Thinking of eliminating dairy from diet...

[HJK]

I am considering removing dairy from my DS's diet for a while.

His known allergies are to peanuts, tree nuts (NOT coconut), legumes (seems to be peanuts and the pea family of legumes such as peas, chick peas, lentils, etc..., not the bean family), and possibly sesame.

I have been looking into alternatives such as So Delicious Coconut Milk and TresOmega Coconut Oil, Flour, and Sugar.

A lot of the dairy free cheese items I have looked up seem to have "pea protein" as an ingredient, which is not good for him due to his legume allergy. Does anyone know of any options that would not have pea protein in their products?

Any words of wisdom on going dairy free will definitely be appreciated.

Thanks!

[spacecanada]

If you an find nutritional yeast that is safe, there are many cheese-like recipes out there. The recipe we make for cheesy sauce has a bunch of veggies, potatoes, tofu and salt all blended together - no nutritional yeast. I think it tastes pretty good and my Girl Guide kids asked for seconds so it goes over well with cheese loving kids too. I can get the recipe to you if you like. (PM me if I don't reply.)

Otherwise, the only completely nut-free brand of nondairy milk I have found is Natura. I am not sure if they sell it outside of Canada. We use applesauce for most things anyway, even cereal/oatmeal. Ice creams are a wash, but it is really easy to make your own from coconut milk (the tinned stuff), frozen bananas, frozen fruits, etc. in a blender or food processor.

For whipped cream, you can use coconut cream or NutriWhip - though you would have to check for legume proteins in that because I haven't checked in a while. 

[ninjaroll]

I don't often replace dairy for the sake of replacing dairy.  The trick to finding what your child needs to avoid cow milk is never forgetting that most people avoiding dairy are not at all concerned about nuts and certainly not legumes as a whole.

My advice is build a menu that doesn't require dairy and sub properties like fat, liquid or nutritional component rather than knock yourself making dairy free dairy replacements hoping it'll turn out like the dairy original.  When you say legumes I'm assuming that includes the ubiquitous soy bean?  That will make a sizable difference in my recommendations.

[HJK]

Soy is not a problem. It is the pea family of legumes that are his problem (i.e., peas, chick peas, lentils, etc...).

[ninjaroll]

For the most part Turtle Mountain (So Delicious) is not in my comfort zone for peanut and cashew.

I used to use them until they banked hard towards the Dairy Free market in the last couple of years, which is their primary focus now.  I would absolutely trust them for dairy free, and wish that we could use them more because we live with a severe dairy allergy.  But their increase of product with peanut and cashew has grown beyond my comfort and while they probably have the greatest success with allergen management and testing on the market it's not enough for me to become a loyal customer.  In fact, I dropped their products from our spending and house.

Nucoa might work for you as a margarine.  They are GFA brands which is going to be shared lines with pea protein.  Kinnatoos use pea protein, Follow Your Heart fake cheese uses pea fiber and starch, and you already know about Daiya's pea protein.

Depending where you are with almond Kikkoman PEARL 32 oz. soy milks might work for you.  In that size they are shared lines only with coconut and almond.  That's less peanut and tree nut than So Delicious.

Sunrise tofu pudding would be a good replacement for custard or smoothies.  I have to check if they're still safe for peanut.

It would help to know if the goal is a dairy free diet for menu planning, OR dairy replacement.  I'm guessing the latter since this in products and not recipes?

[HJK]

Thank you for all the good information ninjaroll. This information is very helpful to me.

I would say yes to both meal planning and replacement...for now anyway.

[ninjaroll]

For HJK:

http://www.sunrise-soya.com/products/sunrise/

Check out the dessert assortment.  OMG they have Taro flavour now.  Must get. 

Ok, so I need to send a new email inquiry on the facilities on nuts and dairy.

[HJK]

Thank you!