Alternatives for Milk for 12 Month Old

My mom used goats milk for us because my oldest sister was allergic to cows milk. Same sister's kids are also allergic so she also uses goats milk. I know all my sisters and I drank Rice Dream brand rice milk, but I think that was more because my mom worked in a health food store, rather then because of any allergies.

I used soy milk with my son. He has never really had cow's milk unless someone else gave it to him. He loves soy milk. Now people tell me there are hormonal issues with soy but my son is 9 yrs old and he's fine. He's a healthy, active, growing boy.

my daughter has terrible dairy allergies and has been on rice milk since she turned one. We buy our rice milk at trader joes but it is also avaliable at wal mart and other grocery stores. They even make rice cheese and rice ice cream. It is a great alternative to cow milk.

Hey J. ~ I was planning on nursing my little girl until she was 12 months old, but got pregnant with my second baby. When my daughter was 11 months old, my milk dried up, and I started her on goats milk. We bought it from a local farmer. I read that it was the closest thing to breast milk. I would add a few drops of STEVIA (a natural sweetener - that has a lot of health benefits also) to sweeten it just a little for her. My pediatrician told me that rice and soy milk didn't have the health benefits that goats milk does. They need the fat at that age. The only downside that I had to it was that it didn't contain vitamin D - so if you can supplement that, goats milk was great for us!

Hope it helps!
~Tina

Hi J.,

Contact your peditrician and ask him. Go to your local health food store and find some probiotics for infants. This may help too.

Good luck. D.

I have a 27 month old who was on whole milk at 11 months but after a small fright of having low iron. I gave her soy milk. It helped improve her iron level. I tried switching her back over to regular milk after that and now she has problems with whole milk. I placed back on the soy milk and she has had no problems since. The very vanilla soy is more fortified for kids, but I have my daughter on regular soy and she has no problems. The doctor says she is healthy and developing normally, she just has an intolerance to the whole milk. She is able to eat yogurt, cheese and other dairy products. I know they have now come out with a stage 2 formula that is supposed to fit a I do believe 1-3 year olds needs. My doctor had also advised me to not do goats milk since it does not include any of the other nutrients that a 1 year old would need. I myself to do not see any bad reactions to the soy.

Looks like you got a lot of varied responses. My son (3)is somewhat intolerant of skim milk (he gets patches of excema (sp?) when he has too much milk so I give him rice milk for his cereal. just make sure you check calcium content because there really is a difference depending which brand you buy.

If you are going to avoid cow's milk for awhile, I would suggest keeping her on a toddler soy formula. Goat's milk is absolutely not an option. It is too high in salt and other nutrients and doesn't have enough of what she does need. The toddler soy formulas are specifically made up of vitamins, nutrients and proteins which are beneficial to her and they will not harm her. She will be eating more and more "real" food which will gradually replace the nutrition she gets from the formula, but for now, that's what I would stick with. I am a firm believer in breastfeeding also and breastfed both my boys, my second until he was 2 1/2 because of allergies he had, but formula is the best substitute.

Definitely look into the current issues on giving soy to kids.
If allergies/stomach problems are the issue with cow's milk, I would look into rice milk or goat's milk.

For our 1yo son, we do 1/2 Next Step formula + 1/2 organic cow's milk or 1/2 organic goat's milk. Son definitely prefers the cow's.

We found out very early that my son was allergic to straight milk. He is now 2 1/2 and I have been giving him Silk Soy Milk Fortified for Kids in the Purple container since he was 1 yr old. I also would give him the Yo Baby organic banana yogurt smoothies. He really liked those. I still have him on the Soy milk and he loves it, sometimes I even put some chocolate in it for him (I only started that about 2 months ago). Hope this helps.

I tried rice milk with my son - it is nice because it is thin and slightly sweet - so reminiscent of breastmilk. I wouldn't give soy milk unless you can get non-GMO soy - there are all kinds of issues with GMO Soy (if it doesn't say, it is probably GMO) and cancer - especially with little boys - just do a google search to see them all. Rice milk is a great, healthy alternative. You can also just give water. My son didn't like any alternatives to breastmilk and just drinks water. He is 3 now and still predominantly drinks water over anything else.

J.

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J.,
I would consult with your pediatrician. My son only breast-fed for 6 weeks because he screamed and hollered everytime I tried to feed him. I put him on formula and at age 1 transitioned him to whole Vit-D cow milk. He would not drink it so I kept him on formula until almost age 2. He then transitioned to 2 percent milk. Now I buy organic cow milk. I know some people fear cow milk, but my entire family grew up on cow milk. My grandparents raised cows and even gave us milk and butter straight from the cow (which is not recommended now). My family members are some of the hardest working and healthiest people I know. My grandparents are both 90 now and are as active as I am so I am try not to concern myself with the dairy fears. I know some people are allergic and have sensitive systems, but my family seems to not have issues.

I did soy milk for my son. he had diarreha from whole milk. another alternative is the lactose reduced milk.now my son is almost two years old and tolerates the whole milk a lot better. make sure to do some yogurt too. when starting off do the yobaby yogurts they are organic. good luck

No one in my family has had any difficulties wit organic cow's milk at 12 months old, but if it has caused problems for your daughter, switch it up with other things, but DO NOT replace it altogether with soy milk. Soy milk is highly engineered and lacks the essential fats that milk has. Calcium enriched to me isn't as natural as the calcium naturally found in milk, but that's a judgement call. Goats milk is supposedly better than cow's, but very expensive. I have been using it about 1/3 of the time with organic cows milk most of the time and ONCE IN A WHILE soy. Supposedly you build allergies to what you eat ALL the time, (rice in Asia, wheat in America) so go for variety if you fear cow's milk, but lactose intolerance is highly overdiagnosed and depriving a lot of young kids of vital fats and nutrients. Good luck!

Hi J.,

I will soon have a newborn and will be in the same situation when he turns 1. But we did switch our 4 and 2.5 year old to Almond "Milk". My MIL & FIL are now on a raw diet and have done lots of research on dairy, soy, and animal proteins overall - read "The China Study" if you're interested. In any case, we've cut out dairy from our diet and get calcium and other protein from greens and nuts, etc. It is expensive, but the kids LOVE it and generally only have it in their cereal. We call it Blue Milk b/c of the box! The cheapest I've found it is 1.99 at Trader Joe's (Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla). I'm going to talk to our pediatrician tomorrow as my 4 yr. old has her well visit. I'll let you know what he/she says about all of it!