How to wean a baby who has a milk protein allergy?
- Wednesday Oct 21,2009 11:03 AM
- By diddy
- In Others
My Daughter has to live a dairy free life until she is 18 months old. I will be weaning her from her specialist baby formula shortly and wondered if anyone had any tips on how to wean a baby who has a milk protein allergy? Obviously I understand that I need to avoid all milk based products but if you’ve got any tips, I’d greatly appreciate it. Thank you.
Baby Formula, Baby Milk, How To Wean A Baby, Milk Allergy, Milk Products, Milk Protein Allergy
2 Comments
My son is allergic to casein, a protein in milk. We use mostly rice milk for cooking since it has a sweet taste that blends in well with most foods. Soy milk has a distinct taste so I don’t use it much. We do enjoy soy ice cream and soy-based protein bars. We take vitamin supplements with meals to prevent possible deficiencies. You have to watch the ingredients of pre-packaged foods because milk can show up in odd places.
Just for asking, why is your daughter only dairy-free until 18 months? Unfortunately, for some people allergies can be life long.
Lots of times we think of weaning as weaning from formula to milk, but that isn’t really how it happens. If you can think of it as weaning from formula to food and water (or juice I guess), you might have an easier time. Formula is nutrient rich, so when you wean from formula you’re replacing it with something else nutrient rich, like food, with water to drink to keep hydrated.
Having a dairy free diet is pretty easy, especially if you focus on making your own meals from whole foods. You can make your meals from some grain, fruit, vegetable, and protein (for a basic meal). Thinking about it that way makes it easier to avoid dairy products.
Since she is going to not be drinking any milk, you can minimize her need for a milk substitute by making sure she gets plenty of other sources of Vitamins A and D, calcium, and healthy fats.
Good food sources of vitamin A include carrots, mangoes, fortified cereals and oatmeals, apricots, cantaloupe, mandarin oranges, nectarines, plums, watermelon, broccoli, pumpkin, sweet potato, squash, spinach, and tons more. http://www.hoptechno.com/book29a.htm
Our bodies can process sunlight to make vitamin D, and can do so with about 30 minutes of sun exposure a day. Food sources of vitamin D include fortified juices and grains, egg yolks, and fish.
http://www.bchealthguide.org/healthfiles...
Calcium can be obtained through other diary products, but also from beans (lentil beans, not vegetable beans), almonds, sesame seeds, oats, cabbage, broccoli, oranges, and even brown sugar
http://www.bchealthguide.org/healthfiles...
Sources of fats, well, are butter and margarine, olive oil, coconut oil, vegetable oil, not so lean meats, and avocados. Fat is the biggest reason milk is suggested for toddlers since 8 ounces of whole cows milk provides about 8 grams of fat. That’s great, but 1 tbsp of vegetable oil provides 14 grams and 1 tbsp of margarine provides 11 grams. That means you can sautee some veggies and grille chicken in half a table spoon of either and get the same amount of fat.
Of course you can find a good milk substitute for your family, especially for cooking and baking, but it isn’t something that she needs to drink on a regular basis.
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