Just got these letters in:
“Dear Dr. Daniel: I watched your interview on View from the Bay. Something you said alarmed me. You said giving soy to babies is bad because it’s the ONLY thing they’re getting. Further, you won’t see the damage till puberty. In boys, they may develop slower or NOT at all! My heart race picked up a little when I heard that. My son is 15 and was fed soy as a baby (as advised by our naturopathic doctor at the time). Well he is certainly slower than the other boys his age in developing. Did I screw up? If so, what do I do now? Can anything be reversed or improved from this point forward? Thank you for your time and consideration, I would love a response.” — Anne
Dear Anne: First of all, don’t blame yourself as you had no way of knowing that your ND was badly misinformed. I detail the reproductive risks of soy formula in Chapter 28 and 29 of my book The Whole Soy Story. However, risk is not certainty, so let’s hope your son’s development will move forward normally even if he’s on a slower timetable than the other boys. That said, I would strongly recommend that you begin working right away with an alternative MD or other health practitioner who understands the dangers of soy, does laboratory assessment and recommends a Nourishing Traditions type diet. Such a diet will not only help your son but your entire family enjoy optimum health. The more you can improve your son’s overall health, the more likely his body will find the strength and inner wisdom to develop properly. For more information on soy recovery, please read two articles on this site: “Soy Recovery Part I” and “Soy Recovery: The Toxic Metal Component.” Good luck.
“Dear Dr. Daniel: Is there any evidence that eating soy can cause behavioral changes? Recently my 7 yr. old son ate edamame and experienced a very noticeable change in behavior (extremely hyper, upset and not paying attention) which occurred approximately 2 ½ hrs. after eating soybeans. He ate the edamame at the food bar at Whole Foods; we know they were organic and not genetically modified. As a baby he was fed some soy formula to supplement breast milk. As a toddler we gave him soymilk; during this time, he also went through the same aforementioned behavior. This is why we suspect a food intolerance, but are not sure. Any information you can shed on this is greatly appreciated.”–WF
Dear WF: We have massive evidence linking soy to behavioral disorders, especially ADD/ADHD, as discussed in Chapter 21 of The Whole Soy Story. This could be caused by manganese toxicity, the phytoestrogens in soy or both. However, your son seems to be reacting to soy exposure rather than experiencing an ongoing problem due to manganese or phytoestrogen interference with brain function. I suspect he is allergic to soy and should eliminate it from his diet completely as discussed in my article “Soy Recovery Part I.” My second article “Soy Recovery: The Toxic Metal Component” may also help your son. Both are available on this website. Soy is now one of the top 8 allergens, and is increasing so much that many experts believe it will soon move into the top four. I discuss soy allergies in Chapters 24 and 25 of The Whole Soy Story, and have answered many questions about coping with soy allergies on my website www.soyfreesolutions.com. A Nourishing Traditions diet may prove very helpful. Good luck.
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Hi, i would like to know how to detoxify my kids from the soy exposure. they have consumed organic soy milk once a day for about 6 months. My younger child has since developed what look like learning problems, and he is quite hyper dispite the fact that he gets lots of exercise daily. we never had issues before we started using soy.
i never linked the two together.
please help.
Chantal:o
My son was fed infant soy formula after I stopped breast feeding at 8 months. He was also given soy milk instead of milk for a few years after that. He has a rare disorder in his hip called Legg Calve Perths disease aka Avascular Necrosis of the hip. He is also learning delayed, overweight. Just a few years ago I was concerned by the underdevelopment of his Penis. It is retracted and you can hardly see it. His pediatrician said that it was because he was overweight and the fat pad around his genitals caused the penis to be hidden. My son is now 9 years old and I am very concerned that he has not ever talked about having an erection. I know he had a few when he was under one year. The only variable I see in this is that I was taking heparin shots during my pregnancy with him for a few months. I stopped them in my 6th month for fear there would be prenatal issues. I always attributed his LCP disease to the heparin but now after researching the Soy issues I see that the Soy milk is most likely the main issue. I will now see if I can find a practitioner that can help me figure out how to help him. I guess the first place to start would be to read the soy recovery articles you suggest. Any other recommendations would be welcomed.
My younger brother was given soy formula as a baby..as he had a very severe reaction to cow’s milk. As a child and as an adult he never had any bad effects as the result of soy formula. He is a college graduate, was an officer in the military, served in Vietnam, ran a successful business, worked in Kuwait and in Iraq, has been married for 40 years and has 2 children, both college graduates.
Is he “the exception to the rule”?
My baby was unable to breastfeed and was intolerant to all milk-based formulas. She had terrible effects from soy formula including acne, severe painful constipation and 12-15 episodes a day of what looked like seizures. Research online showed a study that compared soy fed infants to dairy and the seizure risk was twice as high. How is this even allowed on the shelves?
Although I tried to breast feed my son he refused to latch on. I managed to give him maternal milk for two weeks using a manual pump something that was painful and tiring while recovering from a C-Session. During his first 3 months he suffered from severe colic (gas). The pediatrician concluded that he was lactose intolerant and he gave us a box full of Enfamil Soy Formula to start immediately. Of course, we were young (1998) and clueless at the time. We were so grateful for the “gift” and never questioned or researched the product. My son developed Gynecomastia when he was around 8 years old but only his nipple showed enlarged, almost tubular in shape and herniated. He speech was delayed and he was never aware. Now he is 21 and I have wondered if my son suffered from undiagnosed autism or another learning disability because is lack of logic and reasoning. Recently he was diagnosed with MS something that I can link with security to his unbalanced gut bioma (flora). Can there be a class action lawsuit against ENFAMIL?
I am sorry to hear about your child. I struggle as well as a parent. Soy can harm a child from infancy through puberty. I switched my adolescent to soy milk at the prompting of an ignorant dermatologist who advised that dairy was causing acne. I am sickened that I had soy milk in my home. I wish there could be lawsuits to bring this to the attention of the public. But the soy industry will hide behind the fact that there are many endochrine disruptors out there that “could have” harmed our children. For example, tea tree and lavendar essential oils are known endochrine disruptors that mimick estrogen in the body too. And BPA in plastic and canned food linings will also be blamed in an attempt to keep the soy industry feeding us their toxins. I wish I had known more about nutrition in the past; I am sickened that my child drank soy milk. And soy milk can damage a child at any age from infancy through puberty — because soy’s phytoestrogens mimick estrogen which does three things to innocent children: 1. Causes early puberty in girls; 2. Causes delayed puberty and gynocomastia in prepubescent boys; 3. Stunts growth in adolescent males, whereby phytoestrogen acts as estrogen in body, lowering testosterone, which hinders growth spurts in males. Not to mention that estrogen closes growth plates. I think there are a lot of stunted people out there who drank soy milk as an alternative to dairy and never grew to their true height potential in addition to whatever other health problems they may have due to soy.