Is anyone familiar with Rice Dream? I purchase it a Trader Joe's, and my husband loves it as a milk substitute with cereal or in coffee. Is there amy reason we should not use it? My husband is pre-dialysis and all his levels are good.

I am not familiar with Rice Dream, but what I use that has no potassium is non-dairy creamer in the milk case. It comes in quart size containers and is normally in the 1.00 to 1.79 a quart container. This can be used on cereal, coffee, but a little tricky to cook with. I will look for Rice Dream in health food section and see if I can recognize anything bad in it (i.e. potassium, phosphorus etc).

As a renal dietitian I advise pts to try Rice Dream often. It is a healthy alternative for renal pts. Be sure NOT to get the Enriched form. It has added calcium.

As a renal dietitan I often will encourage patients to use milk substitutes, however, please be aware that non-dairy products often do contain potassium and phosphorus but not as much as milk. For example 4 oz of coffee mate contains 200 mg potassium and 56 mg phosphorus (source Bowe's and Churches Food Values). Where 4 oz milk contains ~ 185 mg potassium and 110 mg phosphorus.