Got mylk?

My milk chat brings all the soys to the yard.

While pregnant with my first child, I did a deep dive on milking plants for all they're worth to give my impending mini person the best start. As I was no cow, I didn't intend on pouring udder-pumped bovine milk into her. I'm not a dietician or nutritionist, so I would encourage consulting a pro for personalised advice. What I am is a reformed cows milk enthusiast who didn't want to drop the parenting ball. I wasn't raised vegan so I wanted qualified advice to inform my choices. Plant Based Juniors are registered dieticians out of the States and have great info on different plant milk.

Now when your little one is fresh from the oven, official guidelines promote breastmilk for at least a year or longer. Breastfeeding is a learned art that can sometimes be challenging but very rewarding for those it works for. Should you have excess breast milk or be scrambling for it, there are free donation networks around NZ. Donor breastmilk from vegan mothers can be harder to find and is often in hot demand to support babes with allergies to animal-based foods, but it is out there; I've cold-shipped my donated vegan milk all over.

As your baby grows or parents choose different feeding approaches, an infant-specific formula can come into play. At the time of my first tot, a strictly vegan formula was not available off the shelf. So we went with the most practical closest option of dairy-free soy formula (though frustratingly did contain some animal bits in some additives). In good progress news, New Zealand now has a fully vegan and allergy-friendly formula option called 'Sprout'.

When it's time to broaden the horizons on small one's milk consumption, there are several factors to weigh up. All plant milks are not created equal. Scrunintise the nutritional info and ingredients panel. You're looking for calcium (shooting for 160mg per 100mls) protein (around 3g per 100mls), fat (compare to around 3.5g per 100mls in cow's milk) and other added goodies, known as fortifications, like Vitamin D and B12. Ideally, also avoid added sweeteners. Overlay that with what you can access and afford. Worth reiterating here that no plant milk is an appropriate milk replacement for under 1 year-olds, so at this alternative milk toss-up stage, we're talking toddler milk.

In terms of packing the biggest nutritional punch, unsweetened soy is usually top billing as it provides a similar amount of protein, calcium, vitamin D and vitamin B12 to moo juice. This is why, overall, soy is most commonly recommended. Worth noting it's lower on the fat front though, and as growing is a tiring business needing lots of fat fuel, boost your kids up with other veggie fat sources. In the event soy is an allergen, oat can be second place, with often decent calcium, fat, vitamin fortifications and overall calories, but is usually lower on protein, so that needs to be balanced out.

As children have small stomachs and can be fuss pots, it's worth striving for efficiency by getting as much goodness in each meal or snack. That means the most nutrient-dense options of soy, or oat if required, are usually the best choices. All other various plant milks have their place and can provide variety, but are generally not recommended as the main milk for toddlers. Coconut is a heavy hitter on good healthy fats but mostly is much lower in calcium and protein. Almond milk mostly has low levels of all the important bits except some brands have decent calcium or B12. Niche milks like peanut and hemp are emerging options, but so far generally have lower levels of all the main areas we're looking for. I hear very good things about pea milk as boasting an amazing nutritional profile, however, I'm yet to see it available domestically. Fingers crossed we see some on our local shelves soon.

When selecting your plant-based fortified milk, know you're just like everyone else. A lot of kiwis consume fortified foods without realising it. Many dairy products like yoghurts are fortified with Vitamin D or added calcium, and further up the chain, many farmed animals receive supplementation either in their feed or via medication, such as B12 with selenium booster injection for heifers. Worth remembering next time vegan food is challenged as 'lacking', that many omni foods are boosted too. We vegans are just skipping over the animal for fortified nutrient delivery. Which is the whole MO of veganism - leave the animals out of it.

So when choosing white gold for your toddler (plant milk, not jewellery), select with informed confidence you're nourishing your baby beastie with vegan love.

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