What milk do your dairy allergic children drink (for my 6yo DS)?

[Weta]

We've just moved from France to Luxembourg and are having to re-sort out all DS's arrangements.

In France he was on Neocate Advance, paid for by the state, which they were going to keep giving him until the end of childhood (age 12 I think).

Here in Luxembourg we're still trying to find out the social security situation but initially the Neocate may be reimbursed 80% and we would have to fund the rest (though later may get a higher reimbursement rate). He drinks 2 glasses a day.

I guess I'm trying to work out whether it's worth it... I've always tried to avoid soy (we limit him to 2 soy yoghurts a day), and have since read dodgy things about rice milk, plus I don't think it has much nutritional value.

Any thoughts?

My daughter has had rice milk on her cereal since she was around 1, it is fortified with calcium, and she seems to like it! She is 21 months now, and drinks no milk, just water. She has a soya yoghurt once a day as well.

DS (18 months) is on Neocate Advance, but for cooking I used Oatly which is oat based.

oat milk. he is 22 months and never had cows milk or formula

Rice milk with added calcium. Ds1 loves it. It tastes very sweet to me though.

My dd has always been on rice milk, but the Food Standards Agency has now advised against giving it to children under 5 because of the high levels of arsenic in it.

I am trying oat milk, but meeting a lot of resistance.

how old is he? You don't have to drink milk at all if you are getting calcium from other sources, although most people would benefit from a calcium supplement if not having any dairy produce. White bread and fish with bones are good sources of calcium. Can you see a dietician for advice?

Thanks everyone for your responses. He's nearly 6, so maybe I don't need to worry too much (find that hard to get my head round though!).

Dietician is a good idea, will look into that. And I might try him out with rice milk and oat milk - though suspect oat milk would cost us nearly as much as the amount we'd have to pay for the Neocate anyway.

He's also quite resistant to change and gets upset if ever we suggest he might one day have to stop the Neocate (can't understand it myself since it tastes so vile!). I guess he'll have to get over that though

well I'd still be concerned, but not too scared. If he didn't have milk you'd need to plan a balanced diet or give a calcium supplement. Some advice on requirements for different age groups and good dietary sources of calcium ( a vegan site might be even better) www.vegsoc.org/info/calcium.html

we use the calcium enriched oatly and it's £1.30 a carton.
we get through about 5 a week on average for a 22 month old. I guess it depends how much he drinks really

Thanks thisisyesterday - will check again for the oat drink but I think here I've seen it for 2 or even 3 euros a litre.

Thanks for the link Tatt.

Tried almond milk? I used to have a recipe for homemade, using purified water (boiled), almonds, and a blender.

we are in the uk and our son has soya milk which is enriched with vitamins and calcium and also soya yoghurts. he has childrens vitamins with calcium and lots of brocolli and other veg with calcium in.

we dont get any help money wise with it though

do you know there is a dairy free icecream? called swiss glace found in freezer section of asda/tescos and probably other places

just thought id share that info as id been looking for ages for one for my ds

Thanks mathanxiety - will definitely consider that one. We did give him almond milk for a while at 18 months but were then advised not to in case he developed an allergy to it and to avoid nuts until age 5 - but he's now old enough and seems fine with them so might give it a go again.

Mumandloving it - our French consultant always advised against too much soy because of the phyto-oestrogens, but I don't think they really know. We do give plenty of broccoli, but I will also think about vitamin supplements.

They don't have that Swiss glace icecream here I don't think but they do have dairy free sorbet, which he loves!

My 6 year old has soya milk sweetened with apple juice. I know that there are issues with soy but he only has it on cereal, doesn't drink it at all and is fine on normal cheese and yogurts. He flatly refuses anything else, even the fresh soya milk so I will stick with it.

Spinspinsugar - I just read in passing on here about arsenic levels in rice milk, though tbh I don't know much about it. I've always been more concerned that it didn't have much nutritional value, although the last time I really looked into it he was 17 months so it was probably more important back then.

Onemoretimetoday - I wouldn't worry at all about giving your child soy in those kind of amounts. DS1 can't have any normal cheese or yoghurt, so he has 2 soy yoghurts each day and we were advised to limit his intake to that.