The Ultimate Survival Guide to Going Dairy (and *mostly* Soy Free) for Breastfeeding MSPI Mamas

You have a fussy baby.

Or maybe she’s just gassy.

Or perhaps, he doesn’t ever sleep and perpetually squirms and grunts.

Does your little one suffer from breathing or respiratory issues, acne, eczema, mucousy poo, bloody stools,  skin rash / hives, a need to be carried all the time (kept upright), is he a bad sleeper – short naps during the day and wakes frequently at night?

Is it Colic? Silent Reflux? The 4th trimester? Tongue and or lip-tie?

First, I am so sorry. I know adjusting to motherhood is difficult no matter what, but when you have an especially challenging infant, it can be even more-so. I know at times, I felt so very alone.

If you’re like me, you’ve tried all of the things. If you’re not sure if you’ve tried everything, read one of my most popular posts: The Ultimate Guide to Solving your Baby’s Colic/Silent Reflux/Fussyness (from a Mom who’s been there 3 times)to assure yourself that you have. And, if you have something to add, please share so other moms can benefit.

After trying all the swaddles, swings, baby carriers , baby supplements on the market (pro-biotics, colic calm, gripe water, mylicon drops, I’m looking at you) and a few different trials of reflex meds,  I found myself here: going on an elimination diet.

Some quick facts: Dairy intolerance (milk protein intolerance) and a true dairy allergy are different. Intolerance is a digestive response to a food and a true allergy is an immune response. Avoiding lactose is not the same thing as avoiding all cow’s milk products. My boys have had MPI (and MSPI – milk soy protein intolerance), and most children who have these conditions do outgrow their intolerance by a year of age. My middle son outgrew his around 9 months, and I am going to experiment soon with my 7 month old to see if he’s ready for me to reintroduce dairy.

I’ve also heard mixed things about testing for allergies at a young age, as sometimes false positives can show up. A well known pediatric dermatologist in Houston that we took my oldest son to (he had an unknown rash on his face that wouldn’t go away for 6 months) advised us to hold off on allergy testing, but this is definitely an area where there are *many* opinions, and I am no expert. Just be aware- sometimes avoiding food altogether can almost create allergies down the road. She talked about this study done in Israel where babies commonly teeth on the biscuits that have peanut butter in them, and there are hardly any peanut allergies in the country. Thus, much of the medical community advocates early exposure to allergens, but, I digress. I have also had friends who’s kids have had severe allergic reactions to allergens the first time they were exposed so always have some benadryl on hand! Watching your child swell up in hives would be terrifying.

So you’ve taken your baby’s stools to be tested to see if there is blood (unfortunately my pediatrician does not do this so we just had to do trial and error), or you decide to just try to eliminate things and see if it helps. If you’re like me, you are exhausted and worn down and now thinking, how am I going to have time to relearn how to cook? So many of the meals I made weekly had dairy in them, so we had to make a lot of changes around our house.

I’m not exaggerating when I say my second son never slept more than 30 minutes (day or night) for the first 7 weeks of his life. It was horrible (and his older brother was only 17 months old when he was born, and I thought he had been bad- My First 6 weeks as a Mom (spoiler alert, it’s way HARDER than I thought!)). Not only had I had an unplanned C-section that was so rough to recover from, I was suffering from post-partum anxiety and had a needy toddler and needy infant. Everyone told me my second baby was going to be so easy since my first was so hard. Why? Why must people say things like this?!?

When I saw visible blood in his diaper, and noticed that all of his bowel movements smelled horrible (way different than his older brother’s breastmilk ones), I decided we needed to try to cut dairy. I went ahead and cut soy as well because he was just so gassy and fussy and never slept, and it can take a while for things to clear your system. **Side note: sometimes having too much foremilk and not enough hindmilk can present similarly to a milk or soy protein intolerance, so make sure you are feeding long enough on each side to get to the rich fatty hindmilk- Kelly Mom is a wonderful resource for all things breastfeeding). 

If cutting dairy (which I’ve heard various opinions here, too, but on the far end, it can take up to 8 weeks to completely leave your system) isn’t helping, you can try to cut other things: soy is a big one (and sadly, in every thing! who knew?! It’s way harder than dairy to cut in my opinion). Other offenders- I have had friends who have cut all sorts of things: eggs, nuts, caffeine, chocolate, citric like things (tomatoes for example), beef, wheat, corn, the list goes on. It can be overwhelming, to say the least to determine what exactly is causing your little one to be in pain. If you are desperate, you can always try the Dr. Sear’s elimination diet and slowly add things in one food at a time to better narrow down the culprits. You can also make an appointment with a pediatric GI doctor.

So now for the meat of the post: You are going dairy-free, how do you survive?

First, READ READ READ all your labels. Do not assume that it will say in bold “contains milk“. I have read that you have to be careful for hidden dairy (things like casein, whey, natural flavors listed instead of “milk products”), though I have read that according to FDA this isn’t a thing anymore…but I still read the labels to be sure even though there should be a CONTAINS: MILK statement by law as per this article: FDA article on naming top 8 allergens. Also, be on the look out for dairy (or soy) that is in things you wouldn’t expect like wine, prepackaged seasoning, and your vitamins.

Substitutes:

• After I learned how to make a few substitutes (I am so thankful they are quite easy to find in the time we live in), I’ve been able to make most things I would have eaten before.
• Any time a recipe calls for butter (baking, over veggies, in mashed potatoes, etc) I use Earth Balance Butter. They have a dairy and soy free version, too.
• I love Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips– great for baking, for snacking.
• Rice Milk– this is my favorite milk to substitute for baking. It doesn’t change the taste of things and babies rarely have issues with rice as some may with other popular substitute milks (almond, cashew, etc)
• Coconut Milk/Cream- great for substituting in soups, I’ve used it to make frozen coffee drinks
• Coconut Ice Cream- I love the So Delicious brand cookie dough. Some say it’s an acquired taste, but I really do like it a lot. Ben and Jerry’s makes some dairy free options as does Naddamoo (spelling) and others. Try one, try them all.
• Coconut creamer for coffee

Breakfast ideas:

• Oatmeal- I mix old fashioned oats, a spoon full of peanut butter and some honey every single morning. It is good for milk supply and I haven’t gotten tired of it and it’s been 7 months strong. My boys (2 and 3) will even eat it.

• Eggs (scrambled, sunny side up, hard boiled)- if you’re baby can tolerate them (my 3rd little guy spits up a ton if I eat them, so I try to avoid them). Eat with toast, bacon, fruit, avocado
• Pancakes, recipe to come soon

• Waffles, recipe to come soon

• Breakfast Casserole
• French Toast, recipe to come soon

• These easy, delicious, cinnamon rolls

• These egg free banana chocolate chip muffins from MSPI mama
• Coconut Milk Yogurt with almonds or granola
• Green Smoothie made with almond milk

Lunch ideas:

• Sandwich {peanut butter and honey, turkey (if your little one is super sensitive, be careful that is wasn’t cut with same machine that cuts milk, Boar’s head is a known “safe” brand), chicken salad, avocado, etc} on Dave’s Killer Bread (dairy and soy free)
• left-overs (this is what I do most of the time)
• Amy’s soups (most are dairy free)
• Salad with grilled chicken and dairy free dressing, like Just Ranch or Tessa Mae Dressing (she has several and all are whole 30 approved which means no dairy)
• Roasted veggies
• or this delicious chicken salad that is great as a wrap, on a bed of greens, on some dairy free bread or paired with dairy-free crackers

25 Easy Dairy-Free Dinner ideas:

• Tacos (beef, just using your own taco seasoning or “salsa chicken”: easiest recipe ever= throw some chicken breast **can be frozen, but I usually defrost** with a jar of your fav salsa and cook on low for 6-8 hours and shred) with rice, black beans and guacamole (I often leave out the jalapeño and/or cilantro if I don’t have them on hand). Also hard shells and corn tortillas usually do not have soy in them. I haven’t had a much luck with the flour tortillas.

• Nachos

• Taco Pizza with dairy free refried beans as the “sauce” layer instead of the sour cream/cream cheese in this recipe
• White chicken chili from Gluten Free Daddy. This one is ridiculously easy and full of flavor. It is currently a bi-weekly staple at our house.
• Taco soup– I use a variant of this recipe. I usually only use 1 1b of ground beef, and I prefer a mix of black, kidney and pinto beans. Also, I make my own taco seasoning and ranch dressing mix to avoid the dairy products in the prepackaged ones.

• Mexican quinoa (this is about a 20 minute meal and I love that) and cornbread

• Beans and rice. I use my Mama’s pinto beans recipe, which I will be sharing soon. But you can make navy beans, black beans, red beans. You can make use of your instant pot. The possibilities are limitless.
• Easy Jambalaya– My boys LOVE this recipe, especially the sausage. Some sausage/kielbesa may contain dairy, so read your labels carefully, or avoid eating the sausage.

• Grilled pork chops (if soy free, I’ve substituted beef broth in place of soy sauce and it’s done well, you could also use coconut aminos) with sides- some of our favorites are green beans, broccoli, mashed potatoes or these crash hot potatoes from the Pioneer Woman

• Avocado pasta– we often use shells as for some reason, my boys tend to eat them better, and because my husband loves bread and I love him, we serve most of our pasta dishes with these amazing breadsticks (I just use earth balance butter)

• Spaghetti and meat balls or meat sauce

• Beef Shells (Instant Pot) I just use a dairy free substitute (coconut or rice milk usually) in place of the cream and I omit the parmesan cheese on mine.

• Suzanne’s Easy Chicken, recipe to come soon.

• Ultimate Slow Cooker Pot Roast. Y’all, I’ve tried like a million pot roasts (okay…not a million, but close) and this one is my favorite by far! It is so good and doesn’t require any crazy/processed ingredients.

• Pioneer Woman’s Beef stew, which we usually serve with beer bread, another favorite around our home

• Turkey Chili, recipe to come soon.

• Pesto chicken
• Meat loaf with mashed potatoes and green beans or broccoli
• BBQ meatballs, usually served with mashed potatoes or rice and broccoli at our house
• BBQ chicken or pork on sliders or baked potatoes
• Hamburgers/Hotdogs
• Homemade pizza (I just don’t put cheese on my half). If we want to change up the taste, we use these toppings to make BBQ chicken pizza. The homemade pizza recipe is from one of my favorite blogs, Intentional by Grace. I love her preschool curriculum as well, and the way she does family devotionals!

**this post contains affiliate links at no additional cost to you**

• Breakfast for dinner (see breakfast ideas above). We recently tried this casserole and it was delicious!
• Chicken Florentine Crescent (this one isn’t soy free, as you use crescent rolls, but you can find dairy free mayo and also dairy free ranch:  Just Ranch)

• Pork Tenderloin This recipe was shared with me by my sweet friend Chelsea- if you’re looking for an encouraging blog, you should follow her here: Modern Day Mary

• Hummus Crusted Chicken (I substituted carrots in the example below because I didn’t have a zucchini on hand)

• Kababs: you can mix any combo of meat (beef, chicken, shrimp) and veggies and throw them on the grill

Breads/Sweets:

• Beer Bread from mspi mama

• Corn Bread (I use rice milk and coat my cast iron skillet in melted earth balance butter)

• Bread sticks These are called “Almost-Famous” and they definitely are! So good!

• Chocolate Chip Cookies. So I grew up watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and like Monica, I so desired to be the mom who made the BEST chocolate chip cookies. Y’all, I think this recipe is THE one. I’ve tried many, and I mean MANY. This one is definitely a keeper and last week, I didn’t have any maple syrup on hand, so I tried karo light syrup instead and they were as equally delicious (maybe even more so). These are not the healthiest things, but they are sure yummy. To make them dairy free, I use earth balance butter and enjoy life chocolate chips. For a while, I was wheat free too and substituted the all purpose flour with this ( Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour, 22-ounce), and they also came out great. So these have the potential to be made gluten and dairy free and still be super scrumptious!

• Brownies (the Duncan Hines brand is dairy free, as is Alid’s brand! or these from Mspi mama)

• This chocolate cake  and this chocolate icing. My sweet hubby requested I make a cake I could also eat for his birthday a couple of months ago, and this may actually be my husband’s new favorite chocolate cake, and I can’t believe it was dairy free!

• This AMAZING banana chocolate chip coffee cake from MSPI mama. Seriously, it is SO good.

Snacks:

• Coconut Yogurt- great with some almonds and or granola in it
• Energy Bites (there are so many good recipes out there. I usually mix 2 cups oats, 1/2 cup peanut butter, 1/3 cup honey, a couple of Tbsp of flax seed, a splash of vanilla, 1/2 cup dairy free chocolate chips (and flaked coconut or chia seeds if I have them on hand))
• Oreos (yes! They are dairy free! But not soy free)
• Trail Mix
• Pretzels and Hummus
• Veggies and Hummus
• Veggies and Just Ranch
• Tortilla chips and salsa
• Chips and guac
• Pita chips and hummus
• almonds
• peanut butter filled pretzels
• peanut butter and celery
• lara bars
• rx bars
• paleo bars
• kind bars
• caveman bars
• z bars
• wheat thins
• fresh fruit/graham crackers and dark chocolate hummus
• graham crackers with peanut butter
• Justin’s Peanut Butter cups
• frozen grapes
• Skinny pop popcorn
• coconut clusters
• beef jerky
• mixed nuts
• fruit snacks
• apple pie from Cotsco
• natures bakery blueberry fig bars
• Veggie straws
• apple nachos (apples, melted PB, enjoy life chocolate chips, almonds)
• Chex mix
• pickles
• meat and crackers
• Fritos corn chips
• terra sweet potato chips

Some great website resources:

Mspi Mama

Milk Free Mom

Dairy Free Breastfeeding Group of Facebook (I some how did not know about this the first time I cut out dairy! It has been incredibly helpful this go around). Seriously there are so many great ideas and even photo albums with pictures of food from several stores. This is my go-to place and full of much better advice than I can give.

Oh She Glows

The Defined Dish (a paleo food blogger)

Yumly ap – you can select food allergens

**tip** when researching recipes, I’ve usually had more success by searching for “vegan” meals or mspi meals or whole 30 rather than “dairy free”.

Hang in there Mama! Hopefully your little one will outgrow his or her intolerance(s) sooner rather than later. After a while, it isn’t so bad, and it is definitely worth the reward of more sleep and less screaming. Although, I am very pro-breastfeeding (it is SO cool that your body makes this liquid gold to feed your babe), I am very aware despite a Mama’s best efforts, all sorts of problems can arise, and if you have to switch to a hypoallergenic formula, show yourself tons of grace. No one asks if you formula fed your kid once he’s 5. Each stage brings its own blessings and challenges, and the way you feed your child does not define who you are or the fact that you want what is best for him or her. #fedisbest And, besides, before you know it you will blink and you will be worried about how to handle tantrums.

When you cannot meet all of your kids’ needs:

I posted these pictures a few weeks ago on Instagram, with the caption below:

 

My precious boy during is 20 second nap this morning. •

This was just before leaving for story time, and when I put him in car seat he started screaming. •

I think the hardest part about having 3 kids is that it seems like almost always somebody needs something. There are bottoms that need wiping, hands that need cleaning, water cups to fill, babies to feed, fights to settle. Sometimes I have a hard time discerning whose needs are most important at any given time. Today, I could have chosen the baby’s needs and put him down for a nap, but instead I chose to disturb his sleep in order to make story time. •

And we made it, just barely. Two potty breaks, one accident, a diaper blow out and and a baby melt down later and we survived. •

I know I’m not alone in feeling the stretch and pull of my children, but today God reminded me He (unlike me) is not limited by time or space or emotional capacity. He is infinitely wise and good and His resources are unlimited. He can meet everyone of His Children’s needs. Phil 4:19. He is indeed, a good good Father (James 1:17). •

Side-note: nothing has tried my patience more than potty training. I thought it was hard to take all of them somewhere before, but now it is extra hard. Also where do I put the baby while I’m trying to help the 2 year old on the potty ??‍♀️??‍♀️
•

Lesson: It is good to be reminded that we are not God. We cannot meet all of our children’s needs, and in fact if we some how could, or give the illusion that we can we teach our children that they do not need God. The best gift we can give them is a Mom who has confidence in her God above confidence in herself. So when you have to choose the baby’s needs over the toddler’s or vice-versa, just meditate on and speak this truth: you cannot meet all of the needs, but He can. I know I need to focus on what is true on days when my baby is screaming because he didn’t get his morning nap. I used to be guilty of thinking that God could only meet me or speak to me in a church pew, or during my quiet time when I had my journal, Bible and pen in hand, but motherhood has shown me (more than anything, except maybe marriage) what it means to trust in Jesus as my functional Savior rather than my own abilities and know-how.

Eating Out tips:

Google and look up allergen menus online (if the restaurant has one). If not, call ahead, talk to a manager and ask about what they can do for you. I’ve found often times waiters or waitresses are like, “Um yeah, that’s dairy free” because it doesn’t have milk or cheese in it, but they don’t always think about butter or how it may be prepared. To be honest, we avoid going out to eat like the plague right now. I do get grilled nuggets from Chick-fil-a (they are marinated in soybean oil though) and their fries (friend in peanut or canola oil so dairy and soy free!). Chipotle is another great option for anyone with any food intolerances. Although, we ate it so much a couple of years ago when I was going through this with D, we kind of got burned out. Potbelly has a great easy to read allergen menu online. I’ve had some luck with Panera as well, but have to look up each individual item which can be cumbersome. Also, if you become a member of the dairy-free Facebook group you can search to see what the ladies on there have said about the restaurants they have gone to and that can be helpful.

Meal Planning and Organization:

 

 

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