Dairy Free Question

My son is allergic to milk and so drinks the soy. His allergist said the amount he drinks (the same amount he would drink of regular milk) is fine for him, not to worry about it.

Most of the world does not drink cow's milk, so there are adequate alternative sources of calcium:

Vegetables like bok choy, kale, mustard greens, dandelion greens, turnip greens, artichokes and broccoli. Out of these options turnip greens have the highest calcium source with 200mg per cup. Bok Choy has 160mg and Dandelion greens 140mg per cup.

Many beans are also fair sources of calcium including baked beans and soy beans.

figs, papaya and raisins
Sesame seeds or Tahini
canned salmon and sardines
soy nuts and almonds

8 year old, is recommended that they get 800 mg of calcium a day. Or Pediatrician says 2 cups of milk. My Daughter is 8.

BUT you can give him, instead of milk... chewable calcium supplements or gummie calcium supplements... which they do have for kids.
Animal Parade is one brand. For kids. Or go to Whole Foods and they can help you there.
Because YES... it does take a LOT of different random sources of foods, for calcium.. to all ADD up, to daily required intake amounts. I have that problem with my daughter and getting calcium in her...

My daughter does not like dairy or milk... although she is a great healthy eater all around otherwise... BUT... her teeth... are very weak... and I cannot get her to take vitamins nor calcium supplements although I have tried like 12 different brands. Her teeth are so weak... from lack of mineralization per calcium and formation of her teeth.

all the best,
Susan

I found some great tools on mypyramid.gov about ways to add different foods to your diet when you have an allergy or simply just dislike a particular kind of food. I'm pretty sure they have some suggestions on there for diets that lack dairy.
-N. Hodgins
Helping Moms Work From Home
www.MyFamilyFirstCareer.com

This is what we give our 8 yo who hates milk:

http://www.swansonvitamins.com/LCR004/ItemDetail?n=0

you can buy them at costco too

Soy milk has as much calcium as regular milk. One of my boys is lactose intolerant and he drinks soy milk. SO - if you son isn't sensitive to soy, you may want to try it.

Our 8 YO daughter has severe dairy allergy since birth, really. She's also vegetarian so have to be aware of total soy in her diet. We drink the refrigerated vanilla almond breeze, which contains calcium. I completely second the mom who talks about vegetables. Here's a link to Dr. Ben Kim's website where he lists several calcium rich foods http://drbenkim.com/nutrient-calcium.html

We give our daughter a liquid calcium/magnesium citrate supplement that we get from sunflower market by Lifetime. It's preacidified so it's easier to absorb. Her fav flavor is the lemon custard. Calcium citrate is better absorbed by the body compared to calcium carbonate. Although our pediatrician is fine with us just giving her Tums chewables also.

As a dietitian I will say that calcium is very important and it can be very hard if not impossible to get just from fruits and vegetables. I would have him drink calcium fortified OJ or calcium fortified rice/soy/almond milk. I would also recommend a calcium supplement. He should be consuming 800mg/day. Once he turns 9 the Daily Recommended Intake (DRI) increases to 1300mg/day. For example 1 cup of raw broccoli only has 42 mg of calcium and 1 cup of raw chopped spinach only has about 34 mg. 1 Cup of boiled Kale has almost 94 but I don't think he wants to consume that many vegetables to get to 800 let alone 1300. Also, 1 oz of almonds has about 84 mg.

As listed below they are lots of veggies that are full of calcium. Also beware of soy it can cause hormonal issues with boys.

We don't drink milk in our family because we don't like it, but we have products with dairy - cheese, yogurt, etc. Exercizing will help strenthen bones and good sources of calcium are in the dark green veggies. Just eat a variety of fruits and veggies.

Costco sells a big bottle of gummy calcium for kids. They are made by Lil Critters and they also contain Vitamin D since that also comes from milk. They often have coupons for $3 off which make them pretty affordable (I think around $7 after coupon). We also buy the gummy fish oil so when they have coupons, we stock up to the max you can purchase with the coupon.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. If he is eating healthy foods, he probably is getting enough. My kids don't eat dairy and haven't since they were born. They are now 5 and 3 and eat lots of veges. We also use some fortified cereals and soymilk or rice milk. If you are getting him to drink the green juices he is definitely getting enough. If you want more eat lots of beans and greens too. Otherwise, a variety of greens and veges and fruits, nuts and grains is adequate.

I think the juicing is a great idea. Another idea is smoothies. See http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/articles/why-are-you-so-.... She also talks about dairy/calcium: http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/nutrition-manifesto/dair....

As for myself, I've eaten dairy only rarely since I was in 8th grade. I never looked too much into the calcium question though, except for what I hear at random. I have heard of the studies about teenage girls - that exercise was what kept their bones strong. And it seems like magnesium is also important for bones, but I'm not sure about that.

There are a lot of misconceptions aren't there? The best way to have strong bones is to exercise. The best source of calcium is broccoli. Too much calcium is also a problem. A daily vitamin would be plenty of calcium. And after doing much research and exploration, AD(H)D is a brain disconnection which doesn't have anything to do with dairy.