please!! advice on cow's milk introduction at 12mo

[piggybank]

Hello,


I'm looking for advice on cow's milk introduction at 12mo.


My ds2 is formula fed but I am interested in opinions/facts from both ff and bf experienced mums (and if course mix fed!).


I don't know why, but I'm having trouble phrasing my questions, so please, please be patient with me :-)


What I am wondering is why 12 mo is the recommended age for cow's milk introduction.....


Do we delay introduction until 12mo because cow's milk is an allergen (yes, I am aware it is contained in formula)?


Or


Do we want to move babies on to cow's milk at 12 mo because formula or breast milk is too fattening?


Or


Do we want to move babies on to cow's milk because really we want them on a beaker and weaning off the teat (bottle or actual breast) is the name of the game?


Or


Is it only formula fed babies who are pressured to move off bottles and formula for any/all of the above reasons?


Thanks very much in advance for your advice.


I switched ds1 from ff bottle to cow's milk in a cup very successfully at 12. He then slept very badly until age 4.


My ds2 is almost 12mo and a much better sleeper than ds1 ever was! However I really don't think ds2 is ready now at 12 mo to give up 1. Formula or 2. Bottles



I know you will all tell me to carry on feeding ds2 as I see fit (and I will) but what I really want, is some answers to the above questions so when my mil starts pressuring me I've got something to say!




Ta.

[Karlii1991]

Cows milk up until the age of 1 is not enough for the baby/child. Cows milk does not contain enough vitamins etc for your child to live off and grow. As the child gets older they are getting a lot of there vitamins and nutrients etc from the food instead of from the formula. If you are a little unsure on changing to cows milk then you can buy 1+ formula milk and 2-3 year formula milk so it's entirely up to you. In regards to bottles I'm a firm believer in if they don't have a bottle they will settle for a beaker, the second my two eldest turned 1 I got rid of the bottles and changed them to a beaker and they were fine but again that is entirely up to you, I would just be concerned about their teeth with a bottle.

Breastfeeding is the most suited to feeding your child and I don't think it's a case of you must feed your children on cows milk when they are 1 years of age, it's more you shouldn't feed your child solely on cows milk before 1 years of age, Think about all these women who successfully breastfeed their children until the age of 5+ hope this helped.

[Spindelina]

As Karlii says, there's nothing wrong with breast milk or formula for children over 12 months.

But if you want to replace either of those with cow's milk, you need to wait until 12 months because before then cow's milk isn't good enough nutritionally.

Teats/cups is a different issue - you can do any milk in any vessel.

[leedy]

Plain cow's milk isn't suitable as a main drink before a year because, basically, it's designed for baby cows, not baby humans - doesn't contain the right mix of nutrients like formula or breast milk, not as easy to digest and, IIRC, contains way too much sodium for tiny human kidneys. Once baby is over a year they're getting lots of nutrition from solids anyway and their wee system is more able to cope with it.

It's perfectly fine to continue giving formula or breastmilk past a year (though in the case of formula it's a lot more expensive than plain cow's milk and a lot of people would say unnecessary given that they can safely have the untreated stuff).