If your child is allergic to milk, flavored plant juice alternatives like rice and soy, when fortified, can fill in some gaps, but outside necessity, they are not nutritionally equal to dairy, no matter what marketing departments claim.
Once upon a time, the US government protected consumers with Standards of Identity, they sued a cheese company for putting how much milk was in a slice of its cheese because of even the inference it had as much calcium as milk.
No more. Squeeze any plant and add some vanilla flavor and you can call it milk and Washington, DC does not think that is deceptive.
Marketing will always push boundaries. Vegetarian food companies will always tout their protein as being basically the same as red meat, except it isn't, any more than taking one chemical out of the 200 that makes up 'grape' flavor and calling it grape is the same. We all can tell the difference.
With nutritional claims, and the USDA, FDA, and FTC allowing open season on consumers - GMO alcohol, a class 1 carcinogen, being touted as healthier than the conventional class 1 carcinogen is exceptionally stupid, but even Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms doesn't seem to mind - means it is up to science to puncture myths about nutrition.
And the results are that of the 237 alternative milk products tested, only 12 percent had enough calcium. Without even getting into other beneficial aspects of milk, plant juice doesn't even get that right. Only 16 percent had protein.
ENJOY! Actually, it's easy to get confused with such tiny nuts. With bovine, only a clueless urban environmental activist milks steer instead of a cow.
One of my son's was allergic to breast milk and then soy, so we used alternatives, and something is better than nothing, but don't fall for marketing hype that it is equivalent. Government agencies are too busy finding new things to regulate, they are not providing meaningful protection from marketing hype. That means be skeptical of people trying to make a buck selling you magic, be it organic food, supplements, or near milk.
PETA, of course, will always be PETA and demonize infants to show what terrible human beings PETA employees are:
