Health visitors saying

[Wou]

What changes so much at 12am from baby's first birthday? 😂 literally is a bit weird. health visitor today and my baby will be 1 next week, as im not planning to go there for a while now as i don't need to i asked if i could already start giving him bits of cows milk to get him used to it, cause as soon as he turns 1 one week after ill be back to work, and baby is breastfeeding so will be very hard as he is addicted... the health visitor answer is, you shouldn't give him cows milk until he is one year old it's dangerous(???) but??? will less than a week change stuff? suddenly turns 12 and he is super baby and can have everything is it? i rly don't get it

Lol. Some go by the book and don't think through.

My DC refused cows milk till about 14 months age and slowly I had to wean him off formula.

My understanding isn't that it's dangerous it's that baby gets majority of their calories and nutrients from either breast milk or formula milk along side food until they are 12 months old, so you want to avoid replacing a breastfeed with a bottle of cows milk before the age of 1. They can have it in cereal, sauces etc.

If you are wanting to wean them from breastfeeding they would need formula to replace breastfeeds until they are 1.

that being said I really doubt a week would make a lot of difference as they will be having plenty of food by now too.

Nothing changes. Just like honey doesn’t turn from poison to fine between 11 months and 12 month! I’m pretty sure that 12 months for cows milk is just used as a conservative estimate of when it would be fine for most babies to move off formula / breast milk because at this point most children will be eating a decent amount of solids and getting the appropriate nutrition via solids. Some won’t be ready to give up bottles / boob at that age, which is fine too. Do what works for you and baby and if that means cows milk a little early then go for it!

Fwiw my first (not an enthusiastic eater of solids) was still on 4 bottles per day until 14ish months when he suddenly self weaned. My daughter on the other hand is 11 months and eating 3 large and healthy meals per day and only really keen on her morning bottle. If baby is eating decent amount of balanced solid meals then seems fine to move to cows milk (think less than 300ml per day recommended) and you could add a multivitamin if worried about iron etc. Try not to stress too much about it though!

@Wou ha!! Take it with a pinch of salt. A week won't make any difference.

I thought my baby had an issue with dairy so barely ate it. We started trying an Oz of cows milk at 11.5 months and he had such a serve reaction I just switched straight to Alpro toddler oat or soya. Now 18 months and a very healthy boy! Just can't have dairy like his mumma 🤣

There are good reasons for the guidelines at population level.

If you want to ignore the guidelines you can, but you can't seriously expect a health visitor to advise you to ignore national public health guidance.

1 week will make absolutely no difference.

There has to be a cut off somewhere

My mum was fed on cows milk (straight from the cow ) from day of birth onwards…there’s a big difference between the word “dangerous”( if the HV used that word, are you sure she did as most babies are eating dairy before age 1) and stating national guidelines.

For info @Wou what is 'dangerous' about an early switch to cow's milk is the lower level of nutrition compared to bf or formula. This can seriously impact growth and development. If there isn't a cut off date, it is hard to advise people. A professional can't advise you to ignore guidance without a very good reason.

If you are worried about the switch, perhaps it would help to either express and get used to a bottle/cup or transition to formula?

Same time here. Little one had soya formula but the tin ran out and he was 11.5 months so I just got alpro toddler soya and he loved it. 1 week really won't make a difference.

It doesn't change but advice has to have set dates because otherwise you could say what's the difference between 50 weeks and 48 weeks, then 46 weeks etc etc. advice for cows milk is one year, but use your discretion, same with other "banned" foods

But doing that is dangerous, in terms of growth and development. Plus unpasteurised milk has serious risks.

It is very ill advised and would be serious cause for concern now.

Yeah, but it's not midnight on the baby's first birthday.

I think the point the OP was making is that the HV warned her about the dangers of milk before she turns one. Which is in a week. There wasn't really a need for a warning there was there. And if baby was born 2 weeks overdue, does that technically mean she could have cows milk a week ago?

It's a bit barmy OP to be giving you the 12 month warning at 11.5 months.

Of course ,feeding cows milk since birth is not advised that’s pretty obvious!! I’m just highlighting that shifting to cows milk one week earlier than guidelines is not going to be an issue!