1 yr old cows milk

[mummytasha11]

Hi everyone

Was just wondering when you put your little one onto cows milk? It would be cheaper than formula but it can't be as good surely?

Also when did you stop sterilising bottles?

you can stop sterilising from 6 months.
You can swap to cows milk from 12 months as they should be getting most/all their nutrients from their food. Milk is very high in fat - brilliant for small babies but once they are on solids and their growth slows down they don't need as much fat.

Can't give semi-skimmed until 2yo (must be full fat) and at 5 yo they can start having skimmed.

both mine switched around 1 year. At that point they only had 2 milk feeds so were getting most of their nutrition, vitamins, etc from food rather the the milk. I stopped sterilising bottles/teats at 1 year but didnt sterilise anything else. If you feel they would be missing vitamins that they get in the formula then supplement the cows milk with vitamins (easily available from the chemist and some supermarkets).

I think advice for both was not before 1 year. By that age they should be getting a lot of nutrients from solids so milk is not their only source.

I'd say it depends on the rest of his diet.

They can have cow's milk from a year old yes but obviously it doesn't contain all the stuff that either formula or breast milks contain. However, neither do you need to listen to all the bullshit advertising about having to give your toddler 65 cups of milk to get the iron they would have in a cup of artificial milk because it is a flawed comparison, your toddler is eating food too so as long as they are eating a decent variety, green veg, pulses, meat, other calcium containg foods such as cheese and yoghurt then they will be getting plenty of nutrients.

Personally, my first stopped bf around 13 months and I didn't replace it with anything. He wasn't keen on milk but he had a good diet. My second I bf for longer so again never replaced with anything. At a year old he doesn't need to be having bottles of anything. Of course he might still like to and find comfort in a bottle and there is nothing wrong with that either.

You don't need to sterillise. So long as everythign is washed up properly and allowed to air dry then it is fine.

I stopped sterilising bottles at 9½ months in preparation for going on holiday when DS was 10 months old. That was i could make sure he wasn't going to be affected by the change whilst we were away.

p.s. I dont really agree that milk is very high in fat as even full fat cows milk is only around 4% fat

Okay I'm going to try him on blue milk for his morning and night time bottle...and stop sterilising (worried sick about doing this, don't want him to catch any nasty bugs)

Thanks everyone

There won't be any bugs, because the bugs are in the formula, so cows milk is fine.

I did it one feed at a time e.g. gave cows milk in the morning and formula at bedtime and then after a few days when they were ok with the cows milk I swapped the bedtime one to cows milk too. If he doesnt like the cows milk you can mix it with formula milk and gradually increase the proportion of cows milk to formula.