Going from Formula to Milk - Plano,TX

I would not give him milk if he had that much trouble with formula. Milk is very highly allergenic. My 12 yr old son doesn't drink milk. I supplement vitamin D in other ways.

B. -

You're right to be concerned - it's a tough transition for some. I, too, went through a lot of heartache with my son. When we switched off of formula, our doc advised to stage it - we would do 3/4 formula, 1/4 milk for a week, then 1/2 and 1/2 for a week, etc. This allows the digestive tract to adjust.

Unfortunately, it took us several months and several dozen doc visits and tests to determine he was allergic to milk protein (different than lactose intolerant). So now we have him on soy milk and he's been doing great for a year and a half. I did read the article the other mother sent, and I don't agree with it (read all the comments after the article) and urge you to come to your own conclusions about what type of milk to give your son - be sure to talk to your doc about this.

The staging, though, was important - regardless of type of milk. Don't be surprised if he rejects it at first. I found that my son tolerated the switch okay except for his last cup at night - then it needed to be formula. Some mothers recommend switching off the bottle at this time, too, and only offering milk in the sippy cup, making a big deal out of being a big boy, etc. This is a great method, too.

Signs of milk allergy to watch for: constipation or diarrhea, congestion. If he starts to show signs of these, ask your doc to test for the allergy just to be on the safe side. If you don't think it's an allergy, but just an adjustment period, try incorporating yogurt into his diet - yogurt is great for the digestive tract.

Good luck! And welcome to the fun land of toodlerhood!

S.

Our boy is allergic to milk and he just turned one. Soy milk doesn't have any fat in it, so he can't have it exclusively until he's 2. We're going to keep him on soy formula until then, but switch to the "step 2" kind. Another option is goat milk. My daughter (also allergic to milk) was on goat milk after her first birthday and we switched her to soy at age 2. The goat milk is pretty pricey, which is why we didn't go that route with our boy. They are both perfectly happy, intelligent kids with no digestive or allergy issues now!

Our son had alot of problems as well. He was on medication his first 9 months just to keep food down. He has had no problem going straight to Whole milk. Just don't mix. Do ALL milk and no formula!!

I breast fed for six months and had a horrible time finding a formula my son could tolerate. Finally, we found Nutramigen was the only thing he could hold. When we switched to milk at one year, there were no issues. However, his bowel movements have always been abnormal. He's four and I just figured out that he's lactose intolerant. Therefore, my suggestion would be to try the milk, if it makes him sick or his bowel movements become constipated or he has diarhea then take him to a pediatric immunologist (Dr. Rao here in plano is excellent)and have him tested. As far as soy milk goes, it's great you just have to be knowledgable when selecting. Cows milk is a HUGE source of protein, calcium, and folate. You want to get soy milk that is enhanced with the right percentanges of these things for your son. I buy SILK Enhanced with Folate and Calcium. That way I don't have to give him pills to supplement. I also give him an enzyme to help with digestion (that I got from doctor Rao).

Hope this helps.

R.

B., I had issues with dairy and my boys too. I found that soy milk had too much soy in it and caused my boys to break out. I ended up using goat's milk (which does come in a powdered form as well). But because it lacks a few vitamins that are in regular milk, I would add some vanilla pediasure (which is soy-based). Plus it made it a bit more palatable, since Goat's milk isn't as sweet as formula. Hope that helps! Also, don't give up on ever giving your child dairy, both my boys can drink regular milk and eat cheese now that they're older.

When I weaned my son at 13 months from nursing, we switched to rice milk. It is non-dairy and he took to it really well.

Hi B.!

I have a two and a half year old girl and when she was born she a severe reflux. We finally found a formula she could keep down but still did not fix the problem. When I started her on milk I tried regular milk but she couldnt keep it down so I tried soy milk and she did fine on that. You may want to try that if you are going to try milk. She was almost two when she grew out of her reflux and she is fine with whole milk now. If you have anymore questions please feel free to email me. Good luck!

K.

I am a babynurse/parenting coach, and I work with a lot of babies who have milk protein intolerances. Many babies seem to respond pretty well to the AR formulas, but most of them outgrow the need for it by their first birthday. I say try the milk and see what happens. To make life easier on you and your baby, begin diluting it gradually: 75/25; then 50/50; then 25/75 until it's 100% milk.

Hi B.,
Before you put your son on any Soy product, please read this article. FYI, I hear goats milk is closest to breast milk. So maybe you could try that.

http://www.mothering.com/articles/growing_child/food/soy_...

My daughter did not do to good on baby formula, so we switeched to soy formula and she had done great. She now is on Soy milk and is 19mths. I do think when she turns two I will introduce her to 2% milk. I would like her to try milk but I am not a fan of whole milk. I think she needs regular milk, although I sublement with yogurts etc.....I hope this help, and see what your doctor says :)

Hi B.
I had a similar situation. I nursed my son for 6 months while simultaneously supplementing with Enfamil Lipil AR. He had a lot of problems with projectile vomiting and gas. Anyway, he stayed on that formula for 12 months.

When it was time to transition we started by giving him 7 oz of formula + 1 oz of Horizon whole milk. We did that for a few days and then started lowering the amt of formula and replacing it with the whole milk. Everything went very well, no problems at all. I'm sure your pedi will have advice for you.

I hope that helps some. By the way, he's a very healthy 19 m.o. weighing about 32 pounds and is 32 inches tall. He is SOLID!

Did he have reflux? Was he "tested" (usually done by an upper GI w/ a small bowel follow through) for reflux, or just diagnosed b/c of the issues he had?

My 2cnd ds had "reflux" - no testing, just diagnosed b/c he spit up so much and he was on Enfamil A/R to reduce it and daily zantac. At 12 months we put him on cows milk (still on zantac) and he seemingly did fine. 2 years later (when he was 3) due to some other issues we realized he was allergic to milk - he didn't have reflux at all, the spitting up was b/c he was allergic and the A/R and zantac masked the reactions.

My 3rd ds also had formula issues, they thought it was "reflux" so he did have an upper GI w/ a small bowel followthrough and they did not find anything wrong. We took him to a chiropractor and his spitting up was greatly reduced! But, go figure, turns out he was allergic to milk also (he was on nutramigin and Alimentum for a while). So he now drinks rice milk (he is also allergic to soy).

So, imho, if he was having issues w/ milk (like gas, spitting up a lot, cramping, eczema, hives, constant runny nose, athsma) it may be worth allergy testing (they have a test called an immunocap rast - it's just one blood draw, not like the skin test) that is pretty reliable (but does have a certain degree of error like anything else).

If it's reflux, then I'd see how he does on milk, and if it doesn't go well you can switch him to soy or rice milk. Rice Dream has an "enriched" version of rice milk that has 30% calcium.

Good Luck!

--S.

My daughter was allergic to formula, whwn it was time to switch her to milk I started taking away an ounce of formula in the full bottle & replacing it with an ounce of whole milk. After two weeks, I increased the whole milk to two ounces & so on every two weeks. Slowly introducing her gave her no problems! Not once did she throw up. I hope this advise helped.