Soy – OH BOY!
Our son Scott was born at 30.5 weeks weighing 3lbs 5oz and was 16 inches long. He was born via emergency c-section after I’d been in the hospital for 10 days battling pregnancy induced hypertension. In the week between ultrasounds, he had apparently stopped growing. My body had started turning on him in an effort to keep me alive.
This was in July and my daughter was at her father’s for summer break. I have an awesome friend who took care of my dog for me, so I was able to focus completely on Scott. A week after his birth, Gregg was able to join us full time. My life became a whirlwind of hospital visits and pumping every 3 hours.
Because he was so small, the NICU doctor prescribed human milk fortifier to be added to his feeding tube with every feeding. Right after the first feeding, Gregg questioned them about what was being put into my milk. It was a soy-based human milk fortifier, and liquid form. Whatever amount they had prescribed to feed him every feeding (let’s say 4 oz. but I don’t remember), half of it was fortifier.
Gregg had done some preliminary research into unfermented soy after hearing some nutritionists talk about it, and immediately told the nurses to stop giving it to Scott. We talked to the hospital nutritionist about what was available instead, and found out that there was a powdered milk fortifier by Enfamil that was milk based. This was better on two levels – one being that using the power meant that they just added it to my milk and all of the liquid would be my milk, made specifically for Scott by my body; and two, the powdered kind didn’t contain soy.
The problem was that it could not be found. The hospital scrounged up enough to last a day or two, and the nutritionist was able to go to some outside sources and scrounge up another day’s worth. But it was up to us to find more. They said they’d use it if we provided it. After going to three different pharmacies, we found one who ordered it for us, for over $100 for a 30-day supply, and we were able to give it to the hospital to use.
Over the last few years, we’ve done a little more research and a little more research and have discovered just how bad soy is for your body, especially for a male’s body. Gregg sent me the following links and included this in the email, “And I just am thanking God that He gave me the information I needed not to let good intentions on the part of the nurses bring Scott a variety of health problems at the time or later in life. Can you imagine the megadose of fake hormones he would have received weighing only 3 pounds? Can you imagine how hard his little body would have had to have worked to shed those toxins in addition to everything else that was going on like his little liver wasn’t already on overdrive? Thus the jaundice?”
http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/soy.htm
Soy formula: Birth control pills for infants
But it is the isoflavones in infant formula which give the most cause for concern. In 1998, investigators reported that the daily exposure of infants to isoflavones in soy infant formula is 6 to 11 times higher on a body-weight basis than the dose that has hormonal effects in adults consuming soy foods. Circulating concentrations of isoflavones in infants who were fed soy-based formula were 13,000 to 22,000 times higher than plasma estradiol concentrations in infants on cow’s milk formula.(13)
Approximately 25% of bottle-fed children in the US receive soy-based formula – a much higher percentage than in other parts of the Western world. It is estimated that an infant exclusively fed soy formula receives the estrogen equivalent (based on body weight) of at least 5 birth control pills per day.(14) By contrast, almost no phytoestrogens have been detected in dairy-based infant formula or in human milk, even when the mother consumes soy products.
http://www.naturalnews.com/022630.html
Unfermented Soy:
* contributes to thyroid disorder, especially in women
* Soy phytoestrogens are potent anti-thyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.
* Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women.
* promotes kidney stones
* weakens the immune system
* Vitamin B12 analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body’s requirement for B12.
* Soy foods increase the body’s requirement for vitamin D.
* Fragile proteins are denatured during high temperature processing to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein.
* contributes to food allergies and digestive intolerance
* Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and may cause pancreatic disorders. In test animals soy containing trypsin inhibitors caused stunted growth.
* Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and additional amounts are added to many soy foods.
* Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys. Source: (www.westonaprice.org)
Soy is particularly problematic for infants and it would be very wise to avoid giving them soy-derived products, since it has been estimated that infants who are exclusively fed soy formula receive the equivalent of five birth control pills worth of oestrogen every day. Check out (www.westonaprice.org) to find some alarming research and statistics on what can go wrong when infants and children are regularly fed soy formula.
In order to derive some benefit from soy, consuming only fermented soy products – such as organic miso (mugi barley and genmai miso are the best), organic tempeh, soy sauce or tamari and natto – is the way to do it. This is because the phytic acid, which is inherent in soy beans, has been neutralized in the process of fermentation. Consuming fermented soy is very beneficial in recolonizing the friendly bacteria in the large intestine, which neutralizes the ‘unfriendly’ bacteria and allows for greater general assimilation of foods and nutrients.
And, I am wondering why hospitals and healthcare professionals even allow soy based products into the NICU or PICU where they can lead to so many harmful side effects.
http://healthjag.com/2009/deadly-soy-secret-soy-is-harmful-to-men-and-maybe-everyone/
Additionally, higher midlife tofu consumption was associated with low brain weight. Brain atrophy was assessed in 574 men using MRI results and in 290 men using autopsy information. Shrinkage occurs naturally with age, but for the men who had consumed more tofu, there was unusually large shrinkage compared with normal brains.
In a major ongoing study involving over 3,000 elderly Japanese-American men, those who ate the most tofu (soy curd) during midlife had up to 2.4 times the risk of later developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Hallee
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Caleb was born in 2003 at 29 weeks and they had me put the powdered high calorie Enfamil your talking about directly into my breastmilk. I can’t belive your hospital did have you do that from the start. Glad you and Gregg did your research!!!!!
Jessica from BZ & FB
“jessica mom to 3”
that is all quite interesting…i had yet to do research into soy products. ive been on soy/rice milk since discovering that we think quinn has a milk sensitivity. glad to know that it can’t be passed into my milk at least…not sure what we may do if he doesn’t outgrow it though seeing as soy doesn’t look to be a good substitute.
Do some research into raw milk and such. The Heavenly Homemakers on my blog list talk about it often, and offered a lot of links. I’ve read that a lot of milk allergies and problems are due to the pasteurization. (But, I’m not an expert and am just starting to learn.)
Hallee
It might be because they didn’t have it. We had to go out and look for it. But, they never asked for our permission to do anything. So much was just done and we were informed about it. They were absolutely wonderful and we totally left his care up to them, but I remember both of us remarking on how they just didn’t come to us as the parents over every little thing. When they put a central line in him, it was the first time since his birth that I had to sign permission.
Hallee
I, too, find it crazy how much they just do whatever at hospitals without asking you first. Hallee he was SO tiny. What an amazing little boy with fabulous parents!
Kerri – he was SO tiny. I remember when Jeb was born – 6 pounds! He was huge! I said his new nickname was going to be Biff because he looked like a little linebacker. He was in the NICU, too, for a week, and I remember looking at those little 30 weekers and thinking, “I don’t think I could have gone through it again.” I’m so thankful to God that I didn’t have to go through it again.
And, thank you*.
very interesting. My kids are both allergic to dairy (cows milk of any kind) and have been on soy for a while. Adrien doesn’t drink soy milk anymore, but did from age 2-6. Elaina had soy formula and is still on soy milk. What would you suggest to use instead? Adrien’s milk tolerance is good enough now that he doesn’t need anything substituted, but what about Elaina?
I know when we had custody of our niece, who was allergic to milk, we gave her rice milk instead.
I know that a lot of the milk allergies we have today are due in part to pasteurization. You could consider or try raw milk and see how she does with that.
This site here breaks down the nutritional value of different milk and milk alternatives:
http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/05/08/17/soy-milk-rice-milk-or-almond-milk-which-is-the-best-alternative-milk-for-you.htm
If it were up to me, I wouldn’t give Adrien soy anymore, unless it was fermented soy. My brother has a vegetarian friend, and he had to quit drinking soy milk because of the affects the increased estrogen was having on his body.
As far as a nondairy substitute is concerned, consider trying almond milk. Blue Diamond brand almond milk is quite tasty and creamy. Where we live it comes in two forms: half gallons sold in the refrigerated dairy section and “parmalat” sized boxes found on shelves. For whatever reason, there is a difference in consistency between the two (the milk in the shelf boxes feels “gritty”, while the refrigerated half gallons are creamy… go figure), so if you are going to try it, I would highly recommend sticking to the refrigerated half gallons for daily use, and keep a few of the boxes around for emergencies.
Milk allergies run pretty heavy in my family. We have discovered that achidopholous milk (the spelling may be wrong) worked great for my family. My children when they were young were allergic to both milk based and soy based formulas. They used a formula called neocate fromt he pharmacy. It was neither soy nor milk and I was never actually able to find out what it was. So I don’t recommend it but maybe try the achipdopholous milk. We found it at Kroger. Hope this helps some.
Michelle:
We’ve quit buying whole milk. Homogenized milk (like whole milk) and pasteurized milk contribute to a lot of health issues and allergies associated with milk. What I do instead is mix 1/3 cup heavy cream with 3 1/2 cups skim milk. This gives me the same fat and nutrition content as whole milk without the homogenization or pasteurization processes.
Hallee We are now only on skim. We don’t need the extra fat that whole gives. I am going to share this post on my FB I think others need to look at this information. I had NO idea at all how dangerous soy could be.
Have to comment about the milk issue:
We faced dairy and soy issues with my breast fed FTT son. If I had a drop of COW dairy, (that’s caesin, cheese, whey, etc, as well as the obvious milk), my son paid the price–crying from digestive pain, excema, eventaully blood in stool. Took a while to figure out–I dropped dairy, he was fine. We learned that goat and sheep dairy products did not give him problems. My research showed that cow dairy protiens are much larger than goat/sheep, add that the fact that infants have a still forming digestive tract (especially the intestines where absorbtion occurs) and it made sense. Eventaully as a toddler he could even drink goat milk directly, but if he accidentally got cow milk (grandparents!), he would wind up crying in pain & have the runs. We kept him off cow dairy for years–eventaully he outgrew the sensitivity.
I wonder if the same problems would have occurred with raw milk. From what I understand, raw milk causes fewer allergies.
That’s awesome that you went to goat and sheep dairy products instead of just going soy.