Soy for idiots

[Anonymous]

Due to a suspected milk allergy, I want to try switching my one-year old to soy milk. I realized at the store today, however, that I know absolutely nothing about soy milk. There were a million types, and the unsweetened organic Silk I bought didn't go over too well. Is there a difference between the cold soy and the boxes on the shelf? I assume unsweetened is the best? Is it worth trying to ease DC in with the vanilla flavored? Any tips on making this change are much appreciated!

[Anonymous]

You should first ask the doc to see what s/he has to say about using soy and other types of "milk" (almond, rice). Soy has estrogen, and too much soy may affect the development of young children (early puberty for girls, e.g.).

Otherwise, organic and unsweetened, preferably with calcium fortification.

Also, your child may be able to tolerate yogurt because of the bacteria.

[Anonymous]

A high percentage of people who are allergic to milk are also allergic to soy. We use plain rice milk, cold and boxes.

[Anonymous]

soy will mess up her hormones!!! talk to the doc!

[Anonymous]

My doc said no to soy milk under any circumstances. My son is on rice milk, since he's 14 months and still allergic to cow's milk protein.

[Anonymous]

15:14, what were the reasons for avoiding soy milk? Does that go for yogurt, cheese and everything else?

[Anonymous]

Our son could not tolerate Soy and is intolerant of dairy. We use Rice milk that is fortified in the box. He did not like the vanilla, chocolate or other flavors. The pediatrician did say one issue with Rice Milk is there is no fat - which is important for brain development in children. So we have had to find ways to get fat into his diet - a challenge when most high fat foods are in the dairy catergory. I do wish he could tolerate some soy as there are many more dairy alternatives based on soy - we tried and his reaction was the same as if it was cow's milk. Our son also prefered the Rice Dream Rice Milk over all other brands - he won't even smell the unsweetened kinds. I tried them myself and I can see why - they just taste like rice water with no flavor. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

My ped is fine with soy milk in the normal amounts a young child would drink. We buy the Trader Joe's organic unsweeteened, fortified.

[Anonymous]

Dumb hijack question, but does that mean tofu and veggie burgers are bad too? My son LOVES them, gobbles them up!

[Anonymous]

Stay away from unfermented soy products!!

My son has a milk protien intolerance and we do the Almond Milk. I've tried all the alternatives and Almond milk is the best on out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dumb hijack question, but does that mean tofu and veggie burgers are bad too? My son LOVES them, gobbles them up!

Yes, horrible. Anything unfermented is bad. Pretty much anything processed you find, even when under the "guise" of healthy is bad. Not to mention that that stuff is highly processed and do you really want your small child to be eating heavily engineered, processed, then textured foods?

[Anonymous]

From: http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Health_Letter/2009/May/By-the-way-doctor-Children-and-soy-milk

Q. Is it safe for children to drink soy milk?

A. Soy and soy milk do contain molecules that interact with estrogen receptors and therefore have weak, estrogen-like effects. However, because these effects are weak, the molecules may actually act like anti-estrogens by competing with the body's natural estrogens when estrogen levels are high. For this reason, soy products have been hypothesized to reduce the risk of breast cancer. The evidence isn't conclusive, but there's some suggestion that soy consumption during childhood may reduce risk of breast cancer later in life. Soy milk or other soy products may also reduce risk of prostate cancer, but again nothing conclusive — and we don't know about the effects of consumption during childhood on prostate cancer risk.

Regular cow's milk contains many hormones, including estrogens, and we really don't understand their long-term effects.

So there's a lot to be learned. But there's also the reality that for centuries in some civilizations, people have been consuming large amounts of soy products regularly throughout life without apparent adverse effects. I don't think children need to avoid soy milk. Still, where there's uncertainty, moderation is a good policy, so limiting children to drinking one or two glasses of soy milk a day makes sense.

— Walter C. Willett, M.D., Dr.P.H.
Harvard School of Public Health

[Anonymous]

16:29, why?

[Anonymous]

yes, since when is tofu considered processed? The Japanese eat plenty of it from a young age, and they are some of the longest lived people on earth! Suddenly tofu is bad?

[Anonymous]

You might want to start with plain soymilk (as oppposed to unsweetened) which is slightly sweetened with cane juice - but still has less sugar than milk (sugar in milk is in the form of lactose, which soy milk lacks.) You could also mix in a little of the sweeter vanilla soy milk - or start on vanilla and work your way to plain by mixing.

I didn't drink cow's milk for many years. I didn't like rice milk, and if I remember correctly it doesn't have nearly as much protein as soymilk. Now, I drink both dairy and soy. Switching to soy was an adjustment - I didn't like it initially. I had trouble drinking regular milk after awhile; I was so used to soy that I found that cow's milk had an aftertaste. So yes, an adjustment period may be necessary.