Weaning to rice milk

[skatty]

I have finally tracked down somewhere to buy Rice Dream with calcium (I'm in Denmark) and was wondering if anyone has any experience weaning their LO from breast to rice milk at a year. MY DD is still only 9 months and I have started giving her rice milk to drink in addition to her usual BF and luckily she likes it. Anyway today¨we were out all day today so I though just this once I would replace a feed with a bottle of rice milk, she drank about 6oz and then about 20 minutes later she had a meltdown and wanted a BF too! I know ricemilk is very thin compared to BM but how will I manage to wean her off the breast? Once she's a year old I really feel it's time I have my body back as I'm losing a lot of hair and am finding it difficult to shift the last of the baby weight but I am worried she will be hungry. We are doing baby led weaning so she has been feeding herself proper food since 6 months and eats a good nutritious diet but still obviously loves the booby juice!! I know we have another 3 months but I really want to start planning now.

I will appreciate any help 

[jennyh]

my lo has the calcium enriched rice milk and loves it.i use it for her millet porridge and cook with it.she also has her pepti for a night time feed before bed.my lo was never breastfed though so cannot help you there.the only thing i was told was the normal rice dream does not contain enough calcium so go for the enriched one...hth...jenny

[Mom to M&M]

I just think you'll need to be sure to add in sources of calcium, Vit D and fat. Good luck!

[skatty]

Thank you to both of you 

Jenny, what's a pepti?

I was also wondering if anyone has heard of adding rice protein to rice milk?

[jennyh]

pepti junior is a hydrolysed baby formula

[Mom to M&M]

Pepti is similar to Alimentum or Nutramigen. I have heard of some people adding protein to the rice mllk but don't know much about it, TBH. What has your doctor said?

[skatty]

Thanks for letting me know about the pepti.

I am seeing the doc on Wednesday regarding Leorah's intolerances and also because I am sure she has an airbourne allergy as she has a constant red nose and rubs her eyes and nose all the time and often wakes fron naps and in the night because her nose is irritating her. I am not sure she knows much about MSPI, I was the one who told her about it lol!!

[Mom to M&M]

Unfortunately many doctors are not "up" on MSPI and other allergy issues. You may want to make an appointment with an allergist and also a nutritionist/dietician to work out the allergy issues and figure out how best to supplement her diet...

[skatty]

I think you are right, I am hoping our doctor will refer us to a specialist as we want to do things properly. My HV is hopeless and keeps telling me to try a small amount of milk at a time even though my DD reacts to the slightest amount of hidden dairy 

Do you know if it is possible that my DD can be getting increased sensitivity? I thought they are meant to grow out of it but I sometimes think it's just getting worst and the smallest of mistakes throw everything up in the air and we have night wakings and a fussy windy baby for at least a week 

[fitfamily]

I'm glad I found your thread.  My LO is 9m and I'm in the same boat.  I was thinking rice milk is the only alternative (or Goat's).  Do you add Omegas (fat) to the milk or just give it via spoon?  What other supplements will be necessary, if any?

[skatty]

Hi fit family I also was wondering whether to add the oils to the milk. I use omega oils from the health food shop for all my LO's food so I am not sure if I need to add it to the milk too. I will let you know what my doc has to say tomorrow.

I found this info on rice protein that compares it's nutritional qualities to breastmilk which is interesting. Are you weaning at 12 months or starting now?

http://www.riceproteinconcentrates.com/rice-proteins.html

[Jimbob]

It might be worth doing it slowly over the next 3 months. You could start by replacing 1 feed with a bottle or cup of breastmilk. When you have been doing this for a few weeks then replace it with half breast milk and half rice milk for a couple of weeks. Then you could try replacing this feed with just rice milk and see how that goes. Once you have done this for 1 feed then you can gradually replace all feeds with rice milk in a bottle or cup. Hope this helps, this is the way a friend weaned her dd. She was weaning onto cow's milk though but it is the same in theory you just need to make sure your dd is getting enough calcium, fats etc.

[fitfamily]

Skatty, I am going to give him some omega 3s.  We all use Carlson's brand Cod liver oil with EPA and DHA in our family.  They have a kid label, but I'm just going to give him a 1/4-1/2 of a teaspoon of ours.  It has the same ingredients as the kid bottle.  The percentage is just greater in the adult.  It is naturally lemon flavored so we'll do it with a spoon or in his food too.  I would not add it to her bottle.  Just give her the recommended dose, not more unless your health advisor tells you otherwise.

Jimbob, I am bfeeding my son 6x in a 24hr period

4a
6a
1000a
200p
500p (before solids, which are at 515p)
630p (bed is at 645p)

I have tried dropping the 400am two or three times over the last 2 mos and he doesn't go back to sleep.  He's hungry (we just started solids 4 wks ago b/c of reactions starting at 6m).  He gulps down on 1 side in 5 min and then I put him back in his crib and he'll go back to sleep until 6a.  Once we are down to 4 or 5 feeds I think I will start with the rice dream but I know he needs all the nutrients he can get from BM.  He is long, but lean.

[skatty]

Well I saw my doc and very refreshingly she admitted she has no idea about supplements and diets for MSPI babies and is referring us to an allergist and dietician, so we are happy about that.

Thanks Jimbob, my DD actually likes the taste of rice milk, I think the problem is that its quite thin so it quenches her thirst but doesn't fill her like breastmilk so I think I will start a new thread asking about rice protein.

Fit family, I will look for that cod liver oil as I think it will  be good for all of us  I know what you mean about sticking with the BM for nutrients, my DD now only has 2 breastfeeds a day and 8oz of EBM before bed, I'm not sure I should be replacing any of these with rice milk yet.

[fitfamily]

Skatty - there are 15 calories/ounce in Rice Dream enriched.  I would say that because it is lacking in protein and fat that those are the 2 macronutrients that will make her feel full longer. Go and see how many fat and protein calories are in an ounce of milk and then you'd know where to start.  I'm NOT a clinical nutritionist, but do have a certification in nutrition for my business.  Always check with your ped or in this case a nutritionist who will advise appropriately. 

When you say you "slip up" and she has a bad day is it from something you ingest and gets to her through BM?..curious

[skatty]

Hi, thanks for that info, that does sound low in calories 

Yes, she has never eaten anything directly with milk it's always when I have eaten something with an unlikely milk ingredient and always when we eat at someone elses house and I feel I can't continually ask if everything has milk! My DH's parents are the worst and he had serious words the last time we were there and his Mum had to fish through the dustbin for wrappers!! So annoying as it is their grandchild who ends up suffering, my mum is meticulous at checking every label!!

[lovedtodeath]

Maybe you could add some full fat coconut milk to make up for the fat portion. Also, there is oat milk and there are milks you can make from various roots (like white sweet potato flour milk).

[Mydreamcametrue]

This may be late, but I was jsut looking through some post.

My now 2 year old was on Rice milk from 12mos. to 18 mos.  We saw a dietician at the Feeding Clinic and she recommended the following:

Enriched Rice Milk - Vanilla flavor has a few more calories
Cocunut Milk for the fat (read the label, I think like 2 tablespoons is like 8 grams of fat)
1 tablespoon or MLO Rice Protein
and I also added Strawberry Nesquick for the flavor.

He loved it and he got his fat, protein and calcium.