Food - Clinton,MD

You should really consider the alternatives to soy products because of the high estrogen levels and the poor effects it has especially on boys. My son is still severely allergic to milk at 7 1/2 years old and we switched long ago to almond milk, rice milk, hemp, etc... Not much soy in his diet for the past 6 1/2 years. His pediatrician said we could always cut back on his soy consumption when he started to develop breast.... that wasn't a bridge I ever wanted to cross!!!

Good luck - the nice thing is that there are so many options on the shelves these days and you aren't limited to soy products.

Both of my kids were allergic to the protein in cow's milk when they were babies. According to our pediatrician, about 20% of all babies are, but they grow out of it. He suggested weaning them into regular whole milk when they turned one because they should be over it. With mine, they made the transition to regular cow's milk with no problems.
Otherwise, if the allergy persists, there is also soy cheese, and other types of milk/cheese, such as goatmilk cheese, etc.
Good luck!

You need to discuss this with your pediatrician. My nephew is allergic to dairy. He is on soy milk. When he turned one, their pediatrician said to try to find soy milk with the fat content as close to what is in whole milk. Soy milk doesn't match the fat content in whole milk, but my sister gets the closest she can.

My co-worker uses organic hemp milk for her son who is allergic to cow's milk. Her son seemed to really like it and so far it has worked out well for them. Her son is over 2.5 yrs old. It's available in Whole Foods.

My daughter is allergic to dairy and she's been on soy milk since she was a year old. She's 20 months old now. There are a MILLION soy options which is fabulous! Cheese, milk, yogurt, peanut butter. I think soy makes it a lot easier for us to shop and feed my daughter. In my area there is a allergy free store and also a health food store which both have a ton of options for her. It's a little expensive but required. Some margarines have no milk in them and you'll learn what else as you begin to read endless amounts of labels! There are also some really helpful websites like www.kidswithfoodallergies.org and I know I have others bookmarked but unfortunately that computer just crashed! YIKES! Anyway, you can pretty much buy anything with soy as opposed to milk. Never fear, your child will grow big and healthy :) Mine is doing great and we're hopeful that she'll grow out of this. Her allergist is pretty confident she will. Good luck!

I would actually go with either rice or almond milk. Soy milk has a lot of estrogen in it (the soy plant naturally has a lot) and in the quantity that a 1 year old needs to be drinking it would be a lot of extra hormones for him. I dont know about a milk free diet. I know you can make him mashed potatos and as long as you cook them really long you wont need to add butter or anything to make it a good texture for him.

Kourtini,
You do not need to talk to your doctor! They are not required to take ANY nutrition courses in med. school. Much less know about special diets and lactose intolerance. My family is vegan( no animal products). It's easier than you think to find things without milk; especially now. I am big on rotation of foods. So, we use almond, rice, coconut, hemp, hazelnut milks. We sometimes use soy, but rarely, since we have soy in other parts of our diet. I'd avoid soy milk, just because it's one of the top food allergies. You can find rice cheese by Galaxy without casein in 2 varieties. Daiya makes a great non dairy shredded cheese. Plenty of non dairy ice creams from rice, soy, pea protein, coconut( our favorite), and almond. There is rice yogurt- not great. But the soy and especially the coconut yogurt is wonderful.
Just feed him lot of veggies, fruits, grains, beans, and seeds.If you are worried about calcium, the human body absorbs calcium easier from plant sources than from animal sources.
Contact me if you want more info.
L. M

I would not use soy, especially for a son as it is high in estrogen. You might google dangers of soy milk.

I have a nephew that has a SEVERE milk allergy and my sister-in-law and brother have only been able to give him soy products. For his 1st birthday cake she couldn't even make it with eggs or anything that had milk protein. Anyway, SILK soy milk is DELICIOUS. They even have a chocolate soy milk which is out of this world. For chicken patties, or something similar and a healthier option, you could do Morningstar or Boca brand products.

As far as rice milk goes, I would probably stick with soy simply because rice is binding and if he drinks a lot of rice milk then it could constipate him. Soy products are definitely not what they once were. There are far more options and they taste good. I'm not a vegetarian (though I once was), but my husband (a meat and potatoes man) and I both actually enjoy eating fake chicken and other soy products. If you are at all trepidacious then try them yourself and I think you will find that they are just as good.

Anyway, soy milk is all my nephew gets, as well as soy cheese and other dairy products.

I would talk to your doctor about alternatives. They really need the milk fat to help their brain develop and I don't know how much soy or rice milk has.

First, it depends on exactly how allergic he is, because it is a possiblity that he will outgrow it. We discovered my son's milk allergy at 4 months with tiny dried blood streaks in his diaper. I was breastfeeding and had to stop eating all milk protein products (not the same as lactose intolerance) and this was much harder than I expected. Eventually we switched him to soy formula so I could resume a normal diet and we had him on soy formula until age 1. At that point, I started adding whole milk to his soy formula bottle, a small increment at a time to see if he'd outgrown the allergy and he had. Today, he is a 7 year old milk drinking little boy with no allergies whatsoever. If your son has a more violent reaction to milk protein, then he may not outgrow it. Wait to see, and then if necessary, I would try a variety of milk substitutes and not focus on just soy, rice or almond, etc. You could also try alternatives such as goat milk. The proteins are different and some can tolerate goat but not cow. In any case, best wishes with this!