Advice about Soy Milk
Need to supplement 6-mo-old's breastfeeding
Oct 1999
I would like to supplement with formula for my 6 month old son, but he
has a sensitivity to cows milk protein (ie I've had to cut dairy out of my
diet entirely while breastfeeding) so I know he can't have regular formula.
I haven't tried soy yet because of the information I've been hearing
about it--questions about the way soy is grown as well as its potential to
mimic estrogen. Can anyone give me any hard facts about the
dangers/benefits of soy formula? I've tried the special predigested formula
once (nutrimigil and allimentum) but the stuff is pretty disgusting. Thanks.
In children the most common foods causing allergies are egg, milk, peanut,
soy, wheat, tree nuts, fish and shellfish. I would be careful about
introducing soy to you child unless you know he is not allergic to it. My
son lived on Nutramigen for many years. It did not taste great to me but
he loved it.
I wrote earlier about this, from the perspective of a Diet Counselor
and long-term student of nutrition. Big proteins like cow and soy can
cause gas and colic because they are too difficult for a baby to digest.
Whey is a well-tolerated milk protein with smaller casein molecules. Try
making your own rice milk by long-cooking Basmati or short brown rice with
water (4-6 hours), straining, and adding whey powder (Solgar brand is
responsibly extracted) and essential fatty acids. Although rice has been
used by humankind only since about 7,000 years ago, cooking it a long time
breaks down the phytates which would otherwise inhibit mineral and vitamin
absorption and possibly cause irritation to the child's incompletely formed
gut.
I would also like to point out that there is a breast milk bank in San
Jose, which would be my first choice.
For one, mothers milk has estrogen and that is not harmful to your
baby. The way they grow soy is only a concern for the one that is
genetically engineered and that does not apply here. So go ahead and
give your baby soy formula (prosobee is really good). Also, by 6 months
both of my babies that had sensitivities to cow's milk, that was gone by
the time they were six months old. I then switched to a milk-based one
and they were/are still happy with it! Just try it.
April 1999
Alternatives for One-year-old on non-dairy diet
My son has just turned one, and we were planning on starting him on
cows milk, but he's now on a diet that eliminates dairy foods. Until
now, we've been giving him expressed breast milk when he's away from
me, but I won't be able to continue to keep up with him. What are
the pluses and minuses of the alternatives to cows milk (infant
formula, follow-up formula, soy milk, ...? Others?)
Thanks.
My son, now 17 months, has been allergic to both cow's milk and soy
milk, so I have given this topic a lot of thought. One book I highly
recommend is by Jane Zukin called "Dairy-Free Cookbook, Fully Revised
2nd Edition : Over 250 Recipes for People with Lactose Intolerance or
Milk Allergy". It might have some suggestions for your particular
situation. I have not made many of the recipes, but it has a large
section in the front of the book talking about nutrition and how to
get nutrients many people derive from cow's milk from other sources.
There is a particurly nice chapter for children and babies.
Here's what we have done. My son is still breastfed and I have only
now stopped expressing milk for him (by 13 months, he was only taking
about 4-5 oz of expressed milk during the 9 hrs I was away from him
anyway). I have chosen to replace the expressed milk with the
enriched rice milk and the occasional calcium fortified OJ. His Dr.
also suggested we use liquid calcium supplements on days when I
work. He eats solids well and still nurses well when I am home, so I
feel there is no need to go to the hypoallergenic formula (which we
would have to do because of his allergy to dairy and soy). Another
possiblity which we never explored is goat's milk. The happy news is
that all these dietary changes are temporary, as he appears to be
over his cow's milk allergy (although it is early days yet, so we are
going slowly with the cow's milk reintroduction).
Good luck!
You can offer your son rice milk as an alternative. I find it tastier
than soy milk, and while soy allergies are becoming quite common,
people rarely develop allergies to rice. You can buy calcium enriched
rice milk at most grocery stores in the Bay Area. Most people drink
cow's milk because it is a cheap and easy way to get protein and
calcium. However, he can eat other foods that will provide those
nutrients (beans, tofu, green leafies, etc). It might be worth it to
check out some books or take a class on nutrition.
Is this a "no-dairy" diet, or a "no cow's milk" diet? If it's no
cow's milk, then I might suggest trying Goat milk and goat milk
products. They are well tolerated by many people who can't take
cow's milk. Many varieties of goat milk and goat milk products
(cheese, dried milk, etc) are available at Whole Foods at Ashby and
Telegraph. Soy is of course another option, but some kids are
allergic to soy as well (my daughter is). Good luck!
Regarding alternatives to cow's milk....my niece has been drinking
rice milk since she was one (she is now 2.5 yrs.), and she loves it.
It comes in different "flavors", and a lot of them are fortified with
calcium and vitamins. The nice thing about rice milk is it doesn't
have that strong soy flavor that lots of people, including kids don't
like.
My son is 14 months old.. I didn't want to give him milk because i
have hard time digesting it...Plus I feel milk is for cows... Anyway.
I started giving him rice milk. he loves it..... The only problem
with rice, soy and other alternative milk products is they don't have
enough fat.... Which children need till the age of two. So I make
sure that I give him yogurt in the morning and yogurt at night. To
supplement what he is missing from milk... The drink I found to have
the most fat is almond milk.... I also have recipe to make your own
if you're interested.
Many people who are allergic to cow's milk can tolerate goat milk,
and apparently in some ways goat milk is closer to human milk and
more easily digested than cow's milk. I have seen a couple of
recommendations for goat milk for young children; I am looking into
this further for my baby boy, who is showing signs of being allergic
to cow's milk.
My son had multi. food allergies including dairy. We gave him
Nutramigen (a very expensive formula) as a substitute. Have you
checked with your doctor/allergist for substitutes? The important
thing at this point is to make sure whatever you use as a replacement
provides all the nutrients and fats that a one year old needs. We
saw a dietitian for assistance regarding foods and vitamins to
substitute. To allow enough calcium we gave him Children's Malox
(sp?) and when he started to drink juice I gave him the calcuim
enrichedGerber juice and calcium enriched orange juice. The large
bottles of calcium enriched Gerber juices do not contain as much
calcium per serving as the juice boxes. My biggest challenge was
provided my child with enough fats and good fats.
Regarding the "alternatives to milk" request for advice, we had good
luck with follow-up soy formula for a year, then we switched to fresh
organic soy milk (which you can even buy at Safeway). There are soy
cheeses, yogurts, and cream cheeses too, so that I was able to adapt
almost all our dinners to be dairy-free. Hang in there, a lot of kids
outgrow this. My son is three and he's now able to tolerate some
dairy.
June 2000
My 14 month old daughter is on a dairy-free diet. She drinks breast
milk and enriched soy milk, eats soy cheese and tofu and seems to be
doing fine. She is healthy and growing tall although she is a bit on
the thin side(but so are both of her parents). I would like to learn
more about dairy intolerance in children so I can make informed
decisions about what foods to introduce into her diet and when to
introduce them. I am also concerned about weening her. I would like to
breast feed her only first thing in the morning and at night, then
ween her completely by her second birthday, but I also want to know
that she will get the nutrients and fat she needs from other sources
in her diet. Because she vomits 2-3 hours after she consumes yogurt or
cheese, I suspect the problem is with milk protein rather than
lactose.
Has anyone had a similar experience with their child? Can you suggest
books, Web sites, or other resources where I can learn more about
dairy intolerance? Thanks.
Lauri
HI, Being concerned that my boys would have the same dairy intolerance that
I do, I never started them on cows milk. As they were weaned from breast
milk I introduced
Goat's milk (My older son had a violent vomiting reaction to soy formula so
I never tried it again). Many dairy intolerant children can tolerate Goat's
milk. The chemical make up is very different from cow's milk. It's not as
mucus forming. I've read that Goat's milk is closest in vitamins and enzymes
to human milk, much more so than cows milk. Less calcium though. The brand
I use is Meyenberg. It can be bought at most grocery stores (though the
skim goats milk I can only find at El Certito and Berkeley Natural Grocery.
Some other brands of goats milk are very strong tasting. I find Meyenberg
to be sweeter than cows milk (though I haven't had cows milk in so long I
really don't remember). and it doesn't get that "goaty" taste after two
days that some other brands do. My oldest son is now 9 and has no problem
with dairy, but my younger son, 5 has a definate allergy. We use goat milk,
goat cheese, sheep feta. Often with a dairy allergy they can tolerate milk
that is cooked into something such as
pastries or cookies. Also butter doesn't contain milk solids so often they
can tolerate butter. Feel free to write me if you want to talk more.
June
Aug 2000
I am very interested in hearing from any parents who have
chosen not to include cow's milk in their child's diet for
health reasons (aside from allergies to dairy products).
From everything I have read and everyone I have talked to,
it really makes sense not to consume any dairy products -
while this can be a pretty difficult thing to do and maybe
not totally necessary, it has been very easy to eliminate
cow's milk (major source of dairy products in our house) from
my entire family's diet, including my 2 1/2 year old daughter
who loves soy and rice milk. I am hoping to hear from others
who might be further down the road than I am on this issue.
I guess I am most concerned about whether or not my child gets
enough calcium (though I am aware of the many other food
sources for calcium and am also using fortified organic soy and
rice), and also, whether or not too much soy milk can cause
problem (isoflavones, etc) - this is probably my biggest concern.
I am currently blending or alternating rice with soy each day.
It has been an amazingly easy transition, and I even feel
noticeably better myself. I would love to hear what other
parents have experienced (particularly those who eat a vegan or
almost vegan diet). The previous comments from parents on
the web page are really only specific to milk allergy issues,
and mostly short-term consumption of soy milk and other
alternatives.
Michael
I'm interested in reading the responses you receive since
we are in a similar situation. Our son is 2.25 and has had
very little dairy. His dad does eat dairy, however, so our
son has some (organic). He drinks a lot of soy milk and a
fair amount of tofu and other soy products, but like with most
foods some weeks we eat more than others and so it seems
balanced over the long haul. So far he is very healthy. I
don't have much to add, but wanted to let you know that during
my pregnancy I did not drink cow's milk or cheese (did eat
organic yogurt). I ate tons of calcuim rich foods and late in
the pregnancy took liquid calcium which got rid of my leg cramps
at night. I had a healthy pregnancy and my son was healthy at
birth. That we (I and baby) were healthy without cow's milk
and cheese at such a critical time, indicates to me that these
products aren't necessary. I also think about other cultures
where this is common and people tend to be no less healthy and
usually healthier. _May all Be Fed by Robbins_ was a book that
was helpful to me.
Susan
Hi, though we eliminated dairy due to possible allergies,
my oldest son, now 9 1/2 and youngest, 5 have never had cows
milk or much cheese as a regular part of their diet. My husband
and I have milk sensitivities and have used Goat's milk from
the start. Goats milk is not as high in Calcium as cows milk,
but it appears to be high enough for what humans need. Goats
milk is less rich than cows milk and has a different set of
enzymes, vitamins and chemical make up. It is closest in that
way to human breast milk. Meyenberg brand is what I use because
it doesn't get a "goaty" flavor after a few days. It's higher in
fat but is also available in a skim form. We use soy milk too
but mostly goat. Goat cheese tends to get that goaty flavor after
a few days but it's great fresh. Also sheep feta cheese is not
reactive as cow feta. It will say "sheep feta" if it is indeed
sheeps. If it doens't say, then it's cow. I've tried soy and
rice cheeses....truthfully I'd rather just skip the cheese than
try to substitute with those. My kids won't go for it. There are many
desserts that are non-dairy....rice dream, tofutti and similar
soy "Ice cream subs". You can even get soy whipped cream. They
have it in the frozen food section at Berkeley Bowl and El Cerrito
Natural Grocery. It's like Dream whip. I've tried most of the
non dairy food substitutes. I'd be happy to answer any questions
or discuss this further. Good luck, and have fun.
June
Oct 2001
My husband and I are vegetarians (not vegan, but close) and are trying to figure something
out. All the books that I have read and doctors I have talked to have suggested that at one
year children begin drinking cow's milk once weaned. I do not drink cow's milk and really
would prefer my son not to drink cow's milk, but I am not sure about alternatives like soy milk
in terms of nutrition and digestibility. Also, it has been suggested that if he is weaned before
one year, he should start with a dairy-based formula instead of soy-based. I feel completely lost
on these subjects and yet realize that time is passing quickly and I will need to make some
decisions soon. If anyone has any opinions, suggestions, or resources that I could look into, I
would greatly appreciate it. Thank you,
Heather
My daughter, now 19 months old, has been drinking Soy milk since she
was one. We tried cows milk but it gave her diarrhea and she got
frequent ear infections, also from other things I have read cows milk
is not important to drink it is important to get calcium and fat in
their diet. We give her Vitasoy fortified soy milk. It has calcium
and fat and lots of other minerals. We buy it at Costco. They sell
it by the case so we buy 2 cases at a time. It is a lot cheaper than
a regular store. I think it is about 15 dollars for the case of 12.
she loves the milk. If you do use soy milk make sure you get the
fortified or enriched kind.
Also to touch on weaning before a year, depending on your son's age if
he weans early, it is not always necessary to give formula. I have
several friends who started the weaning process at about 10 months and
they were told by there pediatricians it was okay to go to milk and
skip over formula. check with your pediatrician it may depend on
other things than age. If you do have to go to formula use soy there
is no need to feel pressured into cow milk based formula.
melinda
I had planned to raise our now 15-month-old son as a vegetarian, but
because of some reactions (rashes, nothing too serious) to various
dairy products, he's pretty much vegan for now. I say "for now"
because a lot of allergic reactions are simply because foods are
introduced too early; usually they are outgrown. It seems to me that a
lot of the warnings out there are based on our parents' generation,
when babies were started on cereal as early as six weeks! Anyway,
here's my own experience: we started giving our son soy milk around 11
months. We use Edensoy Extra, because it is organic and offers B12,
which is of special importance to vegans. I should note that he is
still breastfeeding. We give him the soy milk in a bottle when Daddy
puts him to bed (I could never pump for just "here-and-there"
occasions) or as an alternative to water in a sippy cup when I feel
like he needs extra calories/protein. He was "late" in eating solids
as a significant form of nutrition because he frankly didn't seem very
interested before 10 months, so we may have avoided some allergy
issues. I believe most "experts" say that by age one most babies
should be able to eat most foods. Have you looked at Ruth Yarrow's
"Super Baby Foods"? She's definitely of the school that if you don't
start babies on solids by six months, they won't eat (have you met any
adults who won't eat?!), but she also is pro-vegetarian and offers
comprehensive, if not somewhat alarmist, information on
allergies. Back to our son, now that he is showing more interest in
solids, soy seems like a huge part of his diet (tofu, soy yogurt,
etc.). Thankfully, he's never shown a reaction to it. I'm certainly a
proponent of extended breastfeeding, so my suggestion would be to
continue that as long as it seems right for both you and child; just
because your child is beginning to get nutrition from solids doesn't
mean he or she can't still get nutrition and comfort from your milk.
When you feel like your child is starting to show readiness, start
adding non-dairy milks and soy and other foods and watch for
reactions. You can follow the four- or seven-day wait rule, which
means only introduce one new food within that time frame, so you can
isolate the causes of reactions. For more on cow's milk, there was an
article ("Should Kids Drink Cow's Milk?") in Mothering magazine in
July/August 1998. I don't know if the online archives go back that
far, but you can probably order a back issue of the magazine. (Or
e-mail me and I'll send you a photo copy of the article.) BTW, the
article's position is that kid's shouldn't drink cow's milk, in part
because "adding milk to an otherwise well-balanced diet simply
overloads the meal." Of course, allergies and other health effects are
discussed.
hickman
To Heather:
Our oldest daughter we found to be very allergic to dairy milk. It took me
weeks to figure it out, but she was so sensitive that I couldn't even eat
bread that contained any milk or have a dab of milk in my decaf. coffee
without her getting incredible, horrid stomach cramping after I nursed her.
When it was time to switch her to "cow's milk" as every MD recommends, we
tried Lact-aid milk (full fat, just no lactose). Still a no-go. We finally
figured out that it was not the lactose that she couldn't tolerate, but the
casein in dairy products. So I started her on soy, but I found that I had to
be careful what type of soy milk I bought because some have very little
calcium in it. We buy the Westsoy Plus Lite (now that she is 4, she needs
less fat), but the regular Westsoy had much less calcium and she was not
getting her RDA for calcium with it. She has done beautifully. I've tried in
the past to switch her to dairy, but why? I'd rather know that she was
getting an organic product that, to me, is safer than dairy! So go for it,
and good luck! Trish
My advice: Keep breastfeeding!
There is a very good organic, rice-based toddler formula by Baby's Own
which is available on-line and in all of the healthfood grocery stores
(Wild Oats, Whole Foods, Berkeley Natural, etc...) Also, have you
considered enriched rice or almond milk? And, there is always goat's
milk. These have all worked well with my son who is now 2 years old.
Belinda in El Cerrito
This is only a partial answer to your question, but...We recently
switched our 15-month-old daughter to soy milk rather than cow's milk
in hopes that it may cut down on her rate of ear infections. When I
proposed this switch to our pediatrician, she agreed but counseled
that we should buy only soy milk that is fortified with calcium and
vit. D. Soy does not have these nutrients in the same quantities that
cow's milk does. One difficulty I've had is finding organic, whole
fat, calcium fortified soy milk without added sugar--almost all of the
various brands have some kind of sweetener, such as cane juice, added
to make the soy milk more palatable. My daughter has taken to it
without any complaints.
Darcy
Both my daughters had some negative reactions to
dairy, so they both had soy formula in addition to
breast milk in the first year, and then soy milk, one
with full fat and extra calcium (called "plus" I
think), during the next year or so. This was in
addition to a diet with a full range of foods, so it
wasn't the only nutrition they were getting, but it
seemed fine. My older daughter also liked goat's milk
products, like cheese and yogurt, but I don't think
these are necessary. Check out some of the books
available in natural food stores too, there are quite
a few on vegetarian/vegan diets for children, though I
don't know any titles offhand.
Lucia
I hope that the person seeking advice on this matter is still reading
the advice line. I don't know what an alternative to cow milk is, but
I recently started giving my 10-month-old one bottle of soy formula
every day so that when I fully wean her in a couple of months, she
starts to drink soy milk instead of cow's milk. A friend then told me
that children are not supposed to drink/eat any soy products because
soy products contain certain agents (probably not the right word for
it) that are very similar to female hormones. She said that giving
kids soy products is like giving them hormones. I was very skeptical,
and talked to a biochemist, who to my utter surprise, confirmed what
this friend had told me. He indicated that until the age of 11, it is
not a good idea to give soy products to kids/infants. Between the
ages of 11 and 80, soy products have been found to possibly prevent
many forms of disease such as breast cancer, but before the age of 11,
they have a hormone-like effect on children. Anyway, you should
definitely double-check this, but I am no longer giving my daughter
soy formula. I hope this helps.
Firouzeh
my 2 1/2 year old dauighter still nurses, but when she was around one or one
and a few months we started giving her fortified vanilla flavored rice milk
(rice dream), vanilla flavored, when she went to her sitter's for four or
five hours. we thought the vanilla flavor (not sweetened with sugar, just
flavored!) would make it seem like breast milk... she liked it sometimes,
but not always. for the past six or 8 months she's been drinking fortified
vanilla soy milk--westwood--and although i don't like the taste, she does
(we had to experiemnt with a few brands before we settled on it). anyway, i
think that cow's milk is highly, highly overrated/overadvertised--compare
the labels on it and on soymilk in your local health food store. you might
feel like you need to give your child more fatty foods if you're not using
cow's milk, but that's possible (and if they're nursing, then they're
probably getting a lot of fats from you, too).
Jessica
One of the reasons that cows milk shouldn't be used before the age of
one is because of the possibility that you can cause a life-long dairy
allergy. This is because the protein of cows milk is too large for
baby's digestive systems to be able to deal with properly. The same
is true of soy, though it's not as troublesome. I personally like to
wait to introduce soy until 12 months and cow until 24 months. Neither
of my sons had any cows milk or dairy until they were well over 2
years old (both vegetarian too) and they've been healthy and strong
with no growth problems or anything. If you are unable to continue
breastfeeding full-time before your baby turns one, you might want to
consider supplementing with goats milk, which is much easier for
baby's to digest than cow or soy. Like both cow milk and soy milk,
you can't give plain goats milk to an infant as their sole source of
liquid nutrition, since it doesn't have all of the necessary vitamins
in it. You can add some things to goats milk to make it more complete,
if necessary. Once they're eating more food, however, it's an
excellent cow-milk alternative with much less risk of allergy. Rice
milk is okay after a year, but it doesn't have much protein. Tara
While this may not exactly fit your requirements, this was developed by one of
my teachers. Essential fatty acids from flax are fine, but the cod liver oil
provides vitamins A and D, the latter critical in the allocation and utilization
of calcium. Whey powder is highly digestible, especially a low-heat process
version like Solgar.
Ed's baby formula (adjust with age- this is for around a 1 year old)
Make a congee with 1 cup short brown or basmati rice and 6 cups pure water. A
congee is cooked over low temperature for 6-8 hours (crockpots are great for
this) until like a thin gruel.
Strain. Store in refrigerator. To each 8-10 oz amount, add:
1/2 tsp cod liver oil (can use emulsified but try straight, unflavored first)
1/2 tsp flax oil (high lignan is probably OK)
1 tsp whey powder (goat is good)- if child is growing, increase for protein
1/3 tsp green powder (a gluten-free version is best)
1/4 tsp buffered vitamin C complex powder
1/4 tsp acidophilus/bifidus powder
Heat in water bath to lukewarm temperature and feed. This offers a complete
macronutrient complement and most significant micronutrients (vitamins A, B, C,
D, E, K, P for sure).
Nori
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