15month old staying on formula.

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Hi guys!

So my 15month old DD had her yearly check up thing a couple of weeks ago. The health visitor or whoever do the checks said that we should be putting her on to milk now she is over 1. We did this fo 2 weeks, mixing her formula with the blue milk. So over the cause of those 2 weeks she got really bad constipation. To the point where she would be screaming until she had pooed. The was also some blood sometimes and a couple of times me an my DH had to help the poop come out. She sleeps through during the night normally waking up once, but she started to wake up all the time screaming. she did have a cold the first week and I thought it was all to do with that, so I suggested carrying on mixing the milks. However after her cold went she still wasn't getting any better. So we chose to put her back on just her formula milk and cut out putting in the cows milk. Since then she has been perfectly fine. Her poos have gone back to normal, she is no longer upset and back to sleeping fine. So my question is... do babies really need to go on to cows milk or can they stay on their formula for a bit longer? The formula tubs go up to toddler milk 1-2yrs but with the health visitor pushing cows milk I'm not sure. She drinks plenty during the day, eats a varied diet and has plenty of fruit and veg. She only got constipated when we started giving her cows milk. She also does eat cheese and has milk in her cereal but obviously this isn't a huge amount. I'm just looking for advise on if anyone else had this problem, is it ok to keep her on formula etc I'm a FTM.

Sorry it's a long post. Thanks for reading.

They can stay on formula if you want, it just isn't necessary and is expensive which is why the HV will have told you to go to cow's milk.

Unless you've specifically sought out a soya or non-dairy kind, formula is made from cow's milk, OP. It's basically enriched cow's milk. So she is drinking a lot of cow's milk anyway.

I'd keep her on the formula if it were me, purely because of the added vitamins and stuff. If you switch to pure cow's milk you have to start giving vitamin D supplements as well.

I might be confused by your post but were you mixing the formula with milk no water? It was probably too thick and hard to digest. If she has milk with her cereal then she is probably not allergic. I would just try her with one drink of milk and then slowly replace all bottles. She will be dropping bottles soon anyway and will be fine with just water and some milk in the day

Same age baby , staying on formula , as long as healthy diet and they are doing ok and happy and healthy, it's your choice not health visitors , you know your child better than anyone , I'm in no rush to change as I have had similar issues to you x

Tried twice to get DD on cows milk, both resulted in her constipated and very upset. She had bowel surgery at a week old so im anxious to put any strain on her. Ive gave up, ill use the last of the stage one and them im going to put her on stage 3 of the same brand and see how she gets on. She eats an ungodly amount of dairy and has milk in her breakfast but 10 days after starting even one bottle of cows milk, it happens again. So im not stressing about it. She still has 2 or 3 bottles a day too, usually if she has a 3rd in the middle of the day, ill use cows milk because theres not a formula one already made up, it doesnt seem to affect her too much but theres instantly a slow down in pooping

If she's happy in formula and you're happy with the cost, keep her on it.

DS is 19 months now and he's only recently gone on to formula. I remember it was Halloween he changed over. So he'd have been 17 months when he changed over.

Like you, we first tried 4oz formula, 4oz cows milk mixed but he wouldn't take it. Spat it out every time.

We eventually had our GP tell us that he shouldn't be on formula and we had to cut his milk intake down (he's way over 100th centile and they were blaming his milk intake - still way over 100th centile despite cutting his milk down).

Anyway I said to DP that night, let's just try him with straight cows milk and see how he does. I couldn't believe it. He took it straight away and from that bottle onwards he refused all formula so we ended up wasting a tub we'd only just opened.

I'm not sure if it was the mixing that put him off if it had a funny taste or whether it's because he often has cereal at nursery with cows milk so he'd developed a taste for it, but I feel we did it on his terms which I'm happy with. If he'd have spat it out, we'd have kept him on formula for longer.

@popcorndiva

I might be confused by your post but were you mixing the formula with milk no water? It was probably too thick and hard to digest. If she has milk with her cereal then she is probably not allergic. I would just try her with one drink of milk and then slowly replace all bottles. She will be dropping bottles soon anyway and will be fine with just water and some milk in the day

This

I think OP meant that there was some formula (made up correctly) and some full-fat cows milk in the bottle.

We had exactly the same issue with DD, and it wasn't fun. We switched to toddler formula, and it was much better.

As an added bonus, formula milk is topped up with vitamins and minerals. We were advised by a dietitian to use toddler formula rather than baby formula as it contains more iron (DD had other eating issues, hence the dietitian), and at a year old, toddlers need more iron.

I assume she was mixing made-up formula with milk! Not the formula powder.

OP this is fine, but stick to the under 1 year stuff. The 1-2 year stuff is chock full of sugar and contains very little good stuff.

How much cow milk are you giving? Are you giving it in a free flow beaker or cup?

Sorry for the late reply guys

Thanks for all the advise. I was mixing already mixed formula with the cows milk yes. Not putting the powder straight into the cows milk. She does have dairy on a regular basis it was just having a large amount in her bottle for nap and night time when we noticed the dramatic change in her.

@BertieBotts so currently I'm getting the stage 3 stuff. Should I be getting the stage 2? I wonder if the sugar is why they want you to move onto cows milk.

I can't remember what the different stages in the UK are numbered, sorry. But you either want first milk (0-6 months) or follow on milk (6-12 months) and nothing that says it's suitable for 1 year +. There's much less regulation for formulas for toddlers and so they put sugar in them to make it appealing to children.

There is no harm in continuing with the first stage milk as it's regulated the most highly out of all formulas.

OK, I'm reading a bit more and it seems there really is some discouragement about using formula (even infant formula) for children over a year old. The concern seems to be that children over 1 year ought to be getting the bulk of their nutrients from food, not milk/formula. Whether it's that they are concerned parents will use formula marketed for children over 1, I'm not sure, but I don't think it's the case given that it's basically saying don't do this unless your doctor has specifically instructed you to (because the child is eating very little or has disabilities, for example).

What about something like oat milk instead, this is within recommendations, could you try that? I was assuming "or a suitable alternative" meant infant formula, but it seems it is referring to non-dairy milk substitutes such as oat milk, almond milk, etc.

I won't link directly to the PDF as it's a pain but the first one linked here is very good.

www.firststepsnutrition.org/parents-carers

And this is further info from the same organisation.

infantmilkinfo.org/type-of-infant-milk/

This is the key points section from one of the documents summarising the research:

Fortified milks marketed for young children – often called growing-up milks or toddler milks –
are offered by the infant milk manufacturers for children from 1 year of age. There are no
specific compositional, labelling and marketing regulations for these products but
they use similar branding and labelling as infant formula and follow-on formula to
suggest they are part of an infant and young child’s feeding journey.
These milks are not necessary in the diets of children over 1 year (EFSA, 2013). The NHS
says that there is no evidence to suggest that growing up and toddler milks provide
nutritional benefits for children. There is some concern that these milks may offer the wrong
balance of nutrients.
Growing-up and toddler milks provide higher quantities of some micronutrients such as
vitamin A, vitamin D, iron and zinc than cows’ milk but they are generally sweeter than cows’
milk. They are more expensive than cows’ milk.
Full-fat cows’ milk is a suitable choice as the main drink for most toddlers from the age of 1
year, who should be obtaining the majority of their nutrients from food rather than relying on
fortified milk products. From the age of 2 years, children who are growing normally and
eating well can move on to semi-skimmed cows’ milk.
All children aged 1-4 years in the UK are recommended to take daily vitamin drops of
vitamins A, D and C to act as a population-wide nutritional safety net and therefore fortified
milks are not needed as a source of vitamin D.

You should also be able to phone your health visitor and explain about the constipation and see what she advises :)