At prayer meeting on Sunday someone who had suffered from eczema told me that he had had an unrecognized milk allergy – when he stopped eating/drinking dairy products, his skin had healed and now he just has to cut back if his skin starts to dry and crack. I had considered the possibility of an unrecognized milk allergy being the source of my skin troubles, but until this point in time I really hadn’t wanted to face the thought, head on. I haven’t even wanted to think it might be a possibility. I can’t say I’ve tried everything though, until I try this, so I decided yesterday morning: I would stay off dairy for 2 weeks, and if my hands healed… I would be sad.. no, happy… but sad.. Well, conflicted.\par
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Milk is very important to me. For one thing, all of the caffeinated beverages I drink are composed largely of milk. For another thing, I love cheese, and milk-fat is the substance that I most enjoy in food (cheesecake, whole milk, butter, cheese on crackers, cheese on bread, cheese on salads….) Also, milk and cheese are pretty heavily woven into the pattern of my meal planning and preparation.\par
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Today was the first day of my deprivation, and already I’m hating it. No mocha in the morning, tea without milk before lunch, green beans and garbonzo beans for dinner (I had made pizza, but only remembered after I’d started it that pizza has lots of CHEESE on it). No ice cream for dessert. No milk with dinner. Oh, it’s so sad.\par
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But at least I’ll probably be able to kick my mocha habit in two weeks! That and perhaps save money (I tend to buy mochas, when I go out), and possibly cut off some unnecessary calories from my diet. So it might be a wonderful thing, but in the next few days, I think I’ll be un unhappy camper. 
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Dairy-Free6 comments to Dairy-Free |
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Oh, dear! Poor Elly! Yes, I know the conflicted…the wondering which option is really better, which leads to better quality of life? When I removed dairy from Matt’s diet after we’d been married a year or so I was shocked at how many of my recipes had dairy! I had to get rid of almost every single one of my stand-bys and totally change my style of cooking. In the long run, it’s been better; even though we have dairy now my cooking habits remained…stir-fry, potato hash, meat & potatoes, soup…\par
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The substitutes are not even worth it. Matt didn’t mind rice milk, but it’s very thin and has no fat. Jaeger was sensitive to milk when nursing, and I tried soy lattes, and I don’t know how people stomach them.\par
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So, should we be hoping that this is not the root of the trouble?
Elly, Think, “Soy Ice Cream.” Kinda makes me shudder! I suppose I’m somewhat responsible for this.\par
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Sorry,\par
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Yes – I’m hoping, for once, that my hands STAY bad until Sept. 5, and that I can get into see a dermatologist who will provide some sort of drug that will heal them with no sacrifice on my part! That’s what I’m hoping for…
I get excema from dairy products, too. I can tolerate small amounts of yogurt, butter and a few other dairy products that are naturally lower in lactose or cultured. Mostly I use Rice Dream as a dairy substitute. \par
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Better Than Milk makes a powdered milk substitute that is the best I’ve found . . . it comes in both soy and rice versions, and the Soy Original (not vanilla) is the best substitute for most baking and cooking that I’ve ever tried. You can mix it thicker to substitute for condensed milk, even. Another tip is that you can substitute fruit juice or even water for dairy products in most baking recipes.\par
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Also, if you do turn out to have a problem with dairy products you may be able to tolerate other types of milk, like goat and sheep milk products. Some people who can’t tolerate most milk products can tolerate raw unhomogenized milk better, too.\par
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I hope you find answers . . . my youngest is allergic to soy and corn, and those are much harder than dairy products to avoid! \par
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I do post quite a few recipes on my blog that are free of dairy, soy and corn, and can direct you to some good resources for living dairy-free (or free of other allergens) if you end up needing them. Feel free to e-mail me if you’d like me to recommend some of the cookbooks and other resources I use.
It’s September 5th! Did you survive? Did you pull it off? Did it work?
Thanks for asking! Yes, I managed…. well, almost. I admit I only did it for 13 days, as by the second to last day my hands were just as bad as they were two weeks ago and I couldn’t forsee them healing miraculously overnight. So no, it didn’t work, Praise the Lord! And I have an appointment with a dermatologist on October, so maybe they can really help me this time!