Weight Gain On Non-Milk Diet

Michelle

New member
My son, Grayson, is nine years old. He was diagnosed with CF a couple of months before he turned 7 years old. Fortunately, all of his problems have been strictly GI; unfortunately, after complaining for months with stomach pain, he was diagnosed with Eosinophilic Esophagitis. His GI doctor put him on a strict, non-milk diet in January. We are happy his stomach pain has disappeared, but it is so hard to help him gain weight without the calories and the fat from dairy products. Even the supplements such as Boost and Ensure have milk or milk proteins. Does anyone have any experience with this? He was gaining weight at a snail's pace before the diet, now he doesn't gain at all. What can we do?
 

HollyCatheryn

New member
I went dairy-free for a while. I, too, was having gut problems and I was doing elimination stuff. I already had cut out wheat when I decided to gut out dairy. I've since been able to go back on it on a limited basis (certain amounts of certain kinds). Here's what worked for me:1) Reliv shakes. I got lots of protein and extra calories, plus I loved the taste!2) Juicing raw foods. Lots and lots of proteins in greens. They are a bit hard to digest if you just eat them straight, but if you juice them you can get in a lot more at a sitting and it is easier on the gut. Try this recipe I got from a friend:put in a blender, 2 cups purified water, a handful of ice, 5 good handfuls of greens (spinach, red-leaf or romain lettuce, parsley, chard, kale, wheatgrass or whatever), 1 ripe banana, 2 Tbsp. flas seed oil or virgin coconut oil (you can leave this out if you don't have it, but it has lots of great nutrients), 1 Tbsp. raw unheated honey (preferably local) or a few dates, dried figs, raisins or anything else naturally sweet. Blend on high for a couple of minutes and drink `er down. Sometimes I like to use flax seeds, pistachios and almonds to give it a nutty flavor as well as get the proteins.I ate smaller meals more often when it was mostly raw and constisted of lots of fruits and veggies, but I never lost any weight because my body was able to use everything I put in it.
 

Grendel

New member
I stay away from dairy when I can. Here is what I do to add healthy weight:

Eat raw, skinned & sliced sweet potatos (the natural enzymes are good for digestive system, the carbs are good way of extra calories that are healthy).

Shakes consisting of frozen blueberries, organic apple juice, and Jay Robb vanilla egg white powder, mixed up in blender. (Great source of protein, no additives, an no crappy sugars like sucralose, splenda, etc.) All natural, and tasty! I'd only get Jay Robb, all the others have crap in them.

Baked potatoes scallions, and a smidgen of butter, with salt & pepper.

Good luck.
 

anonymous

New member
My 1 year old daughter has a milk "allergy" and we put her on Soy. I came up with a POWER PUDDING mixture she loves!!

add 1 cup soy milk and 1 cup coconut milk along with a scoop of protien powder (i still use toddler formula for extra vit/minerals) to one box of instant pudding. She loves vanilla and coconut creme. The pudding mixes do have sugars but no milk products. I also add flax oil to her veggies and coconut oils to her "non-fat" foods like fruits.

Hope this helps!
Blythe
mom to Brinly 1 w/cf and Birgess 3 w/o
 

JodyRenee

New member
Our son is 14 months but has been dairy-free since 7 weeks (long story). Since he has been eating solids we try and add MCT oil to his veggies and soy drink (I use Soy Dream Enriched). We make smoothies with lots of vitamin-rich fruits, coconut milk, and a Rice Protein Powder (tastes great-vanilla). I give him only Omega-3 based oil (olive oil, canola, walnut oil, flax seed oil, walnuts, salmon)as it helps promote an anti-inflamatory environment in the body, especially the gut. We also use acidophilus (non-dairy source) to help his gut as well. There are also great nut-based drinks out there like hazelnut milk, almond and others like oat which when you add protein powder and MCT or other oil to can be great drinks (even I like them minus the oil as I have no problem gaining ;-) He likes peanut butter big time so a chocolate rice milk/peanut butter "milk-shake" is a good one too. Eggs are a big favorite in our house...I just hard boil about 6 at a time and offer them as snacks. I also make alot of chicken/tuna/egg salad to have one hand with extra mayo for him (I found a great canola based mayo at my health food store). I took a while to reinvent some of our meals but there are some great soy products to replace favorites like cream cheese and sour cream. NOw I don't miss it, except for ice cream on occasions...for me.

PS thanks poster for the pudding recipe, I am going to try that tomorrow.

hope this helps,

Jody
 

forsaxon

New member
Hi Grendal,
Can I ask why you stay away from dairy when you can? Reason I ask as I have been trying to research the effects dairy may have (once my baby is old enough for it) regarding it being mucus producing. I am getting very mixed answers & are wondering if this is why you don't have it or it is for some other reason. Just want to get as much info on this, before bubs is old enough to be eating/drinking dairy products. As it is our daughter wo/cf has been brought up on soy milk (but I have also heard only from one not very good source that this is mucus producing as well!) however eats cheese etc.
Thanking You
Yours in Health
Donna (mum to baby boy 5mths w/cf daughter 3 1/2yrs wo/cf)
 
Top