AIBU to give my 10 month old cow's milk?

[BMO]

My 10 month old currently drinks 2 6oz bottles of formula a day, and has two beakers of 3-4oz with snacks. We have been buying ready made formula if he has these beakers when we are out, or to send to his childminder, but it is expensive and wasteful.

WIBU to just give him full fat cow's milk at snack time instead?

Yes, probably.... It'll likely give him a very uncomfortable tummy and the squits!

Why would it give him an uncomfortable tummy Moonraker?

Yes, YABU. Cow's milk doesn't contain enough iron, so formula is necessary until 1.

Chunderella - my HV said it was 17oz minimum, or you should give a vitamin supplement (which he has).

My 10 month old refused formula milk during the day at 10 months, but still had 8oz bottles morning and night. He just had water during the day as a drink. And upped his dairy in other ways.
I wouldn't swap to cows milk, I would just give him water when you are out or buy a ready made carton if you need it and leave a tub of formula at the child minders.

I didn't think their tummies could break down cows milk til 12 months?

He's only 17months now and 91st centile I think, (well he was the last time i checked) If that helps.

Yabu.

I really would stick to the guidelines. It is only 2 more months which is nothing in the big scale of things. You risk really irritating his gut by moving him over too soon from my understanding of it.

It's not going to hurt him it's just that the formula has added stuff that is good! We switched DD at about that age because I felt happy her overall diet was good enough that she could cope without. Obviously it's personal choice and some people will disagree.

I can't see that it would bother his gut - he already has plenty of cow's milk in his diet. I make his porridge with 100ml of milk!

DD was breast fed. When I went back to work 2 days a week at 9 months, she had beakers of cows' milk for daytime drinks on those days as she didn't like formula and I was struggling to express. She was absolutely fine. Definitely no tummy trouble and the iron / vitamins thing is pushed by the formula companies to make you buy their product. Yes, iron is important, but by 9/10 months, most babies are eating proper food so get iron in their meals. DD did baby led weaning and was a good eater so lots of iron from red meat, green veggies etc.
Breast fed babies don't get much iron from milk and they do ok and it isn't all that long that 6 months was the recommended age for switching to cows' milk.
In summary, if your baby eats well and is still getting most of their milk from breast or formula, then a few cups of moo juice won't do any harm at all.

Seen other posts but I thought formula was just cows milk with additives! Diary allergic kids don't have regular formula for this reason surely.

Most ten month or babies are only on two bottles a day or so anyway. replacing a beaker with formula when he already has a vitamin supplement with a cup of cows milk probably wouldn't make a difference.

The 17 oz a day included yogurt and cheese and milk.on cereal. It's not just how much formula

includes.

nit included

The 17oz a day they are supposed to have was definitely just in formula, in order that they get the full RDA of vitamins. If they have less than this (including breastfed babies) then you should give a vitamin supplement.

I gave dd cows milk from ten months she was still breastfed when I started just giving milk during the day
The hv said it would be fine. I Want introducing formula at that stage as I think it tastes disgusting andi wouldn't give her out

My BF DS is starting with a childminder in two weeks when he will be just under 10m of age. He refuses formula and so will be having two drinks of cow's milk in my absence.

We used cows milk from 6 mo in cereal, etc so when we came to holiday time (dd was 11mo) I spoke with the HV about moving her formula to cows milk. (We were exclusively using ready made too lazy to make up bottles so the excessive baggage for holiday would've been £££.)

HV advised that it should be ok but to supplement with a vitamin including vit D.

She was fine. Life much easier - I'll never steralise a bottle again. Horah!

One things to be wary of is that cows milk has salt in it , approx 0.14g per 100ml. And the max daily intake of salt for under 1s is 1g. If you give lots of cows milk and if any of the food you give has salt in (which can be naturally occurring, like in the milk) you could risk giving too much salt.

Iron is a mineral. Not a vitamin. So giving vitamin supplements will not provide enough iron.

Really, just give the formula!!

The iron in formula isn't well absorbed though, is it? Milk isn't a good source of milk, it should come from things like red meat and green veg.

I did , And they were fine . Clearly a minority view though !

I have been giving ds 10 months the odd bit of cow's milk recently. He is mostly on formula, but if he wants a drink in a big hurry or something I've let him have whole milk. He seems fine with it but I am keeping him mostly on formula to drink because he doesn't eat huge amounts and needs the iron etc.

We all had cow's milk from 6 months, and although I'm sure formula is much better surely people would have noticed sooner if all babies had upset tummies from 6 -12 months?