Charlie has a sensitive gag reflex, and has always thrown up pretty regularly. I didn’t think that he had a milk allergy until our pediatrician suggested it at a recent appointment, because Mr. Bee and I don’t have a family history of food allergies. Charlie was also tested for environmental allergens when he was younger (over 80 pin pricks in his back), and they all turned up negative. And while he would throw up regularly after drinking milk or eating, it usually happened when he was coughing so I didn’t associate it with an allergy.

Before we switched Charlie to cow’s milk when he turned one, I starting hearing a lot of anti-cow’s milk information, so I did some research on some of the different types of milk out there including regular cow’s milk, raw cow’s milk, goat’s milk, and soy milk.

A lot of people in our neighborhood are proponents of raw, grass-fed cow’s milk, because the pasteurization process destroys certain enzymes which make milk more difficult to digest. Regular cow’s milk is also associated with other maladies including increased ear infections, colds, allergies and diabetes. I actually lived next to a small dairy farm in Korea, and drank raw cow’s milk all the time when I was little. But the thought of giving Charlie unpasteurized milk was a little scary, and for all the anti-milk literature out there, this post by Dr. Sears helped me feel ok with giving Charlie cow’s milk. At the time I also preferred cow’s milk to soy because I’d read so much about the estrogen-mimicking compounds in soy, which can reduce fertility, and trigger premature puberty. I’ve long known that kids are starting puberty at much earlier ages, and that really freaks me out!

Since Charlie has been having a lot of problems with constipation the past couple of months — dairy can be constipating — our pediatrician suggested that we try switching Charlie to soy milk to see if his vomiting improves, while helping his constipation at the same time.

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Though I wanted to do a little more research, we made the switch to soy milk a couple days ago moreso for Charlie’s constipation, which has caused him to cry in excruciating pain 3 times over the past 4 months, and regularly have hard stools. But I’m definitely going to do more reading and consult with my friend the nutritionist to figure out the best option for Charlie, as he’s a little milk monster who’s not going to give up his milk any time soon. We’ve already tried rice milk to help with constipation, Charlie was not a fan, but there are many other types of milk out there. For further reading, this article lists some of the the pros and cons of many different types of milk.

What type of milk do you feed your LO? Do you worry about giving your LO cow’s or soy milk?