Cove Pure (0s):
You've put serious thought into every food that goes into your baby's mouth. But there's one ingredient in almost everything that most parents have never looked at and that's water. And it's why my family and I switched to Cove Pure to purify our water. And I know as parents, especially when you're starting solid foods, there's already a lot to think about, right? Is this food safe and did I cut it the right way? Is my baby getting enough iron? Are we doing allergens correctly? But then you start thinking about how much water is actually involved in what we do every day, like water for drinking and cooking and rinsing your produce and you're making your tea or your coffee and water for bottles if that's part of your routine. But here's what the research shows. 176 million Americans have drinking water that is tested as positive for PFAS or forever chemicals. Those are the manmade chemicals used in food packaging and non stick cookware and fire fighting foam. And scientists call them forever Chemicals 'cause once they're in your body, they stay there and they don't break down. And what I didn't know until recently is that PFAS crossed the placenta during pregnancy. They passed through breast milk and a recent study found that by the time a baby's 12 months old exposure to these chemicals, it's already interfering with how babies build immunity. Now If you have one of those picture filters at home, that's a start. But standard picture filters, don't remove PFAS. You need something more powerful than that. And that's exactly what Cove Pure is. It uses Clear Wave reverse Osmosis Technology Lab certified to remove up to 99.9% of contaminants PFAS lead fluoride pharmaceuticals. It filters out particles far smaller than a strand of hair. And it sits right on your counter. So no plumber, no drilling, just plug it in. And something that I love is that Cove Pure lets you select whatever temperature you want. So if that's hot water for tea or warm for bottles or cold water for the gym, you just tap a button. And honestly, the water just tastes cleaner. 'cause You know when water has that little like tap water taste and you don't really notice it till it's gone. That was the biggest difference for us. You're already doing the work to give your baby the best possible Start. Your water is part of that. And in honor of America's 250 Birthday Cove Pure is giving our listeners $250 off right now. For a limited time, go to Cove Pure dot com slash weaning. That's C-O-V-E-P-U-R e.com/weaning to get it.

Once Upon a Dance (2m 11s):
Now this episode is sponsored by Once Upon A Dance. One thing I've learned as a mom is that kids do not always need more stuff, but they do need more opportunities to connect, imagine, and to move their bodies. And that's exactly what Once Upon a Dance brings to story time. Once upon a dance creates award-winning interactive children's books that turn reading into an experience. So these are interactive dance along stories that take storytelling to a whole new level. So kids don't just listen, they imagine they move, they twirl, they leap, and they become part of the story. So I didn't grow up doing dance myself, but all of my girls did. And I saw firsthand how formative it was for them because dance gave them confidence. It taught them to keep practicing, to stand tall, to work through challenges and to express themselves. And I love that Once Upon a Dance makes those same ideas feel accessible right at home through books. The stories feature themes like friendship, family kindness, empathy, perseverance, and self-acceptance. They're whimsical and kid friendly with characters and adventures that appeal to young children who love animals, magic, imagination, and movement. So for those of you who are listening with a baby, this might be something to tuck away for the toddler years or if you already have older kids at home, this can be a really fun way to make reading more active and engaging. Swap screen time for connection. Get your kids off the couch and into a story. Jump twirl and leap over to once upon a dance.com or find once upon a dance books wherever you buy books online. That's once upon a dance.com.

Kathlena (3m 50s):
So if you take a dairy free milk and combine it with acid such as lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, let it sit for a little bit. You have a faux buttermilk, it's not gonna curdle the same. And the type of plant based milk that you use will determine how effective it is.

Katie Ferraro (4m 5s):
Hey there, I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in baby led weaning. Here on the Baby Led weaning with Katie Ferraro podcast. I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, giving you the confidence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby led weaning. So what happens if your baby can't have cow's? Milk Protein, cow's, S milk protein allergy, CMPA is the most common pediatric food allergy. It's the one we see most often in babies and young children. And the reality is most babies, including yours, is probably not going to have a food allergy and very unlikely to have a milk allergy.

Katie Ferraro (4m 50s):
But in the rare chance that your baby is diagnosed with one, it suddenly feels like dairy is everywhere, right? You start reading those labels and you're like milk, yogurt, cheese, sauces, baked goods, pancakes, like all these foods that you're kind of looking at to make starting solid foods a little bit easier, softer, safer, all of a sudden you're like, ah, my baby can't have it. So In this episode, we're gonna be talking about what to do when dairy is off the table. Alright? And this is for babies with food allergy. My guest today is Kathlena. She's also known as the Allergy chef on social media. Kathlena has extensive personal and professional experience in navigating food allergies and intolerances.

Katie Ferraro (5m 32s):
I'm gonna let her tell you her own food allergy history 'cause it's like way too long to do in an intro here. But basically she helps families learn how to cook safely and confidently when food allergies are part of the picture. Because what I do is I help families cook confidently and safely to lower their risk of food allergy. So I'm a Registered Dietitian. I specialize in baby led weaning. I have advanced training in pediatric food allergy prevention, right? We teach families how to make these foods safe to help prevent the food allergy down the road. And I do work with families of babies who are diagnosed with food allergy, but Kathlena is working with totally different types of families. So I wanted her perspective. This interview that we did was recorded a while back, but the message that she has is still really resonant because families are asking these questions every day.

Katie Ferraro (6m 16s):
How do I safely modify recipes? How can I substitute ingredients if my baby can't have, You know, a major food group, which is dairy? Just a quick reminder, if your baby has a diagnosed food allergy, you always should be working with your baby's pediatrician with an allergist. And if possible, with a pediatric dietician who has advanced training in pediatric food allergies. I've got other great episodes here on the podcast about using a milk ladder under supervised practice to help your baby gradually get reintroduced to those foods. But again, these are things that we're doing with the guidance of a trained professional. I do hope you find today's conversation really helpful if dairy free cooking has felt confusing or intimidating.

Katie Ferraro (7m 0s):
And with no further ado, here is Kathlena the allergy chef teaching us about dairy free cooking for food allergy babies.

Kathlena (7m 13s):
I am so glad to be here. Thank you for having me.

Katie Ferraro (7m 15s):
Okay, so Kathlena, you have 200 different allergies, intolerances like you are clearly living this every day. Tell me about your background. What inspired you to start your business as the allergy chef and what type of work do you do?

Kathlena (7m 27s):
So my formal background is actually in like pr, technology, networking, communications. And I've always been a pretty bright person. I finished college at 19, so I kind of have that driven force behind me. But after almost dying and surviving, that's when we were kind of like, You know what? All the stuff that's in my head, we need to put it somewhere. And that was really the catalyst for launching our business. So we started the bakery, we did six cookbooks, then we got into social media, started our membership platform and just kind of realized that there was this big need that no one was filling. And that's really what got us there.

Katie Ferraro (8m 4s):
What is your actual niche? When you're writing cookbooks and you have a membership platform, what is the audience that you're serving? What sort of value are you providing?

Kathlena (8m 13s):
So everything we do by default is gluten, dairy, and egg free. And then from there we do a lot of other things because we are like a collector of all the odds and ends. We try to catch everyone who's falling through the cracks. So we look at special diets plus allergy, like nut free vegan, right? Or nut free paleo. Like these people are not being served. And so we serve them coconut free, a IP, right? These different kinds of things that most people overlook because we've had to do it ourselves. We serve those communities. So on our platform we have an advanced recipe search. It has over 75 options for filtering for individual allergens. Food groups like You know, if you needed cruciferous free or nightshade free.

Kathlena (8m 53s):
And then for specialty diets. So if you're gaps, a IP, vegan, SCD, paleo, all that sort of stuff, you can just plug in what you need. And the cool thing is, is it's an and filter, not an OR filter. So all of your needs are met in one go and then like you can combine people from your household. So just meeting everyone's needs, it's what we do. So I mean it stretches us then, but it think it creates something that's even cooler in the long run

Katie Ferraro (9m 16s):
For our moms or caregivers who are listening to have babies who have a milk allergy. That's what we're focusing on specifically in today's episode. Food labels can be their best ally, but they also can be super overwhelming. I'm curious if you have any tips for parents and caregivers with babies diagnosed with IgE mediated cow's, milk, protein allergy, they're out shopping, what do they need to be reading for on their labels?

Kathlena (9m 37s):
So in the United States and in other countries as well, it's required that if any of the top allergens milk being one of them, and any country that has a top allergen milk is always one of them. Whether it's top 8, 9, 10, 12, or 14, milk is included. And that's all forms of milk, whether it be milk, casin, lactose, whey, all forms. It has to be called out on the label. Clearly they can't use a super scientific name. This is especially helpful like with eggs because there's like 16 different ways to say egg. Whereas milk, there's not as many ways. If you read the label, it must state contains milk, right? Or within the labeling itself, the word milk has to be in bold, like clearly in bold, unfortunately.

Kathlena (10m 20s):
And we have this really great article on our website, and I'll send you the link for it. A lot of dairy free foods are made on shared equipment with dairy. So as a parent it can be incredibly overwhelming, which is why I always encourage people find brands that either own their equipment or are like, You know, really allergy driven, created by allergy parents and families. 'cause those are the ones that are gonna look out for you the most. And You know, if you see may contains on a label, that means that either dairy was on the equipment or in the facility.

Katie Ferraro (10m 51s):
Can I ask you a question about that labeling? Like I know the original intent of a legislation lease in the United States in 2004 was to make you clearly say if it contains milk, it has to say contains milk instead of one of the 50 other ways you can say milk. But as a result, as I understand it, a lot of food manufacturers responded to that by being scared. And in order to kind of cover their own, You know what they would just say across the board, this product was produced in a facility that may have come into contact with enlist all big eight allergens because they don't wanna get sued. 'cause there might be cross contamination, at which point their product, which never had soy in it, people with soy allergy like, Hmm, well probably shouldn't do it. Is that still the case where they're just kind of doing these blanket may contain statements?

Kathlena (11m 32s):
So yes and no, but more yes and no. And the real issue here is what's called co-packing. For those of you who aren't aware, what happens is, is if I have a recipe and I put it together, I then take it to another company that owns a facility and then they take on clients and they produce the product for them. But they can take on any client that they want at any time, meaning the equipment and the facility can change overnight. And so the blanket statement really does cover them because they literally have no control over the equipment or the facility. So in that sense, it's really difficult. You know, for example, there's one company that makes dairy free milk and they have a statement that it may contain dairy. And they were like, well, we use two facilities, actually two co-packers.

Kathlena (12m 15s):
One co-packer has dairy on site, but the other doesn't. And because it's too difficult for us to track which ones are coming from which places, and the packaging and all these different hoops that they would have to jump through, they just have the one blanket statement. So you might be getting the milk from the dairy free co-packer, or you might be getting the milk from the dairy co packer. You literally don't know and they can't tell you if you go online. The FDA has voluntary recalls that you can look through and there's a lot of undeclared milk, undeclared, wheat, undeclared, this, that or the other. And most people don't know, You know? And companies aren't like sending you an email saying, Hey, in our last batch, this one thing happened.

Katie Ferraro (12m 51s):
Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back.

KiwiCo (12m 58s):
One of my favorite parts of summer, even when we're wrapping it up, is that there's time for kids to be curious. 'cause I know during the school year, it feels like we're always rushing from one thing to the next, but the summertime is when there's space to slow down and really explore things together. And that's what I've loved about Kiwi CO's Summer Adventure series. We were traveling a lot this summer and we worked on one of the projects together. We took it on a road trip. And I know my kids were not asking, are we done yet? But they kept asking like, well, what do you think if we did it this way? And I love those kind of questions because you can actually see their curiosity takeover. I love that the Kiwi co projects don't feel like homework. They just feel like fun. But while they're building, experimenting and creating, they're learning without even realizing it. And then afterwards, they're really excited to tell everyone else what they made and how it works. The Kiwi Co Summer Adventure Series includes six hands-on project kits over six weeks. So they have activities that get kids creating and exploring all summer long. There are projects for kids as young as two all the way through teens. And as a parent, I appreciate, sorry, Kiwi Co is doing all that planning for me. Everything shows up ready to go so we can spend more time making memories together instead of figuring out what to do next. So build the best summer ever with Kiwi Co. Get $10 off your summer adventure series@kiwico.com/summer promo code weaning. That's $10 off your summer adventure at KIWICO.com/summer promo code weaning.

Katie Ferraro (14m 39s):
Can you share some ideas about dairy substitutes for moms or caregivers who are having trouble figuring out how to substitute things like cheese and milk and yogurt, especially for sauces like we always recommend? Okay, put a sauce on, You know, dry breads and protein products because they help moisten the foods, which helps reduce choking risk. But a lot of sauces are dairy based. Any tips there for substitutes?

Kathlena (14m 60s):
So one of the easiest ones would be like a cashew cream. If you have a child that can have cashew, you would use like cashew plus chicken broth or just a broth if you're vegan or cashew plus a dairy free milk. And it essentially makes like a nice thin sauce. And then you can add salt and you can add other mild seasonings, especially if it's for a young child. And boom, you've got essentially like a cream sauce for yogurt. The two brands that we vouch for are Kite Hill and Vega, but again, it has to be the right size. And it's in that article that I'll shoot over to you

Katie Ferraro (15m 31s):
And I will link to all the articles that you're mentioning on the show notes for this episode. If You guys go to bw podcast.com and just search allergy Chef, we'll make sure they're there. Because again, it's pretty specific needing know size and brands and I'm having trouble keeping track.

Kathlena (15m 44s):
Yeah, And so let's see, for cheese, so here's what's very interesting. There are several brands where different types of their product come into contact with dairy and then others don't. So follow Your heart is a really good example. They have this really great allergen chart on their website that tracks the product and the facility and the equipment. And so their cheese blocks come into contact with dairy, their cheese shreds do not. So it's understanding, again, like size or type and picking a brand. However, once you find a brand, cheese, milk, cream, cheese, sour cream, yogurt, they're all one-to-one exchanges. The only time it's not a one-to-one exchange is if someone calls for like a low fat milk, a whole milk, or like buttermilk or cream.

Kathlena (16m 32s):
Those are the four things that quite frankly are really difficult to substitute. So if you take a dairy free milk and combine it with acid, usually like one cup of dairy, free milk plus two teaspoons of an acid such as lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, let it sit for a little bit. You have a faux buttermilk, it's not gonna curdle the same. And the type of plant based milk that you use will determine how effective it is. For example, almond milk works better than oat milk. And then dairy-free milks, again, in general, one-to-one exchange in recipes. So if a developer calls for one cup of milk, you use one cup of dairy free milk. If they call for cream, that's where you have to start playing with ratios.

Kathlena (17m 14s):
And the percentage scale works really well. If you think of what they're asking for is a hundred percent. Like let's say they ask for a hundred milliliters of cream at 30% fat, then what you need is 70 milliliters of dairy-free milk, and then 30 milliliters of a fat. So whether it be a shortening or oil, that's how you would substitute.

Katie Ferraro (17m 35s):
Well, Kathlena, thank you so much. This has been hugely informative. I'm so just a huge fan of your work, and I wanted to know where our audience could go if they do wanna learn more about some of your resources.

Kathlena (17m 46s):
So our website, raise dot the allergy chef.com is probably the easiest place to go. There's some free resources, there's articles, there's recipes, and then if you want more, you can always join with the membership and dive a lot deeper.

Katie Ferraro (17m 59s):
Well, thanks so much for being here. This was awesome.

Kathlena (18m 1s):
Thank you so much for having me.

Katie Ferraro (18m 4s):
Well, I hope You guys enjoyed that interview with Kathlena, the allergy chef. She loves to teach about cooking free from different types of allergens, but I appreciated her focus on dairy free cooking today. I'll put her resources and the other places you can find her online on the show notes page for this episode, which will be@thelwpodcast.com/131

Airwave Media (18m 23s):
and a very special thank you to our partners at Airwave Media. If You guys like podcasts that feature food and science in using your brain, check out some of the podcasts from Airwave Media. We are online@blwpodcast.com.

Katie Ferraro (18m 37s):
Thank you so much for listening. I'll see you next time.

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