If your child is on soy milk

What are the pros and cons? are there any?

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Why is your DC on soy rather than regular milk?

Message edited 4/8/2008 8:19:37 AM.

Re: If your child is on soy milk

DS is on soy since about 2 weeks of life because he was straining to poo and throwing up after feeds....

Soy is the only formula that allowed him to poo without crying and the vomiting ceased immediately. (and we tried everything from enfamil lipil to gentlease to good start).

DS is now 10weeks and i tried him on lacto-free (thinking his inital problems were due to the lactose and this would at least put him back on a milk-protein formula.....) -- yeah, well, he puked 4x after feeding him lacto-free.

So, DS is on soy because he apparently can't handle milk! No other reason.
HTH.

Re: If your child is on soy milk

DD is on soy because she allergic to milk. She won't drink it though. I just give her soy productis. I have to becareful because some soy products do contain milk. I pretty much stick to SILK products.

I'm not a fan of giving DD Soy because there is a lot of controversy around the actual health benefits. Some say Soy is not recommened for children or woman because of the isoflavones. One effect is that they cause infertility.

Honestly I'm no expert and I don't believe it's been proved or disproved either way, but I wish I had another alternative.

Re: If your child is on soy milk

this is such a sensitive topic for me.

dd is allergic to cow's milk so she's on soy....has been since she was an infant. We use Silk Enhanced since it's well-fortified...unlike many rice milks I researched in the past.

I am leary of her on so much soy but we do not really have an adequate subsititute. Others I know use different milks but either dd won't drink them or they are not at all sufficient for a 3 yr old.

I wish there were more LONG TERM studies on the consumption of soy products bc all I've heard are possibilities of issues down the road - I don't think anyone can say with certainty soymilk causes XYZ issues. And really, cow's milk has it's problems too so there isn't any perfect solution, it's just more the "norm".

Re: If your child is on soy milk

My DD has horrible reflux as a baby and was on Alimentum and Zantac. When we switched her to cow's milk at 1 she acted crazy. She would literally cry all day. It just did not agree with her. I switched her to Soy (Silk) and she is fine now. I do give her milk products though she is not exclusively on Soy based foods. I recently started giving her milk based yogurt and she is fine. I tried cow's milk the other night and she was up all night with reflux.

Re: If your child is on soy milk

My DS is allergic to cow's milk. He drank soy formula until he was a little over 2 in order to make sure he had all the fats/proteins he was missing by not drinking whole cow's milk.

After that, I switched him to enriched rice milk because I wanted to do soy only in moderation and he was eating soy cheese, soy yogurt, soy ice cream, etc. etc. The rice milk in the quantities he was drinking gave him terrible constipation so I switched him to potato-based milk and that is what he still drinks (although at almost 5 years old I'm lucky I can get him to drink a half a cup of it a day! ).

I use rice milk for cooking and baking as a substitute for cow's milk.

I think that when you are faced with a challenge like a milk allergy in a small child, you cannot worry about the possible future effects of too much soy, or anything, too much. You need to make decisions on what is best for them right now at the age they are today and hope for the best in the future. I think every Mom has to do what they feel is best for their child at that stage of the game, KWIM? Me personally, I chose to reduce soy intake since he had been drinking sooooo much of it and then eating soy-based products. The possible estrogenic effects on a boy were slightly worrisome to me, but what could I do?

Funny, if my kid could drink cow's milk I would probably never even consider "moderation". He'd be eating cheese, yogurt, ice cream and drinking milk like all the other kids. It's a different situation. I actually drink the rice milk myself now and use it on cereal. Hopefully, it was the right decision for us!

Re: If your child is on soy milk

My Ds drinking soy also. He has been drinking soy for 2 years. TO all the mothers who child is drinking soy milk....How is your child's BM? (Soryy TMI) I feel like I am still breast feeding him . I don't know how I am going to potty train him.

Re: If your child is on soy milk

Jacob drinks soy because he has a milk allergy so we really didnt have a choice of either soy or regular milk.

Re: If your child is on soy milk

My DS was on soy formula and is now on Silk soy milk. I did try to switch him to organic cow's milk at 1 and he did not react well, he was up all night with reflux.
He does eat regular yogurt, some cheese. (He is allergic to provelone and swiss)
I honestly did not know there was anything "bad" about soy, my ped said it was fine.

Re: If your child is on soy milk

Re: If your child is on soy milk

Re: If your child is on soy milk

I found out DD had a milk-protein allergy at 2mths. I EBF so I just cut dairy out of my diet. I BF til just after her 1st b-day then switched her to soy. I'm hoping she grows out of this allergy since it is mild (rash) and I can give her cow's milk one day.

Re: If your child is on soy milk

I give Ava soy milk because she has a milk allergy. I am not crazy about giving her soy milk, and neither is my pediatrician. He wanted me to skip it altogether and just add healthy fats and a vitamin supplement to her diet. I very strongly agreed with him and when I took Ava off of soy milk around 14 months, it started WWIII between me and my mother. Long story that's not worth going into. Anyway, she gets MINIMAL soy milk and I use rice milk to substitute in recipes.
I just don't think that much soy is healthy for a baby. That being said, I don't think too much dairy is healthy, either, so my opinion would be the same if she wasn't milk allergic.

Re: If your child is on soy milk

My son is on soy milk (he is 3). He has lactose intolerance. He was on alimentum as a baby. My dr preferred that over soy formula at that time. I also read and talked to people about issues will soy formula as primary source of nutrition in young babies and heard it is not best. Whether true or not - I have no clue. When I coverted to cow milk - he has issues so went to soy and all was fine so I stayed with it. My ped has no issue with it and after 1, milk was not his primary source of nutrition and his milk content was not too high so I was no longer conerned.

My baby is now on lactose free formula. We shall see in a few months whether or not he has cow milk issue as well. The great thing about soy is it stays good for so long....you can stock up and never have to worry about running out of milk!!

Message edited 4/8/2008 10:26:33 PM.