Questionmy daughter has recently been told to cut dairy wheat eggs yeasr out of her diet only organic veg meat fruit etc and goats products she is 20 months and wants bread have tried rcipes everything tastes horrible to her would just like to know how tomake a good tasting bread for her without yeast wheat eggs etc thankyou. ps her ashma has gone exzema has calmed down and her moods are better.
AnswerDear Louisamoon,
Forget the eggs, stick to the goat's and making a good tasting bread without yeast is not so hard: sour dough or soda/baking powder offer a wide range of alternatives. The wheat is where the problem starts!
I am afraid I am no expert on allergies per se and I am always wary of cutting out foodstuffs unless hospitals have done extensive (patch) testing and really named specific allergens. Otherwise, a lot of (well-meant but inaccurate) advice leaves the mom struggling and the baby missing out. I speak from experience, having been asked to cut out wheat and yeast from my own diet when I was breast feeding my son (with hereditory excema).
In the end I discovered yeast and milk were indeed not favourable to his condition (but peanuts were worse: although he did not have an allergy), but I never had to go to the extent of an entire prohibition of wheat and dairy, starting from scratch adding on only that which was required by his growing needs.So I stopped at modest amounts of sour-milk products and overridingly serve sour-dough bread usualy with a maximum 2/3 wheat. But of course each case is individual. No fan of soy, I found good alternatives also in rice, oat and hazlenut, almond, as "milk". In my case, a little curd in a (barely sweetened cheese-cake) dough had no repercussions, and made a nice festive brioche/ "bread substitute", cut in to star shapes or teddy bears (1/4 inch thick). I don't know if you can afford a little more scope (it does not need to be much, but a total exclusion of all the foods you mention really would need a professional nutritionists advice. Or a specialist manual - many out there these days). If any kind of anaphylactic reaction is likely to occur then don't even think about cutting corners, of course. But from what you tell me about your daughter's condition this is not the case, and it may be about being more strict about real limitations rather than total prohibition.
If it really is NO to all of the above without any flexibility, you're going to be in for a tough ride, and I hope your daughter will grow out of the worst reactions to these foods very soon.
If you have tried bread recipes, I presume this includes alternative yeast (vegan), sour-dough, soda/bakingpowder? I am wondering if spelt and kamut are also not allowed (if your daughter has a celiac allergy definitely not; but otherwise I have heard of great tolerance to these grains which are ancient varieties of wheat. I doubt that you would not have tried this already, if you could have, for they would solve all your problems, since they are naturally nutty and sweet(er than wheat) and combine well with barley, oat or rice flour (great if cooked rice is added to the dough mixture too), and would not leave your bread so dense and heavy as a Tibetian barley loaf. To be honest, though, I buy all my sour dough bread from an excellent bakery, since my own attempts at cultivating the leavening product took a lot of hard work with poor results.
Thinking out loud for you, here, I can see how corn and buckwheat (often used as wheat substitutes) may taste bitter and bland (in sour dough/soda bread recipes). Rye, remember, is too heavy for a youngster of 20 months to digest properly. I'm sure you've tried pancakes without egg (or egg substitute if you're into that kind of thing), allowing you to use buckwheat and barley and rice flours in combinations (if you could use a hazle-oat milk or a rice milk it would add flavour and sweetness). I suppose the hassle of constantly baking them fresh may be a problem! But nutritionally you'ld be fine. The same for Mexican Tortilla-type variations, Indian japati, Jewish Matze (spelt/barley), or a pie-crust dough (a little chickpea flour added to another base flour makes for a nice alternative) with baking powder, water, and a couple of tbs of oil: blind-baked in a tray and cut it into crackers (sprinkle tofu/goat/sheep cheese, on top for guaranteed success) at least you could store those better.
It is only because you insist that your daughter wants bread, otherwise I would recommend what I did for my son till he was about three: loads of different porridges (varying grains and "milks") for breakfast and rice (cakes) crackers or pancake "pizzas" (with tahin, nutpaste, (vegetarian) spread/pate for lunch. Make sure shop-bought crackers are not sweetened or salted if you possibly can; you can always top them with a sugar-free jam).
I sympathise with the difficulty of keeping your toddler happily fed, especially if she wants to feel one of the family and have her bread too, but I am sure, if the cutting out is really essential to her health, she will soon learn to enjoy your special efforts as a special privilige and have nutritional food she loves, even if it's only an equivalent to bread.
All the best of luck, happy mealtimes to you and your family,
love Evelyn.
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