Dairy free milk alternative

irishnicki

Hello-  my LO has a severe milk allergy and has been on soy formula the last 5 months. She just turned 1 and am ready to switch her to a dairy free milk. I'm thinking coconut or almond milk.  I prefer to stay away from soy due to the estrogen and rice milk after hearing about arsenic being in rice. Any thoughts on which would be better coconut or almond milk?  Thanks!

shotzie

Coconut has more fat in it, and fat is very important to LO's growth and development. None of the dairy alternative milks have much protein to speak of (except for soy milk), but you can add pea protein powder to the milk to give it some protein. Or just make sure LO is getting plenty of protein through their solids. 

Or you can do almond milk with pea protein and make sure LO is getting plenty of healthy fats, since saturated fat isn't the healthiest of fats. (Coconut milk - and cow's milk have saturated fat). Good sources of healthy fats are avocado, olives, olive oil, canola oil, and of course, nuts - but I don't know if you've introduced peanut butter or any other kinds of nuts to LO's diet yet. 

julandjo

Definitely discuss this with your allergist and/or pedi before you do anything.  With any severe allergy in the mix you need to be very cautious.  I thought the recommendation on any nuts was age 2 or older?  I'd be nervous about almond milk myself...

LSU628

Ditto checking with your allergist/GI. Our pedi told us to go ahead and switch at 1 yr, but the allergist said she likes her patients to stay on the dairy-free formula till 18 mo. We ended up doing almond milk (DD refused rice and almond milk was much easier to find in the store) and making sure DD was getting healthy fats.

irishnicki

Thank you everyone for your thoughts!

mrsmac08

DS is allergic to soy (and peanuts) and DD is allergic to cow's milk protein. When they turned 1, we switched them from their formulas and breastfeeding (DD had been on soy, DS on similac sensitive)  to rice milk which was safe for both. I chose rice milk initially because I was nervous about almond milk because of their allergies (although both pedi and allergist said to try either rice or almond). I finally switched them to almond milk at about 18 months once it was clear that there is no almond allergy (we tried small amounts of almond yogurt, etc. in the meantime).

We make sure they eat a varied diet with lots of healthy fats like avocado and olive oil.

klyann

We have been doing the shelf stable Trader Joe's Coconut Milk since DD was 14 months old.  No problems at all.  It has 30% calcium and other vitamins.  Just no protein.  Fortunately we have never had a problem getting DD to eat protein.

lrn327

DS drinks soy - my pedi didn't have concerns over the estrogen and I don't either.  It's the closest replacement to cow's.