Jay Fenster

Hi there. The name's Jay. I've been looking for a forum for milk allergy sufferers, as I am one myself. I don't have any kids but have been having a hard time finding any kind of community that deals with adult-onset cow's milk allergy.

After three sinus surgeries and trips to GPs, internals, ENTs, cardiopulmonologists, ID specialists and so on and so forth, I was finally properly diagnosed in 2003 when my doctor put 2 and 2 together between my digestive symptoms and my respiratory ones.

I'm a wee bit frustrated at the fact that we can put a man on the moon, we can perform gender reassignment surgery, we can vaccinate polio out of existence, but we can't find a way to address food allergies. I don't get why you can take Claritin or Zyrtec for your inhaled allergies, but there's nothing that alleviates food allergies.

For a while I was real good about avoiding the dairy. I lost a bunch of weight and felt great. Unfortunately, the down side of this is that eating is one of the greatest pleasures I get out of my life, and most of my favorite foods in the world contain dairy.

And recently I developed a kidney stone, presumably from the low-calcium diet that results from dairy abstention when you don't take supplements, and I haven't been for a while.

Given the joylessness of the dairy free lifestyle and the fact that I'd much rather deal with expectorating clumpy, clingy globs of spaghetti-like mucus than the agony of being repeatedly punched in the small of the back, so I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate enough dairy into my diet to alleviate some of the depression over my dietary restrictions and to give myself enough calcium to keep my peeways clear.

For me, it's a constant tug of war between two quality of life concerns, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to manage my symptoms. I generally take zyrtec, mucinex d and pseudoephedrine, and between the three I get by, but I was wondering if anyone had any tips for mitigating and living with the symptoms of dairy allergy.

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nele coolen

Hello,
I do not have cow milk allergy myself, but I am avoiding dairy because I'm still breastfeeding my son, who is allergic.
I also have to avoid soy, but I guess you don't.
If you really like dairy products, you could try soy cheese, soy milk, and many more soy products.
And if you use yeast flakes you can create a cheesy kind of sauce (like for macaroni and cheese, or lasagna), cook some soy milk with some flour (to thicken) and perhaps some tahin (sesame paste), and then add yeast flakes. Yeast flakes can be found at health food stores, often sold as food supplement.
You can also sprinkle yeast flakes over your pasta dish, just like parmesan.
You could go and buy a vegan cook book (like "ultimate uncheese cookbook") for more recipes to replace cheese.
Of course, it will never really have the same taste as real cheese, but you might find some recipes that satisfy your tastebuds.
And all without allergic reactions ;)

Good luck!

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