Goat's Milk

Mine was on goats milk from 4 months-12 months. And all we did was give him a vitamin supplement, cause the goats milk doesn't have one of the B vitamins in it.

As another poster mentioned, it is a misconception that kids need cow's milk to be healthy. They do need calcium and vitamin D, but the vitamin D in cow's milk is often not absorbed anyways. Here's a list of non-dairy foods that are high in calcium:
http://home.bluegrass.net/~jclark/calcium_foods.htm
Goat's milk is often better tolerated by folks that have an allergy to cow's milk, because the protein is smaller, although still similar enough to the protein in cow's milk to cause problems for some.

Also, if your daughter was also throwing up, she likely had a bug that made it harder to handle the dairy.

One of my really good friends had her daughter on goats milk and she was just fine. Her doctor had her on a vitamin supplement of course but she was a fat and healthy baby. When she was introduced to whole milk, she gradually added it to the bottles and now she is ok with the milk.

The info pasted below is from this link on Dr Sear's website:
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/t032400.asp

GOT GOAT'S MILK?
What does goat's milk give you that cow's milk doesn't? In many parts of the world, goat's milk is preferred to cow's milk. Even in the United States, the goat is gaining popularity. Goats eat less and occupy less grazing space than cows, and in some families the backyard goat supplies milk for family needs. Goat's milk is believed to be more easily digestible and less allergenic than cow's milk. Does it deserve this reputation? Let's disassemble goat's milk, nutrient-by-nutrient, to see how it compares with cow's milk.

Different fat. Goat's milk contains around ten grams of fat per eight ounces compared to 8 to 9 grams in whole cow's milk, and it's much easier to find lowfat and non-fat varieties of cow's milk than it is to purchase lowfat goat's milk. Unlike cow's milk, goat's milk does not contain agglutinin. As a result, the fat globules in goat's milk do not cluster together, making them easier to digest. Like cow's milk, goat's milk is low in essential fatty acids, because goats also have EFA-destroying bacteria in their ruminant stomachs. Yet, goat milk is reported to contain more of the essential fatty acids linoleic and arachnodonic acids, in addition to a higher proportion of short-chain and medium-chain fatty acids. These are easier for intestinal enzymes to digest.

Different protein. Goat milk protein forms a softer curd (the term given to the protein clumps that are formed by the action of your stomach acid on the protein), which makes the protein more easily and rapidly digestible. Theoretically, this more rapid transit through the stomach could be an advantage to infants and children who regurgitate cow's milk easily. Goat's milk may also have advantages when it comes to allergies. Goat's milk contains only trace amounts of an allergenic casein protein, alpha-S1, found in cow's milk. Goat's milk casein is more similar to human milk, yet cow's milk and goat's milk contain similar levels of the other allergenic protein, beta lactoglobulin. Scientific studies have not found a decreased incidence of allergy with goat's milk, but here is another situation where mothers' observations and scientific studies are at odds with one another. Some mothers are certain that their child tolerates goat's milk better than cow's milk, and mothers are more sensitive to children's reactions than scientific studies.

Less lactose. Goat's milk contains slightly lower levels of lactose (4.1 percent versus 4.7 percent in cow's milk), which may be a small advantage in lactose-intolerant persons.

Different minerals. Although the mineral content of goat's milk and cow's milk is generally similar, goat's milk contains 13 percent more calcium, 25 percent more vitamin B-6, 47 percent more vitamin A, 134 percent more potassium, and three times more niacin. It is also four times higher in copper. Goat's milk also contains 27 percent more of the antioxidant selenium than cow's milk. Cow's milk contains five times as much vitamin B-12 as goat's milk and ten times as much folic acid (12 mcg. in cow's milk versus 1 mcg. for goat's milk per eight ounces with an RDA of 75-100 mcg. for children). The fact that goat's milk contains less than ten percent of the amount of folic acid contained in cow's milk means that it must be supplemented with folic acid in order to be adequate as a formula or milk substitute for infants and toddlers, and popular brands of goat's milk may advertise "supplemented with folic acid" on the carton.

Goats milk is the closest animal milk to human milk.. So our bodies know more of what to do wiht it than cows milk. I have a child who has a Cow's milk allergy. All other milks we've tried don't have the same effect that cows milk does.

Just a quick snippet here...you first need to identify if your child is sensitive to lactose or the milk proteins. They are two different things and most people don't know the difference! If it is a lactose sensitivity/allergy then goats milk should work fine as well as soy milk. If it is a milk protein issue than you need to stay away from all types of milk and opt for Rice Milk. Even goats milk and soy milk have traces of milk protein in them. My son is sensitive to milk proteins so we've had to pretty much cut out ALL dairy products. (I say sensitive as opposed to allergic b/c allergies don't really develop until later on and alot of babies have sensitivities to things that they are not necessarily allergic to...their digestive system just has to mature a bit more to handle them.
I hope this helps a bit...for more info you can go to www.foodallergy.org...it was a big help for me! :) Good luck!

I know that when my dauther was younger around 8 months I had to supplement a little formula so I made her formula from goats milk. It seemed to work great so I don't think it will hurt her. I am not sure what your doctor is telling you, but my doctor told that children do not have to have milk. They can get what they need through yogarts, cheese, cottage cheese and other sources. If she is having a problem drinking milk then keep her off it for a while. Just make sure to give her plenty of other milk based products. I am sure this will clear up it is just taking her body a little while longer. I truly think I kept my dauther off milk for almost a month. She had the virus for around 14 days and was on the BRAT diet for almost 3 weeks then I started introducing other things to her diet. I started with yogart, then cheeses and milk last.

My now 18 mos. old had the same issues a couple of weeks ago and we are still on Lacaid milk for her. What my Ped. said was that when they have an illness that casuses the diarreah it can wipe out all of the good bacteria that is needed to digest the enzymes in the milk so it passes right through them. She also said that it could take months for the bacteria to rebuild. She stated that it is not an allergy but an intolerance. So what I have done is kept her off of the milk by using Lactaid. She tolerates the cheeses and other milk products okay. Hope this helps.

I don't know to much about goat's milk. I will say that there is a horrible stomach virus out there. My husband and I got over it quickly, but for my daughter, it took her over a week to recover. She was on the BRAT diet for several days and the other day I gave her some milk and later on threw up. The doctor said not to panic that some kids take longer to get over this thing. My point is, your daughter having diarrhea may just be her stomach telling you that it just isn't quite ready for milk once again.