Anyone's toddler on rice milk?

shai · #1 07-20-2005, 01:59 PM

My son is seeing his specialist next week because he is dispalying signs he has developed an allergy to the soy milk I weaned him onto at 12 months (he is now almost 14 months). We don't want to give him cows milk ,for obvious reasons, and because I am severely allergic to it, he has my allergy problems, so he probably would be too. I decided to give him rice milk at least until we see the specialist to see if he improves. He has been getting hives, runny poop, red rashes on his butt wherever the poop touches, and he is barfing more then ever (he has reflux). He seems miserable most of the time. Does anyone else here have a child allergic to soy milk? I know rice milk does not have as much fat as soy milk (I was giving him the enhanced kind with extra fat and vitamins), but will adding olive oil or flaxseed oil to his cup and food make up for the lost calories? I need help bad!

vegma · #2 07-20-2005, 02:33 PM

How did he do on breastmilk? If its only been two months since he weaned, you could probably relactate pretty easily. Just a thought...

Oh yeah, I don't see a problem with trying the rice milk, but personally, I'd go easy on the extra oils.

annie7 · #3 07-20-2005, 03:04 PM

Trying to bf again sounds like a good piece of advice.

shai · #4 07-20-2005, 03:58 PM

I'm sorry if I confused you, I weaned him from hypoallergenic formula that was neither soy or milk. It was a predigested amino acid based formula, neocate. He did okay on it, but I have been giving him the rice milk for the past day and he is improving. I just don't know if it is okay to give it to a baby his age long term. I never breastfed because I had a post partum infection that required me to be on a strong antiobiotic (cipro) for over a month. I tried to the first week he was born, but my milk did not come in for two weeks after I had him because of this magsium sulfate I was on for toxemia. I had a rough pregnancy and post partum period.

Anyway, the specialist mentioned before putting him on a hypoallergenic toddler formula, but I am not so sure they make such a thing. If rice milk works for him, would it seem best to stick to it?

shai · #5 07-20-2005, 04:01 PM

vegma, do you think the extra oils could aggrevate his reflux? I'm just curious. I don't want to give him too much, but I want him to get the fat he needs too. Too much fattening foods make him really puke. That's the big problem with reflux at his age. You want them to have the fat to gain weight, but fattening foods make the reflux worse and they barf, so weight gain is slowed. Cows milk is bad for babys with reflux because it is difficult to digest (probably because it is for baby cows with four stomach compartments, not people), and the soy milk is causing him problems. I thought I had it made. He was doing fine, then suddenly took a turn for the worse.

vegma · #6 07-21-2005, 05:57 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by shai
vegma, do you think the extra oils could aggrevate his reflux?

Shai, I have no idea! Its just that after reading The China Study, I got back into reading McDougall (www.drmcdougall.com) who insists that free oils are BAD. LOL So I've been trying harder than ever to keep us on whole foods, i.e. ground flax seeds vs. flax oil. But all the vegan dieticians I've read are ok with flax and olive oil, so don't mind me.

I do hope things go better for your little one. If the soy "worked for a while", maybe you could rotate the milks: rice, almond, oat, etc? Maybe make a fruit smoothie with avacado mixed in. Somewhere on here someone posted A Sneaky Dad's Pudding (high fat) from Becoming Vegan. We use it occasionally, adjusting the recipe the way we like it. I really don't know, just thoughts. Good luck! And keep us posted.

sunny veggie · #7 07-21-2005, 12:54 PM

I'm a fairly new vegetarian, but a long time battler of food allergies. My son had eczema and hives that we fought for over two years. Now for us soy milk was okay, but I've also done research on rice milk for toddlers. It's fine. The main thing is making up for the loss of protein and fat. Can he tolerate avocados? I used to make my son Califonia Oatmeal. I'd mash up avocado and mix it w/ oatmeal and applesauce. He loved it. I found that too much sugar, fruit or otherwise would make his eczema worse not to mention: corn, wheat, etc. The list was extensive and took lots of detective work.

A very helpful book is "The Food Allergy Survival Guide" by Vesanto Melina, Dina Aronson & Jo Stepaniak. It goes into depth about allergies including allergies in infants and toddlers. It has lots of recipes that are all vegan and free of the most common allergens. You can read a review of it here

I know allergies are no fun, but the situation can be managed. I'm really sorry you little one is going through this.

vegma · #8 07-21-2005, 04:39 PM

SunnyVeggie, that is a great book! I'm hooked on the Tasty Taco Salad - I could eat it every day! Of course, now I'm using applesauce instead of olive oil in it!

Maybe this too will pass.

shai · #9 07-22-2005, 04:41 AM

SunnyVeggie,
Looks like a good book. Maybe I will get it from half.com, I always buy cheap books from there. I also have the Complete Idiots Guide to Food Allergies. It's great, and it even has a whole chapter on GERD. I've been thickening his rice milk with infant oatmeal cereal. It helps keep it down, but now I am afraid he might be getting constipation problems. I guess there is no pleasing some people, is there?

feline01 · #10 07-25-2005, 09:22 AM

My kids were weaned off of breastmilk/organic soy formula at about 13 months and have been drinking fortified rice milk with a teaspoon of Udo's oil in it. They are doing fine but they've never shown any signs of allergy or GERD. I'm just using rice milk instead of soymilk until they are over 2 years of ago to reduce any chance of allergies.