Katie Ferraro (1s):

So if we're comparing tofu with unsweetened soy milk as the way to introduce the baby to the potentially allergenic foods, soy protein, I always go with tofu because not only is it easier for the baby to sell fed and there's four and a half times more iron per serving. Hey there, I'm Katie Ferraro, Registered Dietitian, college nutrition professor, and mama of seven specializing in baby led weaning. Here on the Baby-Led Weaning Made Easy podcast I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, leaving you with the competence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby led weaning.

Katie Ferraro (44s):

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the baby led weaning made easy podcast. I'm your host, Katie Ferraro. And today we're talking about soy, how to introduce your baby to this potentially allergenic food. Now, soy is one of the big eight allergenic foods, but soy and soybean allergy. The prevalence of that it's lower than the other seven foods on that list, but we're still going to talk about how we introduce it to babies and why that is important. I'm going to share some tips on how to introduce soy safely. So I like to start out every episode with a baby led weaning tip of the day. This one's pretty straightforward when it comes to soy tofu is the single easiest way to get your baby to try soy protein. I'll give you some tips on how to do that safely.

Katie Ferraro (1m 25s):

Today. We are going to focus on safety cause you sometimes hear that the compounds in soy foods, they might be linked to things like breast cancer or hormonal imbalances. We're going to look more closely at why that is not true and why soy is actually an important food for your baby to try. That is perfectly safe if you offer it properly. So I'll explain how to do that in this episode. So let's go ahead and dive in talking all about soy and how to introduce your baby to this potentially allergenic food. Now I mentioned the phrase, the big eight allergenic foods, okay. These are the eight foods that account for about 90% of food allergy. So with a few of the big eight allergenic foods, we have some pretty good data that showing that introducing these early and often may help prevent against food allergy down the road.

Katie Ferraro (2m 9s):

Now with soy, what we like to do is kind of hone in on the American academy of pediatrics statement, who reminds us that there's no evidence that waiting to introduce a baby safe, which means allergy-causing foods like eggs and soy and dairy and peanuts are fish waiting beyond the six month period. There's no evidence that helps prevent food allergy. So we put soy as a big eight food in the list of the foods that we do want to introduce to babies early and often. All right, so soy is a big eight allergenic food and soybeans are members of the legume family who might be familiar with legumes like dried peas and beans. Lentils peanuts are actually also legumes. Peanuts are a separate allergenic food category.

Katie Ferraro (2m 50s):

They're also in the big eight allergenic foods. And if you're interested in learning more about peanuts, go back to episode, number 14 that I talked all about and how to introduce that safely to your baby. There's a lot of data about peanuts. And so I think it's a good episode. If you go to BLWpodcast.com/fourteen, you can get up to speed on a different legume peanut. But today we're talking about soy and being allergic to soy actually does not mean that you have a greater chance of being allergic to other legumes, including peanuts. So let's talk a little bit about the stats about soy allergy. Soy is one of those food allergies that oftentimes resolves in childhood. So one study showed that approximately 70% of children will outgrow their soy allergy by age 10.

Katie Ferraro (3m 31s):

Other things like milk, egg, wheat, and soy. Those are the allergies that tend to resolve in childhood. All right, now the prevalence of soybean allergy is actually lower than the other seven foods on the big eight list. It's a little bit hard to find data for adults. We know there's self-reported data, which take it with a grain of salt, but prevalence of soy allergy in one study of self-reported data range from between 0.1 to 0.6% of the population in the United States. So this is not a major problem. Okay. If we look at the N Hanes data that's nutrition examination survey. So he definitely has the lowest prevalence compared to all of the big eight allergenic foods showing about 0.2, 5% of people in the United States have soy that's, including adults, okay.

Katie Ferraro (4m 12s):

In Canada, it's a 0.3, 2%. So there's actually this discussion out there that given the low prevalence of soy allergy, there's an argument that could be made that soy should actually be left off the big eight allergenic list without like really affecting public health. Actually in Japan, there's a list of seven food allergens and soy is not one. Okay. Those, we have laws that require mandatory labeling. We have to list the big eight in the United States. Japan has seven and soy is not one of them. The data about kids. It's hard to determine exactly what percent especially infants would have a soy allergy, but know that it is quite rare. Okay. Now, when it comes to milk allergy, we know that milk allergy is one of the most prevalent pediatric food allergies.

Katie Ferraro (4m 54s):

And so we're going to talk a little bit about the difference between soy milk and cow's milk today too. But let's now that we know a little bit about the statistics, let's talk about where we find soy foods, okay. Soybeans eaten by themselves. You've maybe had them as at a mommy at a Japanese restaurant, or perhaps you make at a mommy at home where you eat whole soybeans. But to be honest, soybeans eaten by themselves, not really a common food practice in American diets, but soy is very widely used in processed food products. So we find soybeans and things like tofu and soy sauce and textured vegetable protein foods like tempeh. So sometimes in like meat substitute foods, you'll find soy as well. But soy also is kind of hidden as an additive and an ingredient and foods that you wouldn't expect.

Katie Ferraro (5m 39s):

Processed meats, canned meat, tuna. It's also found in ingredients in baked goods like cookies and crackers. Now, many parents are familiar with soy milk. Okay? And so they sometimes say, well, can I just do soy milk as a way to introduce soy protein to my baby? I always prefer tofu over soy milk. So let's talk about tofu first and then we'll talk about soy milk. Tofu is a fabulous way to introduce your baby to soy protein. And if you can't cook, you will love introducing tofu because you literally take a block of tofu, cut it into strips about the size of your pinky finger and serve your base. Maybe two or three of those out of a bowl, the baby can pick up and feed to themselves.

Katie Ferraro (6m 20s):

Now, if you've ever tasted plain tofu, we'll say, wait a minute, what? You don't even have to cook it. No, it's perfectly safe to eat tofu in the block format that you find it in at the grocery store. And there's different levels of firmness, right? There's silken and there's medium. And there's extra firm, I do firmer extra from, for babies, but you could honestly do any of them. The silken ones that are really soft, they sometimes crumble quite easily in the baby's hand. So that's not as ideal. You just drain off the water, cut it into strips about the size of your fat pinky finger and serve it to the baby. And babies. Surprisingly love tofu. It tastes like nothing, right? Tofu is one of those foods that absorbs the flavors that you cook with it. So if you ever eaten plain tofu, you're like this tastes like nothing, but to baby, it's an entirely new taste.

Katie Ferraro (7m 4s):

It's a unique texture experience for them. And it's a great way to introduce them to the protein of the soy, the soy protein that could potentially be allergenic. Okay. So there's no set dosage of how much soy you would need to introduce to your baby. The general guidance for allergen introduction is do it early and often, sometimes that's frustrating to parents because we don't say exactly how many grams would I say do it a few times like to do soy. And I do all my allergenic foods on a Friday. Okay. And give it once or twice on Friday, once or twice on Saturday, once or twice on Sunday with no other new foods introduced over the weekend. You're giving yourself time to observe for a reaction. And then on Monday you can go right back to introducing one new low-risk food per day. So I recommend introducing five new foods per week, a fruit, a vegetable, a starch, a protein.

Katie Ferraro (7m 48s):

And then on the fifth day, I do a challenge category food. The challenge category includes the big eight allergenic foods. And soy is one of those. If you guys want to learn more about this approach to starting solid foods, I have a free online workshop called baby led weaning for beginners. It's all about how to get your baby to try 100 foods before turning one, without you having to spoonfeed purees or buy pouches. And you can sign up for that workshop. If you click the link in the show notes for this episode, which is blwpodcast.com/37. So I prefer soy or I prefer tofu rather as the way to introduce soy, but I get a lot of questions about soy milk. Okay. Now soy milk, as you're maybe familiar with is used in place of cows milk.

Katie Ferraro (8m 30s):

So it's a cows milk, alternative, and soy milk is made from cooked soybeans and it does contain soy protein. So for people that have cows milk, protein allergy, or intolerance, they may use soy milk in place of cows milk. Now we don't give cow's milk as a fluid drink to babies in place of breast milk or formula until after they turn one. So it is also not appropriate to replace breast milk or formula with soy milk prior to the age of one. Now, if the baby has a true cow's milk allergy and cannot drink cow's milk, then unflavored unsweetened soy milk may be considered a nutritional alternative. Keep in mind though that only about two and a half percent of children under the age of three are allergic to milk.

Katie Ferraro (9m 10s):

So this does not apply to the good majority of people. The good majority of babies when they turn one can transition to whole milk cows milk. Okay. So again, we don't give soy milk in place of fluid breast milk or formula until one, if we're doing it. And even then it's only in the event of cow's milk allergy, or if the family is vegan and chooses not to consume animal products. So let's look at the nutritional differences between soy milk and tofu, and why think tofu is a better option than soy milk. First of all, in the serving size of tofu, it's about a half a cup. Now your baby probably won't eat that much. I usually, they would probably do max a quarter of a cup and there's no right or wrong amount. Some babies will eat less. Some babies will eat more. So I hate to even give recommended serving sizes. But if we're comparing the nutrition qualities of soy milk versus tofu, a half a cup of tofu has 10 grams of protein.

Katie Ferraro (9m 57s):

A serving size of soy milk is one cup of soy milk, and that has eight grams of protein. So it's equivalent to cow's milk in that regard when eight ounce cup has eight grams of protein, but you have to keep in mind that a baby is unlikely to drink an entire eight ounce cup of soy milk. When you're trying to introduce this to him at six or seven months of age. Okay. So tofu, on the other hand, it's a more condensed source of that protein, but also they're significantly more iron in a serving of tofu than there is in a serving of soy milk. So that one cup of soy milk, it has about 8% of the daily value for iron and that's based on adult values. But if we boil it down about one and a half milligrams of iron, now that's a decent source of iron. If the baby were to drink the whole cup of soy milk, which we've already established a half a cup of tofu, which some babies would consume that much, but most we can do about half of that.

Katie Ferraro (10m 46s):

Okay. That's 36% of the daily value for iron. So six and a half milligrams. So there's roughly four and a half times more iron in a serving of tofu than you would get in a serving of soy milk. He said, we're always concerned about wanting to offer our baby high iron foods. Tofu is a fabulous example of one of the few foods out there that is a good source of iron, and also happens to come from a plant, right? Because more often than not, the iron that comes from animal foods is better absorbed by the body, but not all people eat animal foods, or we want to be including plant foods. And when we do, we should choose high iron ones. Well, the legume family, the dry peas and beans, the lentils and the soybeans, not only are they good sources of protein in this case, soy protein, which is an allergenic food.

Katie Ferraro (11m 27s):

We want to introduce our baby to, it's also a good source of iron. Okay. Another caveat there about the soy milk. A lot of the brands out there have added sugars. So if you are using soy milk in cooking, or if your baby is allergic and after they turn one, instead of cow's milk, you're doing it. Or if you're vegan, just make sure to stay away from the flavored soy milk products. The reason why vanilla soy milk so delicious is because it's full of added sugar. So talking about plant milks, one more thing other than fortified soy milk, the AAP recommends that we do not give other plant milk to babies. They tend not to be nutritionally equivalent. And in some cases it may be medically indicated like if the baby is allergic to milk and allergic to soy, but again, that is very rare.

Katie Ferraro (12m 7s):

So I want to summarize, you know, the soy situation, tofu is a great way to do it. Soy milk, not as desirable, certainly less iron and certainly more challenging for the baby to get the same amount of protein that you would get in a smaller amount of tofu. Now, some parents are concerned, they'll hear things like, oh, I heard soy is not good for babies. It contains phyto estrogens. These are known plant compounds that are plant estrogens or isoflavones. And over the years there have been reports about phyto estrogens, possibly being linked to breast cancer. But then there's other studies that show that the isoflavones might actually be protective against diseases like certain types of cancer, including breast cancer. So the journal pediatrics from the American academy of pediatrics, there's a study and I'll link to it in the show notes as well.

Katie Ferraro (12m 51s):

Okay. Points out that there's no evidence that the isoflavones in soy have any negative effect on hormones or development in babies so that this is not a harmful product and provided that you're serving it to your baby in a safe manner. I think tofu plain tofu is very safe for babies, especially early eaters. You can be starting these allergenic foods. I do one a week, starting from the time the baby starts solid foods at six months of age. So by the time your baby turns, eight months of age, two months later, you could have knocked out all eight of these allergenic foods, soy being one of the easier ones. I think because tofu is such an easy food to feed. Now, sometimes we have tofu cooked with certain cuisines or certain dishes. It might, might have a lot of very salty sauce added, or it might be fried and hard and crispy.

Katie Ferraro (13m 35s):

Okay. We wouldn't, we don't give hard or crispy foods to early eaters. Certainly who'd stick to the plain tofu early on later when your baby's a little bit older, they can handle more challenging textures. But certainly we wouldn't want to give like really crunchy pieces of fried tofu right off the bat to a baby. And we also want to minimize sodium. So we want to look at what sauces or what other ingredients are in the dish that the baby's having it. But early on when you're starting out, I recommend just doing the isolated food. So you can observe for any potential reaction. And tofu is a fabulous way to do that. So if you want to get links to some of the articles referenced in this episode, or if you want to sign up for that free baby led weaning workshop, check out the, so just show notes rather for this episode at blwpodcast.com slash three seven, and there you have it now, you know, all about soy and how to introduce your baby to this potentially allergenic food.

Katie Ferraro (14m 29s):

Bye now!