Does a bf, dairy-eating 12 mo NEED to drink cow's milk?

[Napdamnyou]

I am confused. DS is offered cow milk but is more interested in water and highly diluted OJ. He is mad for strong cheddar and cream cheese and from age frais and mascapone etc etc and has one or the other with most meals. He is BF and has my milk first thing, before and after naps, during the night and on demand during the day so whilst I don't know how much he's getting, he's having it at every opportunity. He does drink a few oz of cow milk but nothing like the pint a day or whatever it is that toddlers are meant to drink.

Is this all right?

I have always done much the same as you. I think ds only started to drink cows milk when he was about 2, and even then only about 100ml a day. When he stopped breastfeeding at 20 months he didn't want a cup of milk at bedtime either - which I was quite glad of as it meant there wasn't another habit I would have to eventually stop in the future.

Go with your instincts. Put it this way, if you hadn't read the recommended intake of milk, would you be worrying?

No, cows milk is a handy way for a toddler to get fat/calcium/protein if they do not have bm or fm. Humans don't need to have milk from another species once they are fully weaned (between 2 1/2 & 7y) but it does taste nice, especially cheese!

Sorry wasn't very clear - Humans don't need to have milk from another species if they are having BM/FM and they don't need it after either.

What TruthSweet said.

A lot of that stuff about how much cow's milk toddlers need seems to originate from formula companies - of course so that their growing up milk can fill the gap if they aren't. Also, almost all diet advice for toddlers over a year assumes that they are not breastfeeding.

Great, thank you! He eats lots of broccoli and brown bread as well as cheese so he's definitely getting calcium. I thought it was a bit odd because what about societies where cow's milk is not generally drunk?

I will continue to bf and ignore the nurse at GP surgery.

i agree with truth and Revolution - the BM provides all that cow's milk can, and more.
there's plenty of calcium in other foods, too. (it doesn't only come from dairy)

that nurse at GP is advising your year old to have cows milk

WHO advises breast milk until at least 2 years old [wonders how some health proffessionals keep there jobs?]

your human milk is so much better for your human baby (even though your babies kidneys can now cope with the sodium levels in cows milk)

I only started giving DD cows milk when my supply dried up due to pregnancy. She was about 16 or 17 m

I only started giving DD cows milk when my supply dried up due to pregnancy. She was about 16 or 17 months old at that point. Up till then she just had breast milk, with yoghurt, cheese etc as part of her solid intake, in varying amounts.

My health visitor advised that so long as she was having 2-3 breast feeds a day I didn't need to worry about giving her any cows milk.