On Tue, 30 Mar 1999 09:21:15 -0800 "Cathy O'Connor"
<[log in to unmask]> writes:
>While I do agree with other messages that breastfeeding is best (I am
still
>nursing my 17 month old, dairy allergic daughter), I have to disagree
with the
>suggestion of replacing nursings at one year of age with fortified
cereals.
>While these cereals do provide adequate amounts of iron and are a good
source
>of calcium, they do not take into consideration the fats and other
nutrients
>required by a rapidly growing toddler.  Fats are essential for brain
>development.  Our daughter's dietitian firmly believes that any child
under
>two who is not receiving breast milk or cow's milk should still be
getting
>formula, in addition to solids.

While I agree with most of this, formula is not necessarily the right
choice for all toddlers either.  When I weaned mine at about 13 months,
we started with a high fat soy milk - none of the low fat or fat free
ones.  It has roughly 2/3 the fat and protien of whole milk.  I don't
increase the quantity to equal what she would get from a normal amount of
milk.  She drinks about 21 oz. per day which would be the upper
recommendation for amount of cow's milk.  As long as they are eating a
balanced and varied diet, you should be able to get the fat and other
nutrients in with real foods.  This may be more difficult if you are
vegitarian or there are other food intolerances.  One problem we had was
that formula (and some of the higher fat/protien soy milks I tried) were
just too filling and we had trouble with Alyssa not wanting to eat real
foods which are going to provide the wide variety of nutrients, etc
necessary.  Also, we pinpointed a corn allergy as we tried some of the
soy milks and she reacted to one of them.  I could not find a soy formula
without corn and was not even going to try one of the hydrolized casien
ones (Alimentum has no corn).

Another mom in our playgroup put her daughter on soy formula (infant
formula, not the toddler formula) when she weaned and still has her on it
at almost 2 years.  While there are no growth problems, she does not eat
very much and relies heavily on filling up on formula.  The mom is now
trying to decide on a soy milk for replacement, but worries that the kid
doesn't eat enough.  This is the situation both my pediatrician and
allergist warned me about if I decided to try formula.  They both
recommended formula until 12 months (or at least partial nursing), but I
started introducing the soy milk around 11 months.  There are toddler
formulas available that are equivalent to cow's milk, but I think they
are milk or soy based.  I believe there is one amino acid based one.

This is just my experience and the recommendations I've recieved for our
particular case.  I have a 2 year old who eats just about anything and
loves meat especially!  I keep getting warnings from the ped. that I
shouldn't let her fill up on fluids :-)

Kathy P.

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