# Please help - no dairy, no soy, no clue!



## Smithie (Dec 4, 2003)

My son was dxed with some developmental delays today. We are an omnivorous family, and he has been drinking goat milk and eating regular cheese and sometimes drinking Lactaid. Plain old cow's milk has always upset his tummy.

It seems fairly clear that given our family history of allergies, it is wise to at least TRY to eliminate dairy and see if it helps in conjunction with PT and spech therapy. But here's the kicker. I have tried soy milk and other soy products seberal times, and they clearly upset his stomach (foul-smelling stools, sleeplessness - the classic symptoms).

So I am need to make a dramatic shift to a non-dairy, no-soy diet for my boy. I am really ignorant on this subject but very willing to learn. I shop at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods.

Help. Give me specific suggestions of what to feed him. If anybody knows of a nondairy web resource that is also non-soy, please pass on the link.

I am so freaked out right now. Everything in my pantry suddenly seems like poison.


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## Lisa Lubner (Feb 27, 2004)

whole foods generally carries a lot of options other than soy... rice, oat, almond milks...


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## Chanley (Nov 19, 2001)

cheapest way I found was *****'s dairy free.

www.vancesfoods.com

the chocolate is wonderful and get the mixing pitchers, they are worth every penny.

The only drawback is the fructose is corn based and we cannot do it anymore.


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## ShannonCC (Apr 11, 2002)

What does he like to eat now?

We try to avoid soy and dairy. Yeah, it makes life hard, especially if you eat out a lot or eat a lot of prepackaged food (soy in particular is everywhere!) but if you are cooking most of your own meals it can be done.

Bread was tough. There is one store I can buy bread from (I have had no luck making my own but if you can that's great!). Soy lecithin doesn't bother us at all but every other bread I've found has soy oil or whey or something in it. We get Whole Foods brand whole wheat. Oh wait, Baker's does make one variety with no soy oil. The rest seem to have it though. Their cinammon raisin doesn't have soy *sometimes* and sometimes it does. Annoying, yes







Reading labels becomes second nature after awhile









Other than that, it's not a big deal. My kids eat sandwiches (peanut butter and jelly for dd, jelly for ds), pasta (dd with, ds without sauce), brown rice, fruit (apples, oranges, bananas, melons etc.), vegetables (peas, broccoli, carrot sticks, cucumbers, etc.), soups (read labels! Amy's organics makes a few varieties that work - the lentil and the three bean and pasta in particular). DD likes Amy's organic California veggie burgers. The other varieties all have soy or dairy but the Calif doesn't. We also eat meat so there's that. Oh, and we buy frozen french fries (check the label but so far I've found many that aren't made with soy oil). We mostly drink water but we do have juice occasionally.

Mashed potatoes - I use olive oil and salt. Toast - we use jelly, or honey spread with cinnamon. Cereal - we use rice milk and sometimes oat or almond milk though usually we either don't eat cereal or we eat it dry as a snack on a playdate. For baking I've used almond or oat though I haven't baked in quite awhile.

And of course, various junk foods are still ok. Potato chips usually are ok. The other day I realized that fritos are soy free







:









Popcorn is best homemade because of the butter flavor, or the oil used. Oh, and "vegetable oil" is really soy so don't use that. I use canola or sunflower for our popcorn.

It's do-able, really. It's just really intimidating at first


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## Smithie (Dec 4, 2003)

Thanks for replying, y'all!

I am feeling a bit better about it today. I am thinking that COOKED soy such as that lechitin (sp?) that's in everything may not be a problem, the only problem I have noticed is with cups of soymilk. So he had rice milk today, and meat and fruit and bean burritos (with a little cheese, I forgot).

A friend of mine who has kids on the autism spectrum wound up boiling soy milk, and that seemed to make it a trouble-free food for her boys. I am really hoping we don't have wheat/gluten or nut issues, I have no reason to think we do so far.

I am still trying to feel out how radical I need to be about all this, but no question, the cups of milk and hunks of string cheese need to be eliminated. It looks like I'll be able to handle that. We'll see how he does.


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## rootzdawta (May 22, 2005)

I just wanted to say that if you wanted to give soy milk a go again, try one that has a minimal amount of ingredients like unfortified Soy Dream. Other soy milks have lots of ingredients that are not necessary (including sugar).

Blessings to you and yours.


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## TwinMom (Dec 27, 2001)

No dairy, no soy sounds like Easy Street to me!







Try no dairy, no meat, no wheat, no corn, no nuts, no eggs!

You have so many options. Beans & rice, pasta w/ sauces, bean or veggie soups, salads, fruits....man, the choices are endless. I assume you are omnivores or you would have mentioned it, so all you really need to do is pair a legume or meat with some kind of grain or pasta, add veggies and fruit and you are set. Seriously, I don't see that it's any kind of a difficulty just avoiding dairy and soy, but maybe I'm missing something?

Honestly, I think if you make your own foods it is NOT a big deal to avoid soy and dairy, especially if you're omnivorous. Really, it's not!


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## Smithie (Dec 4, 2003)

OK, twinmom, you win.









Seriously, though, that must be really challenging. I am hoping we don't wind up going down that road... there are some lifestyle changes we need to make, but you're right, this is very doable out here in the Hippie Food Capital of the World. I just need to come up with a new repetoire of entrees and snacks, and guide his eating-out choices while he is still young enough to be ageeable about it.


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## TwinMom (Dec 27, 2001)

You know what? I wasn't very helpful, I'm sorry. I'm feeling a little resentful lately.









Okay, so, here's what I would do.

Breakfast: toast, eggs, fruit OR oatmeal w/ fruit OR breakfast rice w/ fruit

Snack: fruit or veggies & dip, applesauce, pb&j on english muffin or bagel

Lunch: soup & rice crackers OR pb&j sandwich, beans & rice, leftovers, fruit

Snack: peanut butter crackers OR apple slices w/ almond butter OR refried beans on tortilla, fruit or veggies & dip

Dinner: anything! seriously, there is very little you can't do without dairy or soy. A week's worth of ideas from our house (we dont' all adhere to the diet I mentioned, just me):

--whole wheat pasta w/ sauce, kalamata olives, garlic broccoli, fruit
--tortilla pie (layers of tortillas, refried beans, salsa, black beans--email me if you want specifics), brussels sprouts, fruit
--black beans and rice, sweet potato fries, fruit (are you sensing a theme with the fruit??)
--gingerbread pancakes, potato wedges, scrambled eggs, fruit
--black bean soup, spicy potatoes, green beans, fruit

oh, man, the baby is awake, i have to log off. more later!


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## Smithie (Dec 4, 2003)

It's OK, those are great suggestions, thanks much. And I really enjoyed Joe's birth story - I am having my first HB in May and it's always good to hear positive stories! 9 lbs 7, wow!


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## ShannonCC (Apr 11, 2002)

I've never heard the cooked soy thing. Soy baked in things still gives my dd behavioral problems and me digestive problems.

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Smithie*
I am still trying to feel out how radical I need to be about all this,

Well, here's my two cents







When you are testing you need to be VERY radical. The way it was described to me was that you have 10 pebbles in your shoes. You remove 5 and put the shoe back on and it still hurts to walk. So you say oh, guess those pebbles weren't the problem, and put them back in.

When you are testing a food, you need to remove it completely from the diet. Only then can you really know if it was the culprit. If you (for example) only remove uncooked soy from his diet and he still has problems then you haven't really tested soy. If you remove ALL soy from his diet and he still has problems then you have more of an answer. You either know that soy isn't the problem or maybe soy isn't the *only* problem.

To be blunt though, some of the pebbles might be food you haven't considered. When we did an elimination diet for my dd we cut out anything that might possibly be a problem. Soy, dairy, gluten, nuts, eggs and a whole list of things I can't remember now. Yes it was hard, but within days we saw a difference in her behavior. Then over a period of months, we slowly re-introduced each food and watched to see what happened. At the end of all that time, thank goodness the only problem was soy (and possibly yellow food dye though we never fully tested it because it's easy enough to avoid).

Ok, so years later we found out that dairy gives her rashes  But that only sprung up in the past year. It definitly didn't do it back then and we were looking at behavior when we did the elimination diet.

I didn't catch how old your son is. The younger the easier it is (my dd was 2/about to turn 3 when we did it). It's a PITB, yes, but SO worth it if you get results. If he's in school then maybe summer vacation would be a good time to do a full elimination diet. Some time when his dietary choices are easier to control.

A good book to look at is Is This Your Child by Doris Rapp. It was very inspirational and I'm glad I looked into it.

Anyway, good luck in whatever you decide. It's a pain, I know, and very intimidating, so I wouldn't blame you at all if you decide not to do the full elimination diet. Good luck!


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## Smithie (Dec 4, 2003)

Thanks, Shannon. I'm going to have a talk with the speech therapist, hopefully she has some (probably LOTS) of experience with kids who have had issues with various foods.

It's all still very up in the air whether food is a culprit, and even whether there are delays that won't iron themselves out in the next couple of months (ds is a late walker and talker, but he's 19 months old, so we're obviously in the very early stages here). But given that there are allergies in the family and I've noticed milk sensitivity, I think it's a clear possibility.

For the next few days before we meet with a therapist, we are cutting out the dairy, which is probably not a bad move healthwise either way. My hope is that dairy can be an occaisional food for ds at some point, and that he continues te enjoy corn and wheat etc., but we'll just see how it goes. It's tough when the effect is behavioral, not physical.


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## BabyDakota (Jan 5, 2006)

Try almond milk too. High in protein and tastes great!


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## Smithie (Dec 4, 2003)

I will! Goat milk has been a large source of ds' protein, and rice milk can't replace that.


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## Planta (Dec 26, 2005)

Smithie,

I am not joking: we eat only fruits, veggies and nuts, all in their raw form. It is honestly fantastic!

My ds eats some other stuff too, plus breastfeeds, but the bulk of his diet is what I said. He is incredibly healthy and big for his age (everybody remarks!).
If you are interested I can tell you more, but for now I can sugest almond milk, homemade: soak some raw almonds overnight, then peel them in the morning (you can leave them unpeeled, but for the kid you can peel a few) and blend them with water. Then strain and sweeten with honey or blended dates. I guarantee your son will love it! You can also make "muesli" with it if you add in a bowl: pieces of dry and fresh fruits, dry coconut chips, carob. Mmmm...


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