Soy-milk, goats-milk or cows-milk, extended bfing

[Glimmer]

DS just turned one and is still BF 3 times a day. Do I need to introduce another source of milk and which one? What are the pros and cons of cows milk vs goats milk vs soy milk.
Thanks!

You don't have to unless you want to.
Won't go into pros and cons as I am a vegan and biased

Hi TooTicky. Well, DH is vegan and opposed to animal milk. We eat vegan at home, but I "supplement" when out. I am a bit suspicious of too much soy (we have lots of tofu etc), because of it's similarity to estrogen (did I get this right?). Would love to get biased pros and cons!!! Cows-milk would be organic; goats-milk we could buy from the producer (a neighbor), soy-milk would be non-GMO, but as I heard there is always some contamination with GMO-soy? Did you raise DC vegan? GP said that if DC don't have any diary, the often loose the ability to digest it. Thanks!

You don't need to introduce any other form of milk unless you want to, in which case I would avoid soy.

Agree that you don't need to introduce anything else

I avoid soy now because it trotted my ds1's teeth out; they have goats. We're susceptible as a family to casein intol and the goats milk casein is different. I won't even have cos milk in the house becuase the difference i ds3 (asd) on cows and goats is the differnece between having language and not. That simple, really.

other than that I personally would go for goats from a neighbour anyhow: always prefer to know the source when I (rarely) can

I haven't introduced any to DD (16 months) yet as she is still bfing plenty. I think it's overrated anyway. If I had to choose I'd probably go for the goats milk for the same reason as Peachy.

I would just ebf. We're not vegan but my DS1 never had any milk other than breast milk until two. Then I stopped feeding him as I was pregnant and naffed off and since then he has had ...... no milk at all .

Well Glimmer, I am definitely anti-cow milk, for health reasons as well as animal welfare. I'm sure you don't need me to elaborate as your dh is vegan anyway

I start my dcs off vegan but they stray from the path although they do all have soya milk on their cereal. I think if you don't have soya-absolutely-everything then it is probably fine.

Provamel/Alpro soya milk is tested stringently to ensure no GM contamination.

I'd just carry on bf though if you are happy

if you aren't totally vegan and would like them to have milk then I would introduce small amounts, persoanlly.

ds2 has a dairy intolerance, he is 13 months and still bf but he does have fortified oat milk too.
mainly because he has reduced feeds a bit and I am not only breastfeeding, but also on a vegan diet and pregnant too, so not sure how much milk he is getting atm, and my diet has been a bit crap so worried about his iron/calcium

i absolutely don't think there is a problem with raising vegan kids though. I reckon most vegan children are much healthier than those who eat everything because parents are very aware of their nutritional needs

My ds developed a cows milk intolerence when he was 2 and this was part of the reason that I carried on breastfeeding him.

He is partial to rice milk, and quite likes oat milk (yes, oat, not goat! but he can tolerate goats milk) as well. The rice milk is very sweet, but I guess if you followed the dental guidelines for fruit juice (only with meals) then it should be ok.

My ds was (still is) so keen on breastfeeding, that he was probably getting more than enough of everything from my milk alone.

our dd is two and doesn't like anything other than mother's milk- I tried goat and oat and even formula and at least she's stuck to the best for her. So she only drinks water. Her best friend who's also bfding and two likes oat milk and her mum avoids dairy for health reasons

Thanks so much for all your experiences and sharing your personal choices. Am happy to continue bfing, but since I am working and have trouble expressing, I would like to drop the lunch-feed, which would mean no BM between 9am and 4pm. He doesn't drink much at lunch anyway (too distracted), hence I was thinking of offering another kind of milk once a day. Apart form lactose-intolerance, are there any kind of publications you could point me to? Thanks again!

No BM between 9 and 4 is fine at his age. Your supply will be fine. When I was working DS1 used to just latch on as soon as he saw me but as he got older he stopped even doing that.