Soy Vs. Regular Formula

I have two children, now 4 and almost 3. My oldest had major stomach problems when she was 2 months old, and the pediatrician said to switch to soy. For some odd reason, my husband went and bought the lactose-free formula instead, and my daughter was fine. We tried regular whole milk around 1 and had the same problem as before, but she was now vomiting almost daily as well. We had to switch to soy milk, but found vanilla flavor, and she loves it. With my youngest, we just started with the lactose-free formula, and switched him to lactose-free whole milk when it was time. He's never had the problems my oldest had. The lactose-free milk tends to be more expensive than the soy, so that may be a factor as well. By the way, both children can have a limited amount of regular milk (about 8 oz.) without having major problems, but any more, and we are in trouble. We also need to take into account the foods they eat that contain milk: cheese, yogurt, icecream, etc. because the total amount of dairy is what affects them now. They say that most people have lactose intolerance- I think I heard upwards of 60%, and that cow's milk really isn't the best anyway. Good luck.

My son was on soy very shortly after he was born (gas problems too) and we never went to regular formula. We were very worried as well about the milk allergies. We started him on one bottle of milk on his first yr. bday, and he had no problems whatsoever. Did that for about a week, then added another bottle, etc. Now he's 17 mos. and he has no milk allergies (or any other allergies). If you want to switch to regular formula, you can, but I don't think soy will CAUSE milk allergies. Actually it's funny because everywhere I've read, it says soy is a very allergenic food. Good luck.

Hi C.,

I have a 10 month old with some severe food allergies, including dairy. The way I understand it, if your daughter had a food allergy to milk or was prone to developing one, the less exposure to dairy, the better. Thus, giving soy now (instead of milk) would actually lessen the chances of her having an allergy to milk down the road. However, it sounds like she takes dairy-based formula fine now, which means that she does not have an actual milk allergy (very good news!), and if she had an intolerance (different than an "allergy", technically) to dairy as a newborn, it sounds as if she has outgrown that (if she's no longer getting gassy from the dairy-based formula).

I don't think you can go wrong either way. However, my advice would be that if you want to start whole milk at age 1, and if she does tolerate the dairy formula fine now, I would probably start giving her 1 bottle per day of the dairy-based formula instead of soy. It seems like that might help prepare her digestive system slowly for the transition to whole milk. Does that make sense?

I hope this helps... Feel free to email me if you want to talk more about it. I'm trying to figure all of this out for my son, too. He has a true milk allergy (gets hives all over his face from tiny exposures to dairy), so we are sticking to soy for now! :)

Good luck to you.

E.

Hi, I had my son on soy formula for atleast a year, then changed him to regular whole milk, he has been okay. However, if your baby is okay taking regular formula, why dont you switch her?

P.