soya milk- for over 2's only?

[sunnyshine]

After are dd being hospitalised with flu like symptons and severe sickness we decided to change from cows milk to soya milk. the improvement was immediate. no sickness and no longer constipated. i noticed it states on Alpro soya milk not to be used as main drink for under 2's. should i be using something else. Any ideas? thanks

personally i would use something like oat or rice milk rather than soya.
you do need to make sure she is getting plenty of calcium and protein from other sources though. (esp if you're veggie like we are!)

I will be shot down for this but here goes - we had similar experiences with DS1 . we used a soya formula for ds2 from when i stopped bfing him fully at 10mo, following advice from paediatrician. DS1 was the one with the huge problems, and luckily goats milk sorted him - although current advice apparently says that if you can't have cows milk then don't do goat milk either

we have figured out eventually that he has CMPI [cows milk protein intolerance] and not lactose intolerance.
DS2 has been dairy free from birth and has the same intolerance, but fortunately has been spared the pain, sickness and allergy symptoms his brother went through.

Ask to see a dietitian. It really does help to steer you in the right direction about getting the right balance for them

What age is she?

Soya milk doesn't have enough nutrients to use as a replacement for formula (under 1s) or cow's milk (over 1s, under 2s).

forgot to finish what i was saying, ds2 had soya formula from 10mo til 30mo.

We give DD3 goat's milk. She tolerates that, but not cow's milk. It also seems to be more palatable than soya milk or rice milk (which I think are foul!)

I believe there is some concern about the phytoestrogens in soya products, especially the effects on boys, but this has not been fully substantiated.

bear in mind there are plenty of very healthy vegan children out there!

hi, thank you for your replies. dd is 14 months but as soon as we moved to full cows milk from formula at 12 months she seemed to be ill all the time, colds, vomiting, constipated to the point of screaming in pain. she seems happy on the soya milk and the symptons have gone but i feel confused now about whether we did the right thing changing milk without consulting a doctor? gigglewitch do i do this through my GP?

yes - the GP can refer you to dietitian, in our patch the appointments come through quite quickly too.
We went for soya formula - we used the farleys one - because it has the 'right' stuff in it in terms of calcium, vitamins etc, and it can also be had free on prescription now, so I have heard... Ask!!

We were told by our dietician that we could put ds2 onto soya milk at a year old. That said, our dietician isn't that good and I don't want to switch over as soya milk is generally very low calorie (and ds2 needs all the calories we can muster). We're keeping him on the hypoallergenic formula for now as we're still weaning him from BF and don't want to do that and then immediately change milk for something new. I think though soya milk is nutritionally better than rice milk (more protein, more fat), but also more allergenic (ca. 50% of children with CMPA have allergy to soya) and there is the phytoestrogen thing, but this is only an issue for boys.

Hi Sunnyshine,

Alpro is not for babies but when my grandson needed to change, Boots had a soy range in their baby milk section. When he was old enough to go onto normal food and was drinking milk he constantly had a mucusy nose this went on for ages. A visit to a top paediatrcian, xrays etc, produced no result. In the end we went to an ENT specialist who confirmed he had an intolerance to dairy products. (as most of the family do)!! Back to soy milk and no butter and in a week a transformed child. He is now ten and still has to be a bit careful with milk, etc, but the main intolerance has gone.

Hi gigglewitch, no need to shoot you. !! Its just too bad that health visitors these days are not all consistent in what they tell you and often give daft advice. If a baby is crying a lot there is obviously something wrong. Also this business of not giving any sort of solids till they are six months is with some babies madness. Some babies get very hungry and milk is just not enough. Baby rice is the started these days I believe, but in my day at four months I was advised by the baby dietician I went to to give a mouth full of pureed carrot.!!!!

Also I was advised when changing over to soy from cows do it over several feed putting half and half into the bottle to start and decreasing the cows till all soy.

Ds is 22 months and has been on soya milk as a main drink for two months now since I stopped breastfeeding. His dietician said she would rather he were on a soya formula till two, but that because he was eating large portions in a healthy varied diet for the few months until he was 2 it wouldn't matter too much. As long as he takes his extra vitamins and drinks/eats at least 300 mls of soya a day (to get the minimum calcium requirement) she says she has no concerns that he is missing out on anything.

I think if he were younger and had 10 months to go rather than 4, wasn't such a good eater etc then I would be more inclined to put him onto a formula though. I would deff get a dietician referral, then if they recommend formula you can get it on prescription. They can also give you support about how/when to reintroduce CM and help you get further allergy testing in the future if need be.

He also has a different brand of soya milk to alpro, all the same 'good stuff' in it but no added sugar, mostly because I worried about his teeth.

thankyou for your replies. i have a docs appt for next week. will let you all know whay happens!