What milk to give dairy allergic DS?

[secchick]

Ds just turned 1 and while he has been EBF so far, I can't keep pumping for him forever (but I will continue to nurse before bed, when we are together). We are pretty sure he is allergic to milk, because he got a red bumpy rash around his mouth every single time he was offered yogurt or had a single spoonful of anything containing milk. It took about 3 times for us to figure out the connection. It appears to be a contact reaction. I know he will likely grow out of it, but my problem is what to do now. Ped said to offer soy milk, but I am not keen on soy (when I asked about estrogenic effects, he said he's never seen a boy turn into a girl yet :/ ). What are the pros and cons of soy v. rice v. almond milk for babies?

[Katigre]

I went through this with both of my kids - they were intolerant of dairy and soy. If there is any way for you to nurse 3-4 times a day then you don't have to worry about a substitute milk - even with working full-time, if you nurse in the morning and then a few times in the evening that will be enough to meet his milk/fat needs.

Once he's over 2 years old then it's not as much of an issue b/c most of the brain growth is the first two years of life when the healthy fats are so important. If you cannot nurse that many times, then I would nurse when you can and supplement his diet with fatty healthy foods like avocado and coconut oil.

Milk-wise, you can do Rice Milk or Almond Milk but neither is a suitable milk replacement nutrition-wise for a toddler, it just works well as a beverage in cereal and cooking or with dinner. Also, drinking a large quantity of Rice milk isn't something I would feel comfortable encouraging a toddler to do because of the high levels of arsenic in rice (and rice products like rice milk). I also wouldn't do large quantities of soy milk for the reasons you listed.

So all that to say, in your same situation what I did was intentionally nurse until my kids were over 2 so that I didn't have to find a substitute. If he needs a beverage at daycare during the day, you could give him a sippy cup of rice milk or almond milk (or even coconut milk - though I found Rice Milk tasted closest to breastmilk) but I wouldn't give more than 6 oz of rice milk a day to a toddler.

HTH!

[DrSally]

DS had a milk allergy until age 2--very severe. I bf until age 3, but he also started on soymilk as well at around 18 months? We did the full fat, fortefied (calcium, vit D) and organic (soybeans can have a lot of pesticides). In my research, it seemed like soymilk was the most complete of all the cow's milk substitutes. It was another reason, though, why I continued Bfing, so that he'd get a mixture of human and soymilk.

[sansdieu]

DD had the same exact reaction you're describing, more of a contact dermatitis type reaction. And if we persisted, she'd start getting rashes everywhere, not just around the mouth area. So we've been avoiding all milk products ever since (she's 2.5 now). DD wouldn't have soy or ricemilk; she thought they were totally disgusting, but we've been extremely successful with full-fat goat milk (Meyenberger brand; they sell it pretty much everywhere, including TJs and Whole Foods). It's closest in texture, taste and composition to breast milk. (If you decide to try it, you obviously want to start slowly, in case she is allergic to that as well.) Soft goat cheeses work well for us as well, but goat yogurt isn't her favorite. She seems to prefer the taste of soy yogurts (we are sure to get the dairy-free soy yogurt, not all of them are). My only concern about using soy and rice milks and yogurts is that their ingredient list reads like a periodic table. Ideally, I'd like something with fewer chemicals; sometimes, however, they're your only choice, so there's not much you can do about it.

You'll also want to start reading labels on just about anything 'coz milk hides everywhere!