Cow’s Milk Protein Allergy- Our Journey up the milk ladder #4

Did you miss part 3? Want to see the whole series?  

We have been moving up the milk ladder quite slowly, more due to caution than anything else but it has done her good. Yesterday she ate pizza – with cheese!! If you had told me that she would eat cheese a year ago I would have probably laughed, then cried in desperation. But it happened and I want to share our journey to give others hope for their little ones. I felt so very alone, nobody should have to feel like that.

So our last update saw LJ eating shepherd’s pie, she has eaten it again since and has slept through with no ill effects every single time. The next stage on the ladder was lasagne- not something I was looking forward to with the white sauce element but we gave it a go using the recipe given to us for this journey.

Beef Lasagne

450g Beef mince

1 onion, finely chopped

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

150g mushrooms

350g tomato passata

1tsp dried thyme

350g lasagne sheets (I used gluten free)

40g cheese

White sauce (The recipe didn’t give anything besides 350ml milk so I used 2oz butter with 2oz plain flour)

Method

Fry the beef mince, add in the mushrooms, onion, peppers and mushrooms until soft. Add the thyme to release flavour before pouring in the passata. Simmer on a low heat until some of the passata has reduced down to a sauce.

Meanwhile, make the white sauce. Add the butter and flour to a saucepan to make a roux. Slowly add the milk, ensuring it is well mixed before adding more. Keep adding until you get the consistency you want. (I actually added some coconut milk to top it up as I wanted it a little runnier). 

Layer up the lasagne – meat / lasagne sheet / white sauce and repeat- finishing off with white sauce.

Place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes. Sprinkle on the cheese 10 minutes from the end. (I cooked mine in the slow cooker, so much tastier that way!)

LJ really enjoyed eating it and I have made it a couple of times since, again she has been absolutely fine. Such a relief I can tell you!

Other than that she is still struggling with soya and gluten. I need to sit down and research it all properly but my mind has been so focused on dairy I haven’t made the time for the other allergies. We have found some great products for her to eat though, those completely free from anything that could cause her problems.

The first are some delicious biscuits from Totally Devoted. Biscuits are her favourite and the ones you get in supermarkets are never received well – they look like cardboard so I don’t blame her! She loved these though so am going to make sure I get some more!

The second are these little fruit pouches from Nothing But. Such an easy go-to snack, she loves fruit but gets herself in such a mess so these are great for taking out with us, to keep her happy between meal times.

So a great month for her, I am so pleased. The next stage is pizza and making our own last week meant I could control the amount of cheese she had. So I now need to be brave and try her on a shop bought pizza, Sainsbury’s have gluten free versions so I will be getting one of those. I am a bit nervous (as always) but I am sure it will be fine.

Head over to the final post in the series >>>