Anyone have their DC on Soy Milk?

[Jessiesmama]

My DD seems to be extremely sensitive to milk - especially at night - the Ped. Assistant told me to switch her to soy or a lactose free milk. Has anyone else gone to soy or a lactose free milk?

[Marisa]

How old is your DD? My son does drink some soymilk, but I try to limit it to once a day or less. There are elements in soy which mimic estrogens, and I'm concerned about the effects of too much of that in my DS's diet.

If she is over a year and eating table foods, you can try one of the other 'milks' like rice milk -- you can load her diet with higher-fat foods like avocado, meat, cook her food in olive oil, etc. If she can tolerate yogurt or cheese, that would be a great way to get her more calcium/fat -- a lot of times if the proteins are too hard to digest in straight milk, they are processed a bit more in cheese or yogurt and not quite as hard to digest.

[Toonces]

ITA with Marisa. We stay away from too much soy because of the phytoestrogens. My DD is allergic to dairy so we give her rice milk. Our Ped recommended trying goat's milk, but she didn't like that. Most babies who are allergic to dairy are intolerant of the protein in cow's milk, not the lactose. You can try rice or goat's milk, depending on your DD's age. They now make a rice milk that's fortified with calcium and other vitamins. The brand we use is Rice Dream and we get the plain flavor. There is a vanilla flavor that DD loves, but it has more sugar in it.

You could also talk with your Ped since it was the Asst who recommended the soy, and make your decision from that. I've found that people are either totally on board with the soy/phytoestrogen connection (which we are), or they think it's a bunch of hooey. :) I'd recommend researching more about soy milk and taking it from there.

[Traciann]

I woudl also stay away from soy for the reasons listed above.

We give DD lactaid. When we moved from breastmilk to whole milk, and DD would spit it up. She tolerates whole milk yogurt and cheese just fine. We switched to lactaid with no problems. I have tried to give her whole milk every now and then, but she has the same reaction, so we go back to lactaid.

[magdesilver]

I agree with the pp on avoiding too much soy. Also, soy doesn't have as much fat as whole milk, so you need to be careful that your DD's diet has enough fat in it. First, I'd try lactaid. It sounds like your DD can tolerate some milk, just not in large amounts. The lactaid might make a difference. If it doesn't, then I'd do goat's milk as your next option as it has more fat than rice milk. Then rice milk. Just make sure your DD has plenty of yogurt and cheese so she gets enough calcium, and make sure you add in extra fat to her diet so she gets enough for her developing brain.

[Jenyfer9]

We have our ds on soy, per doc's recommendation. He can't tolerate dairy (including yogurt and cheese) in large quantities. When he was on formula, he couldn't handle the lacto-free stuff, so we had him on soy formula too. Did you have a specific question?

[Jessiesmama]

Here's the issue:
DD drinks regular milk - no problem during the day - she eats yogurt and cheese with no issue as well - The problem is when I give her the last bottle of the day - Cows milk or soy milk - she's up several times a night in major stomach distress. I give her Mylicon before her last bottle and throughout the night - she's just miserable. Every time she moves she wakes up crying. I can hear her stomach gurgling and feel the bubbles when I touch her side or belly. I'm beside myself at his point. She's almost 15 months and this has been an issue since we transitioned to milk at 1 year.

I spoke to the Ped last week and he thought we should move back to cows milk. We did and the result is the same. I'm not sure what's going on.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[LexyLou]

My DD is on a BM/Soy Milk combo....

but I'm wondering if your daughter is just super full at bedtime and doesn't need the milk at all? Maybe that's why her tummy is gurgling and she's waking up? Just throwing that out there-I don't know how true it is...

What time does she have dinner and then what time does she go down for the night?

Maybe you can offer her the milk at dinner and just some water before bed.

[Jenyfer9]

Hmmm...

I think that if I were you, I'd do one whole day of soy to see if that was the problem. I know that sometimes it takes more than one bottle/sippy/cup to see a difference.

We're trying to transition ds slowly over to regular milk (neither dh or myself have a dairy problem, so we're hoping that ds will grow out of this), but we'll only give it to him in the morning to avoid any nighttime problems.

Sorry I don't have any other suggestions for you!

[Jessiesmama]

I work FT and my mom cares for DD during the day. Mom feeds her dinner at 6:00pm and I get there around 6:30. I take her home by 7:30 and she usually gets her last bottle at 8:00. She drinks the bottle and falls asleep in my arms - then I try to burp her (sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't - this is the only time during the day that we burp her) and put her into her crib. She's usually up within 1- 1.5 hours screaming. At that time I try to give her water. Last night I gave her chamomile tea in her bottle - hoping that that would settle her belly - it didn't really do much.

She's also not a huge eater - so I can't imagine she's super full at 8:00.

I just don't know what to do next!

[LexyLou]

Maybe it's not the soy/dairy at all...could she be teething? Maybe she's just getting lonely and wants your loving?

I know sometimes my DD screams and I'm sure she's in some type of pain but really she just has a very demanding cry.