Food: Thinking Of Milk Alternatives

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Thinking Of Milk Alternatives
Tuesday, January 31, 2006

My son may have a milk allergy. Although I know that such allergies have increased in recent years, I was not that concerned about it. My husband had a slight milk allergy when he was younger, but it is all but gone now. Plus we did all of the things we were supposed to do, such as not introducing him to dairy products until he turned one.

He had a doctor's appointment last week, and she gave us the go-ahead to start giving him regular milk. We gave him milk on Thursday and Friday, and it resulted in yucky experiences that you would rather I not recount. At first, we thought that he may have a virus, but we realized that the milk was the more likely culprit. We did not give him any milk on Saturday, and everything cleared up. Beginning Sunday, we started giving him soymilk, and he has not had any problems with it thus far.

As I said, I was unprepared for the milk allergy, so I was not sure what to do. I did some basic reading and discovered a good deal of interesting information. First, lactose intolerance and milk allergies are two entirely different animals. One, lactose intolerance, builds up over time. It is very rare to be born with a body that does not produce lactase, which is the hormone needed to break down lactase, the sugar in dairy products.

What my son, and most people who cannot stomach milk, has is a milk allergy. It is highly likely from my reading that his allergy is to a protein in the milk. This protein is put into the milk through the pasteurization process, which means that it is a bonus for us. We will be happy to provide our son with one of the alternatives to cow's milk, such as goat milk, soymilk, or even rice milk or oat milk. We want him to learn to love milk, and we will provide whatever he needs to do that.

On the other hand, trying to go one's entire life without cheese, ice cream, and yogurt would be a more difficult proposition. The wonderful part about the allergy to the protein is that it is possible that the pasteurization process causes the allergy, so he may still be able to eat other dairy products. We will try him on them slowly to see what he will be able to eat.

Still it sent us on a frenzy at the grocery store. Unfortunately for us, we are currently stuck in a town where things like organic milk make people look at you as if you were an alien. It is hippie food, and it is not readily available. There is a health foods store about an hour from us, so it looks as if we may have to go there. Still we were able to find organic milk, though that will not help in the case of a milk allergy, as well as soymilk and other varieties. We were pleased to find that although it is more expensive than regular old milk, it is not prohibitively so.

Instead we may just be able to allow our son to stick to alternatives to milk. A friend sent me a link to a site for raw milk, which is cow's milk that has not been purified by the pasteurization process. I am unsure what that means as far as health goes, but apparently the raw milk phenomenon is catching on, and people are able to drink it and digest it better than other products.

The search for alternatives to milk is on in our home, and I am sure that we will be learning more than we ever wanted to know about dairy alternatives over the next few weeks. There will be a good bit of experimentation as we learn about what my son can and cannot eat. Although the grandparents seem more concerned about the inconvenience that we are, though none of them live close by, we are happy with the potential for change. It is an adventure, and that is how we try to approach all of our food experiences. I hope this one works out for the best.

By Julia Mercer

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