Dairy Free? Does it help?

Hi there,

My poor we boy has suffered with bad acne and cradle cap for the last 4/5 weeks. The acne's not so bad now, but the cradle cap has spread all over his face

I've been using Rosehip oil, which helps, but Plunket have suggested cutting out dairy from my diet to see if that helps. I was thinking I'd give it till the end of the week and see how it is, because cutting out dairy is quite a big effort.

Just wondered if anyone had any experience of this and whether it helped or not.

On the plus side, I should loose the 8kgs I'm still carrying, in about 2 weeks if I cut out dairy LOL

Good luck Nicole

It really is quite a big deal to cut something like that out your diet.... especially when I have 1kg of yummy brie in the fridge

hmmm I was dairy (and meat and egg ) free for over a year and while the first couple of weeks were a bit hard it's not that big a deal and apparently it *is* a major contributor to excema. I've just recently reduced the amount of dairy in Clodagh's diet for the same reason, although at this stage we are drinking soy milk instead of dairy but still having small amounts of organic cheese and dairy yoghurt.

From a health (and weight loss) perspecive, it's AWESOME, I've never felt healthier and it's easy to replace stuff. But yeah cheese was the hardest thing to give up....all those lovely speciality cheeses.

Yep you might find it helps. My oldest was allergic to dairy and was on a specialist formula his ezcema was awful and at 3 he still has some cradle cap and my youngest showed symptoms so being a bit more onto it I went dairy free whilst still breastfeeding, it helped with his cradle cap, ezcema, reflux and his overall settledness (not sure that is actually a word).

You definitely need to give it at least two weeks before you can guage whether it's making a difference or not. If you do think it is making a difference you can try reintroducing just a tiny bit of dairy, I found that I was ok to have milk in my tea but if I ate cheese or yoghurt or ice cream we were in trouble. I actually didn't mind not eating cheese and I found soy chocolate ice cream to be a great substitute. But the bit I really couldn't cope with was not having tea or coffee so I was very glad when I found he could cope with me just having a tiny bit of milk in my drinks.

Good luck, and honestly it isn't that bad once you are doing it.

I am dairy free because of ds's reflux and it definitely helped him. It's not too difficult to cut out with all of the different milk replacements (soy, rice, almond etc.) but yes I do miss cheese, and gelato etc. (at least there is sorbet!).

NKAP9, is vegan cheese actually dairy free? If so where do you get it? And does it taste alright? I have only heard of vegetarian cheese which is still dairy but just doesn't have the rennet in it.

Dairy free cheese - link to my topic in GC

Nicole, Celiacs & wheat allergy are quite different. Celiacs is an allergy to gluten which is in a HEAP of stuff! See how the dairy goes first & then think about wheat.

Does non cows milk cheese have the same effects? 
Would goats or sheeps milk have the same reaction?

I thought that sheeps milk has a different protien in it so it makes it ok to eat? I could be wrong though...

We have been dairy free for ages. I can tell when I slip up as E's ezcema flares. Once you get started it's not too hard when you are at home. It's out and about that is tricky!

and yeah re the protein Ethan had cows milk protein allergy..the most common.