My DS is 13m and has recently had his 1yr review with the HV. Our normal HV was off sick and new HV, while very warm and supportive, has left me a bit confused to say the least.
Amongst the many areas to review, she asked how much milk he had every day - he has 2 x 180ml bottles of formula. Aside from the fact she said this was nowehere enough (I know 1 pint is recommended but he simply doesn't take any more than that, and there are only so many yoghurts, chunks of cheese, milky cereals and desserts you can give in any one day - which still won't reach the 1pt target), she also seemed incredulous that I was still giving his bottles as formula. She said he should be on cow's milk, and I have always known that it can be given freely from 1 year, but what about the higher stages of formula, which cater for children up to and well over the age of 2? I'm not anti milk at all but, given that these products are readily available, and he's been slowly building up to the next stages, I rather assumed I could carry on and have been offering cow's milk as another drink option to water, as well as using it in porridge and dinners where possible. She insisted milk was best as it would have been the only option decades be (and didn't result in children who were malnourished), as that moving on formula was a money spinner, and why would I not go for milk - better and cheaper - rather than formula, with it's added sugars, ridiculous expense and false claims of being 'nutritionally superior' to cow's milk. I honestly don't know which I should go with now.