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Goat's milk or kefir. Charlie is still on hemp but I try to mix it up.

We drink almond and coconut milk. They taste better than other alternative milks, we think!

@Mrs. Pen: We plan to give A almond milk. It has alot of nutrients and more calcium then cows milk.

There is soy, almond, coconut, hemp, oat, rice, sunflower and quinoa milk that are readily available pre-made, but you could literally make a "milk" from anything at home and it is pretty easy. We tried all of the above but LO still reacts to them so he has a toddler perception formula. Ugh

Coconut and hemp will give you the most fat and nutrients, but none of them will naturally come close to the calcium in cow's milk so you will have to watch that. Some of them are calcium fortified but it settles to the bottom so really shake!

Some animal alternatives are goat, sheep, and camel milk. There is actually some research about Camel's milk helping kids with ADD/ASD/allergies, but it is hard to find. Supposedly it is the most like breastmilk. It just received FDA approval in 2012 to be sold in stores!

Here is post on making sunflower milk. The process can be applied to any nut/seed milk (for quinoa you need to cook it first): http://sweetbeetandgreenbean.net/2008/12/12/raw-cinnamon-sunflower-seed-milk/

Hubby and I drink almond milk almost exclusively (some soy, but only on occasion). I think its a great alternative, and it just tastes so good!
I believe that a lot of the alternative milks are supplemented now, so they have a good amount of calcium and other nutrients as well.

@Mrs. Pen: I'm not sure about the use of it as a formula. I know you can get it in fresh and powdered form, although the fresh is believed to have a better effect on ASD patients. I also heard of Tiger's milk being used in some countries! A women in one of our FPIES groups said Camel and Tiger milk are common alternatives where she is from but I'm not sure where that is.

Get coconut manna to make your own! Omg that stuff is AMAZING!! It is made from the whole coconut and just the coconut so all the good stuff is in there

@Mrs. Pen: I hear ya, the nearest Whole Foods to me is across the border close to an hour away. I always stock up when I'm there since they have a pretty good shelf life, we have a milk shelf just for E in our pantry!!! Luckily Costco sells almond milk by the case, that helps a lot too!!! Good on ya for making your own, I bow to you

I'm not sure what we'll do when the time comes, but I'm leaning toward coconut. My concern with most of the commercially made almond milks is carrageenan which is supposedly not so great. It's a bummer since I used to love Almond Breeze but may look into making my own now.

I'm interested in this as well but there are so many additives even in organic almond milk, like @hummusgirl: said, carrageen is in almost all.

After reading this thread it got me thinking about whether or not I should be drinking cow's milk, since it's bad for our health/environment...then I started looking online for the best alternative and now I'm sad. Coconut milk has been linked to an increase in breast cancer?! And almond milk can cause ulcers?! Now I'm more confused than ever on what eating healthy even means anymore how do you ladies do it without feeling defeated?

@weagle, I honestly didn't even think of it like that. /: I just got overwhelmed that there is no ultimate best overall answer. Now I feel silly (:

@hellocupcake: I know what you mean... the more you read and become informed, the more you will feel defeated at times and go crazy with it! The method to my madness with everything these days is to buy from varied sources to decrease the chance of exposure to a certain brand or food in huge quantities. That way, we keep our risk low. (Sort of like when investing money and having diversity with your accounts). That's why we do a mix of almond and coconut milks and buy from a few different brands regularly. I shop at different grocers anyway.

Re: carrageenan... The link I posted above does list many readily available brands that don't have carrageenan in their products. It's not too hard to avoid, so I chose to avoid it if possible, but I honestly don't worry too much about it either. Because at the same time, it also debatable whether or not it is a carcinogen (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/12389870/).

I also figure that with milk, 16oz a day is just fine for toddlers because they should be getting nutrition from other sources too.

@hellocupcake: No need to feel silly :). It's only natural for a mother to be concerned about what her child eats.