eliminating dairy products

Parenting and Education (Other) General Parenting
41

I am currently eliminating all dairy from my son’s diet. And I mean all dairy. I am being very careful not to give him any prepared food that have any type of dairy product in it. I made pasta last night and had to search through my sauces to find one that did not have any cheese products in it.

I am mainly doing this because I think his system is intolerant of dairy and it is affecting him. He developed a rash on his face and his poor bowels just can’t normalize. He also started getting some exzema on his legs, but that could just be due to the dry weather?

The doc said it takes a full month to get all dairy out of his system so I’ll let you all know how he does dairy free at that time. It’s only been a couple of days since we went completly dairy free.

I tried the raw milk and was really hoping that would work for him because of all the benifits that I read about, but I don’t think it will work for him at least.

Right now he is drinking a mix of rice and/or almond milk.

Right now I don’t inforce “dairy free” on my other kiddos but it is limited because I am not cooking with it. I am hoping the limited dairy will benifit them also.

42

Did you do him blade tests to see from what. In jake case he was diagnosed that he had lactoise intolerence .It is from the cow .He was tested for many things they took 12 test tubes.

43

We haven’t done the blood tests yet. 12 tubes :blink: ouch! If eliminating dairy for a month doesn’t do us any good then I will press for some sort of testing. Although I’ve read that testing at my son’s age isn’t very reliable??

44

In my opion it is better to have his blood test now so that you know.Mine has 5years he has speech delay he never told me that he was in pain because of the milk.He was even diagnosed that had low iron.It sounds cruil 12 Test tubes but in 10 mins he was ready.He was more afraid then it was pain to take it. Many results comes out from it even if he is alergic to something .Try to test the poo for the milk .there are testing on it too.

45

I just saw this topic and would like to share my experience on the subject.

When I received the same article, I asked my daughter’s pediatrician about it. To my surprise, he said his two daughters (age 4 anmd 6) have not drank any milk since they were 10 months old. He said, humans do not need milk and gave the example of animals, as no animal babies drink milk as adults. He did suggest that I give her a multi vitamin tablet every day when stop the milk.

The problem was for me that my daughter loved her milk, so I started looking for alternatives. After reading confusing things about soy, I decided not to switch to soy milk completely. In the end I found an Oat drink, that my daughter loves drinking. I found it in wholefoods market. It is organic, enriched with Vitamin A & D, excellent source of calcium. Below is a link of this product.

http://www.pacificfoods.com/our-foods/nut-grain-beverages/organic-oat-original-non-dairy-beverage

Unfortunately, the store seems to run out of it very often, so I stock up whenever they have and if I run out of it then I give her soy milk.

She is still eating one yogurt and one cheese stick a day. She is asthmatic and used to be sick all the time. After, I stopped milk, started multi vitamins and giving her flu shot, she has not been sick for the past 2-3 months, which is so hard to believe,…

I also tried to give her Dr. Sears’s fish oil, but she hated that and any other fish oil I tried. Then I found flaxseed oil for toddlers. It is called Toddler DHA, the brand is Spectrum essentials and it is organic. In the supplement facts it says: ALA 300 mg, DHA 125mg and EPA 9mg. I wonder if this is good based on the comments above.

46

Thanks for sharing that Miamimum. It’s hard to believe that a doctor would be one to not give his kids milk.

There is a fish oil that I take that is odorless. It’s made by nature made. I have never tasted it or burped up fish taste. You may want to try it or look for a similar product.

47

NHOCKODAY can you write me the name of the product. My son is on holiday in London so that he ask for it please.I HAVE OVER 6 BOTTLES that consist in omega …and iron but when he smell it he refuse it.At this moment i am giving him Eskimo kid and he improuved regards consentration.thanks

48

It’s Nature Made brand Odorless Fish Oil 1200 mg. Here is their site http://naturemade.com/ProductDatabase/prd_prod.asp?tab=Products&section=2&productid=127 You just have to make sure that you buy the odorless because they also make some that is not odorless.

Here is a store locator if you are in the U.S. http://naturemade.com/retailer/ret_region.asp?tab=Products
It looks like you can buy it online too.

49

Hi all,
I stay in India and I personally do not have access to raw milk or too much of soy milk.
My daughter does not like dairy products, especially milk and curd but I force her to drink it everyday as I have always heard dairy calcium is a must for growing children.
she does get cold and cough often which takes almost a month to go.
please suggest which susbstitutes we can give to replace nutrients of milk and dairy products? are calcium sandos enough?
Garima

50

Hi garima,

You haven’t mentioned how old your kid is. I stay @ B’lore and I don’t give any diary products or milk as I have found most of them are not fresh. When my son turned 2, I started him on Pediasure, Vanilla. Its a little expensive than most other nutritional powders, but worth it. It has all the ingredients needed for growing children and there is no need to add milk.

http://www.abbott.co.in/Pediasure.htm

You can also try protinex junior by Wockhardt.

Hope this helps,
anjie

51

Ok, so i’ve just read 4 pages of numerous posts. What I’ve gathered from reading all of them is basically, SOY is bad, Cows Milk & Dairy is bad, Almond is also bad, flaxseed oil is bad…and I think there was more?? :wacko:

Goats milk may offer a better alternative. I’ll conduct more research on this matter. I am currently giving my 12 month old son Earths Best Organic formula and was planning on continuing giving him formula until the age of 2 due to all the minerals/vitamins and nutritional value in the formula. I may have to alter this plan…

52

UK study finds high levels of inorganic arsenic in rice milk and advises against giving it to children under age 5.
Summary here:
http://www.food.gov.uk/science/surveillance/fsisbranch2009/survey0209

Complete Study here:
http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/fsis0209arsenicinrice.pdf

53

I don’t know… I feel pretty safe not giving my little ones cow’s milk (or goats milk, or soy milk, etc). Some of my children like to drink it occasionally… we have it in the house mainly for DH’s coffee or for recipies (pancakes, cheese sauce for mac’ncheese, etc). In a week we might go through 4 litres (1 gallon) at most… for a family of 8! My oldest is 15 now and they’re all growing up just fine without having milk as a regular part of their diets. In fact, in 15 years with 6 children, we’ve had a grand total of only 3 or 4 ear infections… I’ve read that dairy can contribute to this. If I didn’t breastfeed them for almost 3 years or more, then I might get some sort of ‘vegetarian baby’ book from the library… but they are all getting milk (from me) during those first few years, and then they are weaned. (Just like all the animals in nature who wean and then no longer drink milk for the rest of their lives… especially not the milk of a different species… it just doesn’t seem natural when you think about it like that).

Well, it’s only my humble opinion… I’m no medical doctor or anything… but to me I think it must be okay and healthy to wean from milk past babyhood.

54

I don’t know, if you perceive there is a problem with your child’s health then I guess you should look to eliminating allergens, including dairy. I do not think my child has any health problems, but I could be wrong.

What do you do for calcium, vitamin D, and protein and fat source then. There aren’t many foods that are very complete on these types of nutrients, which I think is one of the main reasons our diet is riddled with dairy. I don’t think they should recommend getting rid of dairy without suggesting affordable equivalent substitutes.

55

My beloved stool softener is bad??? Why???

56

It isn’t bad, just doesn’t benefit babies to take for omega 3.

57

Kappasweet wrote: What do you do for calcium, vitamin D, and protein and fat source then. There aren’t many foods that are very complete on these types of nutrients, which I think is one of the main reasons our diet is riddled with dairy. I don’t think they should recommend getting rid of dairy without suggesting affordable equivalent substitutes.

Well, for calcium we make smoothies with almonds or brazil nuts in them, also salad lettuce is a good source of calcium, some fruits and other things too. Vitamin D is manufactured by your own body when you are exposed to sunshine, so unless you’re living in the far North where the winter days are dark, then a daily exposure to the great outdoors will be plenty for Vitamin D. Protein is in lots and lots of stuff; besides the nuts I mentioned, it’s in fruits and vegetables too. Protein is made up of amino acids. A fruit or a vegetable or a nut or a grain doesn’t have all the amino acids, but with a varied diet, it should be no problem to get enough complete protein. (The real concern in North America is probably that many people consume too much protein). There are many healthy fats that aren’t animal based… for the baby I mash avocado with banana for example… also nuts, olive oil… even oranges have a small amount of fat in them believe it or not. In our house we do use cheese… mostly because it is convenient and tasty… but I’d feel very comfortable feeding the kids a totally vegan diet too. I think the older ones might protest, and I’m quite sure my husband couldn’t do without some meat either, so for our family we have a ‘mostly vegetarian diet’ and we all seem healthy. There are lots of vegan books that explain how vegans easily get their nutritional requirements, but I’m not any kind of health expert… I’ve just read a few books and I feel quite comfortable without emphasizing dairy consumption in our children’s diets. The nutrients you mentioned are actually some of the least concerning to vegan diets from what I’ve read… sometimes iron or vit.B12 can be an issue. (One book I read asked “Why are the countries with the highest dairy consumption per capita also the countries with the highest incidence of osteoperosis?”)

Many books that advise eliminating dairy do point out that the American and Canadian Food Guides have changed over the years to emphasize more fruits and vegetables and less dairy and meat… they suggest that medical science is discovering that so much dairy is not good for our bodies (a milk that is designed for a large muscular cow… human milk has less fat and more lactose - the milk sugar that grows our central nervous systems; our brains). However, they point out, even with this medical knowledge, the governments can never suggest to cut down or eliminate dairy because the dairy industry is so huge…it wouldn’t be a good political move at all. And remember, it’s the dairy industry commercials that say “Milk…it does a body good”.

My big question is still “Why are we the only species that don’t wean?” All the mammals in nature look pretty healthy without drinking milk past infancy. Well, like I said, these are just my own experiences and insights… I’m no medical expert. But I’ve read enough books that I feel comfortable with the diet we eat in our family. And our babies are getting milk until they’re almost three or longer… human milk. If I couldn’t breastfeed for that long for some reason, then I would definetely look for some alternative because babies do have different nutritional needs than adults do.

58

quote author=anjie link=topic=1940.msg29182#msg29182 date=1241517266]
Hi garima,

You haven’t mentioned how old your kid is. I stay @ B’lore and I don’t give any diary products or milk as I have found most of them are not fresh. When my son turned 2, I started him on Pediasure, Vanilla. Its a little expensive than most other nutritional powders, but worth it. It has all the ingredients needed for growing children and there is no need to add milk.

http://www.abbott.co.in/Pediasure.htm

You can also try protinex junior by Wockhardt.

Hope this helps,
anjie
[/quote]
Hi Anjie,
Thanks,
My daughter is 3 yrs old and doesn’t like milk at all.
I will try pediasure.
Its scary to see mothers feeding their kids 2 glasses of milk, cheese, curd and your kid eatin nothing, as if she will be deprived of nutrition.
Thanks for the encouraging reviews by all of you.
I will try alternatives.
Regards,
Garima

59

Hi,
I only had time to read a handful of the posts. But here’s what IAHP told us. Yes, definately elliminate the dairy…so we did what we could. It’s been reduced to at least 75%. It’s not easy to maintain, we just do our best! And as far as the calcium they told me sunshine was the best form of bone-building calcium. So we spend many hours in the sun. I have also found this info on Dr. Mercola’s website. Hope this help some!

Autumn

60

Hi

I’ve read all 4 pages, still confusing what to give my baby. she is 15 months old, still drinking 4-5 bottles of formula everyday (Nestle Nan 2). She has been on formula since 6 months old due to me going back to work full time and had to go overseas for a business trip at that time. And face it not all full time working mom can keep up their milk supply, if you are going to suggest that I should have expressed milk. I have invested good money in that machine and it did not work very well for me though I tried many ways.

Well now my baby goes to a daycare. She is a picky eater, at home and at daycare. So I have been relied on her drinking formula to complete the required nutrients. I give her liquid iron to supplement her food intake as well. We are an Asian family so we don’t really use milk in cooking. That part is fine then, I only have to worry about her formula now right? And the daycare’s cooking, since I am sure they use heaps of dairy products in cooking and drinking. The other day I just came to pick up my baby earlier than usual and see they fed her cracker with cheese on it, and she seemed to like it.

So am I to substitute cow-milk based formula with some other formula? If so, what is the suggestion since rice milk, soy milk, animal milk, almond milk are all not good?

Or do I just drop the milk and hope she will eat all the food we cook when she is hungry? I am just so worried that she would be losing weight. Her cousin is underweight and developing problems because he is eating too little.

She also drinks once at night time and once very early in the morning when she is still asleep (we do not force her to drink, she lets us know she is hungry and in need of a drink by signs). What do I do with those meals, it seems not a way to let her get up and feed her solids at 11pm-12am or 4-5am???

Also when I have a 2nd baby, and have to drop breastfeeding before 1 year old, what should I do to give the baby nutrients without dairy? You know under 1 they need milk as they are only learning to eat solids.

A note on the fish oil, I have not been able to follow the links since I’m using my work laptop. However I’ve read info somewhere else regarding flaxeed oil does not provide DHA in a form readily for our bodies to absorb, and it is not easy to convert from other forms to DHA. Actually I have done a few research myself on the fish oil, and all of the products availalbe in pharmacies, supermarkets where I live (NZ) are sadly lacking in both DHA level, and information regarding their products. I bought my fish oil online from a company called Xtend-life, I found they publish the most complete info regarding fish oil, what to look for, what source of fish, how they process fish into Omega 3 oil, the level of pollutants in their fish oil (not just saying they comply to whatever standard…), what make of the capsules etc… their website is www.xtend-life.com if you want to read. Before that, during pregnancy and breastfeeding, I bought fish oil from a company called Oils for life, also online. My baby has always had a good attention span, not sure due to fish oil or not though. I only switched the fish oil because Xtend life publishes more info around their products though. Surprisingly both the companies are NZ companies, and their main source for the oil is Hoki fish, a NZ deep sea fish with natural high level of DHA.

Waiting for feedback regarding what I should do with my baby’s formula feeding? Many thanks in advance.