Is milk REALLY that important?

[multicolourcat]

Ok ok, i know it is!

...but here is my question: I thought that milk was more important than solids for the first year, (food is fun and all that) and therefore I am busy stressing about how much milk my LO is drinking alongside weaning her (8MO). However I have recently been told that this is an international blueprint and importance of milk over food as a benchmark was stated due to lack of nutrition in foods that babies might otherwise receive in developing countries. But in the diets that babies can receieve in the UK for example, food becomes more nutritionally important than milk after 6 months. I'm confused

Can anyone clarify?

Thanks.

And with regards to the above, HV has said it doesn't matter if 8MO doesn't like to drink bmilk/formula in the daytime, a morning and an evening feed is enough as long as they are getting plenty of dairy in their diet. Is this correct?

Bumping for the OP.

I would also like to know this as my HV has said the same and I am back at work when my DD is 9mo. I cant offer milk before food if i'm not there? I dont want to express - do i need to offer formula? Although she will still be feeding at night no doubt so does that make 2 day feeds, 3 days a week ok?

I can't force my 11MO to BF in the day.

She went right off it as soon as she started on solids, but now she's down to one good feed at bedtime and a little bit at night.

She has plenty of dairy in her diet, an will drink water from a cup but I can't make her drink milk, whether from me or in a cup or bottle.

She seems perfectly fine, so I'd like to hear the answer to this question too.

The World Health Organization guidelines for food amounts for babies up to a year are here:

www.who.int/features/qa/21/en/index.html

Hope that helps!

Milk is an easy source of calcium - babies under 2 need loads (think of how much growing they do).

Hence dairy being recommended if your baby doesn't have much milk.

It's also very fatty - again good for babies as they need a higher proportion of fat in their diet than adults.

It's a gradual transition from milk plus solids to solids plus milk as they approach 1, as opposed to all of a sudden milk not being as important at 1 (if that makes sense).

As long as baby is eating a balanced diet (for them), with plenty of fat, protein, carbs, iron and calcium they should be fine.

The different needs for babies in developed and developing countries are detailed here:

whqlibdoc.who.int/paho/2003/a85622.pdf (page 18)

I'm not sure about the guidelines. I think I read somewhere that a 1 year old should have a pint of milk a day.

I can give you my experience though.

Dd was breastfed and absolutely refused to drink from a bottle or cup. I went back to work part time when she was 9 months old and she would only have breast milk in the morning and evenings. At nursery they would offer her milk and water in a sippy cup but she rarely drank any. She was fine. I think by this age she was very efficient at getting milk from me and probably got quite lot in the few breastfeeds she was having.

I stopped breastfeeding altogether when she was about 12 months old and after that she drank no milk at all. She would eat it if it was soaked into weetabix and had yogurt and cheese and other dairy. But she wouldn't drink any milk and lord I tried everything (including flavoured milk, I was desperate!). She was a good eater and had a balanced diet and guess what - she was fine. She's now a tall healthy 4 year old with no health problems.

I would say your health visitor is correct. As long as your DD is eating a balanced diet and isn't too fussy she'll be fine. I know it's hard, and I proper stressed about it at the time, but don't worry too much.

Almost the same as Jujyfruits here.

Ds is 14 months old and since I stopped bfing at 12 months he drinks no milk. I think he drinks a bit from a sippy cup once a day at nursery but far, far prefers water.

He eats A LOT though. We try to add milk, cheese, butter or cream cheese to pretty much everything he eats and he eats yoghurts too.

I'm not concerned. He's a study boy.

I always assumed that the importance of milk was stressed more to convince people that it isn't necessary to get tons of solid food down your child's throat from a very young age.

The milk is very important if the child doesn't eat much. But the more the child eats (provided balanced) then the milk can drop more. And that will very much depend on each child.

My first loved food from the word go and obviously hadn't read this 'food is for fun til one' stuff. She started dropping milk feeds quite early.
My 2nd pretty much refused to swallow any solids until 9 months - so milk was much more important for a longer time.

Both were BLW and breastfed on demand so had a significant degree of control over what they ate.

It's also different for a formula fed baby then a BF baby, as BM contains far more then just food you can't just replace it with anything else (ie the other eliments in it like antibodies). But formula is just a nutritial subsitute so if a baby is eating lots of food including dairy then you can quit easily replace it with food.

I am not sure if I am right, but I don't worry about this. DS is 9 months, I've been back at work for 2 months now and he is in the nursery for 2 full and 3 half-days a week. He never got much formula in the nursery as the nursery staff judged his solid food intake adequate and he does not get any now. I b-feed him in the morning (sometimes twice) and however many times he wants it in the afternoon/evening (can be a cuddle every couple of hours sometimes). I also recently night-weaned him. I think now he must be taking in more solid food than he does breast milk. But he looks and acts totally fine. Snotty but feeling well, looking fat and certainly being very active.