Please remind me why it's no cows milk for a year?

[ImSoNotTelling]

Hello all

Have always followed the guidelines etc. DD1 and DD2 both BF.

DD2 is now 10 months and is eating (extremely) heartily, having cows milk in her breakfast cereal. She has water to drink with meals and has breast milk once or twice a day - always a feed before bed and usually one in the morning as well.

First thing is she's not that fussed about her breast feeds - she doens't ask, I offer IYSWIM.

Second thing is she is having a wide and varied diet.

So I was wondering what the "no cows milk as a main drink til one" was for in a child who is eating a wide range of food etc. and is obviously not allergic as they are having it on cereal.

I can see that breat milk has lots of lovely goodness in it, yes.

But why the no cows milk for a year thing? Is it a "catch all" as some babies won't be eating piles of food until 1, so a "worst case" type thing? Is there a good reason for not weaning a baby off the breast and onto cows milk at, say 11 months?

There's some info here

Thanks for the link oceryo.

it doesn't help though as it talks about waiting for 12 months to introduce cows milk full stop, due to problems digesting and allergy possibility.

I thought that cows milk was introduced at 6 months in cheese and with cereal etc.

Am now even more !

The section I thought was interesting was about the quantities of sodium, potassium, and chloride. Presumably this means that smaller amounts of cows milk (i.e. dairy foods as part of a meal) are OK before 12 months but too much could give too much of those nutrients. It's also because formula and breast milk provide more iron than cow's milk.

Aha will read a bit further - I only read the first couple of bits!

Ok read a bit further that's still in the first bit I think?

It says "There are several reasons to delay the introduction of cow's milk until your baby reaches his first birthday. Most important, a baby's digestive system can't digest cow's milk proteins. Cow's milk also has too much sodium, potassium, and chloride, which can tax your baby's kidneys."

But we introduce cows milk in cereal and cheese etc at 6 months don't we? I hope so anyway, I've already done it...

I thought it was something to do with the amount of iron - there is less in cows milk than in formula or breastmilk.

i switched dd to cows milk at 10 months. bf to 8 months, then formula for 2 months (which she never really took to). by that time she was eating well and only on 2 milk feeds a day. that quickly reduced to just a small cup of milk at bedtime.

DD gets weetabix though which is fortified, plus leafy green veg.

Basically (girds loins for flaming) I am going back to work in a bit and I would rather not be BF when I go back. So was thinking of weaning her onto cows milk at 11 months but know it goes against guidelines. But she has a varied diet and drinks mainly water, she's not even having that much breast milk, so would it be the end of the word? i know she's not allergic.

Yes so ruddynorah I want to do what you did.

I am sure it's fine but oyu know how it is with this baby stuff, it's hard to be confident sometimes.

I always thought it was just that cows milk wasn't good enough as a main source of nutrition before 12 months (breastmilk or formula are though) rather than cows milk itself being a problem.

Starting at 11 months instead of 12 can't possibly make any difference though! Guidelines are just rough guides.

I started giving DD the odd cup of cow's milk at about 10 months, alongside breastfeeding. I was going back to work at 11 months and wanted to make sure she'd have some milk while I was at work. Couldn't see the point of starting formula for just a month or so and she was eating a good varied diet. Health visitor said this would be fine and it has worked really well.

Yes I mean she just ate a whole mackerel

She is getting stacks of food of all sorts and it's mainly home cooked so salt shouldn'y be an issue (apart from bread)

I will give it some more thought and talk to DH but I think I would realy like to have weaned her from me before I go back.

Thanks all

I think you'll find that no harm will come to a 10mt old who has an iron rich diet and no allergies to dairy products. I think follow on milk is aimed at kids fed on crap basically. Also the fear of not doing the 'right thing' puts an awful lot of money into the artificial baby milk manufacturers pockets!!! My 4 were bf then had cows milk. They ate well and have no allergies.

Follow-on milk is a pure con - I hate that ad with the huge beaker, "this is how much cows milk you'd have to drink to get enough iron..."

Because we drink milk as an excellent source of iron, don't we

missus have you seen on that ad they have had to add a bit at the bottom saying "cows milk is not a good source of iron" they must have had trillions of complaints

My ds2 has a bowel disorder (which has nothing to do with milk really), but when we last saw his consultant after ds2 had become really ill after I gave him formula when he stopped bf (his choice) at 11 months, the consultant was amazed that I'd given him formula and not gone straight to cow's milk. He said cow's milk at 11 months is absolutely fine. As it turns out ds2's bowel problem meant he struggled to digest formula, cow's milk was actually easier for him to digest.

Sorry to hear about your sons troubles tutu.

And thanks for the interesting post.

I wonder if it's one of these "overkill" rules to stop a few people doing really mad stuff. Or to catch the few children who won't be getting enough food at a younger age.

I think it probably is - it wasn't that long ago that people would give bottle fed babies just full fat cows milk, and it's totally inadequate as a main food.