will it be really bad to give my dd a cup of cow's milk every day?

[HeadFairy]

I'm going back to work next week and dd has been bf since birth, I'm still doing 4 feeds a day at the moment. When I do go back I will be able to do the morning feed and the dream feed, I haven't been able to express so she'll have to have a bottle of formula at bedtime, but I usually give her a feed midafternoon too. Would it be really terrible if that was a cup of cow's milk? She's 9 and a half months old.

Yes, babies aren't meant to have cows milk as a drink until they are 12 months.

It will be fine for just the afternoon feed at 9 months if all the rest if breastmilk or formula.

Its what I did with ds.

I will just warn you you may find that she starts to wake in the night again to compensate for the missed feeds in the day.

I used cows milk for one bottle a day from about 10 and a half months. I know it wasn't really until 12 months but figured the remaining was from bf, I really didn't want to start buying formula for just one feed a day. She is now a healthy 3 year old.

but it won't be her main drink, she'll still be getting bm twice a day, plus a bottle of formula once a day, and only on three days a week (the other four I'll be able to bf all four times).

Elpha, I quite often have to give her a night feed already so I'm well used to it... luckily she's got a bed in her room and I just get in with her and fall back to sleep while she feeds!

Formula is cow's milk, just slightly modified, but from an immunological point of view there is not much difference.
I think you'd be fine giving cow's milk as it would still not be her main drink by far.

Why not give her formula as recommended ?

well I was just going to buy some ready mixed cartons for the one formula feed she'd have (at bedtime) as when I've used formula before for the occasional feed I've often ended up throwing away loads of unused formula because I don't use it before the four weeks are up (I think you're supposed to throw it away after 4 weeks). The feed she has midafternoon is really only a little one anyway, I wouldn't really prepare a full bottle, so I think I'd still end up throwing away loads of unused formula powder.

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I'm sure it doesn't matter, I gave both my dc (BF morning and evening) cows milk for small beaker feeds from about 10 months, they didn't drink much and we kept throwing away boxes of formula. it depends on how much iron she's getting from her diet, that's the reason they don't recommend cows milk as a main drink before 1 year, as formula has added iron. If you're worried about iron then stick to formula, if you're not then use full fat 'normal' milk.

I'm not too worried about iron, she eats a good diet, lots of meat and spinach, in fact scrambled eggs with cheese and spinach is one of her favourite meals, that's got to be loaded with iron!

ooo yum!I'd like to try that. do you cook the spinach before you mix it in?

I would

Cows milk also cheaper than formula

When I went back to work, DD had a morning, evening and a dream feed and water in the day and she was 8 months

I keep meaning to give her cows milk as she has just turned one but as I am still feeding twice per day I keep forgetting

Loo, I've got a bag of frozen spinach and they're in these kind of pellet type things. I just pop one in the microwave for a minute, then mix it with the scrambled egg, add grated cheese et voila!