What milk alternative do you use, and why?

[melw629]

My 9-month-old is allergic to dairy and nuts, so our options are limited (rice, soy, coconut, or hemp...unless there's another one out there I don't know about). I have no plans to introduce any milk alternatives before his first birthday, but I'd love to know what other parents use, and why. Or did you just skip 'milk' altogether? Is there a significant reason to give milk alternatives as a beverage?

[ruby]

My LO is almost 13 months old. We are still breastfeeding, but I've started introducing hemp milk once a day (Tempt Vanilla). The plan is to eventually have her drink around 2 cups a day once she's weaned. DD is intolerant to dairy, soy, and wheat plus has failed several food trials. I'd love to skip milk altogether, but DD only has about 12 safe foods so we chose hemp milk because it has healthy fats and a little protein. It also closely compares to breastmilk in terms of fat, calories and protein. If your LO is eating a pretty balanced diet by the time you wean (bm or formula), I don't see why you need to stress it though.

[casey]

Hi, I haven't been around in a while but just saw the sub board. My LO was allergic to milk and nuts (and other things too). We have used oatmilk since 13m (23m now). The calories are about the same as wcm, and I liked how other nutrition lined up as well.

You don't have to do milk or. I'll alternative. It's just a quick and easy way to get calories, hydration, and vitamins.

[turtles7]

My little one is still too young to be drinking milk but wanted to let you know about another milk alternative. Since she is dairy, tree nut, peanut, and egg free, I've discovered flax milk.

[melw629]

I didn't know oat or flax milk existed! How expensive are they? Soy, rice, and coconut aren't too bad where I usually shop. Hemp is pretty expensive if I remember correctly, and I really don't know where I would find flax or oat...I may have to try to get out to the health food store to see if they have it. What kinds of stores do you find them at?

[Deleted]

We chose coconut bc of the cost of hemp and bc DS liked it better and it had better fat content than rice/almond (my LO doesn't have nut allergies). I didn't want to do soy as it can be used as an estrogen replacement.

[casey]

Jun 22, 2015 18:05:58 GMT -5 melw629 said:

I didn't know oat or flax milk existed! How expensive are they? Soy, rice, and coconut aren't too bad where I usually shop. Hemp is pretty expensive if I remember correctly, and I really don't know where I would find flax or oat...I may have to try to get out to the health food store to see if they have it. What kinds of stores do you find them at?

We pay about $3/quart for the oat milk. Not cheap.  I just don't allow myself to computer the per gallon cost (helps that she still bf, so she doesn't put down a lot of volume).  We are in tx and shop at market street. We've also found it in our parents smaller towns -- at a big Kroger and a big wegmans. 

[turtles7]

Flax milk is $3.49 for half gallon at wegmans.

[Widget123]

Some milk alternatives such as coconut milk and almond milk are considered nut products and thus banned by many daycares. For this reason DD is exclusively on soy milk. If your LO is allergic to nuts I'm not sure nut based milk alternatives would be a good idea anyway. Soy milk has almost the same nutritional value as regular milk, except it has a much lower fat content so we make up the fat in other ways. If you aren't going to give milk alternatives at all, I recommend daily vitamins.

[elbug]

I'm trying soy milk with my 11.5 month old now. I was only able to determine a milk protein intolerance. Daycare won't allow almond and they're considering coconut. I'm not entire sure which to go with honestly. I'm hesitant to do a lot of soy product but it has more protein than coconut.

[2jelplus1]

Our ND suggested using real coconut milk/cream (it comes in a can, generally in Asian food section) to get a lot of extra good fats in our intolerant daughters diet. My LO doesn't like to eat so cal/oz is important.