anyone using soy milk

[megs4413]

i am thinking about giving DD soy milk instead of cow's milk now that she is over 1 yo. Does anyone else do this? What brand do you use/recommend? Did you switch cold turkey or did you ease the soy formula in? Just looking for some guidance...TIA!

[BaileyBea]

We BF'd for 1 year but we worked a soy/cows milk combo in one feeding at a time over 2.5 weeks until all 4 milk feedings were soy/cow milk. We added a new feeding every 4 days.

We were lucky that DS did not have any allergic reaction to cows milk. Most of our friends kids did have some reaction. At first we did 1/2 and 1/2 now we do 3/4 cows milk and 1/4 soy.

We picked plain soy milk. My BF only uses Vanilla flavored but now she can't kick her son off of the flavored milk. So let me suggest trying the plain first and sticking to it for a while before trying any flavored soys.

We use the silk brand but now we just buy the Organic Silk and Cows milk with our Grocery Store branding. The transition was fairly smooth for us.

Good luck,

[megs4413]

what do you think about the silk enhanced? it seems to have more vitamins and stuff in it.....is that good? i compared the labels of everything the store had and it doesn't seem like any of it remotely comes close to the protein and fat content that is in the milk. What can I do about that? Can i add some oil or something? I am definitely going to stick with the soy and not do any cow's milk at all, but I want my daughter to get all the nutrition she needs. I am so upset about all of this. Why can't she just stay a baby? I know how to take care of a baby!

[omgrown]

DS drinks soy milk and it was a pretty easy transition. For some reason, even though he had been on milk-based formula for 2 months (weaned at 10 mos) when I switched him to cow's milk (slow transition, mixing formula/millk) the day that he was fully on cow's milk he ended up with a bleeding diaper rash for a week. We went back to formula and then did the slow (I'd say over 1 week) transition to soy milk and haven't had a problem since.
He drinks Silk usually plain sometimes vanilla and sometimes enhanced. I'd probably buy the enhanced all the time but my corner store only has plain and vanilla. He doesn't care what flavor, he just loves the stuff. As far as the fat content, he's been drinking soy milk for 6 months now and his ped says he's absolutely perfect health and weight wise, so it must be working. He does eat cheese though (never had issues with cheese for some reason) so he gets fats there, but I've never added anything to the milk to make it fattier. Good luck, I'm sure you're doing a great job!

[ellies mom]

Just watch out for the vanilla flavored ones and the kid versions. They have gobs of sugar although they called it evaporated cane juice. I guess so that it sounds less like sugar. I don't now. At anyrate, the plain stuff doesn't have all that sugar but I do not know about the enhanced stuff. DH uses whatever it is they sell at Costco.

[lorien_ca]

i know your asking about milk and not formula, but just something to look into as your considering your choices... i asked my friend who is in her peds residency about cow vs. soy when i was looking into formulas for occasional feeds and she had some concerns about doing it for reasons other than dairy intolerance/allergy reasons based on some of the research coming out on the natural/plant estrogens content in soy products. i can elaborate on our conversation, but basically, it was enough to make me do a medline and google search on the topic, and you'll probably be interested to read some of the thoughts out there on soy and kids. i am totally for informed descion making, so no judging anyone's choices intended here, just trying to pass on what i learned so others can make their own informed choices :).

lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.

[megs4413]

well that was scary. could you tell me what all your friend said? I just read one article and now i feel like I've failed my daughter for life. If you want to PM it to me you can. It seems like this is a pretty heated debate. I don't care what I do, I want to do what's best for my daughter. I couldn't breastfeed and I just got stuck doing what I could do. Let me know what information you have. Thanks!

[pinkmomagain]

I would really like to hear what you have learned too!!!! Please share.

Gina

[proggoddess]

We used Natur-a strawberry soy milk for the first few months because 1) it had a higher fat content than other soy milks, and 2) we were trying to encourage DD to use a sippy cup and not the bottle.

We were also concerned about DD eating and drinking too much soy. The plant estrogens I think can cause growth issues or fertility issues later on, but I just chalk it up to "too much of anything is bad." So around 22 months, we went to half soy milk, half rice milk. DD has a protein intolerance to cow's milk/dairy.

After we got DD drinking only out of sippy cups, we switched to whichever "full-fat" vanilla soy milk was on sale. Usually WestSoy is 99 cents per quart where we are.

[lorien_ca]

"now i feel like I've failed my daughter for life"

oh no, i wouldn't think that is true at all!! like i said, from what i've read, the research is only just coming out, and i haven't read anything to make me think it is conclusive at this point (if it were, the FDA would have pulled soy formulas long ago). i am a firm believer in the maya quote - "when you know better, you do better." so you do the best you can with the information you have at the time. hindsight will always be 20/20.

before i do anything else, let me reference the Aug 2001 Journal of the American Medical Assoc. article that found that infants fed soy formula grow to be just as healthy as those fed cow's milk formulas. abstract found here http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?
cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=11497534&itool=pubmed_Abstract

basically, my friend in her peds residency has and does recommend soy formulas and milks to her patients, she just reserves those recommendations for medical/intolerance/allergic reasons if that makes sense? obviously, if there was something conclusive and dire going on, your own pedi would have warned you off before now. i didn't mean to scare anyone, or be critical of anyones choices, just want people to know what they are choosing. (same can be said of dairy, btw, with concerns of increased mucus production, etc.) soy over dairy may be a very viable and correct choice for many families :).

keep in mind with everything you read out there, with the possible exception of peer reviewed medical journals, that everyone has an adgenda for what they are writing. there are plenty of naturopathic sites out there with lots of scary storys on the 'dire consequences' of soy and babies - keep in mind they often have a vested interest in selling you something - be it books or remedies to fix it. there are also 'whole' food type sites that toute the wonders of soy as a miracle food. the soy manufacturers and formula companies put millions and millions into convincing the populace that they are not only safe, but a 'healthy' or even 'healthier' alternative to dairy, meat, fillers, etc. then there are the slew of baby and mother sites out there - who all have adgendas of their own. for example, mothering magazine has an interesting article on the subject written for the lay population (http://www.mothering.com/articles/growing_child/food/soy_story.html) with lots of good citations from the literature, but remember that they are always going to write their articles from a 'breast is best' standpoint because that's their audience, they are a natural parenting magazine. so like i said, try to read what's out there with a filter and always ask yourself - what's their adgenda? before you beat yourself up.

anyway, the research that seems to be emerging does pose some questions on whether there is a small chance of increasing risk of early puberty and/or other growth issues (which is how i stumbled onto the info - as my DS is on the extremely small side - so i had been doing lots and lots of reading/research on growth issues and asking lots of questions of my physician friends and family) as well as possible increases in the rates of diabetes type I, hypothyroidism and cancer. no where have i read or heard anything that has convinced me to stop eating soy myself or stop feeding it in small quanities once in a while to my son. just decided that since he already had some possible growth issues going on, i wasn't going to complicate the picture by feeding him soy as a staple of his diet, KWIM? hope that helps.

lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.

[megs4413]

well after the informative post I received on this topic, i did my own digging and have decided to run away from soy as fast as i can. I wont go into the sordid soy details, but suffice it to say it was scary enough that i have switched to lactose free formula and lactose free milk since DD doens't have a milk protein allergy she just has a lactose intolerance. If anyone wants to know what I saw yesterday you can PM me. I dont want to be flamed for the choice, I konw lots of people swear by soy and others seem to have no choice in the matter. As one of the PPs said, i think all things in moderation is key on this one and i'm moderating it right out of DD's diet. I'm so upset with my ped over this one.

[elliput]

I won't flame you for making an informed choice. :-) I try to avoid processed soy products myself. Blech!

[BarbieSmith]

Walmart carries Meyenberg full-fat goat milk. I have done a *ton* of research and Ava gets some of this. It has many benefits over cow's milk, and only 2 "cons" (the Meyenberg milks are fortified to cover these 2 items). I blend both cow's and goat's milk for my Ava. Just wanted to throw this into the mix.
Barbie

[kfcboston]

There's an article in yesterday's WSJ on the dangers of soy and rice milk for kids under 2. I wish I could cut and paste it, but can't access the WSJ site. The government is seeing rises in traditionally 3rd world ailments like rickets and a particular protein-deficiency in young toddlers who drink exclusively soy or rice milk b/c they're low in fat and not fortified. I think this was the gist of the piece, but if anyone can cut and paste from the site please do!

[proggoddess]

Checking the rice milk nutrition info, I saw that it has very little protein, compared to soy milk and cow's milk. So yes, if you went totally the rice milk route, you might run into trouble. Soy milk was much closer to cow's milk in protein content.

I remember the dairy industry lobbying to get soy/nut/rice milk labeled as "drinks" and not use the term "milk" because the nutrition content is so different between all the drinks and cow's milk.

Luckily (or unluckily) for us, DD is a total carnivore and prefers beef and chicken to any vegetable product. (Except for oranges, of which she can eat two in one sitting!) :)

[pinkmomagain]

Barbie,

Just curious as to why you blend the goat's milk with the cow's milk instead of goat's milk exclusively?

Gina

[kfcboston]

Sorry - Newsweek, not WSJ! Here's the link:

http://tinyurl.com/mq7g3

[BarbieSmith]

Sorry for the late response! I mix the two only because I want to, LOL. Sometimes she gets 100% cow and sometimes 100% goat, and sometimes a blend. Flavor wise she prefers the goat ever so slightly, and she vomits less on it. I want her to be used to both, so I give her both, though I do lean more heavily toward the goat :)
Barbie