Dairy and Behavior Problems, need advice in weaning!

[Jordan Wildman]

Hi All, My three year old LOVES his milk but after careful observation, I'm thinking that dairy may be the culprit for his hyperactivity and agressiveness. I am dairy free as well as my younger son so I'm well-versed on the substitutions and all that but I'm not having luck switching up his morning and evening/bedtime milk. He LOVES his milk at night and has had it as part of his routine. We tried goats milk last night and he didn't like it and I"m not even sure if that is still considered dairy....

I'm thinking rice milk because we are on a major budget and know that if he likes it I can make it myself.

Any advice would be really helpful, has anyone experienced this and what have you done to change?

[Cynthia Mosher]

I don't have any answers for you but thought I'd bump your post up for attention. You might also try posting over in the Health and Healing or Allergies forum.

[BabySmurf]

i don't really have much advice, but just wanted to mention that when i cut out foods that i am having issue with, i have some pretty good withdrawals/cravings...i'm not sure if that's the case for you, but that may be a chunk of the hurdle in terms or replacing the cows milk with goats milk.  another note, as we are making the switch to goats milk, is that the goats milk is much less sweet.  (and depending on which part of the milk you all have issues with, it may or may not take care of the problem...), so maybe you could try adding some honey to the goat milk to sweeten it up?
 

[graciegal]

Vanilla almond milk would be good. Dont do soy milk - the phytoestrogen is SO not what kids/babies should have (and really not what -anyone- should have).
 

[Amy@STL]

My boy loves his milk as well! I have had success starting half cow milk, half other milk..and slowly going totally non cow milk.
We use varIety...hazelnut, almond, soy ( I have done my research and I am OK with some soy in our diet...not processed soy though) , coconut milk...in all their flavors. It has worked for us!
Rice milk is too sweet for kids, I would avoid it.

[Amy@STL]

Forgot to add tge link to homemade nut milks http://www.thetastyalternative.com/2012/05/homemade-hazelnut-milk-scd-friendly.html

[graciegal]

Hi Amy, just think about it this way. They tell women to eat a serving of soy a day to keep menopause away. It acts strong enough as an estrogen to replace lost estrogen due to menopause. . . children are not supposed to have sex hormones in their system until puberty. Just something to think about. I am a nutritionist and also a science professor teaching cell biology, chemistry, and Anatomy & Physiology.
 

[Amy@STL]

Originally Posted by graciegal 

Hi Amy, just think about it this way. They tell women to eat a serving of soy a day to keep menopause away. It acts strong enough as an estrogen to replace lost estrogen due to menopause. . . children are not supposed to have sex hormones in their system until puberty. Just something to think about. I am a nutritionist and also a science professor teaching cell biology, chemistry, and Anatomy & Physiology.

 

Graciegirl, I understand what you are saying, the internet is full of such concerns from western society. I am not so alarmed because I believe eating cheese, cows milk, meat, GMO altered food, etc are damaging to health and " they " advocate it as part of healthy diet. Feeding my toddler meat raises the same type of alarm as you feel regarding soy. Yet, all of our friends feed their kids and babies meat without a second thought. My purpose of saying this is to convey that I find myself not in " mainstream " in this arena.

Certainly having soymilk as your child's main milk is not wise, but in a healthy non prcessed plant based diet , with a combination of various milks, I am choosing to have soy ( not in its processed but in its form which has been part of human for centuries in asian countries) as part of our family's diet.
Diet and nutrition are very complex topics with cultural and historical and now scientific influences.