Adding cows milk to foods

[milkmummy1]

I have been adding a little bit of organic full fat cows milk in my baby's purees/mashed food to make it a bit runnier (he is 7 months old). obvioulsy he is having his ususal bottles of formula as well. munm said this might not be a good idea as something to do with milk taking the iron out of foods. what does everyone think - is this a bad idea? baby seems to love it but dont want to do anything wrong.

[lulumama]

cows milk is fine to add to food from 6 months, just not good as a main drink

don;t think it takes iron out of food...

[Brangelina]

It can cause anaemia through intestinal bleeding, from the fact that the proteins in cow's milk are far too cumbersome for an immature human gut.

Where I live we are advised to avoid "uncooked" bovine milk in the early stages and I personally avoided the stuff until my DD was a year old, used either ebm or formula in cereals. It's perfectly OK to give yogurts and cheese though, as there the enzymes have already done most of the digesting.

[Seona1973]

cows milk is fine in cereals, foods, cooking, etc from 6 months as long as the main drink remains breast/formula.

[willowsmom]

I am from the US and over here cows milk is not recommended until after 12 months as part of diet because it does not have the needed amount of nutrients. However, it can be given as part of a meal (i.e. when making scrambled egg yolks or cooking some other food) after 9 months along with other dairy. Before then it is harsh on their digestion. But I understand it may be different in the UK.