WIBU to switch one of DD's bottles to cows milk at 8 months?

[StarlingBirdsong]

As far as i can see the guidelines is 12 months because formula or BM will give baby all the calories and nutrients etc it needs to grow and develops up to a year. Nothing says cows milk is bad - just that the nutrient content is deemed not to be sufficient for a baby weaned by traditional puree weaning.

The facts of my particular case:

DD has a small bottle (4oz) when she wakes up and then a bottle to go for each nap and bead (3 x 7oz).

She is BLW - started at 5.5 months and is now on 3 solid meals a day plus snacks if she 'asks'. And i genuinely mean she is eating the same meals as my other 3 DC and myself - today she had scrambled egg on a slice of toast, chicken, broccolli and potato for lunch and pasta bolognaise (with loads of veg in the bolognaise) for dinner. And i mean she ate it all, leaving only a small spoonful leftover.

She wants the bottle to go to sleep but never really seems 'hungry' - which doesnt surprise me with the amount of food she eats!!

So i thought about switching her morning bottle and her afternoon nap bottle to cows milk so she can have her drink but not be taking on all the extra calories of formula. it would be a total of 11oz per day and see how she gets on.

My other three were still playing with food and only eating a small amount at this age - they were more like 10/11 months before i felt they were eating a full meal at every sitting. DD has been clearing her plate for nearly 3 weeks now and porking out at a rate of knots!

I know the BLWing mantra is 'just for fun until they are one' and it reinforces that formula or BM will give them everything they need but this is aimed more to stop you worrying if baby ISNT eating much solids - i cant find anything useful about why not to switch to cows if the baby in question is eating a full diet.

She eats a full varied diet - all food groups available for at least 2 of the three meals. there are no allergies in the family anywhere and she is happily having meals made with cows milk and cows milk on her cereal/porridge.

so what are the thoughts on this? I just cant see why she needs all the 'benefits' of formula if she is getting all the goodness from her food. If anyone has some clear research/knowledge that says why i cant give her cows milk i would be grateful for it because i cant find a good reason not to do it (and as a rule i go with my gut on parenting, not the 'rules' per se)

dons hard hat

[WatchingFromTheWings]

I'm sure all my 3 (16,14 & 5yo) were all on cows milk by 6m.

[milpool]

Why, though? Can you not just give her water if you don't want her to have the calories of formula?

[Poocatcherchampion]

Why though?

Cost or is she on a diet?

[Zombieswillreign]

Your her mum ,you know best....follow yr instincts

[AppleMagic]

Why are you worried about how many calories she's taking in? She's eating well and getting lots of extra nutrients from formula - why change something that's working well?

[dementedpixie]

How will cows milk give her fewer calories? I wouldn't switch 2 bottles at that age. I gave a small drink of cows milk with a snack from around 9 months but wouldn't have given a full cows milk feed

[EvansAndThePrince]

If you think she's having too much "food", (be it real food or formula) you should be making her portion sizes smaller. Milk should be the main source of food until a year, so I would be cutting the portion sizes right down so that she does need the milk.

[StarlingBirdsong]

she has water at meals but isnt keen on it in her bottle. plus obviously milk is a good source of calcium as they grow.

I am slightly concerned about the rate of porking out! (we are a family with weight problems so its always on my mind). She is currently 50th centile but is going up, she was on the 25th.

formula is also expensive and if she doesnt need the formula that money would be very handy as things are tight.

[manyathingyouknow]

Why don't you start to mix the bottles; part formula and part cow's milk?

I had to do this to get DS on to cows milk

[mrsvilliers]

YABU - I had it in my head it's not good for their tummies under 1 - this is useful info www.babycenter.com/0_cows-milk-when-and-how-to-introduce-it_1334703.bc

Don't worry about restricting her calories at this age, I got told to put dd on a diet at 8 months (I ignored, she is now a perfectly healthy unchunky toddler.)

[Yorkieheaven]

Ours were all in cows milk at 6 months. They are all fine and dandy adults.

Guidelines not laws op

[StarlingBirdsong]

evans BLW advocates letting baby control its intake (which i have done with my others very successfully). it doesnt say that milk SHOULD be the main source, only that it CAN be - that their needs will be met by it as pureeing takes loads of the goodness out of food and BLW babies may not be eating that much yet. neither applies to my baby who is eating like a pro!

[Soubriquet]

Sorry YABU

Cows milk is not suitable for under ones.

It doesn't provide enough nutrition and all the food you are giving her are not really enough either

I'm sure I've heard cows milk as a drink too early can be one of the reasons why eczema can develop but don't quote me on that

[dementedpixie]

Cows milk is also higher in sodium than formula

[StarlingBirdsong]

many mixing is a good idea. never needed to with the others, they switched at 12 months ish (or whenever i ran out of formula around that age!) with no complaints. that could be an option.

[InTheDessert]

I didn't think there was much of a calorie difference, unless you go to skimmed or semi milk. Full fat cows milk and formula have a similar calorific load.
I thought it was additional minerals in ciws milk which may stress out immature kidneys which was why formula /breast milk til 1 is recommended.
If you want to reduce the calorie contend if her nap drinks, I'd go to water.

[StarlingBirdsong]

soubriquet but why isnt the food enough? she is eating the same as my 4 and 6 year olds are (and the same diet as they had from weaning themselves, they were just slower to grasp the concept)

[StarlingBirdsong]

inthedessert thank you, i will see if i can find out more about the effect on kidneys.

[Artandco]

I wouldn't. It's another 4 months which seems small but is 1/4 of her life again.

Cow Milk an be given but is difficult to digest on mass. Hence breastmilk or formula recommended

[DoItTooJulia]

See, I wouldn't even the this a second thought. If you think a cows milk bottle won't do any harm, go for it. Like pp said they are guidelines.

Personally, I'd do one bottle at a time though.

[DoItTooJulia]

*give this. Poor proof reading!

[FurryGiraffe]

You say you're worried about weight gain and obviously you don't want to overfeed, but given the ethos of BLW is to let them control their intake and learn to self-regulate, why do you trust her to do that with food but not formula? Genuine question. DS1 was of full meals very quickly too (he has a proper Christmas dinner at 7.5 months) but was BF so I had no idea how much he was having and I trusted him to reduce as needed.

Also- Is she crawling yet? It is of course very common to have a period of podging up before they're mobile and then slimming down again when they get moving.

[FizzyFeet]

I know this isn't the main point of your post, but how active is she? I was worried about my DD putting on too much weight but my HV reassured me that it will come off quickly when she starts crawling.

[wheresthel1ght]

I believe that under 1 a baby cannot fully digest cows milk which is why you are only supposed to use a minimal amount to cook with/on cereal.

I did a huge amount of reading around it as I am lactose intolerant and dairy allergic so wanted to try and introduce early so we knew what she could/ couldn't have but seem to remember my hv saying something about it.

[Caterina99]

I'd drop a bottle, or gradually reduce the amount of formula in the current bottles personally.

Don't think there's any harm in changing to cows milk if you want to though, especially if it's not all her milk. It may encourage her to reduce her intake anyway if she's not that keen