Milk Free Diet While Breastfeeding

Good luck with that! I had to try a milk-free diet while BF my second because she was wheezy. I lasted about 11 days; EVERYTHING seemed to have milk products.
My daughter is fine though. Sorry that I have nothing to offer.

I have experience with a milk free diet. I substituted with rice milk. It worked out really well. Any recipes you have that call for milk, you can use rice milk, even baking cookies. It works really well.

I am actually vegan which means no animal products. I have found that Rice Milk is a good alternative. I used soy for a while, but since we get so much soy in our diet and I have read that you need to be careful about getting too much, I switched. The Vanilla Rice milk is a little sweeter...if you warm it up, it tastes exactly like the Warm Vanilla Cream Starbucks serves around the holidays. Delicious. You can also cook with rice or soy milk just like you would cow's milk.

Hope this helps!!

All 3 of my children were sensitive to milk as babies. With my first daughter, we didn't know it was the issue until she was almost 6 weeks old. She would cry and refuse to nurse. And, oh yeah the spit up (more like projectile vomit) was crazy. I was so crazed that I was going to nurse and be good at it that I had a couple of lactation consultants come to my house. One of them suggested I cut all milk products out of my diet. It took about a month for it to get out of my system. But, we could see a difference in a about 2 weeks. It was also a relief to finally know why she was so fussy and not wanting to nurse. Eating things with out milk was difficult but definitely worth it. We ended up making more things from scratch because packaged foods have milk products hidden in different names like whey for example. The handouts your Dr. gave you should list all of the other names for milk in foods. We would eat alot of things separate. Like vegetable, meat and a noodle or rice. We would use olive oil instead of butter and add spices to flavor things instead of creams or cheeses. You can also do the soy milk route. But, I couldn't seem to stomache it. Good luck and thankfully my 3 children grew out of the sensitivitey around 1 year.

I eat a dairy-free diet. I get calcium from foods such as broccoli and almonds. Also, oat milk, rice milk, almond milk, etc.. are available in grocery stores and health food stores. They can contain as much calcium as cow milk. I think that they taste better, too. Good luck. I found I could not eat raw vegetables when I nursed my son. Once I eliminate them from my diet, he was fine.

I've been there and can sympathize with you! There is milk in so many things you would never imagine (pretzels?!). Kudos to you for continuing breastfeeding despite your baby's milk allergy. It is not easy, but it can be done! I drank soy milk and ate the dairy-free ice cream (not too bad), and just read labels very carefully for milk or milk derivative ingredients. Try the health/organic/vegetarian sections of your grocery store for dairy-free products. My daughter grew out of her milk allergy at around eight months, and she grew out of her reflux at around 18 months. Good luck!

Hi S.,
I have been dairy free for 8 1/2 years. I nursed both of my two younger children with absolutely no dairy in my diet at all. I started to drink Rice Dream Rice Milk. It is very good and good for you too. The good Rice Dream is found in the refrigerator section in 1/2 gallon cartons. It is so worth it for you and your daughter. My son had an allergy to milk and that is when I began to be milk free. One benefit for you is that with nursing and no dairy you will loose that pregnancy weight alot quicker. Enjoy your daughter and your boys. congratulations!
M.

There is a type of soy butter called "Earth Balance" that tastes amazingly like real butter. It helped immensely when I had to eliminate dairy from my diet.

Be careful of "hidden dairy" like whey and caesin. .. Unfortunately, dairy is in almost everything, including some types of lunch meat (go figure).

Also, if you're in and around Lakewood, and if you are a big sweets person, Nature's bin has a line of vegan (no dairy) baked goods in their Deli section. There's a pretty good brownie that I'd have to indulge in once every so often. ;)

i know how hard that is... but you can do it!
look up vegan recipes on line and you'll find lots of great ideas. one of my favorite soups is here: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Sweet-Potato-Bean--Soup
chinese, indian, thai, and japanese foods are usually milk-free.... italian and mexican are not so easy...

coconut milk is super yummy! also almond milk. i hate soy and rice milk-yuk! and keep in mind that a lot of people who are allergic to milk are also allergic to soy...

good luck! i hope the reflux mellows down, we went through that with my daughter too! keep a bib on to mop up with, and i promise they do stop throwing up!! :)

I too had to go dairy free. although it was difficult, it was totally worth it. The hardest part for me was when I went to other people's houses. This of course was the Holiday Season. MIL knew I couldn't eat dairy and told me she had made the mashed potatoes without adding milk. I took the first bite and said, what did you put in? She said skim milk as though that was something different from regular milk. My mom wanted to make pies and I told her that I could have cool whip but not whipped cream. So she bought the fancy "real dairy" cool whip and then got mad when I wouldn't eat it. I was surprised at the number of people who didn't support the decision, but stick with it. It's only a few months and worth the effort.

If you need a chocolate fix, try the Enjoy Life chocolate chips from Whole Foods. Yummy!

Also, you can go to Whole Foods and ask for a 'Dairy-Free' pamphlet. It lists all the dairy-free products in their store.

I use Smart Balance Light (butter in tub) and also the Earth Balance butter sticks.