You are lucky to have a happy eater who likes to try new things. You are smart to capitalize now on his willingness to eat a variety of food. The more kinds of food a child eats, the easier it is to meet his nutritional requirements. As you and your son try out new foods you will want to make a big effort to include calcium containing food since he won't be having any milk or milk products in his diet.

Some good suggestions would be canned flaked salmon. You can mix it with a little cooked rice, press them into little balls. They make great finger foods. Small blocks of tofu are also a good source of calcium and a good finger food. Cook until tender, small florettes of broccoli (broccoli contains some calcium) and mix with some fun shaped small pasta, such as little bow ties, penne, or small sea shells.

Meatloaf made with ground beef is a good source of iron, and can be cut into small sticks that can be easily picked up with baby fingers. Another great finger food that kids love are mini muffins. You can make lots and freeze them. Use whatever recipe you like, just substitute soy milk or soy formula or juice for the milk in the recipe.

Muffins are a great place to hide vegetables, liked pureed squash, or grated carrots. Bagels are great finger, teether food. Chunks of ripe avocados, ripe bananas, soft ripe mangos, and soft cooked apple chunks are healthy finger foods. Fun pasta shapes covered with a small amount of sauce are kid favorites.

Health food stores sell many varieties of non-dairy cheese that you can use. As a matter of fact, health food stores tend to sell many things that are dairy free for their vegan customers, and milk allergy customers. Often, because they are small, their sales people are able to help you locate those items that are milk free.

Because processed storebought foods so often contain hidden sources of milk (e.g. caseinate, casein, curds, dry milk solids, whey) you will most likely want to do a lot of your own cooking and baking. There are many wonderful recipe books on the market designed for making foods for babies and toddlers. Most have several recipes without milk, and many of those recipes that do contain milk can be made with substitutions.

Do not resign yourself to a lifetime of milk-free. A full 70 to 80 percent of babies who are allergic to milk are free of all symptoms by age three. Under your baby's care provider's guidance, you should be sure to rechallenge your son with milk on a regular basis to see if/when he has outgrown it. It would be unfortunate to eliminate such a nutritious food from his diet unnecessarily.