Cows milks when did you....

[Jamummm]

When did you introduce cows milk?
Did you wait til day 1st birthday?

As long as there is no allergy to it then cow milk in cooking eg cheese, pancakes and milk on cereals is fine from 6 months old. From one you can give cow milk as a drink.

How old is your little one? Did you/are you exclusive breast feeding? as formula is based on cow’s milk.

I started giving it about a week before the first birthday

Thanks.

My lo is 11 months, had milk in cooking since starting weaning so no allergies. Also now on formula.

With cooking from 6 months. As a drink from 11 months, but I introduced it gradually by adding it in with made up formula. So first week 1/4 cows milk & 3/4 formula, 2nd week half and half until 12 months when it was just cows milk. I did that so the taste gradually changed rather than give him something totally different and for him to refuse it. This may have been over the top and unnecessary but it worked.

Mines is on 3 bottles a day so was thinking of switching one bottle first then eventually morning bottle then finally bedtime. Just unsure when to make the switch.

At 11 Months when I used up the last of a tub of formula and couldn't be bothered going to the shop for more. I didn't do it gradually either, what's the point? Just give them a cup of milk and they will drink it babies eat anything!

@ooos did your baby sleep through the night by this point?

I have to straight swap to soya at 11 1/2 months under dietian’s advice and my daughter was still having a bottles most nights and she was fine with it.

My lo still sometimes takes a bottle in the night, especially around teething etc. But I was hoping to move from formula in a bottle to milk in a cup and get rid of the bottles completely. Not sure what to do with a night wake then

At about 11 months I ditched the middle of the day bottle for a cup of milk with his meal or snack. Once he was reliably drinking some of that, I swopped the morning bottle for a cup of milk with breakfast (he was previously having a bottle on waking and then breakfast maybe an hour laster). The bedtime bottle we kept for a while and slowly transitioned it from formula to cows milk. Think we got rid of the bottle and swopped to a cup of milk before bed at about 15 months.

DD is close to her birthday and I swapped one of her bottles for cows milk a few weeks ago with no issue.

I was planning on going cold turkey once the formula I had in stock ran out, but that's going to happen in the next few days and I think instead I've decided I'm going to move to 2 bottles of cows milk and one bottle of formula at bedtime purely because the formula has vitamins in it that I will otherwise have to persuade Dd to take separately.

So I'm going to buy one more tin so I'm happy that she has adapted to the change before giving it up completely.

As a foodstuff, around 8mo. As a drink to replace formula, around 11mo. Best tip ever: don't warm it. Saves so much hassle esp when out.

@Caterina99 this is exactly what I was thinking of doing. But was just wary of when to start the swap. I might try her with a wee drink of cold cows milk tomorrow with her afternoon snack and see how she gets on. The will swap it at breakfast, although probs need to give her something other than milky weetabix

Yes I think the advice is not as their main drink/food til 1 as it doesn’t have enough nutrients and too much of it can inhibit iron adsorption. But in food and as a supplemental drink in small amounts then it’s fine.

I was told to view cows milk (in a cup) as a drink, whereas formula in a bottle is a food for them. So you aren’t just totally replacing the formula with cows milk, you are basically weaning them off the bottle onto solids with milk as a drink alongside like we do as adults.

Hope that makes sense - and yes cold from the fridge. So much easier!

My health visitor told me months ago that once baby is having less than 500ml a day that is when to switch. my lo had mostly took under 500ml for months now but I was felt she was too young.

Cow's milk is higher in salt than formula or breast milk which is why it's recommended to wait until closer to a year when their bodies can handle the extra sodium. But it doesn't have to be a year on the dot, as long as you aren't giving excessive amounts before then. We started to offer a bit of cow's milk mixed with formula from 10.5 months, slowly increasing the amount each week until we switched over completely at a year.