Question:
I need some help with milk allergies. My 10 year old daughter is allergic to
milk, a RAST test turned up positive but her food diary points directly to
milk and all foods that contain milk products; so we are keeping her milk
free. She gets hives and stomach distress after eating any foods that
contain any type of milk ingredient. When we removed milk the symptoms
disappeared. What kinds of 'butter' does one use with a milk allergy? I checked the local
supermarkets and all of margarine and butter products they carry contain
some milk ingredient. She really likes baked potatoes, but likes butter on
them. Pudding? Soy milk didn't work, the pudding came out runny.
I am new at this diet, but I have already conquered the gluten free one for
my celiac son, I can see that milk is going to be a challenge as well.
Answer:
You might try washing the butter. It is so nearly protein-free that
some milk allergic people can eat the product after it has been
softened somewhat, then kneaded with the back of a spoon, in a bowl,
under running water. You might find clarified butter or Ghee used in Indian cuisine useful. It
consists of pure butterfat.
If the RAST was positive, it means, that your daughter is most probably
allergic to milk proteins.
I'm just lurking on this list. Where abouts are you? There have already been some US brand names
recommended, but if you are outside the US we might be able to
recommend other brands. I use different things really - sometimes I use a dairy free
margarine (the one you get most easily here is Pure and is soya or
sunflower based). On savoury sandwiches I use mayonnaise -
traditionally mayonnaise is dairy free, but YMMV on commercial
products - low fat ones almost never are. Check the labels. Its
not a problem in the UK - IME anything that says its mayonnaise has
been dairy free unless it is fat reduced. A drizzle of olive oil on
baked potaoes might work quite well, come to think of it!
On that subject - anyone else wish someone would do an olive oil
based margarine (ala Olivio) that was dairy free?
Unfortunately you will find there are many many things like this - you
simply can't substitute milk in some things (luckily you can in most
things though). Incidentally, the pudding mix (I assume its a powder
you mix with milk, like Angel Delight here) probably has milk in it
anyway (they all do here). I'm in the UK and I can buy soya based puddings (ready made) at the
health food store, but don't because I'm not a big fan of pudding (of
any form) anyway. Not quite the same but lots of good things have
been said about Tofutti's "ice cream" here.
I was chatting to my Mum last night about baking - she was unable to
get any dairy free margarine when I was a child so just used to
substitute with sunflower oil - using a bit less than she would have
butter.
