Both my seven-year-old son and husband have type 1. We now have a five-month-old who has been tested for the high risk genes and doesn’t have them. Is there still a higher probability than the general population that our second son might acquire type 1?

I had been feeding my infant Similac Alimentum since the cow’s milk proteins are completely broken down. Due to the cost, and supposedly terrible taste of the Alimentum, I’d like to switch to another formula that has at least some of the cow’s milk proteins broken down. Would you recommend Nestle’s Good Start that has only whey protein or something like Similac Sensitive that has both casein and whey proteins? Even though there is no “hard” evidence that cow’s milk is a trigger for type 1, I’d like to do all I can to avoid any “possible” triggers, especially since our oldest son was diagnosed at 15 months old.

As I understand things, if there were no high risk gene, he actually would have less risk than the general population to get diabetes.

Good Start with whey is an okay choice.

LD
Additional comments from Dr. Stuart Brink:
The genetic risks are just statistical. So, I if the new baby does not have the high risk genes, there is still some “familial” risk but not quite quantifiable and certainly not as high as if the identified high risk genes from the two other family members were also present in the new baby. All in all, this is a more hopeful prognosis.

As far as the milk, I believe that the whey and the casein are the milk proteins and as long as they are present, this does not mitigate/lessen the risk from cow milk protein exposure. I would use things like Pregestamil and Nutramagin. Soy proteins overlap the cow milk proteins so this does not help either. However, if they cannot be afforded, then this is not really an option.

SB