Hemp Milk For Babies: The Almost SUPER Food For Your Baby!
If your baby cannot drink cow’s milk due to allergy reason or because you wanted to follow a strict vegetarian diet and want to steer clear from animal’s milk, then you might want to consider other plant base milk like coconut milk, sunflower milk, almond milk or this little known milk – hemp milk.
Related: Is almond milk good for my baby?
Hemp milk is a milky substance derived from hemp seeds and these seeds are the same seed that can be grow into marijuana. However hemp milk has NOTHING to do with marijuana and it will not get your baby “high”. Read on to know why hemp milk for babies are great as alternative milk to cow’s milk and best of all even the famous Dr. Oz is favoring this milk too!
What Is Hemp Milk?
Hemp milk is basically milk that is completely natural and doesn't come from animals. It is actually plant based, derived from hemp seeds hence the name. The nutty creamy milk like substance is created when the hemp seeds are soaked and ground into water.
There are varying opinions about whether hemp milk for babies is safe and the short answer to it is YES. In fact hemp milk can have so many benefits for your baby, so carry on reading to discover more.
Some mothers worry about whether hemp milk is safe because hemp seeds are also used to grow marijuana. However, hemp milk does not contain the active ingredient of Tetrahydrocannabinol that will cause psychoactive effects like marijuana and definitely won't get your baby high!
Can I Give My Baby Hemp Milk?
Hemp milk for babies is completely safe from the age of about 7 months and it actually contains many nutritious ingredients that are not found in formula/cows milk.
Hemp milk can be given to your infant from a bottle and you do not need to worry about any side effects. Many mothers who take a more holistic approach to parenting praise hemp milk and all that it has done for their children. You will discover further on exactly what vitamins and minerals make up hemp milk to help your baby thrive.
Is Hemp Milk Safe For Baby?
Although it may sound scary that hemp milk derived from the same seed that can grow into marijuana but you can rest assure that hemp milk is totally safe for your baby consumption. This is because hemp seeds do not contain the ingredient that causes psychoactive effects in marijuana; hemp milk is also not addictive for your baby.
What Is Hemp Milk Nutrition Value For Baby?
Hemp milk offers a powerful punch when it comes to nutrition. In a just single 8-ounce of hemp milk, your baby can get the following goodness:
- 2800mg Omega-6 Fatty Acid
- 900mg Omega-3 Fatty Acid
- 4 grams of Digestible Protein
- All 10 Essential Amino Acids
- 46% of RDA of Calcium
- Potassium
- 0% Cholesterol
- Phosphorous
- Potassium
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin B12
- Magnesium
- Folic acid
- Iron
- Zinc
- many more...
There are many nutrients found in hemp milk that make it a really good choice to feed your baby from a young age. From the stacked list above, it’s obvious that hemp milk really an almost super food for your little precious.
On top of all the vitamins, as mentioned by Dr. Andrew Weil, hemp milk also contains all 10 essential amino acids and digestible protein - which should help your baby pass stools as and when they should. In short, hemp milk has basically everything that your baby needs and contains nothing harmful, so why not feed it to them?
Here is a comparison between hemp milk vs cow's milk:
Image source: hellobee.com
Where To Buy Hemp Milk For Babies?
Hemp milk is not well known due to lack of marketing but you can still find them in your local store. If it's not available at your local store, Amazon has them here…
- Pacific natural
- Tempt
Pack of 12
Single pack
…or if you prefer to make it yourself, here is a helpful video:
Recipe:
3 cups of water
2 socked and pitted dates
1 cup of hemp seeds
1 dash vanilla (optional)
Ingredients mentioned in the video...
- Organic hemp seed
- Pitted dates
- organic vanilla powder
The Facts About Hemp Milk
- Hemp milk can be bought ready prepared or you can buy the hemp seeds and prepare your own, if you want to be extra sure that there are no added ingredients. The best is to serve organic hemp milk for your baby. See this article for the benefits of organic hemp milk.
- It can be bought in a number of different flavors and while the plain one is probably worth sticking to until your baby is about one, you can experiment with the other flavors, as he/she gets older if you wish.
- In addition to all the wholesome ingredients, hemp milk contains NONE of the bad stuff including sugar, soy, gluten and cholesterol. This makes it an obvious choice for many people when looking for a better milk choice for their baby.
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Rich In Omegas
Even though I have already mentioned many of the vitamins and minerals in hemp milk, there is something else that makes it a great choice. It contains Omega-3 and Omega-6, which are vital in helping your little one develop, as he/she should.
Hemp milk has quite a unique taste to it but overall it's creamy and your baby will enjoy it. Hemp milk is growing in popularity and although it's not as "mainstream" as it could be, this is set to change in the coming years as more and more pediatrician start to recommend it.
Hemp Milk Benefits
Hemp milk benefits include:
- Strengthened body and boost immune system
- Healthy skin, stronger hair and nails
- A stronger and healthy heart
- Increase mental capacity
Hemp Milk VS Other Regular Milk
Folks at amazingandatopic.com made a really insightful comparison between hemp milk and other regular milk. Here is the nutritional fact comparison:
Here are the vitamins comparison:
Here are comments extracted from the author site:
- For Vitamin A, Calcium, and Vitamin D, they are all pretty comparable.
- Have you ever heard of zinc being recommended for its immunity-boosting properties? Hemp milk has 4% of an adult's Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA), which is around 10% of a toddler's RDA.
- Almond milk has a lot of Vitamin E, but is out of the question for someone with an almond/tree nut allergy. The sunflower milk has the same amount of Vitamin E and the added boost of Folic Acid.
- Again, I'm not a doctor, but I'm a little disturbed at the high level of iron in the soy milk. This makes me wonder if this was the cause of my daughter constipation issues and tummy troubles, while she was on soy milk (12-19 months of age.)
- Hemp and sunflower milk are the only ones that list folic acid.
- If you Google soy and hormones, you'll get all kinds of conflicting information. I am a bit concerned about the level of soy my daughter consumed in those 14 months (soy formula and milk), but I don't think it will have any dire consequences. In this article from Babycenter.com, what most concerns me is that it mentions how phytates can decrease your child's absorption of calcium and other minerals.
- As for the cow's milk, which is obviously not an option for us, I still feel that it's lacking in vitamins and minerals, compared to the other milks. All of the other milks have the same, if not more, calcium than cow's milk, yet I often hear cow's milk touted as being "good for building strong bones", as if there's no other source in the world.
- Flax milk has Omega-3 fatty acids, but hemp milk has the proper ratio of Omega-3 and Omega-6 essential fatty acids.
Continue to Breastfeed
If you are breastfeeding your little one you do NOT need to stop when you give your baby hemp milk, it's perfectly fine to do both. Also worth to mention that, your baby might not seem like she needs breast milk when she starts eating solids too, but it's always good to give them a top up in nutrients.
Although hemp milk has lots of nutritional values but human milk is still the best milk to support a healthy growth in your child. Hemp milk should be used in an addition to other wholesome foods in your babies diet; it does not need to replace anything.
Further Considerations
You can see that hemp milk is a really beneficial drink to offer to your baby but there are some things that you need to keep in mind. Be sure to read on the packaging before you settle to any hemp milk brands. Some of the hemp milk has addictive like sugar or flavoring, which is not very recommend for young age baby. The best is to buy those unsweetened and organic hemp milk.
