What are the best options for parents looking for healthy, nutritious baby meals that are dairy-free?
Did you know that in the UK, cows’ milk allergy (CMPA), is one of the most common infant food allergies and it is estimated that around 7% of babies under 12 months are affected by it, though most children tend to grow out of it.
For many parents, this can make it slightly more complicated when knowing what to feed their little one, especially if their normal diet at home contains plenty of cow’s milk.
One way parents can make their lives a little bit easier is by buying dairy-free baby meals in order to lighten the mental load of meal planning during the week and still ensure they being fed healthy, nutritious meals. And in this blog we’re going to take a look at the different options available to parents in London!
Dairy-free baby food pouches
If you type “dairy-free baby food” into Google, the first thing that pops up will probably be a range of colourful looking baby food pouches specifically designed for dairy-free babies.
Pouches and jars are ultra-convenient thanks to their long shelf life and palatable flavours. They tend to be used when parents are “on-the-go” and need some emergency back-up food thrown into the buggy.
There are some drawbacks to their ultra-convenience…
One of the main issues is their nutritional content.
Due to the extreme industrial processes used in their manufacturing process, many important nutrients are lost in the extreme heat and maceration treatments that the ingredients go under.
Another issue that has been highlighted by organisations like First Steps Nutrition, is that the flavour profile of the jars and pouches available in the supermarket are predominantly on the sweet side. This is bad for a few reasons:
Babies have an innate preference for sweeter foods due to the sweet taste of breastmilk. This means that getting them to like the bitter tastes commonly associated with vegetables can be harder, especially if the choices are limited in the supermarket.
The levels of free-sugars found in the sweet fruit based pouches can be very high and exceed the recommendations given by the NHS for free-sugars in babies' diets.
Allergen-free baby food
When looking around for more baby food options online, you might also see lots of “allergen free” meals advertised.
These can be very useful early on in the weaning journey when you are still in the process of introducing the major allergens to your baby, but beyond that there is very little reason why you would want to exclude allergens from your baby’s diet (unless there is a medical reason).
In fact, the NHS recommends that accepted allergens “should become part of your baby's usual diet to minimise the risk of allergy”.
So the recommendation is, if your baby is allergic to one thing, don’t let that discourage you from keeping the other allergens in their diet regularly!
V&Me’s dairy free baby food deliveries
Here at V&Me, we’re proud to serve a complete dairy-free version of our full baby menu!
Unlike other baby food companies, we have taken a meticulous approach to ensure that we aren’t just taking out the dairy without a suitable replacement. Every dish has been specially designed by our paediatric experts and our team of professional chefs to ensure that there is no sacrifice made when preparing our dairy-free baby food.
Soya milk is one of the best alternatives due to its high protein content but as some children with a dairy allergy also react to soya protein we have decided to use oat milk as our plant based milk alternative. Oatly Barista is the brand we use as it doesn’t contain any emulsifiers!
For cream, we use Oatly Cream and for butter we use Flora vegan butter.
About V&Me
V&Me delivers fresh (not frozen!) baby meals in London every day to busy parents. All the meals are cooked fresh from scratch in Battersea and are fully planned out by leading paediatric experts to ensure your little one is getting the optimal nutrition they need during their most formative years.
How to sign up?
If you live in London and you want to join the growing number of parents getting fresh baby meal deliveries to their doorstep, click the link below and get your first delivery now!
We are now delivering to almost all London postcodes, including popular areas like Earlsfield, Clapham, Nappy Valley, South Kensington, Hammersmith, Streatham, Queen’s park, Hackney, Lewisham and many more!
