teen with new dairy allergy - food ideas please

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just make meals without dairy? It's really not hard.

Oh my word. I’d you’ve never had a food restriction crop up, you have no idea how it upends your world. Terrible comment.

[Anonymous]

My son stoped eating most dairy when he was young. I think it hurt his stomach, so he developed an aversion.

I think the easiest first step is looking for meals without dairy. The substitutes are not going to taste good at first. Maybe after a few months - they will be more appealing.

We eat a lot of Mexican-inspired food and just do not add the cheese. Tacos, fajitas, beans and rice. All can be made without cheese. So can pasta. And meatballs. Although you pretty much have to make homemade.

For pizza, you can make it without cheese. It’s probably technically a flatbread. I just make it that way for the entire family.

There are lots of soups and stews that have no dairy. We eat lots of grilled chicken, burgers, kelbosa.

The hardest part is if you rely on any type on convenience food. There is cheese in so many things. You have to get really good at reading labels.

[Anonymous]

Lactose is a problem for me.

Switched to soy milk, which usually is lower cost than other not-from-a-cow milk substitutes.

Breyer’s Ice Cream makes a Lactose-Free ice cream which Safeway carries in Vanilla, but sometimes one needs to hunt on the shelf to find it. I often add my own lactose-free chocolate chips and sometimes a dash of mint extract.

I find very hard cheese (e.g., sharp low-fat versions of cheddar) is ok for me, but only in very small quantities. Soft cheeses like mozzarella are totally out for me. The vegan cheese-substitute things messed up my GI tract whenever I tried them, so I avoid those.

Switched to home-made fruit pie, because store pies usually have butter.

For southwestern style food, I always order no cheese, no sour cream, and no dairy. Almost every place can do that, even Taco Bell.

At Taco Bell, use the kiosk so you can customize. Pro-tip at Taco Bell is always to scroll down and select “Fresca style”, which is a no extra cost substitution for cheese.

At McDonalds/Burger King, either is happy to make any burger without cheese on request, Again, the kiosk works best for this, but most counter staff also know how to handle that.

Watch out for breaded items like fried seafood, often there is milk in the batter. Same issue for pancakes and waffles if eating out. Most biscuits at restaurants have butter, milk, or both.

At Chick-Fil-A, order using the app to substitute a plain bun for a buttered bun on all chicken sandwiches, and at breakfast substitute a plain English Muffin for the biscuit.

At home, we use Bisquick to make waffles, pancakes, dumplings, and biscuits — substituting equal amounts of soy milk for cow milk. This works very well, and the resulting food really tastes the same.

Whey is often the hidden milk ingredient. It is a very popular “filler” for processed, manufactured, or frozen food.

Most E Asian or SE Asian food, except so-called “Asian Fusion”, is free from Lactose. Lactose intolerance is quite common among people of E/SE Asian ancestry.

South Asian food is loaded with butter, ghee, cream, and other sources of Lactose, so I avoid all S Asian food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dairy allergy is different than a lactose sensitivity/intolerance.

True, but not tremendously helpful because it does not change which advice OP seeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just make meals without dairy? It's really not hard.

That is just crap. Dairy shows up in most school-offered lunches and a startlingly high number of products which ought not need it. Workplace snacks and team lunches often are at places which cannot cope with a non-dairy requirement. It is the million places outside home, and where one is not able to bring special food, which make this a nightmare to deal with.

[Anonymous]

We just eat other foods. My teen isn’t a fan of the vegan cheeses (other than TJ vegan parm) but I use them sparingly sometimes. Teen likes oat milk and soy milk. Much clearer skin (no acne) without the dairy too! Use cashews to make cream sauces or bases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dairy allergy is different than a lactose sensitivity/intolerance.

True, but not tremendously helpful because it does not change which advice OP seeks.

That was a response to someone suggesting lactose free items. I have an anaphylactic response to dairy. If OPs kid does as well suggesting A2 milk isn’t super great advice. It does matter.

[Anonymous]

Comments commingle an allergy with lactose intolerance.
Lactose intolerance is not an allergy.

[Anonymous]

So Delicious coconut milk ice cream is so good that it's all I buy even though only one person in our household is sensitive to dairy!

I also like their coconut milk yogurts.

Enjoy chocolate chips are not bad for baking, also.

I wouldn't bother substituting cheese, it never melts well. The only one I would use is soft cheeses like cashew cream cheese.

[Anonymous]

Madegood chocolate chip cookies and granola bars were favorites of mine when I was dairy free. In general, grocery shopping at Whole Foods was the way to go.

True Food Kitchen is a reliable chain restaurant for dining out with dairy limitations.

[Anonymous]

We use fake cheese, fake cream cheese (for bagels), almond milk, coconut milk, vegan dressings (Trader Joe’s fill is unbelievable), Trader Joe’s vegan tzatziki

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP glad to hear you are tracking with a registered dietician and I hope also with an allergist on this new development. Many allergy-aware families already know the harm of an elimination diet when an allergy is unknown, its use should be short term and with the right guidance. You should also hopefully already know it is not the preferred method for diagnosis of an IgE-mediated allergy.

If your teen has other anaphylactic allergies like you say, I suggest you speak with your allergist about Xolair and whether that may be a good fit. Best of luck.

DP. I asked my teen son’s allergist about xolair and he said none of the practice’s patients are getting approval from their insurance companies and it is exhorbitantly expensive and unlikely to come down in price. Also, what do you think about the cancer link? Thanks for your thoughts.

Often when an expensive drug gets newly approved (or in this case, a new use approved), insurance companies make you jump through hoops. Our Xolair rep told us to expect that and it has been true. Almost every new Xolair script for food allergy in our office has been denied, gone to appeal, denied, gone to peer to peer, then approved. This will get better over time and the company keeps us decently supplied with samples so there's no delay to patients.

The cancer link was associated with a small, poorly screened study from two decades ago. The results of that have not born out in twenty years of clinical use. There is a true risk of anaphylaxis to a minute subset, which is why the first three doses are typically done in office. Both of these are great questions for your allergist, also Xolair has medical liasons that will answer these questions in detail.

This is an important directional shift in food allergy management. If your allergist is not getting onboard with that, you might question that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP glad to hear you are tracking with a registered dietician and I hope also with an allergist on this new development. Many allergy-aware families already know the harm of an elimination diet when an allergy is unknown, its use should be short term and with the right guidance. You should also hopefully already know it is not the preferred method for diagnosis of an IgE-mediated allergy.

If your teen has other anaphylactic allergies like you say, I suggest you speak with your allergist about Xolair and whether that may be a good fit. Best of luck.

DP. I asked my teen son’s allergist about xolair and he said none of the practice’s patients are getting approval from their insurance companies and it is exhorbitantly expensive and unlikely to come down in price. Also, what do you think about the cancer link? Thanks for your thoughts.

Often when an expensive drug gets newly approved (or in this case, a new use approved), insurance companies make you jump through hoops. Our Xolair rep told us to expect that and it has been true. Almost every new Xolair script for food allergy in our office has been denied, gone to appeal, denied, gone to peer to peer, then approved. This will get better over time and the company keeps us decently supplied with samples so there's no delay to patients.

The cancer link was associated with a small, poorly screened study from two decades ago. The results of that have not born out in twenty years of clinical use. There is a true risk of anaphylaxis to a minute subset, which is why the first three doses are typically done in office. Both of these are great questions for your allergist, also Xolair has medical liasons that will answer these questions in detail.

This is an important directional shift in food allergy management. If your allergist is not getting onboard with that, you might question that.

Thanks for this information (I’m the pp you responded to). Our allergist is at Institute for Asthma and Allergy, and we’ve been pleased with the practice for many years (DH and I go there as do both our kids), but I agree with you I need to question them harder why they seem resistant to trying xolair for my kids (now teen/college student) with anaphlyactic food allergies. I did slightly press the issue at one of my kid’s last appointment, and was told it is unlikely the price will come down even over time bc it is a biologic, but that’s not a good enough answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son stoped eating most dairy when he was young. I think it hurt his stomach, so he developed an aversion.

I think the easiest first step is looking for meals without dairy. The substitutes are not going to taste good at first. Maybe after a few months - they will be more appealing.

We eat a lot of Mexican-inspired food and just do not add the cheese. Tacos, fajitas, beans and rice. All can be made without cheese. So can pasta. And meatballs. Although you pretty much have to make homemade.

For pizza, you can make it without cheese. It’s probably technically a flatbread. I just make it that way for the entire family.

There are lots of soups and stews that have no dairy. We eat lots of grilled chicken, burgers, kelbosa.

The hardest part is if you rely on any type on convenience food. There is cheese in so many things. You have to get really good at reading labels.

Why do you make the whole family adapt to one kid's aversion? Can't you put cheese on the other people's pizza or taco?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dairy allergy is different than a lactose sensitivity/intolerance.

True, but not tremendously helpful because it does not change which advice OP seeks.

That was a response to someone suggesting lactose free items. I have an anaphylactic response to dairy. If OPs kid does as well suggesting A2 milk isn’t super great advice. It does matter.

Sorry to hear that. Many many people say “allergy” when they really mean “severe intolerance”, especially for dairy, which is why people who are trying to be helpful are suggesting lactose-free.