The reality of life with allergies: when, yes, a little does hurt

Sometimes I think that my online bright & breezy persona where it seems that Harry's allergies are entirely managed is somewhat disingenious.  For the most part they are, we have safe foods - which can be as specific as one brand of one product that doesn't cause a reaction, yet another will. We have safe places to eat if we're out and about. We have safe activities to do, and groups to go to. Yet, over the last couple of weeks I have fallen foul of my confidence (over confidence perhaps) in our lives.

Over the last month - 6 weeks or so, I've noticed the return of Harry's reflux; his sleep has been interrupted, he wakes early, and during the day you can hear it. Initially I put it down to the end of a virus, then a rotten cold, but the last few weeks have seen it getting worse. Then last Saturday we had a massive gastro-intestinal reaction and part of me broke. None of my carefully planned meals, recipes, dairy free spreads, cooking nearly everything from scratch and helicopter-like supervision had been enough and my baby was suffering from that.

Like any and all mums would, I blamed myself. I still do. I could have done better, kept him safer, been more vigilant. Only you know what? I don't think I could and this has been a massive learning experience for me. Harry is nearly 2 and a half, he's into EVERYTHING, as he should be. I don't wrap him in cotton wool or bubble wrap, I let him run, jump, explore, play and learn. And I strongly believe that's right, that I should, that he needs those experiences. I just wish, hope and pray that I can keep him safe.

We think we've identified one source of the reactions, the first being that our lovely volunteer at creche totally understood my explanation of "no milk, none whatsoever" but hadn't grasped, or I hadn't explained clearly that there is milk in biscuits, so my son had been gleefully inhaling a malted milk on a Friday morning. Of course he would - he's two and not allowed biscuits very often. It must have felt like Christmas! I'm not cross, it's just one of those things where people do misinterpret the severity of an allergy that doesn't cause anaphalyxis.  Whilst not the problem for us here, there is of course the perception that as the reaction is neither immediate, nor visual it's less serious and therefore a little won't hurt. It does. It really does.

The second reaction is proving harder to identify, I initially thought it was also biscuit related and that a product I'd thought to be dairy, egg and soya free was actually a may contain. But I checked with the brand and the recipe's not changed. So we've either been caught out by one of our 'safe' may contains - foods that themselves don't contain the allergen you're looking for, until they do. Until there's an incident of cross-contamination. Until their production line is changed. And my misplaced confidence  that they were safe then becomes just that. Misplaced. But, as we don't eat a great deal in the way of processed food, I can't actually identify what it might be. Which is leading us to the conclusion that it may, in fact be a new allergen. And at that point my heart fell. Is this what life is going to be? Every few years finding new allergens, while those around me tell me that 'he'll grow out of them by the time...' he starts nursery/ school/ university?

It's also raised for me the issue of nursery - it's less than a year until Harry gets his free hours, and I'd like to send him to nursery as a preparation for Reception. He's already a lovely, social boy, but I think the structure of a day or two in a nursery environment would be useful.  My years working in social care have meant that I sat down this morning and put together an Allergy focused One Page Profile. I've attached it as a Google document so you're welcome to download and use it yourself or share it with other friends or family that might find it useful. I'll certainly be sharing it with Guiding groups, as for volunteers who often don't get Allergy awareness training I suspect it'll be a useful resource. 

And now the reaction has reduced with 'just' the reflux remaining, it's time for me to stand up, dust myself down and carry on. I can't keep Harry at home with me all the time, and realistically I won't always be able to monitor everything he eats or drinks. Certainly if he doesn't grow out of his allergies I'm expecting a time when he'll challenge me on what he can and can't eat. But for now, with our recent experience fresh in my mind, I'm moving forwards with a renewed fervour that yes, a little does hurt. Be it one malted milk, one gingerbread man... it does, as we know only too well.

I'm adding this to #FreeFromFridays hosted this week by The Free From Farmhouse

Bread in the bread maker and Cow's Milk Protein Allergy

Six months ago I wrote about Cow’s Milk Protein Allergy and bread. At the time, borne purely of frustration at not being able to find bread which didn't change its recipe as soon as Harry got used to it, I started using my Panasonic breadmaker again.  I was given it for Christmas 10 years ago and I am still happily using it weekly. The security and peace of mind it gives me knowing exactly what is in each loaf is priceless. Of course I could make bread by hand, and for many years I also did. However daily life with a toddler does not lend itself to peaceful 10 minute kneads, followed by a leisurely prove by a radiator (living in a draughty Edwardian house, that's the only sure fire way to make my bread rise) This way I can pop the ingredients in the breadmaker before bed, so that there is a loaf ready for breakfast. It really is such an easy way to ensure Harry’s safety and wellbeing and to maintain the illusion of being an organised wife and mother. 

That is not to say that we never buy bread, I’m good, but I’m far from perfect. At the moment we tend to rely on Waitrose Essential wholemeal loaf  Aldi crumpets and their Fruit loaf as our standby dairy, soya and egg free bread products. Whilst I’m happy to recommend these today, if you are thinking of picking them up and are catering for either your own allergies or those of a family member, please read the label. We’ve been caught out recently by a loaf we’ve bought multiple times in the past only to find on arriving home that the recipe has changed. For any other customer this would not be noticed, for us it could cause Harry a lot of pain. Fortunately in my new be-spectacled state I noticed before I sleepily aimed slices at the toaster, but I could have easily overlooked that essential double check. Something I've got used to not doing because I'm making my own and am safe in the knowledge that I know what I'm working with. 

Over the past 6 months I’ve made dairy free, enriched fruitbread as well as my usual white and wholemeal loaves in the breadmaker. Out of the bread maker (following my day at River Cottage)I’ve made lots of soda bread and flatbread. It is safe to say the my son loves carbs, especially those in bread form. Preferably with humous. Lots of humous. Which he shares with anything and everything within a 6 foot radius of his highchair.

Last time I wrote about bread and CMPA I included my staple recipe for a 50:50 wholewheat loaf, whilst this hasn’t changed, I’ve made it a slightly easier to work with printable below.

print recipe

50/50 Wholewheat bread

by Penelope Reader December-06-2015

A dairy free, soya free, breadmaker friendly recipe

Ingredients

• 200g Wholewheat flour
• 200g Strong white flour (include a little extra for dusting)
• 1 tsp Fast acting yeast
• ½ tsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Olive oil
• 280ml Warmish water

Instructions

1. Put the yeast in the breadmaker tin, top this with the remainder of the dry ingredients 2. Add the oil and water 3. Select sandwich loaf cycle (and if you are me, go to bed)

Details

Prep time: 5m Cook time: 5h 0m Total time: 5h 5mYield: 1 Loaf

This post has been sponsored by Panasonic. All content and views are my own.

So it's been suggested you go dairy free to help your baby... What now?

It's been suggested that your baby has a Cow's Milk Protein Allergy - and you're breastfeeding. What do you do now? This post is for you the mama, not the bubba - I can do another one covering that. Also have a listen to my podcasts as they're just more chatty introductions to CMPA.

It's nearly a year since the revelatory day when we got our CMPA diagnosis and I started my exclusion diet. I was reading the CMPA support group this morning and thought I could have really done with an idiots guide at that time. So that's what I'm going to try and put together today. Not because you're an idiot, but because if you're stressed, tired, sleep deprived and anxious then sometimes it's easier when things are spelled out in black and white.

Time - It takes between 4-6 weeks for allergens to leave your system completely so your baby's symptoms might not improve immediately. That said, we saw reductions in vomitting day by day and by the second week had a weight gain of 11oz. Keep going, I know it's frustrating and hard work, but what if it works?

Alternative milks - Having tried a lot (to save you the pain) I've come to this conclusion. Unsweetened almond milk tastes most like skimmed milk, Oatly in the blue carton is most like whole milk. Making hot chocolate with hazelnut milk does not equal something akin to Nutella. Sad times people. Sad times. Almond milk works well on cereal, in porridge, and in baking. Make sure whatever milk substitute you use is fortified.


Tea, coffee and hot drinks - I haven't found any alternative milk that makes a cup of tea I can stomach, so in a decision that I'm surprised didn't make the 6 o'clock news I gave up tea. I now drink black coffee - mainly decaf (and I used this post from Helen to make cold brew coffee which was a revelation in the summer) as I'm still breastfeeding, but I do have the occasional mug of really yummy proper coffee. And love it. Rooibos tea is lovely, and I drink lots of the spicy flavours of Yogi teas. I have heard that Galaxy make a hot chocolate (oddly one of the make with milk ones) that's dairy and soya free - I fully intend to try that made with Chocolate Oatly.

Free From sections in the supermarket - If you want my honest opinion, they're not really developed with us in mind. They're heavily focused towards people with coeliac disease and gluten allergies, the products are very expensive, and once you get your head around obsessive label reading you can shop in the usual aisles fairly easily. Also... DON'T GO MAD ON SOYA! Not even the wonderful Alpro soya chocolate puddings *weeps* Soya proteins are really similar to cow's milk protein strands and lots of babies can't tolerate either.

Your calcium levels - this was raised with me by our dietician. As women of childbearing age we must be wary of reducing calcium levels if we're excluding dairy. There are lots of non dairy sources of calcium: dark leafy green veggies, tinned sardines, figs, oranges, and oily fish are all good sources of calcium. That said, I wasn't sure how much was 'enough' so our dietician gave me a copy of this document which showed me I needed 21 stars. You can get a supplement prescribed from your GP but do make sure it's compatible with any other allergies. As an aside, I like the Tropicana fortified orange juice.

Cheese, chocolate... what is it for you? A year ago I'd have said it was the chocolate, but it's the savouriness of a mozzarella panini I miss, or the luxury of a baked camembert spiked with garlic, the simplicity of going to the fridge and having strong cheddar sarnies with tomatoes from the garden.  There will be something. Something that just occaisionaly makes you question your sanity for doing this, and then you look at your increasingly chubby bubba, smile and remember why. But it is there. Find a substitute you love. Not something you tolerate, but love. For me it's Ritter marzipan sport, Sainsbury's sell it for £1, and it hits the spot every time. I can't get on with Violife, (Harry loves it) so have filed cheese away for now. Bourbon biscuits are also a winner, only the cheap ones mind you - but for me, they're perfect with a coffee and an episode of Once Upon a Time on Netflix while Harry naps.

Take your glasses shopping - Read the labels, every time. This post on bread goes into in a bit more depth, but not every brand will publicise a change in recipe and the bread that was fine last week, can contain dairy or soya 7 days later. The aforementioned Bourbon biscuits are a case in point - some say on the label (Asda, I think) that they're 'not suitable for milk allergy sufferers' others will just list allergens. Now is also the time to learn about food labels. The top 14 allergens are now (by law) listed in bold if they're contained in a food.  Oh and some wine contains milk - no I have no idea why either.

Get assertive - bolshy, confident... whatever you want to call it. You've been the person that will have seen your child at his or her worst, it's in your power to not let him get that way again. Don't shy away from going out for that cup of coffee, meal with your partner, or to that family party... but say - I need to be dairy free. I always offer to bring something for myself to people's houses - and my dairy free baking goes down well with everyone. In restaurants and cafes I've rarely ended up with nothing.  In France the lovely waitress went and asked the chef to alter a dish so I could eat it. Be polite, friendly - ask to see the allergy folder (they should show you). Or if you're nervous like I am, contact people in advance, either by phone, email, twitter or Facebook and explain the situation. All the food at Harry's birthday party was safe for him - not one person questioned (or noticed) the lack of dairy, eggs, soya or strawberries).

Food wise - what does your family like to eat? Don't throw your family favourites out of the window... get familiar with some of my useful substitutions

Butter - Vitalite or Pure dairy free spreads
Milk - Almond, or Oatly
Cheese - Violife
Jus-Rol pastry (not the all butter version) is dairy free
If you'd previously have added cream or soft cheese to a sauce - try Oatly creamy oat instead.

If you're a lover of takeaways, again - don't be afraid to ask. Our local chip shop is amazing, I have given up on Chinese takeaway, but I know people who've had success with Indian food. So it is possible.

There's so much more I could write - but I wanted this post to be accessible and not dreary. If you have any non medical questions then just post in the comments and I'll do what I can to answer them. Also, if you've got any foodie hints or tips you've discovered since starting your ecvlusion diet, post those too and I'll include some in a future post.

Podcast Episode 2: Our Cows Milk Protein Allergy story

Apologies for the hiatus in posting this second episode - we all had a rotten fluey cold and my voice just went - first husky, then just chesty and yuck. But it's back now, so here we are with Episode two - our CMPA journey and story so far.


No resources mentioned today.

Apple and carrot dhaal - dairy free, soya free, CMPA weaning recipe

I love dhaal - as a quick lunch, or the more traditional accompaniment to a curry, it's one of my favourites. I've not made it for ages though, and was trying to think of some new meals for Harry's lunches when inspiration struck.

Lentils are a great food for babies - full of protein and iron but easy on little tummies. They mash up brilliantly if you're leaning more towards purees, and they give a meal substance if you're a baby led weaner.

For a baby recipe we don't want heat from our dhaal, but I did want to start to introduce some different flavours - the first time I made this I ignored my own notes and doubled up the spicing! Not a good idea.

Because the veggies are grated to start with, this is a really quick meal to make, and if you've got a food processor it takes minutes to throw it together. What's not to like, really?

Apple and Carrot dhaal
Dairy free, soya free, CMPA
Weaning recipe

4 medium carrots, peeled and grated
1 red onion, peeled and chopped
2 eating apples, peeled and grated
750ml low salt veg stock/ water
2/3 cup red lentils
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4tsp ground cumin
2 Tablespoons olive oil


Pop the olive oil, onion, carrot, apples and spices in a large pan and cook down for a couple of minutes
Cover with the stock/ water, and lentils
Bring to a gentle boil, and simmer for 10-20 minutes
Serve as it is or with rice

Butternut squash & tomato pasta: A dairy free, soya free CMPA weaning recipe

Butternut squash & tomato is a lovely combination for weaning, sweet and flavourful and one of Harry's favourites. I make this in batches, usually while he naps, and freeze it in portion pots for quick and easy lunches along the line.

This is also the sauce I use on his 'cheesy' polenta chips, and I also use it with chicken meatballs I make him. Harry seems to prefer his food to be a bit wet so this is a great moist-maker (to quote Ross Geller) 

I also make an adult version of this with salt, pepper, a pinch of chilli and lots of crispy bacon: Dairy free Butternut squash and bacon pasta

Butternut squash & tomato pasta

Dairy free, soya free - suitable for CMPA

Weaning recipe
Makes 20 baby portions

1 Tbsp Olive oil

1 red onion finely diced

2 cloves garlic diced or crushed

1/2 tsp dried thyme 

1 small butternut squash, peeled and chopped into a 2cm or so dice

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 carton passata

1tsp tomato puree

Oatly cream

Violife cheese - I use 2 slices of the Mozzarella style, finely chopped

In a large pan, warm the oil and add the onion, garlic, butternut squash and dried thyme - cook gently over a medium heat for 10 minutes, until the onion starts to go translucent

Add the tin of tomatoes, pasta and tomato puree. Fill the tomato tin half full of water and add that to the pan too

Bring to a gentle simmer, pop a lid on the pan and cook for 30 minutes

Remove from the heat - and add 2 tablespoons of Oatly cream and stir through the sauce

Add the Violife cheese and stir through.

If you are doing purees as your weaning method, then let this cool down before blitzing. If you're doing baby led weaning then you can serve it as is.

I make up a batch of this, leave it to cool, portion it off and then freeze so it's ready to go for a quick lunch or supper. I use this from Nuby as initially one, now 2 of these is a perfect Harry sized portion.

If you find prepping butternut squash a faff - you have a couple of options. Tesco and Waitrose/ Ocado both sell it frozen. Or, have a look at this post for my super easy way to prep it. 

Podcast Episode 1: Living with Cow's milk protein allergy

I thought I'd try some different content today - here's what will hopefully be the first in a series of podcasts talking about life with a Cow's milk protein allergy.  Today is just an introduction to CMPA, and a bit of a chat about some of the basics of life with a baby who has a Cow's milk protein allergy.





Resources mentioned

The allergy episode of Get Well Soon has dropped off of Iplayer, but as soon as I see it's back on there I'll tweet it out.

There's links in the right hand bar to my email, twitter and facebook.

If you have any questions, please do comment below

Blueberry muffins: dairy free, egg free, refined sugar free

Muffins are such an easy bake - you assemble your wet and dry ingredients and mix the two together. Pop in the oven and you're done. The muffin recipes I historically used contain butter, buttermilk, and eggs - three things that are obviously off our list.  Today I still managed to make Apple and cinammon, Banana and sultana and blueberry muffins that are all allergy friendly. I also made M and his colleagues entirely un-allergy friendly double chocolate.

A couple of months back I scoffed at the need for recipes to be free of refined sugar. The further I progress in our weaning journey, the less I want Harry to have and become accustomed to sugar in any form. However, especially now he's up and about maintaining his weight is crucial and also giving him access to new tastes and textures. Also, I don't want him to be the child at parties found face down in a bowl of Haribo because he never has anything sweet (only slightly exaggerated story of a Brownie I once knew).

Maple syrup is one of my favourite sweeteners, I love the flavour it has - this recipe was borne out of a remembrance of a Nigella blueberry and maple syrup sauce for pancakes. We've got all the books packed away at the moment as M is building me shelves (happy squeal - I'm such a booklover, this is the equivalent of shoe cupboards for other women) so I didn't bother to look that up, just went with those flavours. I'd been sent some Maple syrup from We love maple so made good use of that.

The weather today was disgusting, Harry has a streaming cold, Mark is putting up my much wanted shelves and I declared today a pyjama day and decided to hit the kitchen and do some baking.

Blueberry muffin recipe
Makes 12 small muffins or 6 big ones

¼ cup maple syrup - or honey if you're not vegan/ don't have any maple syrup

¼ cup Pure or other dairy free spread

1 egg -  or ¼ cup of stewed apples/ or 1 mashed banana

1 cup plain flour – ideally I’d have used half and half wholemeal and white flour, but had run out of wholemeal

¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp baking powder

¼ cup stewed, unsweetened apples this replaces the buttermilk that you would traditionally use
1/3 cup blueberries

Preheat the oven to 170 C

Put cake cakes in a 12 hole fairy cake tin

Beat together the maple syrup and dairy free spread – this won’t go light and fluffy, but will end up looking curdled. That’s fine.

Add the stewed apples, and the egg/ stewed apples/ banana and beat again

Beat in the flour, baking powder and bicarb – at this stage you want a dropping consistency – if it seems a bit runny just add a couple more  tablespoons of flour

Thanks to We love Maple for the Maple syrup - I wasn't compensated in any other way for this post, nor was I required to write it.

Pina Colada cake - dairy free, egg free

The third of my dairy free cakes is a Pina Colada cake - a loaf cake, speckled with chunks of pineapple, with a hint of coconut rum in the background. Drizzled in a pineapple infused glace icing and topped with heaps of dessicated coconut. It's either a retro wonder, or beautiful in monochrome.

Based on the three ingredient pineapple cake that pops up all over the internet, I wanted to make this a bit different. And was thinking about my mispent youth - so of course Malibu (coconut rum) had to be paired with the pineapple.

This is such an easy cake to make, You don't need to ice it, I was mainly just prettying it up, although the pineapple juice in the glace icing does add a tartness as a foil to the sweetness of the topping, cutting through and preventing that tooth aching feeling that too much glace icing can give (unless you're 7 in which case there's no such thing as too much glace icing - I've seen Brownies icing cake, believe me I know).

Pina Colada cake
(serves 8-10)

2 cups Self raising flour
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tin pineapple in juice - you should get crushed pineapple, but if like me you pick up chunks by mistake just blitz them down in either a food processor or with a stick blender (I used the latter, less washing up)
4 tablespoons Coconut rum

For the icing
2 tablespoons pineapple juice
100g icing sugar
50g dessicated coconut

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
Grease and line a loaf tin
Take out 4 tablespoons of pineapple juice from the tin and set aside
In a mixing bowl, sift the flour, add the sugar and the pineapple (including the remaining juice)
Add the coconut rum
Using a hand mixer or a wooden spoon and elbow grease, beat briskly until combined. You will have a thick batter, speckled with the occasional chunks of pineapple.
Pour this into your prepared loaf tin and bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes. 

When baked, remove from oven and allow to cool in tin.

Pineapple glace icing

Mix the icing sugar and pineapple juice together until you get a thick, glossy glaze.
Pour, drizzle or spoon this over the top of your cake. It is not meant to be perfect, part of the beauty of this cake is in it's simplicity, it doesn't need fancy icing.
Sprinkle the top liberally with dessicated coconut.

This cake goes beautifully with a mid morning coffee or as a casual pudding after supper. You wouldn't know it's dairy and egg free and to me that is part of the beauty. Once again, we are aiming for inclusivity for those of us with allergies. Inclusivity and cake.

Dairy free, egg free Chocolate fudge birthday cake with marshmallow frosting

 Seven months ago if you'd asked me for a dairy free, egg free chocolate cake I'd have looked at you like you were asking for the moon on a stick. And here's todays post - dairy free, egg free chocolate cake. Oh the learning curve we're on. It's a good one too - densely chocolatey, with a fudgey consistency that's not too ooey gooey (technical term), topped with sweet, creamy marshmallow frosting and hundreds and thousands of hundreds and thousands. What more could any husband want.

However, I do feel that this post should come with a caveat. With a letter from my Mum. It's not proper baking. Not the way I do it. Please meet - the boxed cake mix...


Oh Betty Crocker, you don't know how much I wanted this not to work. But it did. And beautifully. And you know what - as much as a year ago, I'd have (silently) judged a blog post purely about cake mix - I get it now. I've always believed in inclusivity - for years my Guides had soya milk in their cakes, bakes and scrambled eggs because we had a girl with lactose intolerance. Similarly we are a completely nut free unit as I have three with nut allergies. I've never made anyone's additional needs the crux of who they are - just ensured they're included in everything by making appropriate adjustments that ensure they don't stand out. And for us these cake mixes do just that.

So, here's my 'recipe' for Chocolate fudge birthday cake with marshmallow frosting 
(serves 16)


1 box Betty Crocker Devil's food cake mix
1 can/ 300ml(ish) Cherry coke

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees
Grease and line 2, 8 inch sandwich tins

Empty the cake mix into a big mixing bowl, and pour in the coke. Using electric beaters or a hand whisk, mix until smooth (three minutes using my electric beaters)
Split the batter between the tins and bake in the preheated oven for 28 minutes

Remove from oven, allow to cool in the tins and then turn out onto a wire rack. These are really light cakes so do be careful or the layers will tear.

Marshmallow frosting

200g marshmallows - check the packet to make sure they're dairy free. Ours were from Sainsburys
3-4 tablespoons of rasperry jam - seived so there's no pips (or use a seedless one)
4 tablespoons of almond milk

Tip all three ingredients in a pan, and pop over a low heat. Stir constantly as the marshmallows melt until you have a smooth mixture.
Remove from heat and allow to cool, stirring occaisionlly.
When cold, spoon about a third in between the cake layers, and pour the rest over the top of the cake - this isn't a frosting you want to be epically tidy - part of the gloriousness is that it's quite casual.
Top with hundreds and thousands of hundreds and thousands.

Enjoy your dairy free, egg free birthday cake.

Up on Friday - an Apple and sweet mixed spice 'Wacky cake' - also dairy free and egg free

Dairy free puddings for a CMPA baby - rice pudding recipe

I've previously written a post on breakfast ideas for a CMPA baby - but lately our head scratcher has been puddings.

We mainly give Harry fruit for pudding - it's naturally dairy free, because I'm doing Slimming World we always have lots in and he is happy with it. However, because of our tricky start with weight gain owing to the undiagnosed CMPA fruit isn't great in terms of calorie density. Over the past 6 months I've experimented with the following:

• Refined sugar free banana muffins - I thought they were too dry, Harry loved them
• lots of coconut yoghurts - as per this post Coyo has been our favourite, but the poor love seems to have been coconut yoghurted out! 
• The occaisional rusk - I know they're full of sugar, but they're dairy free, portable and before Harry's teeth came through (oddly since the top 2 came in he's lost interest in them) he loved that he could suck them
• Fresh fruit - chopped up grapes, bananas (slightly constipating), dried prunes soaked in apple juice or water, blueberries, kiwi fruit, apple and pear slices have all been favourites. 
• Stewed fruit - prune, apple and pear is his absolute favourite - I've stirred this into yoghurt lots for him. I don't add sugar to this.
• Homemade wholemeal toast with almond butter and mashed banana

All of these can either be given as a loaded spoon, heaped onto the highchair tray to be eaten with fingers, or are already finger food.

Just lately a growth spurt and the onset of cruising and an odd, head-led crawl have meant that Harry's weight gain has slowed again. Keen to avoid the wrath of the Health visitor (a well known phenomenom in these parts) I thought we'd better up those calories so have been making individual portions of baked rice pudding.

We use Oatly creamy oat for rice puds - it has a mild taste and although the packet says it works like single cream, I've had no problems with it splitting.

Dairy free rice pudding (makes 4 baby-sized individual portions)

50g short grain or pudding rice
250ml carton of Oatly creamy oat (found in Waitrose or Holland & Barrett)
100ml almond milk (or whatever you use as a dairy free milk substitute. I have made this with nutramigen and whilst I thought it was disgusting Harry ate it quite happily)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Lots of grated nutmeg on top

You could add sugar, but I didn't as I prefer to not add sugar - if Harry had hated it I'd have made it again with about 10-15g but as it was, he was very happy with this

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees
Wash your rice until the water runs clear. I would never do this normally, but when I was asking around for recommendations everyone said to wash it!
Lightly oil (I used coconut) small individual pie pans - I use these ones from Lakeland 
In a jug, mix the rice, almond milk, Oatly and vanilla extract.
Separate the pudding between the four individual pans
Grate lots of nutmeg over the top - I have to say I went with my tastes on the nutmeg front and luckily Harry loved it- you might want to be a bit more cautious! 
Bake in the oven for half an hour, or until set with a bit of wobble

Allow to cool, tip out of the tin and either slice or break up as a baby led weaning pudding, or spoon feed if that's how you do things. I sometimes top it with some stewed fruit - but it does make a lot of mess! 

Next up on our pudding journey is going to be an attempt to recreate an amazing dairy free ice cream I had at a Lakeland summer event. I think I've found the recipe. I'm not sure I'll be sharing it with Harry though!