Hormones in soya: is it really that bad?

[garliclover]

Just wondering if anyone has any reliable sources of info re this. I see there are quite a few mn'ers who don't give their DSs soya because of fear surrounding hormones, but is that fear well-founded?
I'm only asking because we've just been given the green light by paediatrician to challenge DS with soya, which would be useful addition to diet already massively restricted by multiple food allergies...

Nothing to add but am watching with interest.

It's soya formula or milk as main milk replacement for under 1s that some of us avoid, not soya in everything. Here's a link to some info from British Dietetics Association on the subject: www.bda.uk.com/publications/InfantSpecialisedFormulas.pdf
I agree that for kids on 'free from' diets, being able to have food with soya in is a real bonus. We avoided soya when my DS was little because we thought he might be allergic but thankfully not and he now eats soya in lots of things but still has Neocate hypoallergenic formula as his milk replacement.

The problem is with soya as a main drink. If your DS is on solid food then I wouldn't worry about giving him the odd soya yoghurt or soya ice cream.

I didn't end up finding much info on it, including from asking my specialists etc.
In the end I did give him soy milk from 2 years old. He initially was allergic to that as well, but successfully challenged on it at 2, hence starting it then.
As a baby, if he had been able to tolerate it, I would have erred on the side of caution and not given it though, just on the anecdotal advice.

He drank it as his main milk source and also had yoghurts etc until he was 2 1/2, when he successfully challenged on dairy, and then moved on to dairy.

Sorry that doesn't give you any further facts, just thought it might help to let you know what I decided on, for reference.

Thank you very much for the link and your thoughts on this! Much appreciated. DS has turned his nose up at soya yoghurt (or rather, actively spat it out), so may not be so much of an issue anyway!

Keep trying - it took my DS quite a while to accept the soya yoghurts and now he loves them. He doesn't like Asda's own though, only the Alpro ones and for a long time only the smooth ones but now he loves the raspberry and blackberry ones with bits in.

Ah that's reassuring. I'll carry on trying!