Protein Sources

[Collinsmom]

Not sure if this question quite fall into this board or not, but I was wondering if anyone knew of any suitable milk substitutes beside soy and milk. DS is allergic to both. I currently have him on rice milk but a) I heard that is not the best for celiac there is little to no fat in it. He is only one and he needs the fat, and c) there is little to no protein. I realize I need to start incorporating other proteins, but he is also allergic to chicken. I'm just receiving my celiac cookbooks, so I dont have any great meal ideas yet. Oh, and he's also allergic to peanuts. not sure if that rules out almond milk or whatever its called. I'm worried mostly about the fat the he needs for mental devlopment.

[tarnalberry]

almond or hemp have both fat & protein, but may have trace soy - check.

[akflboyd]

I have given my children the Almond Breeze non dairy beverage and it really is not too bad. It only has 2.5g of fat/8oz for the vanilla flavor and 3g for the chocolate flavor, so I am not sure how much you are looking for. There is 1g of protein in the vanilla nd 2g of protein in the chocolate. So I am not sure how much fat he needs. I have not tried the hemp milk. You can go to their website www.bluediamond.com to see if there is a peanut allergy but I am almost positive that it does not overlap. I know there are drops that you can add to the milk for the fats that are so essential for brain development. I think I am going to switch my son, who is 13months, over to almond milk completely and supplement with drops b/c of intestinal issues.

[taweavmo3]

We have done Hemp milk.....I think it tastes better than any other milk sub, my kids LOVE this milk. I love it b/c in my opinion it is nutritionally superior to any other milk sub out there.

Look up Nature's Harvest hemp milk, and take a look at everything it is fortified with. It has 46% RDA Calcium, Omega 3 & 6's, 4 grams of protein per serving, and more. It is about $1 more per carton than the rice and almond milks, but I think it's worth it.

One other idea...you can add ground flax seed (I grind mine fresh in a coffee grinder) to pancakes, cereal, or baked goods. And one more good protein source is Quinoa...a whole grain that has oodles of good stuff including protein and iron. I buy quinoa flakes, and make hot cereal for my 15 month old. I add coconut oil (another source of good fat for developing baby brains!) brown sugar, and cinnamon. All of my kids love this, it tastes great. Hope that helps!

[hathor]

Another fan of Living Harvest hemp milk here. Do not get the Hemp Bliss stuff, though. My daughter and I both thought it was atrocious.

Other good sources for essential fatty acids are ground flax seed (as already noted) [i've found a gluten-free cereal called Nutty Flax], green leafy veggies (if you can get these into your son, you are a better mom than me ), and walnuts. All contain fair amounts of protein.

If you look up how many grams of protein your son needs and how many are in what he already eats, I'm willing to bet you will find he is doing fine. People in this country seem to have this inflated sense of how much protein is necessary. One would have to live on junk food not to get enough. (In the US, the average consumption is over twice the RDA, and the RDA were derived by taking the study results and multiplying by two and adding in an additional margin of safety. The studies said 15 grams for women, 20 for men; the average consumption is 110.) They also tend to overlook how much protein is in plant food. Here is one source that lists the amounts:

Open Original Shared Link

(This link also addresses the notion that plant proteins are somehow incomplete -- that was based on the assumption that the protein requirements of rats and people are the same. When people were finally studied, it was found not to be true. For some reason, the old idea of incompleteness lingers. But you can look at the numbers yourself and see it isn't true.)

I'm not trying to convert anyone to vegetarianism. I'm just trying to make the point that protein isn't a big concern, even if you can't get meat, dairy or soy into your son.

Remember that children grow the quickest as newborns when the best food is mother's milk. It is 5-6% of calories as protein, not 21% like whole milk, 39% like skim milk, or 46% like chicken.

Read up on nutrition yourself and don't just rely on your doctor. Doctors receive little or no training in nutrition in medical school. Of course, some are knowledgeable, but many are not.