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Alternative to breastmilk (and cow's milk!) for toddlers?
Started
by Miranda Bryden
on February 12, 2011
The recent discussion about breastfeeding inspired so many great comments, I'm hoping I can get some thoughts from Kind moms...
My son is 12.5 months-old and I'm still breastfeeding about five or six times a day (including nights). I'm going back to work in April and I want to start offering him an alternative to breastmilk during the day. He's old enough for cow's milk, but I'd like to avoid dairy. Any suggestions?
I know there are soy based and toddler formulas. Ive never tried them though. My son never took to milk or any alternatives. He hates the taste.
Thanks for your comment! So, what did you do? Did you just give him water?
Ive tried giving him milk and he hates it. So i just give him water and juice. He does like dairy so i dont deny him of it. He will eat a little bit of yogurt and cheese. He is vegetarian by choice though haha. he doesnt like meat.
My daughter never tolerated regular formula well, so we gave her soy formula. Then when she was off formula, she didn't tolerate regular milk well (she kept throwing it up), so we gave her soymilk or almond milk which she seems to like just fine. When we go out somewhere she just drinks water. We only offer her alternative milks or water so she's gotten used to drinking those things and seems to prefer them over anything else (she's 2 now, btw). Hope this helps!
There's another thread on here about this, maybe try searching for it. I definitely think you should avoid dairy. I don't know if a child that age still needs formula, but if you go with formula, make sure it's organic soy and not conventional soy. There are a lot of different plant milks out there, if he doesn't need formula, I would just try them all and see what he likes (but again, if you try soy milk, make sure it's organic).
Hi. Both of my kids (ages 8 and 4 now) were nursed for about 1 1/2 to 2 years (mainly nighttime comfort nursing at the end). When they were ready for a different drink (about your child's age), I used Rice Dream rice milk.
I think that the reason it is not recommended is due to the low fat content; however, I was not comfortable giving daily soy to my children, since their bodies are so rapidly developing.
They both grew exponentially, despite being about 4-5 weeks premature, so I've had great success with using rice milk (plus, if you get the enriched, the vitamin content is equal to cow's milk). My daughter can have dairy, but I don't give it to her; my son is allergic (to nuts as well, so almond was out of the question), so it's not even an option. I keep all of us on the same "diet,"' so we all drink it!
Hope that helps in some way!
My son breastfed until about the same age and after that we only really worried about getting fat in to his diet and calcium. As we know by now it is not really necessary to get that from milk products. We would make smoothies everyday and switch his night time bottle or drink to water until that too phases out. Banana, avacado, kale, and an apple was always his favorite.
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