Monday, December 3, 2007

Dairy-Free & Hating It!


We started Matthew on a casein-free diet on Saturday. I have replaced his 2% milk with rice milk and almond milk (and will eventually try soy but I have read this has lots of estrogen and is not good for the esophagus). Matthew has lost access to yogurt, cheese, butter, and ice cream - basically all the foods he loves and actually eats (he is a very picky eater)!

Matthew hates all the milk replacements (even the chocolate and vanilla flavored ones) so I am worried about him. We are giving him a calcium supplement but need to come up with other foods he can try. We will do this for 2 weeks and then begin gluten-free as well. I think he'll be able to stand that better b/c even though almost everything has some form of wheat, oats, or barley in it, there are more replacement foods for him (they are expensive and hard to find but they do exist).

3 comments:

Maddy said...

I'd still really like to try it. The trouble is that mine only eats 12 things. [I thought it was 17 but we seem to have mysteriously lost a few]

Wishing you every success and lots of energy.
Cheers
Something peculiar has happened to blogger comments so just for now, this is my calling card "Whittereronautism"so we can find each other.

Sheltie Girl said...

If you go wheat free or gluten free, note that Rice Dream is not gluten free. It is made with barley enzymes that they rinse out, but Imagine Foods cannot say that there isn't some residual barley left. You could try making your own alternative grain or nut/seed milks. It is very easy to do and tastes far better than the packaged kind. For example, take 1 cup of almonds and grind them in your food processor or blender. Add 2 Tbs of agave syrup and 2 cups of water. Process. You can add water again to these nuts to make an additional batch, although the strength will be less. After that I use the ground nuts for baking. I have made oat milk with gluten free oats. I made oats for 1, then use 1/2 cup cooked oats, 1 Tb agave syrup and 2 cups of water. I would do the same for making brown rice, millet, or quinoa milk.

My children see a vision doctor in Tarrytown, NY, for their eye tracking issues, whose research specialty is vision for children with autism. His name is Melvin Kaplan and he has a book out on Amazon.com called "Seeing Through New Eyes, Changing the Lives of Children with Autism, Asperger Syndrome and other Developmental Disabilities Through Vision Therapy." Maybe it can be of some help to you.

If you haven't seen it, Jenny McCarthy has written a book called "Louder Than Words," that might be of some assistance while you explore your dietary changes.

Sheltie Girl @ Gluten A Go Go

Sheltie Girl said...

I'm sorry I forgot to tell you where you can find certified gluten free oats: Bob's Red Mill (www.bobsredmill.com), www.glutenfree.com, www.creamhillestates.com, www.glutenfreeoats.com, and www.giftsofnature.net.

I hope that helps!

Sheltie Girl @ Gluten A Go Go