Seeking Advice on Milk Allergy Alternatives

No advice :) Just hello and hugs and kisses to my little niece!

I've had great success with goat milk... goat milk yogurt, goat milk cheese, goat milk. The protein molecules in goat milk are much more similar in size to human milk and thus easier to digest. Personally I don't love the flavor but I started my children young and they love it.

Be careful with giving soy milk & rice milk on a daily basis, as they are rather processed... soy beans are one of the hardest to digest beans in complexity, so we try to limit our soy to the soy products that are fermented (miso, naturally fermented soy sauce) because the fermentation process breaks down the proteins and makes less work for your digestive system- and we're less likely to end up with soy allergies from repeated episodes of poor digestion of it. Also soy depresses thyroid function (so does broccoli and some other plants, but people don't tend to eat broccoli in large quantities every day so it's not as much of an issue as soy milk which people tend to do on a regular basis if they purchase it).

It sounds to me like she is lactose intolerant instead of allergic to milk. My daughter is allergic to eggs, milk and peanuts and if she gets any of these in her system she breaks out in hives and has trouble breathing. I've had a lactose intolerance all of my life, on the other hand, and that's more related to digestive problems. When (and if) I drink milk it's Lactaid. There's also a lot of lactose free options out there.

However, if you wanted to go completely dairy free either way, my daughter drinks Rice Dream rice milk enriched with calcium. As someone else said, it doesn't have the protein like milk but she gets that from eating beans and meat. We went with rice milk because I read that there is an ingredient in soy milk that mimics estrogen. Google it, you'll find a lot of information and studies done. Girls on soy milk start their periods earlier than they should and women's cycles that drink soy milk completely changed.

Hi J.,

A little bit about soy in general: most of the soy beans in the US are GMO (genetically modified). The phytates in soy cancause digestive problems in lagre amounts, and the natural hormones
in soy can upset your normal hormonal balance, especially in females. Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function. Processed soy is even worse. The only ones that are OK to eat are soy
sauce, miso, tempeh (even tofu in moderation) as long as it comes
from organic non-gmo soy beans. Some people are even sensitive to these. I would not recommend soy milk at all. It is highly processed.

So what are your options?

A lot of mothers whose children have allergies choose to continue breastfeeding them till they are two years old or so. The World Health Organization advises breastfeed till at least 2. Remember, you are nourishing
your baby with food and that you don't have to resort to a breastmilk replacement. I am not against nut milks and rice milks, but they can
be loaded with sugar unless you make it yourself(nut milk is also best after two years of age.) Whole milk is the best thing for brain development that second year and breastmilk is WHOLE milk. They also need the fat. After breastfeeding you can give your child other foods that offer nutrients without giving him milk. There is no need for milk or milk substitute. Water is the best choice. Very few people can digest milk after age 4 anyway(Northern Europeans, folks from Ireland.)

If you are worried about fat, avocado is a great choice. One a day for lunch will provide her with plenty of fat. As far as calcium goes making a home made bone broth is an excellent idea. (Email me for recipe.) It is loaded with calcium. Then there are leafy greens (kale, collard, bok choy,broccoli, brussel sprouts etc), seavegetables (hiziki, arame, wakame, kombu). I cook my rice and beans with a piece of kombu all the time. Other good sources are canned salmon, beans,almonds, sesame seeds (you may milk sesame seed milk at home -super easy)etc. Benas and greens are high in magnesium- that is also needed for bone development.

For building good bones one needs to move his or her your body, get plenty of sunshine (vitamin D), eat a diet rich in vegetables and fruits, get calcium from plant sources and fortified products. Sugar and products that contain any form of refined sugar will leach calcium from bones. So does caffeine.

There is much debate over whether long-term consumption of dairy products
helps bones at all. A good deal of evidence suggests that it does not. Many children by their fourth or fifth birthdays have grown out of their
ability to digest the milk sugar lactose anyway. Drinking milk can cause stomachpain, gas, bloating, diarrhea, and other uncomfortable symptoms in
lactose-intolerant children. (A lot of earaches and asthma problems can be easily solved by eliminating dairy from a child's diet.) There is no need to take pills or buy special lactose-reduced dairy products. Instead, you might look at this change as a signal that aftger you have finished breastfeeding your daughter, milk is no longer needed, and that cow's milk shouldn't take its place. It is a time to expand your child's diet to include a wide variety of plant-based foods.

All the best on this journey! You are doing great.

C.

My heart goes out to you..but terrific you are aware. My daughter is 27 yrs old..and no one knew from allergies back then, but she had all the symptoms..cracking behind her ears as a baby, cradle cap, excema, sleepless nights, diarhea..etc.

I removed all dairy products and used soy formula ..back then it was all we had..now i realize that many soy products are NOT good either. Research soy..there are only a couple of brands that are good. Vita Soy is one of them.

Rice milk is good..almond milk is good. It is best with an allergic child to rotate as they develop allergies if on anything too long.

Goat's milk is also supposed to be very good.

Best of luck to you!!!

You might want to check out Sunrider Foods...and you can use Quinary and Nu Plus products mixed with rice or soy milk..excellent nutritional super foods.

My son had a milk allergy, luckily he outgrew it by age 3. But until then - no ice cream, cheese on pizze (which he still takes off at 10 yrs. old), etc. I did orange juice that was calcuim supplemented. This was watered down because orange juice can be acidic. We also did a calcuim supplement. It a powder you mix with luke warm water and drink in an empty stomach. It's sweet flavored so had no problem getting him to take it. It is also relatively inexpensive. You can get it at www.marketamerica.com/leapintolife. Under health and nutrition. That where we get most of vits and aloe juice for upset stomachs, etc. As far as snacks go I stuck with fruits and veggies. Once they are on to finger foods I got an inexpensive steamer basket and would steam peas or baby carrots. To this day he loves them both! Hope this helps. Contact me if you have any questions about the calcuim or the site. Good Luck!

You don't have to give your baby whole milk, ask your pediatrician, they'll tell you 2% is just as good. As for the milk allergy, you can get your daughter blood tested to find out for sure-or just "wing it" at home(ie, figure out what she can and cannot eat by process of elimination). My son is the same way with milk products but not cranky. Your baby is prob cranky because she is getting gas from her inability to digest it. My son is 19 months now, but he has been on partially digested formula since I stopped breast-feeding. We use Gentlease. It works like a charm. He can't do straight milk-but he is getting better with cooked milk products as long as we don't give him alot -and we make sure he has a banana too! Our pediatrician said he'd most likely outgrow this milk thing, but we aren't seeing it yet. Soy used to give him the same reaction but we have been diluting his formula with it (in a sippy cup) and it is getting better and better. If you think your baby is allergic you are prob right. Stay away from milk for as long a possible-there are plenty of alternatives (rice milk for instance) and if you can make it to 2 years old, a majority of kids do seem to outgrow it.
Good Luck-
M. P

Rice and Soy both have the same amount of calcium as milk. It's really your choice. They both have pros and cons. Rice milk causes constipation and does have a higher sugar level, but they say soy induces more hormones in the body than necesary. I alternate and do both since I am not a big fan of dairy. Do the research on line. You'll get a lot of opinions, but need to weigh what works for you best. Good luck

Hi, I am a mother of 4 teenage daughters who were all breast fed at least 2 years. I could only breast feed because every one of my children developed rashes when I gave the soy and milk based formulas. From what you've stated she may not be able to digest soy either. I know how you feel! I have used goats milk without any reactions. My oldest had to stop breast feeding when I became pregnant again. I do know that if using rice milk, you may need to add vitamin supplements. I hope my information helps. Congrats to you and Stan!
Nisaa'

Hi J.,
Both of my girls had a very strong milk allergy (one still does). I use soy milk and all soy products. They don't have a problem with the o'soy.... that's a bummer that Sylvia does! I found soy yogurts and cheeses (and lots of other great products) at specialty food stores for them. You probably already know all of the different things to look for on food labels (no casein, etc.). It's such a pain, isn't it? The good news is that my doctor told me that kids often grow out of milk allergies... and my 2.5 year old is now eating regular yogurt, cheese, etc. (but still drinking soy milk) and she was a 9.5/10 on the allergy scale.

Hi J.!
I am a mother of 3 school age children. I have discovered that humans really don't need any dairy products beyond their own mother's milk. We can get our calcium from plant sources. There are great milk alternatives out there. Soy milk and almond milk are great! Beyond that when you child starts eating more solid food, almonds, broccoli, kale and other veggies give you all the calcium you need. Just Google non dairy calcium courses and milk alternatives. It's much easier to do it now. My kids keep turning their noses up at dairy alternatives but I sneak it in anyway. Try making pudding with soy milk. It's delicious! Hope this helps!
A.

I had a baby boy with a milk allergy, that I think may have been a milk protein allergy...there's a difference. Actually it's a lactose intolerance (stomach cramps, i.e. crankiness in babies, diarrhea) and the actual milk protein allergy. I breast fed 13 months and had absolutely no milk, milk protein or dairy of any kind in my diet to try to desensitize my son. I most likely went overboard and wasn't exactly sure if his was the lactose or protein, but he was only 1 1/2 mos. with increasing irritability and inconsolability, a horrible bleeding rash on his butt that started from day 1 in the hospital and increasing severity of reflux. Within 48 hrs of my not drinking any milk, his bleeding rash started clearing. So, I just avoided it all in my diet and when he turned a year I tried Lactaid whole milk (no lactose, but has the milk protein) If he had a problem with that then I knew he still had a milk protein allergy, but if he did fine I tried regular whole milk. If he had a problem with that, then I knew it was the lactose. Unfortunately, you have to do a lot of homework and trial and error and waiting to see what reacts or doesn't. My son was fine with all the dairy and has milk, ice cream, etc with no problems. Although, I later figured out he does have a egg white allergy (gets hives with raw egg) and a banana allergy (vomits uncontrollably for hours). If you plan to avoid anything, make sure you research it online because most foods are disguised by other names (milk=casein=whey and egg=albumin) so to make sure you are truly avoiding takes time and patience b/c it's alot of label reading. Good Luck and remember avoiding now may mean your child will beable to tolerate it later in life. Talk to your dr. too anytime you're not sure. That's where I learned about trying the Lactaid.

I had the same problem with my daughter and I gave her Rice Dream brand rice milk. It is now organic, contains the same fat content as 1% milk and is fortified with calcium and Vitamins A & D. It comes in regular, vanilla and chocolate flavors. The only thing that it doesn't have is the protein which is in milk...but she can get protein in other ways. Check with your pediatrician. I feel that cow's milk is really only best for calves.
p.s. they also make pudding.

You could use either, just check to see that it is fully fortified with calcium, A and D.

Hi J.,
My son would get sick after drinking cows milk so I started him on soy milk. He was on soy for a few weeks when I started to give him a 75/25% mix of soy/cows milk. I did this for a couple of weeks. Than I did 50/50, 25/75, and so on until he was only drinking cows milk. I did this when he was a year old and he is now 17 months, and drinking cows milk with no problem. Just an idea but, you may want to try something like that yourself, it might work the same introducing it to her through the breast milk. Hope this helps and Good luck.

Goats milk. Soy milk. My husband was raised on goats milk and our daughter on soy. Give the goats milk a try, it really is wonderful.

Hi J.,

My son who is now 11, had trouble with whole milk. I tried soy but that gave him problems as well. The thing that worked best for him was Lactate, which is lactose fee milk. He still drinks it to this day.
Hope this helps!

We live in a pretty much milk free house.
Here are some of my favorite milk free products:

SILK yogurt has NO MILK or lactose. Look for it in the health food stores..I also find it at Shop Rite.

My kids only drink soy milk. Silk ENHANCED soy milk has everything milk does, plus Omega-3s. It considered 'full-fat' so it fine for toddlers who would other wise be drinking whole cows milk. (They are two enhanced silks one is for bone health and the other has omegas) And then there is the chocolate. OMG that stuff is dangerously good.

There is Milk Free pudding. I find it at the health food stores. I cant remember the name, but there is a big panda on the packaging.

Toffuti makes milk and lactose free cream cheese, sour cream, and pizza. Again, the health food store is the place to look or in the natural foods section of your grocery store.

Locating these products is the toughest part, once you know where to find them, its a snap.

Earth Balance is a dairy free margarine. Not to be confused with Smart Balance. Earth Balance is 100% milk and dairy free.

Try to stay away from rice milk and almond milk. They dont have as much necessary fat and nutrients as the soy.

Follow Your Heart makes a cheese that actually melts.

Soy Delicious makes FANTASTIC ice cream. Again, the health food store would be place to shop for all this stuff.

And I realize your baby isnt ready to eat all these things, but, you sure can! :)

When shopping look for products that say VEGAN on them. Then you are guaranteed to get a product that has absolutely no milk or milk derivatives in it.

Good Luck!!!!

Hi, J.. My daughter has milk allergies that became apparent when I had to transition her to milk based formula in order to have testing done. My daughter has an allergy to milk protein. The pediatrician told me that rice milk is a last resort. "Silk" makes a soy based yogurt. They also make a soy based milk that has DHA, Calicum, and other essential vitamins. If your daughter is picky about the way it tastes, "8 Continent" makes a soy milk that doesn't have a harsh taste to it.

Good luck.

Hi, J., talk to your pediatrician, because 50% of infants allergic to dairy are also allergic to soy. I breastfed, too. OUr son, now 3, was allergic to milk, soy and egg. He outgrew the milk allergy last year, is still highly allergic to egg and soy. "Rice Dream Enriched" rice milk has all the nutrients of regular milk and comes in vanilla flavor, chocolate flavor, etc. OUr son loves it and still prefers it to regular milk and now he can have milk. I drank rice milk all during breastfeeding as you know, all his food restrictions became my own. Rice milk enriched has the same health benefits to soy, as I've been told. However, we didn't have a choice, as our son is allergic to soy. But best to check with the doctor. Best of luck to you!!

S.

My son (12 months) has milk allergy, but I am still breatfeeding and plan to continue, so I don't worry about the absence of cow's milk in his diet. He ate soy yogurt (from Silk) when he was on antibiotics and had no trouble. It has a lot of sugar, though, so we don't offer it often. Good for you for reading the labels! Westsoy and Edensoy have good unsweetened soymilks, and Almond Breeze is a nice almond milk. I find these at the healthfood stores. Rice milk is apparently easiest on little tummies, but I don't like it. Tofutti is a brand of dairy substitutes that has excellent things. Maybe they have a good yogurt, too, but I haven't found it yet. Peace, T.

hi, my 2 1/2 is very allergic to milk and eggs- and I am here to tell you we are doing fine and he is happy and healthy! His calcium levels were low for awhile and our doc told us to give him canned salmon, just like tuna but salmon, she said its loaded with calcium because the bones are in it. He likes it. His food allergies have made me a better mom because it has forced me to watch what he eats and trying things I might otherwise pass by-- like canned salmon! We give him silk- vanilla flavored, which took him a long time to like. I think our society has a milk issue, its not as critical to development as we think and its loaded with stuff we don't want or know about. Good luck!

Okay first I would try Lactose free milk in your diet. My son is lactose intolerant. His blood draws showed an allergy, but he is fine on lactaid milk. Try this first, before going soy, or rice. Have you had his tested for allergies? What does the Pediatrician say?

My daughter also has had dairy allergies since very young. We started with soy and found that she also daveloped an allergy to that. We have used rice and almond milk. and she can also have goats milk yogurt. Goats milk is said to be more similar to humans and the protein is changed by the bacteria to make it digestable. My daughter is now 7 and has dairy, gluten soy and nut allergies. good luck. B.

Hi J.
Do you want to stop breastfeeding at 1? If you don't there is no reason to give your daughter either soy or rice milk. Neither of my sons could tolerate cows milk until well after 2. There are people who go their entire lives without dairy products and are very healthy. If she is very sensitive and it sounds like she is, you also should stay away from anything that has casin or casinate in it as they both are milk products and can cause a reaction. The same goes for all gelatins as they are beef based and your back to the whole cow thing. Be a label reader! You also can try almond milk but lots of kids have nuts allergys so that may be a little risky. I'd go with the rice milk if I were making a choice as it is more easily digested than soy in sensitive people. Hope this helps,please let me know if I can do more.

My son had difficulty with dairy, so we bought Lactaid for him to drink. It's regualr milk with the lactose neutralized. There are many products on the market for lactose intolerant people. For example, Cabot cheeses do not have any lactose.

Good luck, and hang in there! My son outgrew his and now eats EVERYTHING! :)

My daughter has milk allergies too. I didn't worry about the "nutritional value" of cow's milk -- there are billions of advertising dollars going into convincing us that it's an essential food, but it's so foreign to us that most of the world's population can't digest it anyway. In China it's considered unfit for human consumption. All the stuff about milk that you get in public schools and doctor's offices is written by the dairy industry, and it's pure propaganda, even if it is almost universally believed.

I just continued breastfeeding into the toddler years -- mama's milk is much healthier -- and didn't worry about it. The important thing for kids, in my opinion, is that they learn to eat a variety of healthy foods -- there isn't any one miracle food. I mostly give my daughter water to drink, or watered-down fruit juice for an occasional treat, or almond milk when she has cereal.

Most of the milk substitutes are loaded with sugar, so you have to be careful with them. Most of them also have added vitamins, but not in a very digestible form. Soy is most similar to dairy, but it's also allergenic, and like cow's milk it can cause sinus congestion, so pay attention to what happens when you introduce it. We avoid the flavored soy yogurts -- they have more sugar than ice cream -- but we have used plain soy yogurt and flavored it by throwing it in the blender with fruit or fruit juice or stirring in maple syrup.

If she tolerates soy, you can get a lot of calcium from tofu. Or when she's older you can use occasional bone-in canned seafood (e.g. salmon or sardines -- not too often b/c of the risk of toxic contamination) or leafy greens. If you don't eat a lot of leafy greens yourself, start experimenting now, and get the recipes down before you start trying them on your kid. Sophia *loves* greens (kale, collards, chard) simmered with cider vinegar & honey, and either salt or a little bit of salted meat like ham or bacon. She also loves creamed spinach as a gravy with potatoes, and spinach or seaweed salad (asian style, with soy sauce and sesame oil.) You might try phasing things like that in slowly once she's old enough to chew her food.

The most important tricks to getting kids to like new foods are to use good quality, eat them regularly yourself, introduce them several times (we have a "one bite rule" for new foods,) and come up with a benign explanation if they don't like them (like, "maybe I messed up the recipe this time", *not* "you just don't like vegetables.")

Sophia eats an amazing variety compared to most kids her age -- I remember once when she was in pre-k, coming out after school with red smeared all over her face, and another mom said "you look like you've been eating something yummy" and she grinned ear to ear and said "beets." I think when you have food allergies it's even more important to go for variety in the foods you *can* eat.

My son has can' drink milk and because what's good for him is good for my daughter niether does she. :) Our nutritionist suggests alternating soy and rice milk as too much soy can cause the child to form an allergy to it. Rice on the othe hand is not that way. My son likes soy better than rice but my daughter drinks rice milk. I have alternated with him the best I can, he's 11yrs old.

My 16 month old has issues with dairy. we were told that rice milk is not good for babies. We have him on soy milk and he is very happy. it is important to learn all of the key words used for milk. you can find milk products in hotdogs, even veggie cheese has a skim milk part in it!

I know quite a bit about this kind of stuff. I have a 4yr old girl and 10mo girl. The younger has had dairy allergy. I've also had to avoid soy(common with dairy allergy), beef, tomatoes, strawberries, nuts, and oats. It took awhile to figure this out. She got eczema at about 5 weeks and since, I learned she would get fussy, mucus and blood in stools, and reflux. I was part of a great food support group for kids at a breastfeeding support/resource place before moving out to LI.
It sounds like your daughter is still quite reactive to dairy and soy. I'd steer clear for awhile. I was told that most with dairy allergy outgrow it by about one, if not, then by four. Personally, I'd recommend nursing longer 'cause then you know they're getting lots of good stuff and extra protein. You might have to stay away from soy milk. You don't want to do too much soy anyway. It's connected with problems with sexual organ development later. Rice milk is pretty good, especially if you get the enriched. It's sweet already, so you don't need the vanilla flavored. You can substitute rice milk in a lot of recipies.(Free range chicken broth can be used with rice milk to make a creamy sauce for recipies.) It doesn't have much fat or protein, though, so she needs to get that from other sources. Nut milks(if not an allergy) would have more protein and are good. We do a lot of avocado which is very healthy and easy to mush up or give little chunks as they get older.
I could probably go on and on. Hope this helps. I can answer more questions if they come up.
P.
____@____.com

Hi,

I just wanted to add my 2 cents in after reading all the oter post's. My son is allergic to whey( one of the milk proteins in dairy) He was tested when he was 1 as he broke out in hives from his b-day cake and once b4 that from cottage cheese. His eyes actually swelled shut from the hives with the cottage cheese. He is now 3 1/2 and although his levels are going down, he still has the allergy. we have had him on silk soy milk sinnce he was 15 mo.old.(after he finished breastfeeeding) He also eats silk and o'soy yogurt and tofutti ice cream they also make a really good chocolate fudgsicle for a treat. I have had a hard time finding cheese in my area, but it's definately out there as well, doesn't melt good, but he likes it. My ped. says no need to supplement with calcium other than the half of a flintstone that he takes daily. I see that alot of the readers have sugg, that you don't need milk in any way after the breastmilk as it's mainly the dairy industry promoting their product(and appearently making up all the good that milk does for your body) I disagree, but you need to do what works for you and your family. Talk to your ped. and see what works for you and keeps her healthy. I just want to say that you can find something wrong or bad with EVERYTHING and although I too want to read to inform myslef, you have to be carefull about believing EVERYTHING that you can find on the internet. Milk has been around for ever, far longer than all the new hyped up products that are in health stores now, and if you think the people in the health food market are not trying to make a buck, your wong!(just look at how much more expensive their products are than the oter "normal" products)I have had to change our way of eating and cooking to accomadate his needs, so if you are looking for any recipes or products, just let me know. I also wanted to say that when I took my daughter to the ped. gastroenterologist, he said that there is no good test (for dairy allergy) until they are 2 years old, as they have false neagtives, so you need to just watch for reactions and go with your gut. I now have a 13 mo. old daughter that doesn not get hives, but is having some belly issues so we are trying to figure out what is bothering her and it's all trial and error. She had reflux as a baby and has had belly aches from day 1 . Good luck message me anytime.

When my daughter turned 13 months, I found out that she had a milk protein allergy when I gave her whole milk. She's 3 now, and she still has the allergy. You can give her soy, rice, or almond milk, but you have to make sure she has enough fat intake cause whole milk has twice the fat as the alternatives. So, you must make up the fat in other ways (olive oil in soy yogurt, avocado, nuts & seeds, etc. Hope that helps.

Most people do have allergies to cow's milk (they just don't realize it). Cow's have an enzyme that most people have a hard time breaking down. You can try giving your daughter Goat's milk. We have an easier time digesting the enzyme that goat's have. Try giving her yogurt made from Goat's milk. You can also take enzyme's yourself to help breakdown and digest the food your eating.

Hi J.,

Two words: Rice Dream.

My son has similar digestive issues, and he does beautifully with organic, calcium-fortified Rice Dream. Also, unless your daughter is ready to stop nursing, another year of breastfeeding is good for toddlers with lactose and milk protein issues, since milk -- especially human milk -- has nutritive benefits that no plant-based milk can have.

Oh, and bananas make a great, stomach-soothing toddler snack.

Good luck!