Tips for Eliminating Dairy to Determine Dietary Intolerances

on Jul 08, 2014, Updated Jun 23, 2016

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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Silk. The opinions and text are all mine. @LoveMySilk #SilkAlmondBlends

My oldest daughter has been griping for over a year of itchy eczema on her upper arms. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I ignored her for quite some time. {Let’s just say she has a flair for the dramatics, shall we?} Well, after eating a bowl of ice cream a while back, her arms just looked absolutely terrible and I couldn’t ignore her anymore.

Tips for Eliminating Dairy to Determine Dietary Intolerances

Watching my child scratch and itch and complain is bad!!! I don’t want to see her like that! We decided then to eliminate dairy from her diet for two weeks to see what would happen. But I didn’t prepare. We eat a lot of dairy around here even though we are not big cow’s milk drinkers: butter, yogurt, cheese are all dietary staples at my house. But nonetheless, we decided to eliminate dairy from her diet for two weeks to see what would happened. However, I didn’t prepare at all. No research – no plan – just don’t eat dairy, Anna. That was the deal. You can imagine how successful those two weeks were – even though she did a great job and was very dedicated. She says it’s just no fun to be to itchy. 🙁

I’m determined to have another go at eliminating dairy. This time, though, the whole house will be in on it, not just Anna. While no one else suffers from ecezema like Anna does, other children have runny noses and questionable poops. I’m pretty certain that eliminating dairy for a while will kill none of us. I’ve also been researching and have come up with a plan to help us through our no-dairy trial period. I know a lot of people recommend eliminating a lot more, but we’re starting with dairy given the big reaction Anna got from a bowl of ice cream and what happens will determine where to go from there.

Tips for Eliminating Dairy to Determine Dietary Intolerances

1. Find the right time:

Some people might be able to {or may need to} drop dairy cold turkey, but that didn’t work for us during our failed two week trial earlier in the year. School was in session, meals planned at Grandma’s, family birthday parties – all kinds of obstacles, even though Grandma was on board and my kids took school lunches anyway. Since it’s the middle of summer and we’ve got a pretty busy travel schedule as well as company, I’ve decided to make this happen when my husband and I get back from Germany. Our dairy elimination program will start on August 6. We’ll start with two weeks and go from there.

2. Read ingredients:

Learn which foods to avoid. Clearly, we’ll need to give up milk, ice cream, yogurt, cheese, half & half, and sour cream. But we also need to make sure we aren’t eating any of the following ingredients as well: casein, whey, ghee, lactic acid, lactalbumin, lactoglobulin, lactose, milk sugar. While I mostly buy whole foods, I will need to read ingredients carefully. We’ll also need to avoid our one guilty pleasure, Nutella, for instance, as it includes skim milk.

3. Plan replacement food:

Instead of butter: I use a lot of butter for cooking, so instead, I plan to extra virgin olive oil and bacon grease to eliminate diary; Earth Balance spread for bread
Instead of milk: Silk Almond/Coconut Blend – we honestly don’t drink a lot of straight milk, but I’ll use Silk Almond/Coconut blend in my coffee {instead of half and half – 35 calories per 1 cup is a lot better than 314 calories per cup of half and half – might just help my waistline…} and in smoothies. I also love that the Silk brand is commited to the non-GMO project. Their Almond/Coconut Blend is not yet certified non-GMO, but it’s working its way through the hoops to become certified GMO free. Way to go Silk!
Instead of ice cream: smoothies made with Silk, OJ and fruit and veggies, frozen fruit {my kids love to eat frozen grapes, frozen blueberries, etc}, homemade popsicles & sorbet
Instead of cheese on Mexican food {which we eat often}: Lots of guacamole and homemade salsas {another reason to do this in August, when my garden is in full swing}
For dessert – check out The Humbled Homemaker’s Round up of 100+ gluten-free, dairy-free dessert ideas! I found a ton of yummy sounding recipes over there.
Instead of yogurt for breakfast – lots of smoothies, eggs, German Pancakes made with Silk Almond/Coconut Blend

4. Involve the whole family:

One reason I think our attempts to eliminate dairy failed the first time was my poor daughter was the only one who had to avoid dairy. It wasn’t very fair to her to watch the rest of us eat cheese and sour cream when she wasn’t able to. I think it will go a lot better if everyone is involved. {prepare yourself my darling husband…}

5. Remove temptation:

Again, I’ve scheduled our elimination period for August, after we all get back from 10 days away. I think trying again after a big vacation means I simply won’t have a lot of the worst offenders in my kitchen! Milk, cheese, sour cream, yogurt – all of those items will be gone before we leave. I also plan to go through my cupboards between now and then and get rid of other foods that contain dairy – like Nutella, any lingering chocolate if there is such a thing, etc.

Tips for eliminating dairy to determine dietary intolerances @LoveMySilk #SilkAlmondBlends

Hopefully, at the end of our dairy elimination period, we’ll have some answers. If not, I’ll use these same tips to eliminate the next big offender. I want my kids to be confident that what they eat will not make them sick, or itch, or give them runny noses. I want smiles over food, not frowns. And hopefully these tips will get us through it and we’ll get some answers around here!