choosingraw.com

When it was time to introduce dairy products to my baby I was very weary. I breastfed my baby for one year; exclusively for the first six months. During that time period, I began to notice that when I had cow milk in a glass, as a shake, or even ice cream, my baby would spit up after his feeding. So I started with yogurt, the most tolerable dairy product, and sure enough, he spit up. I waited a month and introduced cheese, he still was unable to fully digest it. At this point, I wanted to make sure he had appropriate amounts of protein and calcium as I introduced him to solids.

In the organic section of my local grocery store, I found soy yogurt, cheese, formula, you name it. So I started experimenting with soy cheese until I found one he loved. The soy yogurt was a winner, he loved it.  And I was loving that he was getting appropriate servings of protein and calcium.

However, a new problem came up. One of my closest mom friends heard from another friend that too much soy in baby boys affect their estrogen/progesterone balance in the teenage years along with fertility concerns. The research I did on the internet was insufficient so I e-mailed soyhappy.org with my concern.  Soy Happy is a consumer advocacy service that promotes and facilitates vegetarian options on mainstream menus. The director of SoyHappy, recently named one of the top “Women to Watch” in the San Francisco East Bay area, forwarded my question to a nutritionist and PhD at PCRM:

Thanks for your question.  Soy products do seem to be safe for children.  You can read more about this in the Vegetarian Journal (see the second question and answer on this page).

Based on the amounts of soy children consume in Taiwan, soy experts who I’ve spoken with say that they are comfortable with kids having a couple of servings of soy a day.  They just don’t know about higher amounts.  It’s not that higher amounts are necessarily unhealthy but that level of soy intake has not been studied in children.

The way I look at it is that soy products can be used by children as a part of healthy diet. I do encourage dietary variety rather than mainly focusing on soy products.  For instance, use chickpeas or kidney beans instead of always using tofu.  Try seitan or bean burgers along with soy burgers and dogs.

Since this reply I’ve started making substitutions for most of the soy products I use. The staple I’m keeping for now, is his organic toddler soy formula. I switched his cheese, to Veggie Slices. I switched his soy yogurt to So Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt (with added probiotics and fatty acids) and started including more beans,chickpeas and kidney beans as suggested, to replace the tofu now and again.

We are at a good place now. Nutritionally, he is receiving the required amounts of protein and calcium. Additionally, soy is a “healthier protein” than red meat and chicken, of which I am very reluctant to introduce. He doesn’t have problems digesting his foods and he enjoys all the substitutes. The trick is trying different products until you find what baby likes.

There is a slew of information out on the web that is in favor and against soy. Much can’t be said on how trustworthy the sources or facts are. It’s a large debate, not just for infants, but for toddlers, teens, and women with cancer. In my opinion, the information provided by SoyHappy is balanced and cautious, a good place for mom and baby to be until additional research surfaces. Thank you to the SoyHappy Director, Johanna, for inquiring and providing the information for us concerned moms!

Like this post? Subscribe to my feed or e-mail for more good reads - Enjoy!