast milk but I am pumping all day long since she only takes it from the bottle. I have to stop soon. Any advice from you would be great too. Good luck to you. And yes, It is very possible to have an intolerance.