why do babys need cow's milk?

[PuraVida]

hello,

DS is 13 months and has been exclusively BF. I'm back at work now so have been gradually cutting down the feeds and now am only giving him one last thing at night

he's never got the hang of a bottle but drinks very well from a cup, but i just can't get him to have more than a couple of swigs of cows milk, he just doesn't seem to like it much.

so does he actaully reall need cow's milk? i am struggling to find out what is is in it that he requires. is it just calcium? or iron? or other things too? if so could he be getting enough from his varied, healthy balanced diet?

do i need to make sure he is drinking a certain amount of milk? it's all a bit unclear to me

t

thanks

He needs calcium, protein, etc. These need to be in a digestible form - so in this part of the world that has tended to be from domesticated mammals.

In other parts of the world milk and milk products are not used, but diets include other forms of calcium etc.

Plenty of kids don't drink milk but eat yogurts, cheeses, milk-based sauces, cereal with milk, etc and get plenty of calcium etc.

I'd only worry if you are vegan - it is harder to get a really balanced diet for a toddler then.

Babies don't need cowsmilk. They need calcium, of which it is a good source. In Western culture we get most of our dietary calcium from milk. But there are plenty of healthy cultures around the world, eg Japan, where milk is barely drunk after infancy and they eat virtually no dairy foods at all.

If your ds eats cheese, yogurt, etc, then he will be able to get everything he would have got from drinking milk. If he won't take any dairy foods, then you will have to give him more calcium-rich foods, such as sardines, almonds, broccoli and beans.

thanks both, he does eat lots of yoghurt, cheese, broccoli, beans, sardines so i think i'll stop worrying. i guess it would be hard to make him drink milk anyway so will ensure he continues to get calcium from alternative sources