Non-Dairy Milk for 1 yr old?

[cjzimmer1]

My youngest has exzema pretty bad around her ankles for most of her life. I recently read something about milk allergies/lactose intolerance can cause this. So about a month ago I switched to lactose free milk and it has helped but not eliminated the problem (she is still nursing 5-7 times a day hence the need for me to change my diet). After talking with her doctor the other day, he recommend we both go dairy free for a month. Well after two days I can already see an improvement. However, he didn't have very clear recommendations about weather I should use soy, almond, rice or some other milk substitute. He basically said they all have plusses and minuses but to play around with it.

 

I know there has been some concern to longterm exposure to soy in growing children. So if you were looking for a milk subsititute for a just turned 1 year old what would you recommend? She is still nursing and I hope to continue for another 6 months so it would probably only be a cup or two of milk a day for now and than more after about 18 months.

 

Thanks

[Orthodox6]

You rammed into my soap box ! :)

 

No soy. No soy. No soy. No soy. No soy. . . . No soy. No soy. No soy.

 

Personal "case study" follows. Of course this is strong opinion, but you will take that into account -- with kindness, please.

 

My dd started seeing a pediatric endocrinologist when she was barely eight years old, with diagnosis of probable precocious puberty. Cause? You already know it from what I typed above.

 

As a vegan family for about 2/3 of every year, I routinely included soy products in my cooking. There was no effect at all on three sons in a row, but Kapow ! when my daughter came along.

 

The endocrinologist immediately blamed the soy, as being the probable culprit. She knew that we purchase only RBST-free dairy products and hormone-free meats.

 

My dd turned ten last March. Her first "." came last Friday. So we have lost the battle against soy.

 

On account of starting her "." at this early age, DD now is at risk for adult obesity, and for a greater risk of dying from ovarian cancer, should she ever contract that. This is what I discovered from articles I pulled up this past weekend.

 

P.S. As for drinking and cooking/baking . . . Many of the "kid-pleasing" nondairy beverages are loaded with sugar. In our family, everybody will drink Rice Dream (plain), if it is very cold. We all use that on cereal/oatmeal. Dh and I prefer almond milk on ours, and in our coffee. Rice milk works best in most baked goods, with almond milk in second place. Gauge the recipe and results by trying each. Rice milk is "thinner", and almond milk is "heavier". Gummy baked goods are no treat, yet are common with vegan home baking.

Edited September 2, 2009 by Orthodox6

[Trixie]

We use almond milk for most things; it's particularly good in baked goods. For my occasional coffee indulgence, I prefer the taste of soymilk.

[CalicoKat]

Almond milk.

[Tap]

DD2 drinks Enriched Rice Dream. The sell it by the case at Costco, 12 for $16 here. I have also heard that the Trader Joes brand tastes good but I haven't bought it yet. It isn't flavored and has the A&D added that we need here in the PNW. I cook with it for her too and find it works fine in most recipes.

[clane]

Rice or Almond milk. We do use soy when out and about as most coffee shops stock it and I can get her a treat opposed to water.

[mum]

I am lactose intolerant and milk protein allergic, so I knew my kids were at high risk for both. I nursed all, and they went from nursing to water. The "need" for milk is a western perceived need, many cultures do not drink milk. I used enriched rice dream for those who wanted milk on cereal, my son will only eat cereal dry, he says it's not supposed to be soggy. I have started using a bit of coconut milk from Wholefoods and it is very yummy. Great in baking and good on cereal. Wholefoods also has a coconut milk ice cream that's great and no bad aftertaste like some of the others. I will concur with the soapbox of NO SOY. It is actually one of the top allergens now.

[Storm Bay]

No soy or nut on a daily regular basis. Too easy for a young child to develop allergies to either of those. One of my dd's loves soy, but we limit it greatly so that there won't be precocious puberty (moderation and variation.) She's developing right on track with family history. Also, a child CANNOT digest nut protein at that age; not until 3 years old, so I wouldn't recommend this. This is one reason they think nut allergies have become more common, but no one is totally sure. ETA I learned about nuts from my sister, and MD whose son has a life threatening allergy to peanuts; she was not taught the digestiblilty factor in med school, but learned a lot after her son had his first huge reaction.

 

For my ds, who hated milk, I nursed until he was 2, which is as long as you need milk. I had him down to 3 times a day. We don't do any milk substitute since everyone has different allergies/sensitivities. My dc usually drink filtered water. Ds was very fussy, so he got water and juice with 3 parts water and 1 part juice, although he drinks water now.

 

As for baking, rice milk could work. I bake without any milk substitutes, unless it's for dh.

 

If your dd is already showing a predisposition toward at least one food sensitivity, I highly recommend trying a rotary diet (at least as much as you can, and especially with highly allergenic foods such as peanut butter--I wouldn't even give that to a child before the age of 2--dairy, wheat, citrus, etc). The easiest way is to have your whole family do it. I'm like that, and just in the past year or so I have suddenly become seriously allergic to almonds, which I was never allergic to before.

Edited September 2, 2009 by Karin

[Tess in the Burbs]

I did soy milk with my first but the second couldn't handle the carageenan in soy, so we moved to rice milk.

 

we went to dairy for a year but we are now all back on rice milk and prefer it!!

 

we do the original rice dream.

[Ellie]

She doesn't need an alternative to cow's milk. Both of my dds were lactose intolerant; neither had alternative milk-like beverages. They did just fine.

[Dirtroad]

Try milk straight from the dairy. i have friend with 5 kids (serious nasal allergies, ear infections, breathing treatments & eczema)... all have allergies to milk... but it is NOT the lactose. It is actually proteins in the milk. Four of them improved immediately by eliminating the homogenized milk and buying from the dairy (health food stores). The processing altered the chemistry of the proteins & that produced the eczema & constant nasal/ear infections.

 

Fifth child is allergic to a different protein that is very rare. She actually needs an epi pen incase she eats a cookie or cracker made with a milk or cheese ingredient. Very Bad. She removed all dairy from her diet & just supplemented with other protein sources & gave her calcium. I dont' think she found a good replacement that the child would drink from a cup. She had the most eczema trouble.

 

My aunt is allergic to Casein in milk. So she buys sheeps milk. Some people try goats milk... but I think that deals with the lactose issue.

 

If she is nursing well, that may be enough... just offer juice & water with solid foods, etc. Be sure she gets nutrients from other foods like meats, broccoli, etc.

 

STAY AWAY from SOY... estrogen problems & much research warning about it being bad for children. It is great for menopausal women... not so great for little kids who don't need estrogen boosts.

 

Hope you find answers soon. My son had trouble with tomatos at 1 year. We took him off everything (even ketchup) and slowly added back a few things every 5-6 months. Now, he can handle any of it but tomato soups. It was all trial and error... doctor wasn't much help b/c test showed no allergy.:confused: But swelling tummy, vomiting, diarrhea, and his misery were not imagined.

 

Oh, one other thing. If you are coming off dairy to try different things, be careful of what has MILK in it. My friend found out that McDonald french fries were dipped in milk to help with the fat content lost from frying in a certain oil. Some kids out grow an allergy but need to be off the allergin for a year or so.... she was letting DD pig out on fries. Even gold fish crackers can be a problem. Things you never think of! It is tough work for the more severe allergies.

 

Hope she gets well soon!

[scrappyhappymama]

Two of mine have been milk protein intolerant. There is a strong correlation between milk protein intolerance and soy protein intolerance, so it's likely your child wouldn't do well on soy milk anyway. Since we already have food sensitivities, we avoid nuts until at least 3, so almond milk is out for us. Enriched rice milk works well as a substitute for drinking and for cooking. In fact there are several recipes that I tried making with rice milk so our sons could eat them and actually preferred the results to cooking or baking with cow's milk. We do supplement our toddler's diet with healthy high fats like avocadoes. And the good news is that if it is an intolerance rather than a true allergy (which is likely since your child is not having anaphylactic reactions), if you avoid the offending foods for a while, they may well grow out of the issue.

[cjzimmer1]

Thanks for all the replies. I wanted to try raw milk but it's illegal to buy here and the closest co-op is 90 miles away which is a bit far to go just to try something out presuming I could even obtain any. I had two other kids with exzema as babies/toddlers who grew out of it. One of those and one who didn't have exzema are lactose intolerant (I only recently found out but the ezema has been long gone in the one).

 

I know they don't "need" milk but she's too little for the chewable calcium that we use for the lactose intolerant kids and we are not real good about eating the other calcium heavy foods because there is very few on the list we actually like.

 

I myself was on soy as a baby because of my skin issues. Interestingly I was quite late(14) before hitting puberty.

 

Ideally I should nurse til 2 but really I don't see that happening. Life always seems to get in the way and they have all weaned between 13-14 months for various reasons. I figure I will be doing really good to get to 18 months.

 

I didn't know about the nut allergies (we really have no food allergies other than lactose intollerance so I never would have thought of that) Sounds like rice milk is probably the best choice for now.

 

Thanks again for all the feedback, I knew someone here could help me make an informed decision.

[jojomojo]

We use rice and almond milk. We tried switching my son over to just rice at one point (he was probably 2-3 yrs old) and it really constipated him, so that is something to keep in mind if you notice any issues. After that we used almond for drinking (which wasn't often anyway), and rice for baking and cereal (almond tastes nasty on cereal to us).

 

Another thing to keep in mind is fat content. You'll probably want to make sure to work more healthy fat into the diet. The milk alternatives don't have much at all. The easiest way for us was to just add a tablespoon or so of walnut oil to oatmeal or farina. I'm not too worried about nut allergies here, so we went with walnut because it hardly has any flavor, but any healthy oil (high in omegas) will do the trick.

[Ellie]

Thanks for all the replies. I wanted to try raw milk but it's illegal to buy here and the closest co-op is 90 miles away which is a bit far to go just to try something out presuming I could even obtain any. I had two other kids with exzema as babies/toddlers who grew out of it. One of those and one who didn't have exzema are lactose intolerant (I only recently found out but the ezema has been long gone in the one).

Although I prefer raw milk myself, my dc were just as intolerant to that as they were to the "regular" milk. It's just better not to go there.

 

I know they don't "need" milk but she's too little for the chewable calcium that we use for the lactose intolerant kids and we are not real good about eating the other calcium heavy foods because there is very few on the list we actually like.

She doesn't need additional calcium. Think of all the healthy people in the world who (1) don't drink cow's milk, (2) don't take supplements, and (3) don't make an effort to eat calcium-heavy foods. As long as she eats good food in general, she'll be fine.

[ElizabethB]

Oat milk is good in coffee!

 

Look for the Pacific (Pacifica?) brand, most of the others have soy.

[Cricket]

I like oat milk. It's sweet and creamier than rice milk. And tastes great on cereal. I buy the enriched kind. My oldest dd had horrible eczema as a baby. She nursed exclusively so I had to cut dairy completely out of my diet as well. If I cheated with so much as one bite of cheese, she would break out. (I did try some raw goat's milk and she didn't break out from that.) So make sure you eliminate dairy from your diet as well! That's great that she is still nursing.

 

I worried about dd getting enough fat too. She ate a lot of avocados, olive oil and some flax seed oil too in her oatmeal. She ate plenty of meat too. If you are worried about calcium, there is calcium-enriched orange juice. Because she reacted to several other foods as well we didn't even let her try nuts until she was almost 5.

[AngelaNYC]

My oldest dd (almost 16) was allergice to cows milk. She was on a soy formula (Prosobee) and then something called Next Step (soy) from age 1-2. Then at 3 we started using Edensoy milk with added calcium and Vit. D. She was on that until age 4 when she was able to drink cows milk without projectile vomiting.

 

Looking back, I would have used almond or rice milk since I didn't know about "precocious puberty" until a few years later. I found out that soy has phytoestrogens similar to bc pills. :eek:

 

Thankfully, there were no effects from it, like precocious puberty (she was 13, like the rest of the family). But I definitely worried about that for years.

[mominbc]

My 16 mth old is allergic to milk and soy. We use rice/almond milk but the dietitian told us it was imperative that we ensure he has 1tbsp of added oils ( olive etc.) a day and to make sure he gets enough protein in his diet (about 1/4 cup beans or meat or 1/2 egg per meal). Also it was suggested we add vit D to his diet.

[ladydusk]

If you're near a whole foods, they've recently started carrying So Delicious Coconut Milk. I haven't bought the milk, but the Kefir was wonderful!

[Rosie_0801]

we are not real good about eating the other calcium heavy foods because there is very few on the list we actually like.

 

 

It's amazing what you can hide in pesto. We made one with salad greens and seaweed the other day. Curried broccoli is a tasty thing. Broccoli soup is yummy. Often the problem is not the vegetable, but the method of cooking. Once Mum stopped serving usovercooked, steamed broccoli :ack2: and started stir frying it with garlic, we stopped complaining and started requesting! Then there was that time she served up steamed chocko :ack2:

 

:)

Rosie

[gingersmom]

My son had serious eczema as a baby. I mean his whole head and the sides of his face. It was awful.

 

I finally switched pediatrians and as soon as the new pediatrian saw my son he picked up the phone and called a pediatric allergist. Before we even went in for testing he said to take him off all milk.

 

Within days I could see a difference.

 

He had to drink Alimentum after that.

 

He still gets eczema from milk (so he rarely rarely eats ice cream).

 

I was told no soy. That it was not good for boys (don't remember all the exact reasons).

[rafiki]

.

[lighthouseacademy]

As long as you are still nursing she is getting EXACTLY the nutrients she needs. Personally, if I feel a child is in need of some extra calcium (teething trouble) I give my kids Kid-E-Calc from Dr. Christopher's. It is liquid. I also tend to do things like green smoothies (kale and fruit etc). Mostly, we just do water. If I need to bake something, I make my own almond milk- 1 cup almonds, 5 cups water blended and strained. Almonds are high calcium but so are sesame seeds.

[sleepymommy]

Ds1 drinks Living Harvest Hemp milk. He loves it. He can't have soy or dairy, even raw dairy.

 

I opted against giving him rice milk b/c a lot of what he eats already is rice-based since he can't have gluten either. Hemp milk is rich in omegas and is even creamy, not watery like some other alternatives.

 

I agree with the others, stay away from soy.

[Storm Bay]

I did soy milk with my first but the second couldn't handle the carageenan in soy, so we moved to rice milk.

 

we went to dairy for a year but we are now all back on rice milk and prefer it!!

 

we do the original rice dream.

 

 

There's no carageenan in the unsweetened organic plain soymilk by Westbrae; it's just soy & water. However, rice milk is yummier and you avoid the soy issues that way. I can't do carageenan, either.

[Storm Bay]

Although I prefer raw milk myself, my dc were just as intolerant to that as they were to the "regular" milk. It's just better not to go there.

 

 

She doesn't need additional calcium. Think of all the healthy people in the world who (1) don't drink cow's milk, (2) don't take supplements, and (3) don't make an effort to eat calcium-heavy foods. As long as she eats good food in general, she'll be fine.

 

 

And let's not forget why pasteurization started; cows can carry TB. It doesn't harm the milk as much as homogenization does, nor does it kill as many good bacteria. Proteins can be denatured by heat, but not all proteins are denatured at the same temperaturess. Peanut protein is not denatured by cooking, or at least not whatever it is about it that causes peanut allergies, which is why those with serious peanut allergies CANNOT have anything that's been deep fried in peanut oil.

 

As for MacDonald's, they put a lot of things in their food I wouldn't eat if I could help it. When my dc were little and I didn't know better, once in a great while I let them have Chicken McNuggets before we went gf/cf, but have since learned that less than half of that chicken is actually chicken--there are a lot of additives I can't believe that the FDA allows.

 

There's a reason why they don't call their shakes milk shakes and their cones ice cream cones--it has to do with what's actually in them.

Edited September 3, 2009 by Karin

[Storm Bay]

My oldest dd (almost 16) was allergice to cows milk. She was on a soy formula (Prosobee) and then something called Next Step (soy) from age 1-2. Then at 3 we started using Edensoy milk with added calcium and Vit. D. She was on that until age 4 when she was able to drink cows milk without projectile vomiting.

 

Looking back, I would have used almond or rice milk since I didn't know about "precocious puberty" until a few years later. I found out that soy has phytoestrogens similar to bc pills. :eek:

 

Thankfully, there were no effects from it, like precocious puberty (she was 13, like the rest of the family). But I definitely worried about that for years.

 

There is now a corn based formula for infants who cannot have any type of milk, soy, etc. I met a woman who had a dd like this; hat her dd been born 2 years earlier, she would have died it was that serious, but she was born a year after the formula came out. They're always learning. Now many have trouble with corn, too, but this has been a lifesaver for some, and, thankfully, there was a doctor around who knew about it since it was fairly new.

[tdeveson]

We had terrible problems with ds when he was one. By then he had been weaned and cow milk made him terribly sick. The doctor immediately identified milk as the problem. He explained that cow's milk has a protein covering that is very bad for some people.

 

He recommended goat milk. At first I thought it was gross -- it smells different. But ds loved it. All his symptoms went away immediately. After a few years (perhaps when he was four or five), we tried cow's milk again. His allergy was over and now he can drink milk as he wants.

 

Last, I want to agree with the poster who warned about soy and little girls. This is a very real danger. Little girls should have soy very sparingly. When I was going through the change, my doctor recommended soy supplements, and I also started cooking with it. It made all the difference in the world -- put me through the whole process without meds or hormones. She explained that soy contains huge amounts of a vegetable based estrogen. Not good for little ones, especially girls.

 

Hope you find something that works for your little one. Don't be discouraged. There are tons of alternatives, from goat milk, to non dairy drinks.

[Sara R]

Little kids get three things from milk that can be difficult to get elsewhere: protein, fat, and calcium. Don't just look at calcium; look for the other two as well. Rice milk, for example, is fortified with calcium, but has virtually no fat or protein (at least not when my youngest went through this when she was a baby). Coconut milk would provide fat, but probably not protein or calcium. Almond milk would probably have the fat and the protein, plus calcium if it's fortified. Soy would too, but I have also personally experienced hormonal issues with soy and I would avoid large amounts of soy.

 

My first preference would be raw cow's milk or goat's milk. If neither of those worked, I'd look at almond milk. You can supplement oils with fish oil or cod liver oil (for the vitamin D).

[mchel210]

I also stopped all milk and eggs for about a year...and my dd allergies and eczema cleared up. I switched to rice milk after I realized I was having hormonal problems from the soy. It stopped as soon as we stopped eating so much soy. I still eat some soy nuts but that's about it.

 

We also switched to Calendula Soap and since I have done that...my dd eczema is gone.

 

I only have 1 child that likes milk now. One never drinks milk. She might have a yogurt occasionally but that is it. They mainly drink water. I love milk...but I always get gas after drinking it. I might have to try that rice milk again.

Edited September 3, 2009 by mchel210

[Senorita Tuna Fish]

My Youngest has excema and 5 food allergies and we do rice milk. Soy is one of her no no's. Her allergist said that most who have milk allergies are sensitive to soy as well. Aso be careful with haircare and soap products as some of them have milk and soy proteins. For her skin we use a mixture of pure shea butter and vitamin e oil to make it smooth and creamy. We also use a sunflower oil soap that works well. In the winter it get's really dry so we use a thick layer of the shea butter mixture to keep her from flaking and itching. so hope that helps. by the way check out livingwithout.com for some alternative baking and cooking receipes.........

Edited September 3, 2009 by Senorita Tuna Fish
spelling

[lighthouseacademy]

 

My first preference would be raw cow's milk or goat's milk. If neither of those worked, I'd look at almond milk. You can supplement oils with fish oil or cod liver oil (for the vitamin D).

 

Almonds actually are naturally a calcium food- the milk doesn't need fortification...

 

 

In terms of fats, vary the fats- almond milk, avocadoes, olive oil, etc.

[catherine smith]

my son (9 months old) has bad excema that developed when he was nursed only (no solids). I went through some diet modifications to try and find foods he was allergic to, but after dropping dairy and wheat and peanuts I lost weight and my milk supply dropped and I was unable to recover no matter how much I ate. As of now we are giving him raw goats milk and he is doing ok on it.

[Storm Bay]

My Youngest has excema and 5 food allergies and we do rice milk. Soy is one of her no no's. Her allergist said that most who have milk allergies are sensitive to soy as well. Aso be careful with haircare and soap products as some of them have milk and soy proteins. For her skin we use a mixture of pure shea butter and vitamin e oil to make it smooth and creamy. We also use a sunflower oil soap that works well. In the winter it get's really dry so we use a thick layer of the shea butter mixture to keep her from flaking and itching. so hope that helps. by the way check out livingwithout.com for some alternative baking and cooking receipes.........

 

 

I thought I'd throw in a point or two about excema for anyone who reads this and has not found a link between milk or any other food and excema. It has a variety of causes. I can ingest citrus fruit and not get it (ie eat it), but if it touches my skin and I don't thoroughly wash it off with soap and water with a good rinse, I'll get excema, particularly on the palms of my hands. This can happen from anything scented with citrus or from anything containing grapefruit seed extract. I cannot launder with anything containing citrus, either.

 

There are others who get it as a contact reaction, too, but not necessarily from citrus. Sometimes the cause is never found, or it's something very difficult to avoid.

 

Finally, I'd like to reiterate that if you have a small child with several or more allergies, it's wise to err on the side of caution with a rotary diet, particularly with common allergens. In fact, if something is highly allergenic but your dc can still eat it, you may want to limit it to once a week when they're little (eg peanuts, although nuts should be avoided until three, and that includes almond milk, because they can't digest the proteins properly, but things like citrus fruits, wheat, milk, soy--well, as we've seen soy should be given sparingly to children, anyway). A rotary diet is really moderation and variation done more carefully and fully. Often we, and I was the same way, include the same foods every day, particularly wheat and dairy. Besides, if you buy in bulk some things, such as organic buckwheat flour and both organic corn meal and flour can be cheaper than organic wheat flour. This can be very helpful if you've been told to avoid pesticides, etc, by your health care provider. I can get organic dark buckwheat flour for a little more than a dollar a pound. Conventionally grown is usually cheaper.