milk options

Thanks, I wonder why it's so sweet. Is there a lot of added sugar in it?
Always amazes me that people seem to assume young kids will only eat very sweet food/drinks so everythign made for kids seems to be automatically loaded with sugar as a result.

Hi Huggles,

My LG has been on Parmalat's First Growth since she turned one earlier this year, she was breastfed until 15 months. She's almost 19 months old, but we have not had any problems with the First growth milk. My only concern with this milk is that it's very sweet (sickening to smell actually ) , but she loves it. I do however try to limit her milk intake. She drinks about 650 - 700 ml in total a day, this includes her bedtime bottle of 180 ml. I'm planning on weaning her off this milk by her second birthday and onto full cream cows milk.

I hope you find something that works for your little boy, I can just imagine how frustrating it must be for you.

Good luck!

Thanks for the detailed response Clueless.

I don't think he has a milk allergy, however all the symptoms you list for lactose intolerance he does have. He has had chronic diarrhea (very loose stools, but only 1-2 times daily) for the past 7 or 8 months. I dewormed him recently just in case and it seemed to improve for a few days but it's going back to how it was. When he gets sick with upper respiratory tract infections he has now started vomiting 30 min after drinking his milk. When he's not sick this doesn't happen, but it's happened the last 2 times he had chest infection. It didn't happen when he drank the rice milk.

He doesn't really get rashes or bronchospasms or swelling after the milk so I don't think it's an allergy.

Maybe I should rather try the easygest milk again then instead of the first growth milk. He is approaching two years old so technically doens't really *need* a formula milk anymore I guess.

That's really interesting that cheddar contains casein but not whey.

I do think the illness was more due to a viral infection of sorts, but nido just seemed to aggravate it more than actually cause it.

As you said though, lactose intolerance is normally quite rare in young kids. However I frequently wonder if this is what he struggles with. His homeopath did say to me once that it can develop due to frequent illnesses etc and last year he was on countless antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infections (thankfully none so far this year), so it's entirely possible those messed up his gut completely and resulted in lactose intolerance.

Hi Huggles,

My little girl (9 months) was b/f until 6 months and from there on she is on NAN 2. So far no negative side effects.

However, I myself was SEVERELY allergic to cow's milk as a child, so have a few suggestions.

Firstly, there is a major difference between lactose intolerance and allergy.

With lactose intolerance, a person's digestive system reacts to the milk SUGAR (lactose) in milk. It gives digestive issues such cramping, runny tummy and in severe cases, vomiting. It does not cause asthma or bronchial smasm. According to studies done, very very few babies/toddlers are lactose intolerant, since your body builds up this intolerance over years.

With an allergy, a person's immune system reacts to a PROTEIN. In cows milk, there are numerous proteins, but the most likely culprits for allergies are whey protein and casein. (I was allergic to whey protein but not casein). These can cause an IMMEDIATE reaction and is usually manifests either by rashes, swelling of the face and throat, bronchial spasm (similar to asthma) or anaphylaxis. I usually got the swelling and the bronchial spasm.

Sorry, very technical, but it is important to understand in order to understand the options

So if you suspect a lactose intolerance (highly unlikely, from everything I read), look for products that does NOT specify milk sugar or lactose on the label. Unfortunately even soy milk has some lactose.

However, if you suspect an allergy, look for products that states NO casein or whey. (Cheddar cheese, for instance contains casein but no whey). Keep them off these proteins for a minimum of two weeks, since it takes 2 weeks for a person's immune response to an allergen to go down. If in two weeks time there are no longer any symptoms, you can start giving products again with the allergen you suspect. But only ONE allergen at a time, and wait ta day. If you get an immune reaction, then you have identified the protein your baby is allergic to.

Some formulas are hypoallergenic, which means the proteins in them have been hydrolised to a point that the immune system will not recognize them as an allergen. This is possibly also an option.

If, however, after two weeks the symptoms continue, you have either not eliminated the correct protein from the diet, or your child is not allergic and is sick due to something else (bacterial/viral infection etc).

Hope this helps!

My son was on NAN for the first year of life, first preNAN, then NAN 1, then 2, then as soon as he started NAN 3 he seemed to really struggle with tummy cramps.

We went through about a month of trying various milk options, including parmalat easygest as I wondered if he was maybe lactose intolerant, as well as similac total comfort and a few others.

We finally settled on Nido 1+ and he's been on that for the past 7 months.

However, recently he was ill with what I suspected was bronchitis. I started treating him as soon as he started coughing and runny nose etc (septoguard, Vital Viral Boost, etc) and, whilst it didn't improve, it didn't worsten either. 4 days later I moved him over to rice milk (I happened to have a few boxes at home). Again, no improvement, but it didn't really worsen either.
Then, when that ran out, I moved him back onto the Nido and instantly it went straight to his chest and became really phlegmy and that's when i think it really turned into full blown bronchitis. It stayed like this for about another 5 days when I finally stopped the Nido again and moved him back onto rice milk.

Within a day or two it started sounding much better and has continued to improve since.

However, my dilemma is this, he's drinking a TON of milk at the moment. I've again just run out of rice milk and put him back on the Nido until pay day (Tues). I'm not overly keen on the powdered rice milks, but the box costs minimum R20 per litre, and he seems to be going through almost one litre PER DAY! (he'll be 21 months on wed). (per day means mostly at night LoL).

So I'm wondering if the rice milk just isn't enough and that's why he's drinking soooo much. I can't afford to spend R600 per month on rice milk for him.

But at the same time the Nido definitely seems to trigger the snot and stuff.

So i'm thinking of trying a different milk.
At the moment the two options I'm contemplating are Hipp Organic growing up milk and Parmalat First Growth milk.

Anybody have any reviews/thoughts to share on either of these? Or any other suggestions?

He generally drinks 260 - 500ml during the day, and then at least 500ml during the night (including bedtime).