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

At that age I was dropping bottles and replacing them with snacks (if necessary). I think we were down to either 2 or just 1 bottle a day by then. Why can't you just do that?

Cows milk before a year can result in anaemia and occult intestinal bleeding, as its hard on their little bodies.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/17664905/

I would also watch portion sizes. A slice of toast is scrambled egg for breakfast is huge portion size for an 8 month old.

If it was breast milk you would just let her have what she wants so I think you should do the same with formula.

It is loaded with specific nutrients and while they are under 1 they are undergoing such huge Brain growth.

I don't understand why people here are proudly saying they give their tiny developing babies milk designed by cows for baby cows. Rather than milk designed for human babies.

Formula milk is made from cow's milk with added nutrients and vitamins and tweaked to best suit the requirements of a baby. A lot of science and research has gone into making formula milk so that babies can thrive on it. There is also too much salt in cow's milk, which babies' kidneys ate not able to cope with.

I would stick to formula.

"I don't understand why people here are proudly saying they give their tiny developing babies milk designed by cows for baby cows. Rather than milk designed for human babies"

Formula milk is a pretty crude approximation of human milk, missing 50% of the elements which evolution created and refined to optimise safety, growth and development in human infants, but people are constantly being encouraged on mumsnet to feel happy about their choice to use it.

As most people here think - optimal isn't necessary.

If a baby appears to be thriving and growing normally while scoffing the odd bottle of unprocessed cows milk, who is anyone to say 'you shouldn't do it'?

hedgehog you made that comment as though I was quoting something from the 17th Century. It was 18 years ago.

Some of my best friends bf until one, took their babies to be weighed weekly and then fed them M&S nuggets and similar for the next 18 years xx

Thank you for the thoughts. Have discussed with DH and we have decided to try reducing her bottles by 1 oz each and slowly try to fade them out - still formula rather than cows.

she does seem to balance out her intake of solid food, some meals she eats loads and others she has a much more sensible 8 month old portion. it has worked well for my others so i'm not worried about that side of it.

will take a closer look at some of the links, thank you.

she is def not overweight but a bit chunkier than her siblings were. maybe she's just gearing up for a growth spurt.

Or just give her less milk?

It's the salt and protein content I think, babies' kidneys under a year can't cope with that volume of cows' milk.

I wouldn't limit portion sizes, I would personally want them to eat to appetite.

One of my dc at eight months ate a negligible amount of solid food. Another ate two weetabix with milk, fruit and toast. More than her two year old brother. She wasn't anywhere near overweight either.