Yay! A non-dairy, soy-free beverage for my son

[Jonescatnj]

My son has multiple food allergies - soy, peanut, egg, milk, almonds, sunflower seeds, tomato... and those are the ones we're aware of. Needless to say, it's been nearly impossible for me to find a milk-like beverage for him to drink and put on his a.m. cereal. We tried different brands of rice milk but they were usually cross-contaminated with something or "produced in a facility that also processes soy, milk or tree nuts." The chances of one of those being in his rice milk was pretty high and we didn't want to risk it. Our homemade rice milk never tasted good to him.

So, imagine my delight when I was in the dairy section of Whole Foods Market and I saw something called So Delicious Original Coconut Milk  Beverage on the shelf. I picked up with some caution and read the label. Ingredients were good, front of the package stated it was dairy-free, soy-free and gluten-free... all good. However, I was still cautious and scanned the package to see if there was any manufacturing info. Did I mention that I had two young kids with me at the time? Not the easiest thing to read labels under those conditions but I was on a mission here. With profound glee I read on the carton that they continuously tested their products to ensure they were free of dairy, soy, gluten and peanut traces. Hallelujah!This one went in the cart.

I gave my son a very small amount (1/4 of a cup maybe) at snack time this afternoon and so far things are looking good - no reaction. If that's the case, and there are no reactions over the next week, I'm going to write a letter to the manufacturers (distributor is Turtle Mountain) and praise them up and down for creating this. The calcium is only 10% of daily values but there is vitamin D, B12 and a number of other key nutrients in impressive amounts. Not to mention, coconut milk is high in those fatty acids that's helpful for kids with eczema.

Anyway, I wanted to share my good news and to promote this product to others who might have food allergic children. I will keep you posted on Joshua's reactions (or, hopefully, lack thereof).

[frznchzn]

May. 14, 2009 at 6:12 PM

AWESOME!

[heavenlyangl420]

May. 14, 2009 at 6:13 PM

thats good to know. my kids are on soy right now

[sweetheart4171]

May. 14, 2009 at 6:38 PM

awesome....my son is allergic to milk, and was to soy but now can have it but he's currently drinking rice milk and looking at the box right now I don't see any thing stating cross contamination.....usually they state, it's made my rice dream.  Good luck though, hope all goes well, I know what it's like!

[May-20]

May. 14, 2009 at 7:33 PM

How exciting!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you and for him.

[Jonescatnj]

May. 14, 2009 at 8:36 PM

I will have to look into the Rice Dream again. I tried it when he was younger and it seemed to cause a flare up in eczema. However, after reviewing their site I can't figure out why. FYI, they don't have to state anything about cross contamination or manufacturing procedures on products, it's just that some companies have started doing that voluntarily.

(Original Poster)

[lleonard5]

May. 20, 2009 at 2:45 PM

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!    I'm so glad you found something that (so far) seems to work!    So Delicious is supposed to be pretty good with their manufacturing process and if you're lucky, I think you can find the yogurt and ice cream that he might be able to enjoy.

I'm not sure on the Rice Dream products, though.   Charlotte doesn't have a reaction to them and she's highly allergic to dairy, soy, etc. in any form, even trace amounts.   A friend on another forum said she was giving her daughter the Rice Dream Heartwise product and she had a major reaction and when she contacted the manufacturer, they told her that their Rice Dream products contain soy.   How, I have no idea since I can't find anything on their packaging.   I personally emailed the company and got a boilerplate response with no help, but am in the process of re-emailing them with more specific information.    My thought on that would be that the "sterols" that they used in the Heartwise product contains soy.    That's the only way it would make sense to me.