What can a child drink if he's allergic to milk?

Soy Milk (Silk)

Food allergy is an immune response to protein. Unfortunately, many people who have one food allergy will develop others as the body starts recognizing proteins as "invaders" and attacking them.

The infant immune system is not fully developed before the age of 3, so with your grandson already being allergic to milk it would not be wise to feed him soymilk or nut milk. You should also not feed him any of the other top 8 allergens until he is age 6 or has outgrown his milk allergy - whichever comes first. The top 8 food allergens are: dairy, egg, soy, wheat, tree nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans, etc.), ground nuts (peanuts), fish and shellfish. Keeping these foods out of his diet now may help him outgrow his milk allergy by allowing his immune system to mature without further assault.

If he does not outgrow his milk allergy by age 6 it will probably be a life long problem that he will have to deal with. Whether or not he outgrows it, it will be up to him to add, or not to add, the other top food allergens to his diet. The high potential for developing another food allergy will remain, so adding the foods back might be a "risk worth taking" for quality of life.

Oh, almost forgot to answer the question. LOL. Your grandson doesn't "need" milk to be healthy. He can get calcium, protein and vitamin D from lots of other foods and vitamin supplement. If you must give him something "like" milk, opt for rice milk (tasty, but very high in carbs) or hemp milk for cereal and such. For drinking, at his age, he would probably be just as happy with kool-aid.

Be well!

Grace

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P.S. I have no clue for your little man's milk problem! For juice, you could always split it with water. I used to have to do that for triplets I babysat as toddlers because the 100% juice in the bottle was too much. I think as long as he is getting the nutrients that milk provides(in other forms of course) that's the most essential part, to begin.

Soy milk, rice milk, water

What a problem, but there are other alternatives on the market. Good luck.