Soya Formula

[mummalish]

Can anyone tell me what they know about soya formula. I have heard so many negative things, like it can cause cancer later on in life, etc etc. Why is it sold in most stores then?

It is the only milk my baby will take and obviously I am deeply concerned, and feel really bad about him drinking it.

Hi Mummalish,

I have been told by my GP that they are now advised not to prescribe Soya formula only Hypoallergenic milks, and the info I have read suggests that it could cause an infertility in boys. There are so many different opinions on everything like this that it is really difficult to know what to do for the best.

I can't believe if it is that bad it could still be sold of the shelf, and readily available.

Sorry I am not much help.

Thanks carbooty, it's difficult to know what to do.

I have heard it's really bad for their teeth as it has a high sugar content to make it palatable.

It's also not recommended for babies with milk allergy as they are likely to develop an allergy to the soya as well.

There is also evidence to suggest that it can affect fertility in baby boys as it mimics oestroegen (sp?) or something like that.

Someone will be along with a link I'm sure.

Why are you using soya formula? You wold be better off getting a prescription for one of the hypoallergenic formulas from your GP.

Link from the Foods Standards Agency (FSA) regarding soya formula plus recommendations

Woah! what? just got some soya formula for my dd - docs said it was ok - but she wont drink it as it tastes disgusting. Glad she wont drink it after reading this.

she has been drinking alpro organic soya milk though for the last week.

haven't heard of hypoallergenic formulas.

what other alternatives are there to soya milk?

she is nearly 2 so doesn't really need formula, but some sort of milk product would be good.

doc also said cows milk yoghurt and fromage frais and hard cheeses were ok.

been reading different things and its so complicated.

she definitely cant tolerate chocolate - nappies the next day are awful and since she has been on soya milk - i know its only a week, but all but one nappy have been fine and her appetite is improving.

messymissy, have you considered calcium fortified rice or oat milk? They both have similar amounts of fat/calories to semi-skimmed milk but that should be OK if your dd is nearly 2. Rice milk especially is actually quite yummy (nice vanilla flavour to it). Probably she won't touch hypoallergenic formula if she's nearly 2 as they taste awful so it is quite a job to get the older ones to drink them.

I stopped breastfeeding my DS when he was 2 and he now drinks either calcium fortified rice milk or calcium fortified oat milk instead.

Thanks academicmum - are they easy to find? been trawling the supermarkets, havent spotted rice milk yet - health food shops??

Would be great if they did the soya milk strawberry flavour!

Luckily she will drink the soya milk but not the formula, but not in the same quantities as she was drinking the apitmel and cows milk.

You can get rice milk and oat milk in most supermarkets now, either in the free from section or the UHT milk section.

thanks - off to sainsbury's in the morning will look out for it - and vegan chocolate

My ds has been prescribed neocate, nutramigen, Pepti.... he will take none of them, no matter how I persevere, so out of desperation I tried him with Infasoy, which he took, so you can imagine my dismay to learn of soy issues.

mummalish - if its the only one he'll drink if I were you I'd just stick with it. How old is he? We have also been through neocate, nutramigen, nutramigen AA, pepti, pepti junior and the only one ds2 will touch is pepti junior. On a good day he'll drink a decent amount of it, but on other days he'll hardly touch it. Its so frustrating as I'm trying to wean him off BF (he's 11.5 months).

AcademicMum, my ds is 9 months. Hoping he will outgrow his allergy by 1 year, am very hopeful. He def still needs fortified milk as he does not eat loads.

Its just I know they are generally more wary with soy for babies of less than 6 months.