lactose intolerance - rice milk or soya?

[Distracted]

Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of rice milk vs soya?

Ds is 14 months and has been having lactose free formula up until now (haven't weaned him off earlier partly just because I wanted to use up all the formula we still had from our last prescription). Not sure now what to use as his main drinking milk.

bump - sorry if I'm asking a question that's been asked lots before!

I have done a search on this but it has only confused me further!

I bought some soya milk at the weekend, but noticed afterwards it said it was unsuitable as a main milk source for children under 2 years old. I'm also aware of the various concerns over soya - children being allergic to it, the oestrogen levels, GM soya etc., so then bought some rice milk instead and have started using that. However, my concern is that both rice and soya milk are low fat and probably don't contain the nutrients that full fat cows milk does. Other people have mentioned this in the thread that I found, so now I'm wondering whether I should find out about extending my prescription of lactose free formula?

Ds is a healthy weight by the way, has generally been on something like 60th to 70th centile.

Hi
You can buy Farleys soya formula from big boots.Comes in a blue tin. Its nutritionally complete and can be used from birth to adulthood. My dd loves it. Hope that helps.
Vicky

you obviously know the concerns about soya (add in sugar levels, link to nut allergy) but rice milk is very low in nutrients. If you can get another prescription for lactose free milk might be best. Is he actually lactose intolerant as if its a milk protein problem it may be worth retesting him? I don't normally look at the food secttion, only the allergy bit, same may be true for others.

Thanks for that - maybe I will post again in the allergies section.

Yes it is an intolerance problem and not an allergy. It only started after a gut infection at 6 months, although at the time it caused all sorts of problems as he initially appeared intolerant of every new food I introduced, but that all gradually sorted itself out. Paediatrician advised to reintroduce dairy at 1 year as he should only be temporarily lactose intolerant and in fact it had been going really well with foods - yoghurt, ordinary biscuits etc. However, switched to milk last week when almost out of the LF formula and had terrible diarrhoea. Unfortunately he was also ill at the same time & had to start antibiotics so could be a combination of factors causing diarrhoea. For the moment though, until everything else sorts itself out, will have to keep his milk lactose free.

It's possible I suppose that he could tolerate dairy in his food, but just not to drink. I know there can be levels of lactose intolerance.

my 6 month boy suddenly started to have terrible diarrhoea and we thought it could be because we had started weaning, he had starting teething, and possibly had a stomach bug.........well the doctors said this to. finally after 2 weeks of 10 dirty nappies a day we found blood in his poo and took him straight to hospital. they immediately prescribed lactose free milk and the problem was solved in 36 hours. however my local gp said that it isn't good to keep a baby on LF milk for long and we should get him back on to the regular a.s.a.p. i told her i was really nervous about doing this because the diarhoea had been so awful i couldn't stand the thought of him having to go through it all again. any advice??

you can get lactofree cows milk in the supermarket which is regular cows milk with the lactose broken down. Antoher option is oatmilk as I thought rice milk had been associated with high levels of arsenic.

arsenic in rice