like many bowls of cereal a day. many glasses of milk and chocolate milk a day. but he's been having horrible headaches for the past few months, and today his doctor suggested taking milk out of his diet. 😦 as soon as we left the office, we went to the store and i got him every flavor of soy milk and had him stock up on other snacks besides yogurt, pudding and string cheese. tonight i made chicken curry and made his portion separate as i put cream in the dish, his was cream-less and rather sad looking. he made a bowl of oatmeal (with water) afterwards and gobbled that up. 😦 i'm so sad for him but i am determined to figure out the cause of these headaches! hopefully milk won't be the cause and he can go back to it in a few weeks!
anyone have any dairy free snacks, drinks or recipes you'd like to share? he would be super appreciative 🙂
watersix 
poor guy! hope it’s not milk…but that you find the cause and it’s simple!
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I hope he gets better soon!! I love love Almond milk, there is one called almond breeze, and it comes in vanilla, chocolate and plain. It is kinda hard to find, although I usually get it at Albertson’s. It is creamier than most soy milks, and everyone that comes to my house loves it… good luck finding what it is!!
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When my son was about that age he was getting headaches too. Turned out he needed glasses. Hope you figure it out soon.
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I saw that in the store! Ill get some, thanks for the rec!
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Oh that is tough! Almond milk is good in hot cereal. I hope you find the source of his headaches. You might want to check out the book Body Ecology. It is for gluten intolerant people but it has great info on the body and how foods affect it.
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Jamie,
I routinely make two different meals a night for the same reason… tonight we all had meatloaf but my son can’t have wheat so I had to make meatballs for him without the bread crumbs. He also can’t do milk, though I think that allergy isn’t quite as bad… it’s sooo hard, but you do get the hang of it…and we’ve got him on rice milk and he really likes it. He’ll eat soy yogurt and there are a ton of products made with vegetables (like cheese) that melt pretty well and he seems to be okay with those as well.
Good luck!! I know how difficult it can be, but there’s lots of good resources out there!
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visit whole foods, you’ll find lots of dairy free options. i was no dairy/no soy for sam’s first year since i was nursing and he was WAY intolerant, and they were a lifesaver.
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so true!! I love whole foods! thanks!
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2 meals a night… sigh. That must be tough! I know theres lots of
info out there, gotta start reading 🙂
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oooh very cool alison! ill have to check out that book. sounds fascinating!
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Ooh, hope it’s not the milk. My little girl is a huge milk drinker to, and I don’t know what I’d do if I had to cut that from her diet.
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Poor guy!!
I am a migraine sufferer and cajun spices are one of my trigger foods….do you consistently use a set of spices that might set off the headaches? I kept a food log for months before figuring out all my trigger foods. Best of luck in solving this!!!
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we are keeping a log… i am so interested to see what happens!
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Poor Cam I had know idea he had headaches. I used to get headaches when I was younger too! They were horrible. I still to this day don’t know what the cause was. I think it may have been allergies or possibly hormonal. I will pray it’s not milk. I know how much he loves it. 😦
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My boyfriend’s mom gives horrible migrane from eating pasta. Possible idea? My mom makes oatmeal with chicken broth. 🙂
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I have headaches all the time too. I never thought of milk being the culprit. Sadly, I love milk too. Maybe if it works for him I’ll have to try it.
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You can get him checked for food allergies. Love Almond Milk too…whole foods has loads of yummy options. I would go au natural on foods for a while…no sweets, processed foods. Ask him if there’s certain times he has headaches over others.
Try cooking oatmeal on the stove w/apple juice…better than water…then add a teeny bit of almond milk…perfecto.
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Try Trader Joe soy milk if you have to go with soy.. My son won’t drink anything but Trader Joe soy milk.
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We do almond milk original for cerial and vanilla almond milk for everything else. Milk can do crazy stuff to you if you have an intollerance. (We’ve all been allergy tested and we are not allergic). David was diagnosed with autism when he was little until we took him off of dairy.
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Jamie, another migraine person checking in here…besides food, make sure you’re logging things like how much sleep he’s getting and what the weather was like each day. Barometric pressure changing can set off a migraine. Too little or too much sleep can set off one, too. Hoping y’all find the answers soon. Will be thinking of you and your sweet boy.
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man, that sucks! call ming. you know her kids are allergic to everything. she has a ton of recipes. even some yummy wheat/dairy free banana muffins. i hope you find out the culprit! keep us posted. xo you cam.
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you can do smoothies. just use frozen fruit (strawberries) banana, and water….I usually add flax seeds to my girls or wheat germ…sometimes yogurt, but you wouldn’t have to do that!
tara
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Our lactose-intolerant little boy loves So Delicious coconut milk beverages. He likes it in his cereal, and I make him hot cocoa and chocolate milk with it. It’s the only “milk” our family enjoys now! They also make very tasty coconut milk yogurt, and Purely Decadent coconut milk ice cream is incredible!
You might also want to make sure that there isn’t any aspartame (the artificial sweetener, Equal) sneaking into his diet. It’s in everything from “sugar-free” products, to regular chewing gum. I suffered from migraine headaches for years, before I made the connection.
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awesome suggestions, thank yOU!
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I don’t know about Dairy products, but when I was in about 5th grade my doctor told me to stay away from chocolate, cheeses, and salty meats… hopefully to stop my headaches. Turned out I needed glasses! 😀
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Hi Jaimie, FYI: I read about your sad story. I really feel bad. I know that there was a time when my family was having alot of headaches all the time. I was going thru the checkout at the grocery store and at the time I was buying this dip we all fell in love with. I was mentioning how much we loved it when someone else said that the MSG was causing them bad headaches. So I studied up on monosodium Glutemate and found out it is BAD. It can cuz headaches and other unhealthy side affects. I stopped consuming MSG and out headaches went AWAY!
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we dont do MSG. hope we find out what the culprit is soon 🙂 almond milk was an okay substitute. he didnt like the soy milk. he thought soy ice cream was okay but not fully in love with it. sigh. lots more experimenting ahead!
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jame, just saw a comment above suggesting it might be his eye sight. so true! i was having bad headaches everyday too… then dr. lowe prescribed glasses for me. i wear them only at work. headaches are gone now. try taking him to optometrist!
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btw, that pic is too funny. the kids are looking at the soy milk like, “what the–” haha!
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I love smoothies. I too have headaches from milk, most of my family does. You can make yummy smoothies wiht no milk, this is what I do instead of ice cream at night.
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Hi Jamie. I was just diagnosed with lactose intolerance a month ago. It’s not the same as having a milk allergy–I can have small amounts of milk and I can eat lactose-free items, but I have figured a few things out. Milk can be hiding in lots of unexpected places–including chocolate (I never realized that it was called “milk” chocolate for a reason), baked goods, processed foods, etc… I use almond milk because I can’t have soy. (I have other conditions that involve even more dietary restrictions. Bummer.) You might also want to avoid loading up his diet with soy, because soy can also trigger migraines and other food allergy symptoms. I make smoothies with almond milk. I just put in a half a banana, frozen blueberries and some vanilla almond milk and blend it in the blender. You can put in other fruits, but I personally think you need the banana to lend it a creamier consistency. And it’s better if the blueberries (or other fruits) are frozen, because the fruit is sweeter and it adds a thicker consistency without having to use ice. I can’t eat most other fruits, but you can also make orange juice-based smoothies. I also just made oatmeal with almond milk for the first time a few days ago. It’s not as creamy as oatmeal made with milk, but it is not as pitiful as oatmeal with just water. 🙂 You can also include nuts, cinnamon, sugar, fruit, etc… to hide the “thin” taste and consistency. Since I’ve taken as much of the dairy out of my diet as possible, I’m also trying to figure out how to get enough calcium into my diet. I just started taking calcium supplements today. I know it’s been hard for me, and I’m an adult. (Although it would be a lot easier if I didn’t have so many other dietary restrictions). And on the plus side, there are so many alternative food items out there that weren’t really available in the past. I have three kids (2-9 years old), though, so I know it must be really hard doing this with your son’s diet. Poor little fellow. At least he’s a little older and can understand.
Good luck.
P.S. Also, some random thoughts: Like one of the other posters, I also get migraines (or migraine like headaches) when the weather/barometric pressure changes. If you stick with soy, there are a lot of soy and tofu ice creams out there–even in the mainstream grocery stores. Also soy cheese, etc… I found that the almond milk is much less expensive at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods than at my regular grocery–and that holds true for most specialty dietary items. Best wishes.
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Wow, I didn’t realize my post was so long. I hope it’s helpful and not just annoyingly long. 🙂
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soy cheese! wonderful. must find at trader joes next time. hes had soy ice cream. hard to go that way when youve had the real stuff 🙂 but hes trying his best 🙂
thanks!
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I haven’t been able to eat milk products for almost 20 years. My first symptoms of lactose intolerance were headaches…I hope your son finds a different cause. I use coconut milk in almost all recipes that call for milk. You can thin it with water to the consistency you need. It would be awesome in your curry recipe. Try not to have him eat a lot of soy. There is a lot of estrogen in it. Good luck to you.
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I’m 13 and about three years ago I was having headaches my doc said to try drinking more water. Something about being dehydrated and we(kids)don’t drink as much as we should because of all the other drinks we like… hope it’s just a simple fix like drinking more water.
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Just reading thru your blog, love your layouts. But now I am wondering what happened with the milk elimination? Was it tbe culprit?
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When did humans start drinking cows milk, or any other type of
non-human milk? Did they feed it to just infants first, or humans of
all ages? Is it possible to know why they started?
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