At six months old, we were worried about Baby Oats’ weight. He had grown like crazy over the first four months of his life, topping out at 21lbs at his 4 month well-baby appointment. We had him at the pediatrician for his reflux, and she noted that he seemed to be a little lighter than the last time. I shrugged it off, knowing that he was a milk monster, and the scale was probably a little off or something.
A few weeks later, we followed up with our family doctor, and sure enough, Baby Oats had lost 3lbs between his 4 month appointment and his 6 month appointment. There was absolutely NO reason for this; he hadn’t started crawling yet, and he was nursing as much as ever. The doctor recommended that we amp up his intake of solid food, and basically let him eat as much as he wanted. Up until 6 months, we’d given him an ounce or two of purees at a few meals, but nothing regular. Now it was time to really get serious about introducing solids.
Navigating the world of solid foods when baby has a dairy allergy is tricky. So many of the foods that were staples in Little Oats’ diet were off limits for Baby Oats. Frozen yogurt tubes, yogurt in any form, cheese, just about anything processed, butter, sour cream…all of these options were off the table, and I was a little stuck. Plus, a bunch of the pre-made go-tos that we used also contained dairy. Pouches used Greek yogurt, puffs contained modified milk ingredients, and even his oatmeal, which was supposed to be JUST OATS, also contained dried milk powder. We were stumped for awhile, and then I realized – we are NOT the only family to deal with a dairy allergy, and it can’t be that hard to find products and meal ideas that were dairy free.
Here are some of the best starter foods we’ve found that also happen to be dairy free:
Pouches and pre-made baby food:
President’s Choice Organics pouches; the majority of these PC pouches are dairy-free, especially the ones labelled “under 9 months.” They often go on sale 5/$5, so they’re a bargain for organic food too!
Ella’s Kitchen: while not all of these pouches are dairy-free, there are a large number of them that are. Even better, if you check out the Ella’s Kitchen website, you can sort items by dietary restriction.
Plum Organics ‘Eat Your Colours’ line: I’m a sucker for creative fruit and veggie combinations, and these dairy-free options from Plum include’Mango, Zucchini, Corn and Turmeric, and Apple, Beet, Red Bell Peppe’.
Store-bought Snacks (12 months and under):
Nature’s Path Kamut Puffs: the only ingredient in these melt-in-your-mouth puffs is Kamut, a type of wheat. Baby Oats loves these, and there are no sneaky hidden modified milk ingredients.
Arrowhead Mills Puffed Rice: again, these are single-ingredient snacks; just puffed brown rice. They’re easy to toss in a snack catcher, and have no added salt, sugar, or anything else.
Baby Mum-Mums: These are a diaper-bag staple in our house, because they’re easy for Baby Oats to hold on to, they taste pretty good, and they’re easy to find in stores.
Harvest Snaps Snapea Crisps: I bought a case of these at Costco to pack in my lunches, and Baby Oats started devouring them. They’re higher in salt content than I would ideally like, but he’s drinking plenty of water and we don’t often add salt to his food. I like that they’re a departure from straight starchy carbs while still being easy to eat.
Dairy-Free Finger Foods:
The list is long for foods that are naturally dairy free. Some of our favorite finger foods to give Baby Oats are:
- toast squares with peanut butter
- steamed green peas
- steamed veggie sticks (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potato, etc)
- black beans or kidney beans
- berries
- apple, peach, pear slices
- rice crackers
- raisins
- pita or naan bread (read ingredient labels just in case, but these are typically safe)
Of course, fruits and vegetables are dairy-free, and as I’m listing them out like this is seems simple. But after Little Oats just devouring yogurt, cheese, and all things dairy, it was a challenge to come up with new ideas. Hopefully you’ll find some inspiration here!
nectarine / 2262 posts
We are dairy/soy/nut free for my 14 month old (hopefully he will outgrow it). I’ve been df/sf/nf as well since he was less than a month old (still breastfeeding). It is definitely harder now that he’s eating more solids – I struggle sometimes with what to feed him! Pea seems to bother him, as well.
He eats a lot of Cheerios, soft fruits (cut up grapes, bananas, pears are faves), soft veggies (he will basically only eat carrot and green beans). I usually put olive oil or Earth Balance spread on the veggies for extra fat. Most bread is out due to soy. He doesn’t like eggs. I occasionally give him the shredded Daiya “cheese” which he LOVES, I figure it has some good fats. He eats a lot of fruit/veggie pouches for snacks. And he eats a lot of meat!
That being said, we’re going to be traveling in a few weeks and again over Christmas, and I worry about what he and I will eat during that time.
grapefruit / 4988 posts
Great list. We also had to deal with this due to MSPI. Most of the Happy Baby snacks are dairy-free (with the obvious exception of the yogurt melts). Their “creamies” are actually coconut, not dairy, but they are really similar to yogurt melts. We used Earth’s Best baby cereal and oatmeal. Sourdough bread generally doesn’t have dairy or soy (we got ours from the bakery at Whole Foods). We had to avoid nuts and eggs as well, but some other good snacks were hummus, guacomole, and green smoothies made with hemp or coconut milk.
clementine / 874 posts
I love this list. I’ve been really wanting to find a comprehensive place of food ideas for my picky toddler who is so unfortunately allergic to dairy. He dropped off the charts for a bit and we had an appointment with a dietitian that gave us some ideas. You’ve already covered a lot of them (and given me some new ideas!), but here some of our staples:
mini-bagels
avocado
soy yogurt (coconut is too runny to feed himself)
shredded soy cheese (dietitian recommended the Follow Your Heart brand over Daiya for nutritional value, although DS loves both)
applesauce
ground beef
corn
cereal (multigrain cheerios are a favorite)
bananas
animal crackers
plain rice
plain pasta
chex mix
bell peppers
anything with peanut butter
chicken nuggets
salsa (he insisted on trying it when we made some, and he liked it!)
corn and potato chips
More than anything, the dietitian reminded us that DS can turn it down 5 times before even tasting it but it could end up his favorite food! He’s snubbed strawberries at least a dozen times and then just helped himself to my bowl the other night and hasn’t stopped since!
pear / 1521 posts
Oh my, I feel your pain. It is so hard to fatten up a dairy-free baby. Thankfully we have not had to deal with weight loss like you mentioned, but our LO is such a tiny tot and it has been frustrating that we couldn’t just load her up with cheese/dairy. She is recently doing ok with some cheese and butter is ok but I’m still afraid of regular milk for her and she will not drink milk substitutes. It’s a good thing we are still nursing at 20 months because she really needs more good sources of fat in her diet.
One thing I’ve been doing lately is to just add butter (or in your case olive oil, etc). to foods to increase fat content.
pomelo / 5866 posts
We have a dairy allergy and slim baby to child as well. We do a lot of the things above and we are also a fan of Daiya (non-dairy) cheese alternative. We can do grilled cheese, tortilla with cheese, eggs and cheese and mac and cheese. No advice for fattening LO up. but just stay with healthy choices and it should be ok.
grapefruit / 4671 posts
My almost 13 month old also has allergy a we are dealing with a lot of these issues. One thing that has been amazing is his allergy had us do baked mil therapy with him and he tolerates it! It has been amazing. He can have things that have dairy as no higher than the 3rd or 4th ingredient as long they have been baked a at least 350F for 30 mins. We started him of on a muffin recipe that gave us and now he can eat baked snacks like cheddar bunnies. he also said that the baked therapy will help him outgrow the allergy much sooner.