Transitioning from formula to other milks.

[Kelly]

Hi Everyone,

My daughter Penelope is almost 10 months old. She has been on a dairy-based formula almost since birth. I didn't want to go that route, but I couldn't breastfeed due to medication it is necessary for me to take, and she got really gassy and colicky with soy formula.

She has been congested and mucousy a lot of the time since she started the dairy formula, and I'm anxious to get her off of it, but I don't know when it's appropriate to transition and what to transition to.

Her doctor says to give her full fat milk at one year, but I obviously don't want to give her that. Can I just use fortified soy milk? Rice milk? Is it safe to do at one year?

Thanks,

Kelly

[veganmama]

Originally Posted by Kelly

Hi Everyone,

My daughter Penelope is almost 10 months old. She has been on a dairy-based formula almost since birth. I didn't want to go that route, but I couldn't breastfeed due to medication it is necessary for me to take, and she got really gassy and colicky with soy formula.

She has been congested and mucousy a lot of the time since she started the dairy formula, and I'm anxious to get her off of it, but I don't know when it's appropriate to transition and what to transition to.

Her doctor says to give her full fat milk at one year, but I obviously don't want to give her that. Can I just use fortified soy milk? Rice milk? Is it safe to do at one year?

Thanks,

Kelly

At one year you can switch her to soy of course! Meanwhile start giving her all the good fats like mashed avacado and flax or hemp oil in her foods

[veganloraine]

Great advice!

[tmr]

I hate that response from pediatricians... it's like the dairy industry has brainwashed the entire field into believing the only way to get a healthy child is to feed them whole milk... heck half the peds will advice whole milk over breast milk at 1 year.

Well I put my daughter on soy formula at 2 months after problems with 3 types of milk based formula. My entire family is not just lactose intolerant but allergic to dairy. I couldn't produce milk or I would have breastfed.

At 1 year we put her on soy milk... silk organic unsweetened. She's never eaten dairy products at all... She is a strong and healthy 19 month old and is 99% for height and 96% for weight and developmentally ahead at daycare. Her brain did just fine without dairy.

[veganloraine]

Originally Posted by tmr

I hate that response from pediatricians... it's like the dairy industry has brainwashed the entire field into believing the only way to get a healthy child is to feed them whole milk...

Agreed! What a beautiful little girl your daughter is.

[Vanessa M]

I agree with tmr also. I have heard from several people that their doctors/pediatricians told them to give their kids whole milk for the first 2 years. Do doctors not realize that soy milk is healthier? Yes, whole milk is good for you, but it also has a lot of fat in it and if you are trying to steer clear of dairy, it obviously isn't a good choice. I love soy milk and turned my child onto it early!

[maisiedotes]

We had my daughter on a "flemponut" milk: flaxseed oil, coconut milk (not the canned kind- the So Delicious kind in the half gallon), and hemp milk. She loved it. I am still researching soy and we eat alot of soy protein otherwise, so we occasionally alternated with soy milk but didn't want to use it all day every day. We are now getting DS off his formula and onto the same thing. It has only been 2 days and so far he doesn't seem to mind it, but he isn't eating much in the way of solids (he has a very strong gag reflex and can't handle anything that isn't totally pureed smooth) so we may leave him on some formula for the nutrients for a bit longer till we can get him eating more solids, more frequently.

[veganloraine]

I am loving the "flemponut" milk