Making The Transition Out Of The No Dairy No Soy Life

I want to apologize for taking so long between posts. With an active toddler, summer has been non stop for us this year. We have been making the transition out of the dairy soy free life this summer. I wanted to share our experience so far and the positives & negatives.

On March 1st I started introducing Bel to dairy and soy. Since we were still nursing I stayed dairy soy free in case she still had an intolerance, that way I would not need to detox too. We started with freeze dried yogurt bites (found in the baby food section). Bel seemed to do ok with them for a few days, but then she started vomiting and stopped wanting to eat them. We backed off of the dairy & soy for awhile. After a few weeks we tried string cheese sticks. Bel did not seem to like them much but did not get sick.

Next we tried yogurt covered raisins, which had dairy & soy in the ingredients. She did fine with these. We just slowly added different foods (grilled cheese, pizza, breads, chips, candy, etc). By May, Bel seemed to be able to eat most things. Days when she had a lot of dairy, especially cheese, she was a little constipated but that was expected. I think her getting sick in the beginning was her body reacting to dairy after not having it since she was 6 weeks old.

On May 1st I started eating dairy & soy again to see if having dairy & soy in my breast milk would make a difference to Bel. It did not, but it sure made a difference to me. In one months time I gained 20lbs, seriously I'm not exaggerating 20lbs from May 1st to June 1st! Plus I have less energy and feel bloated all the time.

Cooking dairy soy free was fun for me, it gave me a challenge and was healthy. Where I felt a void was in baking dairy soy free. I love to bake. Sure I learned to make some great cookies, brownies, and fudge dairy soy free but nothing beats baking with real butter, milk, whipping cream, and I love cream cheese frosting on cupcakes. So now I'm in a position of figuring out if I want to go dairy free (I think I'm ok with soy) again, not for Bel who seems to have outgrown her intolerance, but for me. Being dairy free means a healthier life style for us, but it also means a more expensive (dairy free foods cost more) and less convenient life style (harder to eat out or at other people's houses). So now I'm in a position of eating the rest of the dairy in the house then making my decision if we are going dairy free again.

I will continue to post dairy & soy free meals and foods as I make or find them.

Here are some cupcakes I made for Bel's 2nd birthday party. My first time baking with dairy in two years!

Chocolate Peanut Buttercream Filled with Chocolate Ganache, Chocolate with Oreo Cream Cheese Frosting, and Chocolate with Cream Cheese Frosting.


You can also find me on Pintrest @DairySoyFreeMom