If you decided to bf beyond a year did you give your baby any other milk to drink?

[stottiecake]

Ds 2 is 10mo and I'm hoping to continue bf until he weans naturally.

Ds1 has severe cows milk protein allergy and the only milk he drank was breast milk until he weaned at 2.3 (ran out of milk due to pg!)

Just wondering what to do!

What happens when they take other milk - do they begin to wean from breast milk?

TIA

i have a 9m old dd who i intend to let self wean whenever she wants to, hopefully way beyond 2y.

i give her a sippy cup with fullfat cow milk in with her tea already.

(she wont take a bottle, and i have 2 childfree weddings coming up so its important to me that she takes milk somehow, in preparation for being without me)

and what has happened?.... nothing so far... she still has 4 breast feeds / 3 meals a day and sleeps 12 hours at night. It has made NO difference at all to her BFing IMO

My dd won't drink cow's milk - she just spits it out. She has it on cereal and eats yoghurts, cheese etc. I breastfed to 15 months when she happily dropped her last feed. I assume she's getting enough dairy in her diet. No harm in you offering cow's milk as a drink alongside breastfeeding once he turns 1 if that's what you want to do.

DS is ~21 months old now. He BFs first thing on the morning and before he goes to sleep, and drinks cow's milk from a free-flow cup during the day. It works for us .

I BF DD until she self weaned at 15 months. She has had cows milk on cereal, in cooking etc from 6 months. I offered cows milk in a cup occasionally from the same sort of age she started drinking water from a tippee cup, but she has never really liked it, so now she only has cows milk on cereal etc. I just make sure she gets enough calcium from other sources.

When DS was about 7 months to a year I suppose I fed him formula milk (the pre-mixed cartons) rather than cows milk sometimes, for convenience when we were out.

Sometime after that he started having cows milk.

He's 3.5 and I'm still feeding him when it's my turn to do bedtime, and then in the morning (he comes into our bed about 7ish).

He's been weaning over time, but I saw that as down to him getting a diet from other sources - all his food and drink, rather than just milk particularly IYSWIM.

i didnt give them milk till they were over one, it was then mainly on cereal etc, none of them really liked to drink it tbh, they just had water for day time drinks and bfed when they wanted, now they are 12, 9, 7 and 4 and rarely drink milk, they eat cheese, yog etc.

I breastfed DD1 until she was 15 months, though at 12 months I went back to work and replaced her morning and mid afternoon feeds with toddler milk, and only kept up the one bed time breastfeed. Introducing the toddler milk didn't seem to affect the bed time breastfeed in anyway - she seemed quite attached to it until I became pregnant again and then suddenly self weaned as though the taste had changed.

Similar story with DD2 who I breastfed til 18 months. Due to going back to work at 13 months, I attempted to replace the morning and mid afternoon breastfeeds with toddler milk and then cow's milk, but to be honest she never really went for them and would just drink a small amount of milk at those times, but didn't seem to increase the amount of time she spent at the breast for bed time. Held the bed time one for as long as she wanted (which was another 5 months til she suddenly and abruptly self weaned at 18 months for no obvious reason that I could see).

Thanks for your replies.

I guess I'll just see what happens then and what suits. He has had cows milk with cereal and never had a bottle so I suppose if we do go for it it will be in a cup.

Will just see how it goes!

stottie, try the Tommee Tippee free-flow cups, they're cheap as chips and really simple. We skipped bottles too.

It never crossed my mind to give dd cows milk to drink while still bf. Odd, never really thought about it before. She bf on demand until she self weaned at 3.4. She did have cows milk on cereal, in cooking etc and actually we used it in smoothies too. She is 5 now and likes a glass of cows milk with her dinner.

Bfing 18mo DS here - he doesn't drink any cow's milk, but he does eat yoghurt, and will have cow's milk on cereal.

I've read somewhere that if they are still have 3+ bfeeds a day then you don't need to bother with cow's milk.

I just wonderedif there was a 'norm' iyswim as I missed quite a lot of the norm with ds1

these tt cups - would those be the plastic see through-y ones with lids and spouts? We have a few of those knocking about.

I can't tell you how nice it is to not have to restrict ds2's diet (apart from the usual guidelines) It's hard to start thinking differently!!

I BF DS1 until 21 months, when he self-weaned. I offered him cow's milk in a cup a few times and he didn't like it, so I didn't push it. He does now sometimes drink cow's milk, but he never got a taste for it so he's not a kid who drinks cups of milk every day. He might drink a cup a week - if that.

DS2, who is 12 months, is still BFing and I'm not going to bother offering cow's milk. He eats dairy foods - cheese and yogurt in particular - and I cook with milk, but cow's milk is not, historically, a natural or essential food for children to consume. So as long as he's happy with my BM, that's good enough for me!

Because both her brothers had problems with milk I didn't introduce cows milk at all. I think she eventually had some when she was four or five.
She had rice milk or soya milk. But not much really. She still eats cereal 'dry' and milk makes her excema/asthma worse.

DS1 bf until 2.9. When he was over 1yr he had cow's milk on cereal but he absolutely refused to drink it (no matter what type of cup it was in). He is now 3.4 and still refuses milk as a drink, unless it is chocolate milk or is hot chocolate made with milk , both of which are rare treats.

I just make sure that he has plenty of of dairy foods, yoghurt and cheese etc.

My ds is 13m & cows milk protein allergic. When I'm at work he is given alpro junior 1+ with meals and water offered lots in this heat.when off work water with meals and boobs galore.
I use free flow sippy cup, not tt but is good.

No, never bothered. DS has tried cow's milk in a cup occasionally (mostly when he asked for it) but has never liked it. He does have it in porridge, and has yoghurt sometimes. He's 2.5 years.

IIRC Kellymom says that if they're having 3-4 bfs a day, you don't need to offer any dairy.

Yes, that sounds like them stottie .

DD1 had cows milk alongside bm when I went back to work, DD2 had the odd cup but preferred bm, DD3 hates cows milk and generally speaking prefers bm to anything else.

Does anyone ever wonder why we talk so much about stopping feeding our children with human milk in order to feed them milk from another mammal? Milk that is natural for human babies or milk that is designed by nature to turn little calves into great cows.

My DD is also 10 month old. We've been giving her the odd bottle of formula since she was 7 months old (I'm back at work, so I express but also leave a bit of formula at nursery just in case she's extra hungry that day - she probably has 1-2 bottles per week).
I'm planning to stop expressing during the day once she turns 1yr old and replace those feeds with cow's milk, presuming she will take it. Formula otherwise. I wonder what she will do... if she will self wean at that point, if my supply will drop forcing us to wean, or if we'll just carry on as usual. I'm just keeping an open mind and will see what happens.
I suspect we'll just carry on. DD seems unfussed and takes whatever is given to her. She does seem to prefer breast milk and still finds it very comforting.