What does your dairy-allergic toddler drink (looking for milk alternatives)?

[whitneyg]

What is the best/healthiest/safest milk alternative drink to start offering DD when she turns 1 in a few weeks? Rice milk? Hemp milk? Coconut milk? Almond milk? Is one better than another in terms of digestibility for a little one? Does one have better vitamins/other nutritive value than another? Are there any that are specifically geared towards toddlers? Or do I even need to give her anything like that if we are still nursing (which we will be for a while) and she happily drinks water from a sippy cup.

Not sure how to proceed and our ped wasn't much help. I wish i could afford a naturopath...

[mamafish9]

I like coconut milk - lots of good medium chain fats that are great for growing toddlers.

[Sandrine]

I gave mine enriched rice milk but it doesn't have enough good fat for their fast growing bodies and minds. So I had to make sure they had good fats elsewhere in their diets.

[alegna]

Just keep nursing and let her drink water. We're not milk-allergic, but I don't offer ANY other milk to mine until 18mo to 2yrs and then it is VERY occasional.

-Angela

[Theloose]

Lots of mommy milk here, and water. I don't like the alternative milks for nutrition - they tend to be lacking in protein, vitamins and/or minerals. Great for a milk sub to cook with, though!

Isn't the advice for introducing milk at a year generally geared towards formula fed babies, and it's appealing cause milk is so much cheaper than formula?

[treeoflife3]

No dairy allergies and not currently vegan but I only give my toddler breastmilk and water. I don't feel the need to give her any other beverage.

I do cook with coconut milk myself and sometimes put vanilla coconut milk on cereal for kiddo because she'll actually eat that (we have eating issues... oy) but I don't find it important to give her cups of milk or milk alternative at all. I prefer she chew her nutrients unless it is breastmilk or a really good smoothie.

[sewaneecook]

My 4YO DS hasn't had anything but breastmilk (until he weaned) and water on any regular basis. Juices, milk, or other beverages are strictly treats in our house. My 15 month old has never had anything but mama's milk and water. I don't even offer juices, milk, or other drinks until after 2 ... too much sugar and not enough nutrition.

[HRJ]

Our LLL leader told us that as long as DS was nuring 3x a day, no need for any milk. Later DS started drinking Almond Breeze (like at age 2). Until then it was breast milk and water. My ped is into hemp milk.

[paxye]

No other milks here either... we use almond or soy for cooking and cereal but none of us drink it as a beverage.