I just started getting my family to drink soy milk sometimes. It's really good if you don't think of it as milk.

The more soy milk we all drink, the less inclined I am to drink regular milk. I'm getting squeamish about milk. It's kind of weird, the milk, I mean, and maybe me, too.

We are the only species that drinks another animal's breast milk. Why? Very weird. Go for soy, Elisa. Do it for your kids, for the planet, for the cows and, of course, for Markos! :-)

almond milk? I think I like the taste better than soy...

about the estrogen in soy too. Have you tried rice milk?

I'm a fairly hardcore vegetarian and raising the kids as vegetarians, but we do eat a lot of dairy.  My reason for choosing cows milk is that it comes with calcium already in it.  Soy milk has it as an additive (I think), which I believe to be inferior.  I've also heard the calcium can settle on the bottom and not even really be mixed into the milk.  

Please correct my info if it's wrong!

both cow's milk and rice milk.  But no one in this house drinks milk by the glass.  I use cow's milk in recipes.  My kids both put rice milk in their cereals.  No one in my house did well on soy or soy milk.  Plus, I'm not crazy about the taste.  

As a coffee drinker, I use 1/2 and 1/2.  I just can't stomach black or a dairy substitute.  

I agree with those that said we as a species don't really need milk.  But, damn I like ice cream and cheese.  I've cut back on most dairy consumption, but there are some things I'm just not willing to go without.

We are a soy-milk-free house.  I also can't handle those soy frozen foods like sausages and burgers and fake chicken.  

With little kids, I think milk is a great way to get the protein and fat they need, along with the calcium and vitamin D.  I've gone to organic cow's milk and I can't switch back now though, regular just tastes gross.

I don't think soy milk is bad, I'm not sure I believe these estrogen claims, but I just don't get it.

I tried to go vegan once and I started on a Monday and by Friday I ended up on the couch, literally, begging my husband to go get me a cheeseburger.  I was so ill, no energy.  

I'm not sure if it's one of those blood type things, but I don't do well without animal products.  I need a little bit of meat (little) and some dairy every day or I don't feel right.

The only reason I would go to soy would be for the animals' sake.

Although my dd hates soy but then I didn't introduce it to her when she was little.  I have always bought lowfat for even non fat ORGANIC milk, from day one. But I use soy milk for my cereal.

We don't eat much red meat, but I really never have due to my father's strict diet growing up.  We do eat chicken and occasionally pork.  But I am preparing alot more fish these days.  Love the Berkeley farmers market...great fresh fish as well of course as the organic produce.

Not a big fan of tofu though.  Although the Cutie Ice Cream like sandwiches at Trader Joe's are YUMMY!

You need to look at this in the context of his whole diet.  There's nothing wrong with soymilk as long as he's getting enough fat in the rest of his diet.  But I suspect that whole milk is the healthiest food you could be giving him right now.

My younger son was between the 30th and 50th percentiles in both height at weight for his first 8 months.  But he has a dairy allergy, was a picky eater, and refused to eat meat.  By the time he was 2 he had fallen completely off the growth chart and was below the 3rd percentile.  You know that saying about provide healthy choices and they won't starve themselves?  Well, guess what - some kids will.

The problem was fats.  We had no trouble getting protein into him, but tofu, soymilk, etc is too low in fat for a toddler.  He refused nuts, avocado, olive oil added to his pasta, - almost any sensible fat source.  His nutritionist ended up prescribing cookies (which he didn't care for), muffins, and potato chips just to get his fat intake up.  (My all time favorite maternal pronouncement:  "You may have more apple after you finish your cookie.")  I had not appreciated how very important fat intake is for the first few years, and I very much regret letting it go this far.

If you have any doubts about his whole diet I highly recommend a nutritional consult.  Given the extreme fat-phobia that has overtaken the country these days it helps to have the extra validation.  Really, I should have known better, but I'm not immune to it either.

I don't believe either camp. I don't buy into the "only species that drinks another's milk" stuff. We're the only species that does a lot of things. I'm not going to stop using computers or cooking my food just because the other animals in the world don't do it. I also don't really buy all the hype about how dangerous soy can be. I think you can eat just about anything in moderation and it will be just fine.

Having said that...it's the "in moderation" part that is key. I don't drink huge amounts of milk (well...due to a Native American gene, I'm lactose intolerant...but I can take pills if I really need to have my smoothie), and I don't really buy soy milk. I think it's pretty concentrated soy...and we have so much incidental (and not) soy in our diet that I don't want to add to it. I think it's kind of like eating broccoli, having broccoli sauce on things, eating broccoli cakes instead of meat, and drinking concentrated broccoli juice. That's not good for you either.

So I give my kids cow's milk, occasional rice and soy milk, and buy the good organic local stuff when I can.

My endocrinologist a long time ago gave me a list of things I should avoid eating to lower my iodine intake, and soy was on it.  So, no soy milk.  Besides, I love me some dairy.  Really everything--milk, cheese, ice cream, all of it.  YUM.

Vegan or even vegetarian is not for me.  I can't do it.  Veggies are just not enough.

This claim is entirely unsubstantiated:

Myth: Skinny kids need the fat in whole milk.
Truth: Nearly half the fat in whole milk is saturated, and it's better for your kids to get most of their fat from heart-healthy sources like nuts and nut butters, oils such as canola and olive, and fish. All kids 2 and older should drink low-fat or skim milk.

There is no evidence that it is better for kids to avoid saturated fat.  There's not really even much evidence that it's better for adults - current thinking is that the jury's still out on this.

And there are hints and rumors of contradictory data on low fat and skim milk.  Some studies are actually showing lower weight among drinkers of full fat milk.  Friends in the nutrition dept have told me that researchers are beginning to revisit this issue.  But the data favoring skim milk is surprisingly nonexistant.  The bias toward low fat milk is based on "common sense", which has a bad habit of being wrong.

Of course everybody needs to get omega-3 fats and other healthy oils into their diets.  The data is clear on this.

They were all very prone to milk allergies and until this day tend to be somewhat lactose intolerant.  My son's girlfriend, who's carrying  my coming grandchild, drinks only soy milk.  

I guess I'm saying that I wouldn't make a big deal of this.  I would probably let the kids make their own choices when they are able.  Is Marcos all right with that approach?  That could be a whole other argument!

jah isaac breastfed for 4.5 years. the first two years pretty heavily. i was vegan for years and then once i became vegetarian again, i never picked back up drinking milk. but i also don't really drink soy milk. calcium comes from other sources for both of us. we drink water, juice, and jah isaac will have the occasional bowl of cereal with cow's milk, and i will have half and half in my coffee. minimal. i still buy organic in that though.

After weaning, my kids drink moo milk. They've also had dairy and soy formula, soy milk, almond milk, rice milk, and once the older guys had goats milk but man that wasn't pleasant.

The younger two eat yogurt and cheese constantly. When the budget allows, I get organic.

Variety is the spice of life.

When dd reached 12 months (in 2000) we started her on unsweetened organic soy milk.  Mostly because it was less expensive than organic cow's milk.  I didn't want her to have regular cow's milk because of all the growth hormones.  Plus, I was reading about how soy is so GOOD for you!  I also drank the soy milk in my cereal and used it for cooking, too.  She never did drink a LOT of milk (she nursed until 2.5y).  

By the time my ds was born (2002) I was starting to read about the phytoestrogens in soy causing early puberty (the EXACT thing I was trying to avoid by not drinking regular cow's milk!)  All the soy naysayers seemed to be somehow related to Weston A. Price, which struck me as odd.  Fortunately, a Trader Joes opened up near us so we suddenly had a source of affordable organic cow's milk.  We switched to cow's milk, and tried to avoid soy products.  

Today, we buy local rBST-free cow's milk (not organic) and occasionally eat tofu and gardenburgers.  Now I try to eat locally, whole foods as much as possible (which highly processed soy milk is not) and we try to eat the confusing things in moderation.  

At a recent doctor's checkup, I was told my 9yo dd is starting to develop 'breast buds' and it led me to think back to her early soy milk days.  She's developing normally compared to her peers, but it still seems early to me.  

We went from being ignorant vegetarians who lived off junk food and swore we were sick because we didn't eat meat. Then we wised up and started leaning more heavily on whole vegetarian foods and not shying away from fats. Then we went vegan and felt great. Then we went back to junk food and junk meat (because there is a HUGE difference between junk meat and good quality meat) because I had had 2 girls within 14 months of each other and wasn't up to cooking at all let alone by scratch like we had gotten use to. And now we are back to being basically vegetarian (we don't like to call ourselves such because we are not against eating meat if offered at a friend's house or something. I know a lot of vegetarians don't like it when someone with our flexible views calls themselves veg so there ya go) but even more so heavy on the WHOLE foods. My mindset on animal products has changed. A whole foods diet is very important whether one eats meat or not. We should be eating foods at their most natural state. For this reason we have opted out of soy milks and margarines. Whole milk and butter (REAL butter) are from a close to nature state. Better, even, if you can get them raw. Just read the label- if it has a paragraph- especially if you can't read a lot of it- don't get it.

That said low fat milks (what I once would only allow in our homes if not just soy or rice milks) go through several processes that rob it of it's nutrients. Sure, it might still have x amount of whatever and be equal to whole in that but there is a balance that must be struck so our bodies can absorb the nutrients from the milk- or any other food for that matter. Low fat milks are stripped of a lot of this. Whole milk is literally whole. That said treated milk and milk from abused cows is awful for 2 fold- those poor mama cows aren't in proper health and it is inhumane to support such an industry. If only we all had the luxury of buying from family farms that we know personally do not mistreat their animals and sale calves for veal.  

I also use to think that us being the only mammals that drink milk into adulthood is weird but I came to a few conclusions on this- 1) The world average breastfeeding age is up to 4. Extended breastfeeding is not some new hippie thing but rather an ancient practice. But it hasn't been happening. Whole milk (cows, goats, whatever) is a good substitute, better than processed formula (when over a certain age, of course). 2) We are the only animals on this Earth to do a lot of things. Should we stop having sex for pleasure because we are in the minority? Humans are very different from most of the creatures we share this beautiful Earth with. Furthermore, humans are very different on an individual level. What's right for me won't be right for you and so on. I hope my experience has given some food for thought but this is just me and I'm not everyone else. Ultimately we all have to experiment and search for what is right for us and ours.        

**sorry if any typos. I don't have time to proof read**

Can I just say how it is total BS that WIC doesn't offer dairy-free alternatives? Smells fishy to me...

DH is "normal" skim cow, DD is lactose-intolerant and is eternally grateful for Lactaid; DS & I both have dairy allergies that enzyme additives don't address, so we started with soy milk, & Sean will only drink the chocolate.  Last year, I had a run-in with DCIS (an estrogen-fed breast cancer, easily treatable), so it's rice milk for me.  I really do like the Silk line of organic soy products in general, but DS prefers Rice Dream ice cream.  It has taken a lot of experimentation to find out who likes what best, so I'm not going to mess with it now.  Since they are all roughly equal in vitamin/mineral content per serving, I guess I'm happy to give him what he enjoys drinking.  (And when his weight gain is not enough, I add Ensure to the glass of soy milk.  Chocolate flavor covers a multitude of sins!)  

No way would my Asian daughters ever drink cows milk.  Most of the worlds population does not dirnk cows milk or eat diary and they get plenty of calcium.  Read "The China Study" to understand why cows milk is so unhealthy and even dangerous to children especially.  The protein in cows milk has been linked to tumor growth.  That baloney about phytoestrogens was a bunch of racist crap cooked up by this one wierd group and spread all over the internet and the new outlets.  My husbands' whole extended family eat and drink soy on a daily basis.  Most live well into their 90's and the men are men and the girls actually matured later probably due to low body fat.  There are millions of people in the world that drink soy and eat soy products and never touch dairy and they do not have any health issues with it.  The weirder thing to me and many others, is drinking cows milk.  Humans do not need mothers milk after 2 years and most of us are no longer able to digest milk soon after that. Caucasians have a gene defect that allows them to continue ingesting cows milk after weaning.  To me there is nothing healthy about dairy products.  Saturated fat, growth hormones, antibiotics, corn feed, cannibalistic feed.  If you ever visited a feedlot you would never eat meat or drink dairy again.  Most dairy cows are pumped with hormones to make them lactate earlier and constantly.  Then when they are all worn out after a couple of year they kill them for meat. Can you imagine being engourged for two years and never able to nurse a baby?  I think the dairy industry is cruel and unnecessary.  You dont need dairy to be healthy and live a long life.  Look at the Japanese.  Longest lifespan in the world, fewest health problems, low heart disease, no diary ever.  They have it right.

My kids, except for the new baby,  drink cow's milk.  We just outgrew a soy allergy with my younger son.  We've been a soy-free household for a long time now.  One thing I've noticed while dealing with the soy allergy.  Soy is in everything.  It's almost as ubiquitous as HFCS.  For that reason, I would avoid soy milk as if you're not extremely careful it's pretty easy to get ridiculous amounts of soy in a regular diet and too much of any one thing is bad.  I've been careful in reintroducing it into the household.  I really want to be conscious of how much of it we are actually consuming.

Also, given that we are a household with peanut-allergic children, I tend to take it easy on the legumes in my children's diet as I was advised to watch those and avoid tree nuts as well as they could be cross contaminated or processed on shared equipment with peanuts.  So we obviously eat meat, although I tend to avoid beef, and dairy.  My children would make some pretty lousy vegans so this is not an option for our family.

By the way, I live in upstate NY dairy country.  There are a lot of small family dairy farms near me.  It is a tough, stressful living.  I have a lot of respect for dairy farmers and some of the comments on this thread are tough to swallow (sorry for the pun).  One of the trends around here is hormone free milk, even if the farmers were not able to jump through all of the hoops to be certified organic.  There are also still plenty of pastured cows within a 10 minute drive of where I live.  The industry is not all factory farming.

If soymilk really caused early puberty in girls, wouldn't all those girls in countries that drink more soy milk than milk (Asian countries like China) have girls that have early puberty?  

It's funny to me because where I grew up, everyone says that the reason why "Americans" are so tall and big is because they drink milk.  And I also go around saying the reason why we have children w/ early puberty is because we have such good nutrition, including drinking lots of milk.  

period.  
seriously. you're arguing over MILK?   don't make me stop this car....

I actually am not a milk drinker at all (except for cereal I guess) True story, when I was a baby and my mom was trying to wean me off breast milk I categorically refused to drink regular milk. My mom and babysitter tried everything, chocolate, strawberry, whole, skim etc. Finally my babysitter hit upon grape juice in milk and that was what I drank for years. My mom would also make me take vitamins as well. Needless to say when I got old enough I stopped drinking it altogether. Now looking at a glass of milk makes me kind of ill:) I am not really big on extremism though. I believe in parents doing whatever works for them be that soy milk or cows milk "shrug".

I worry about crazy stuff with my kids ... and yes, my worries have included which milk to choose, too. (And remember, I also have Markos' love of animals/vegetarianism in my background, influencing me! ha!) Zachy ended up having lactose intolerance as a kid, which he mostly has grown out of now, but he drank a lot of Lactaid and Silk soymilk ... and he's a strapping young man without any big health problems.

I'm now in the same boat trying to figure out what milk is best to give Mia. I've decided to offer a variety, a smorgasboard of milk-type products! ha! The pediatrician recommends whole, but I often give her skim and 2 percent, too. I also have given her soy milk.

In your case, though, knowing how incredibly important it is to Markos that they drink soy, I think I would go with that. It'll just make him love you more, if that's possible! :)