M has a pretty severe milk allergy. We took him off Neocate about a month ago and transitioned to Isomil soy formula. I asked our allergist about switching to Soy milk at 1 and she preferred we either use Soy Toddler Formula or Hemp milk.
Anyone familiar with either? Like I've said many, many times, this is a brand new world for me and I don't have a clue!
blogger / pomegranate / 3201 posts
Liam doesn't have allergies, but he didn't drink much milk at all after 1. I was BFing twice a day and that was about it, then I weaned a couple of months later. His doctor said that as long as he was eating well, he didn't need milk.
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
Xander's severely allergic to dairy as well. We use Hemp milk and love it! We buy the Tempt brand (the Pacific brand seems to have a lot more sugar) and just buy Original (the red one). It's expensive (~$4 for 32 oz), but from everything I could find, Hemp milk seems to have the most similar nutrients as whole cow's milk. The only thing it's really lacking is protein, but Xander gets protein from other sources.
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
I always like this blog post about it, which compares the nutrition of Hemp milk to WCM:
http://www.hellobee.com/2012/07/12/hemp-milk-the-best-alternative-to-cows-milk/
Before Xander turns one, I asked our pediatrician about Hemp milk. She wasn't really familiar but she said the key things she wanted me to look for was calcium, fat, and vitamin D, which is all things Hemp milk has. Most of the other alternatives that I looked at (Coconut, Almond, Rice) didn't seem to have as much fat or lacked something else.
pomelo / 5678 posts
I love hemp milk. When DD was under 1 I made my own, now I buy the tempt brand- it has added calcium and b12 and D, so LO gets a lot of the same nutrients as milk- hemp is a great source of complex protein, healthy fat, and chlorophyll. Pacific makes some that is okay too. We get it at a local coop or whole foods. Kid loves it.
honeydew / 7504 posts
We had D on hemp milk when we first transitioned him to milk from breastmilk. I used that rather than others to boost his fat intake, cuz the doctor kept telling us he was underweight. Once I convinced myself that the doctor was an idiot and he was not underweight, we jsut switched to WCM. I think Mrs. Bee orders it in bulk from somewhere, which save some of the cost!
coconut / 8430 posts
LO has now outgrown her milk sensitivity, but for a year she was drinking hemp milk. We were able to find it at Kroger for cheaper than Whole Foods.
grapefruit / 4079 posts
@sunny: I grew up shopping Kroger. Where I live now doesn't have one. Oh how I miss it.
honeydew / 7917 posts
You can buy hemp milk by the case to get 10% off at Whole Foods. Sometimes it's on sale, and you can still get 10% off on top of the sale price.
grapefruit / 4079 posts
@yin: we don't have a whole foods. 
Giant Eagle is our normal everyday store.
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
@ladybee: It's usually in the coffee isle with the non-dairy creamers! It's at my local grocery store (Hannaford), but we also have a local organic store that carries it.
eggplant / 11716 posts
I use hemp milk! My local grocery store carries one brand , the Tempt brand but I had a lot of trouble getting my LO to drink it--and when I drank it, I figured out why. The flavor is VERY strong and not super pleasant, to be honest. I tried the sweetened vanilla even, and it didn't really mask the flavor.
Then I found the Pacific brand, that has a much better flavor to me. My local supermarket doesn't carry it, but I found a health store nearby that does, so I go there every few weeks and stock up with like 20 boxes.
I actually mix the sweetened and unsweetened half-and-half because LO likes it that way and the sugars are still way less than the sugars in whole milk.
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
Related to what @Anagram: said about the flavor - I did mix breast milk and hemp milk very slowly before Xander was on just hemp milk. When I tried giving him just hemp milk (while he was still on mostly breast milk), he wouldn't drink it. So I did a very slow transition, doing 1 oz hemp with 5 oz BM and each week upping the hemp amount and lowering the BM amount until he was fully switched.
ETA: Now (18 months), he'll guzzle down 6-8 oz of hemp milk with no issue! He loves it!
eggplant / 11716 posts
@ladybee: This might be helpful. http://lexieskitchen.com/lexies_kitchen/2012/6/25/non-dairy-hemp-milk-review.html
I also bought the Hemp Bliss once in Canada when we were there visiting family, and LO liked that one, too.
So for my LO, I agree with the linked review. 1-Pacific brand, 2- Hemp Bliss 3-Tempt.
You can buy it on Amazon, but it's pricier there than in my local health store.
eggplant / 11716 posts
@Adira: I did that, too. I tried Tempt for almost 2 months in a 1 oz to 5 oz bm ratio but LO just wouldn't ever drink more than that ratio. But she's also very, very picky. I could never get her on Neocate, either.
eggplant / 11716 posts
Oh, and...some of these brands have carageenan. Not sure how you feel about that.
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
@Anagram: Oh, interesting! That's a bummer! I guess I got lucky with Xander. He seemed fine with the transition. Definitely drank less than normal, but didn't refuse it, and now loves it.
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
@ladybee: It's a thickener made from seaweed. It's controversial on whether it's safe or not. Some people avoid it. We obviously give it to Xander everyday in his hemp milk!
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
I was weary of carageenan so I looked into making my own hemp milk and it's pretty easy. Cheaper, too. I follow this:
http://blog.stinkerpants.com/tag/hemp-milk/
The coconut milk gives you the extra protein that hemp milk is missing so I do that part, too.
honeydew / 7589 posts
I'm a little concerned about high amounts of unfermented soy in her diet (estrogens and all) so if I were in your situation I'd go with hemp.
Vi drinks both coconut milk and almond milk, and I give her coconut oil for extra fat.
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