Okay to give soy milk to 1-year-old?

[snowmoon]

Hi. My DS is approaching 1 year old. He has been on lactose free infant formula until now as he suffers from diarrhoea if I give him normal formula. I was wondering if I can start giving him shop bought sugar-free soy milk from now on? Will it be okay nutritionally? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

I would check in your local health food shop - they should be qualified to be able to recommend a suitable milk for your son, ensure it is sugar free and calcium fortified but apart from this don't know any more - both of my children are on Soy but were diagnosed at a older age

Good luck

there is some concern about the phyto-oestrogens in soya milk affecting boys but the jury is still out. Some would say at one year old it is ok. You don't want to keep on the formula he is on now?

also check with doc, he may still need formula for vitamins and minerals.

I would keep going with the formula until he is 2 and then switch to a lactose free milk. If a baby is on soy formula then the advise is to keep them on it till 2 and then move to normal soy milk.

agree with bobbybob if your doctor hasn't suggested a milk challenge now. How long has he been lactose free? Sometimes lactose problems are "temporary" after illness/ antibiotics. "temporary" can be months but if his problems came on after illness and it was months ago you might want to discuss a milk challenge with your doctor. Avoiding lactose is a pain if you don't have to.

If you do decide to change, be very vigilent. A friend's 1yo was advised by their paed to go onto soy based formula (she has all sorts of allergies and feeding problems). She was a bit unwell after the first feed. Her stay-at-home dad took her to the paed who said he was overreacting. After dose no2 she went into full on anafalactic shock and probably would have died if her dad had not known the early signs (and been watching for them) and rushed her to A&E. She has a soy allergy that was missed during her allergy testing.

Don't want to scare you, but do be careful. The earlier you change formulas apparently the higher the risk of reaction. And if ds is doing well on the current formula anyway, is there any need to change?

agree with ruty and bobbybo. Soy milk not adequate for vitamins/minerals before 2.
check with doctor.

Thanks for all your replies. Tatt he's been on lactose free since he was 4 months, when I stopped BF. I regularly try him on a bit of cow's milk formula to see whether the allergy has stopped, but unfortunately he is still reacting to it.

KiwiKate, DS is normally on SMA LF (lactose free) but has occasionally been on soy formula when I've run out of SMA LF, which I get from prescription. He's been okay with soy formula so I'm not worried about adverse reaction.

I wouldn't have wanted to change to soy but we have now emigrated to Thailand and it's difficult to get lactose free cow's milk formula, whereas soy formula and sugar-free, calcium-fortified normal soy milk are easily available.

I am worried about the high sugar content in soy formula (as I was re SMA LF), that's part of the reason why I want to investigate the possibility of using sugar-free soy milk. But if it isn't nutritionally adequate then I will stick with soy formula until he's 2.

fat and protein, am pretty sure that most "ordinary" soya-based cow's milk substittues are way too low in both -- for children under 5yo, even.

Can you get normal lactose free milk? We have it here in NZ.

Another vote here to stick to formula until he's 2