What are your experience with soy formula with infant?

I did some soy formula for my son and took care of a little girl who took soy formula and lactose-free milk based formula. I think the soy stuff had a weird smell and noticed that it tended to stain easier. When I was given the option of changing to a 'regular' formula, I did and my son did well with it. When we switched him to regular milk, he started having problems (stomach, nose, cough) that all went away when we took dairy out of his diet completely. He drinks soy milk, primarily and loves it. When I bake things for him I use almond milk because it's a little sweeter. Hope that info helps.

1 mom found this helpful

Hey S.,

My twins both are on soy formula, both babies struggled with constipation on 'regular' formula. I don't like the idea of their primary nutrition being based on a very large and very different mammal's milk. A dietitian friend of mine recommends goats milk if you can't breast feed. Unfortunately for my babies, WIC doesn't pay for goat's milk, so soy was the next best thing for us. Best of luck, and don't let anyone make you feel bad for not breastfeeding!

C.

My body didnt produce milk no matter what I tried. So I used all kinds of different brands and found my son was lactose intolerant and would get bad diarrhea. I started him on soy and he was fine in fact he still drinks soy milk now that he is 4 it is the boxed and not formula of course. We would buy the Parents choice (wal mart brand) it was the cheapest and just as good as the rest. With my daughter who is now 2 1/2 we just started her on soy because it worked for my son. plus all my sisters kids were on soy milk. When baby reached one we switched to regular soy milk because cows milk was same thing with diarrhea. At first the doctor was concerned with brain development because of the lack of milk fat. However our children are very intelligent and the doctor no longer has issues with them still being on soy.

S. M.,
Hello. I have had 4 of my 5 on soy formula. I'll have my 5th in October and I'm sure she'll be on it as well. For whatever reason, reasons unknown to me, my kids have all been lactose intolerant for at least 2 to 3 years of their lives. I would actually switch at 12 months to soy milk too, until about 3 or even 4. My husband is lactose intolerant to some dairy, but my dad is lactose intolerant to all dairy. All my kids are just fine. My 2 daughters 8 & 6 are thriving! My 2 sons 4 & 2 are thriving little boy's. I hope I helped A. G xoxo

Hi S.,

You are wise in asking about soy before feeding your daughter this very dangerous "food."
The myth about soy being nourishment for a human is thankfully being exposed.
Here is a link to a website that contains numerous articles about the dangers of soy...especially in infants!
Copy and paste this into your browser.

http://search.mercola.com/Results.aspx?q=dangers%20of%20s...

Or you can just go to www.mercola.com and type in "dangers of soy" in the search window.

Another site you can visit to discover the truth about soy is www.westonaprice.org

There are much better feeding alternatives to soy!!!

Take care,
D.

We did feed our son soy formula. He's now 2. We noticed early that he would spit up terribly on regular formula. Due to a medical condition (high blood pressure) I was unable to BF him past 3 months.

After trying many formulas, we settled on the Parent's Choice Soy formula. And we stayed with that until he was exclusively on solid foods.

My son has been on soy formula since he was about 4 months old (he's now 9 months). He was colicky, had acid reflux and just all around fussy. After trying all times of other formulas, we finally tried soy. Soy formula helped a lot. We tried Nestle Good Start soy first - but ended up using Similac Isomil Advance.

Hi S.,

Here a very informative article about soy from Mothering Magazine. It is rather lengthy, but well worth reading.

http://www.mothering.com/articles/growing_child/food/soy_...

Good luck with your new baby!

A.

Hi S.,

I know you've received plenty of responses but I just thought that I would throw mine in :o). I'm not an advocate of soy, so my son (5 months) gets Enfamil LactoFree and does great on it. My daughter could not handle the switch to whole milk when she turned one so I found an oat based toddler formula at Wild Oat's and mixed it with PediaSure. She got that until she turned two and is now on Organic 2% LactoFree milk. I'm hoping to have better luck with my son once he turns a year since the Oat Formula w/PediaSure was pretty pricey.

S.,

I used to feed my son milk-based formula, but later found out that it was causing his eczema, so we switched to soy based formula. He didn't notice the change. Now he is one year old and we are mixing his formula with 2% milk.

T.

Yes. My son had a lot of digestive problems and the only kind of formula he could handle was soy. He did really well on it and his pediatrician even commented about how he was getting healthier and gaining the proper weight because of it. You may want to talk to your pediatrician and see what he/she recommends. Good luck.

I did both breastfeeding and soy formula. We had to switch to soy because we found that she had blood in her stool. We weren't sure what caused it perhaps a milk intolerance. Not taking any chances our Dr. recommended Enfamil Soy. Once my daughter turned 9 mos. old I stopped the breast milk and did the soy formula exclusively. I can tell you my daughter is now 18 mos. old and has never been sick. Not one ear infection, not one cold or flu or lose stomach or throw up. Nothing! She is healthy, growing, and thriving.

Yes, my 6 month old is on Similac Soy formula. She had really bad acid reflux as a baby and was taking prevacid for months. We tried multiple formulas and found the soy was the least irritating for her reflux. email me if you have more questions

Hi,
There are lots of moms who feed their babies soy. However, I've heard and read articles that say soy is not that good for you. But who knows what true, I am sure I could find articles saying soy was good too. I think Nestle Good Start is a good one. I would check with your pediatrician on which formula to start with. That is my rule of thumb, always ask the doctor as well as other moms.

Babies often have a hard time digesting regular formula, one of my boys did. Babies stomach's are not fully developed when they are born so they don't always digest regular formula well. Breastfeeding is much easier on their stomachs. Even then, sometimes "mom" has to be on a special diet because what she eats and drinks can bother them. I had to be on a special diet because my son was allergic to milk, soy and beef. But as a bonus I lost a ton of weight!

They make formula that is not soy but it not milk based either so babies that are allergic or have digestive problems can still use it. They make two, Alimentum and Nutramigen. It is very expensive. When I was done breastfeeding I put my son on it, it was $25 a can versus the usual $10. But obviously it was worth it to have a happy, healthy baby.

I hoped this helped some. Best of luck.

I've known moms that used soy however if your baby is not allergic to milk and does not have any special requirements that forces him to be on an alternative, I wouldn't. There are several good formulas I would use before soy. Again I would ask your pediatrician.

Yes...was there more to the questin? Just email if you have questions about it.

be very careful with formulas - READ the labels - make sure you aren't giving too much protein and sugar and fillers - try natural almond milk

I'm not a brand new mom but my experience with soy goes back a long time. I placed my now 39 year old daughter on soy when she was not thriving on breast milk and whole milk was too heavy.

It was called Isomil back then and cost $1.oo a can if you bought it by the case!

So I guess what I am saying is that soy has been around a long time and "no harm - no foul"

Good luck and congratuations! Little girls are wonderful!