Babies poo after starting cows milk

[Shannon9955]

I started my 11 month old on cows milk about 2 weeks ago now. She loves it, she drinks more on the milk than she did formula. We did wean with cows milk and formula bottles but then my partner tried a full bottle of cows milk and she loved it so we just have been giving full bottles of cows milk.

But since she's started on it her poo routine has become a bit all over the shop. So she has been pooing like twice a day. Some solid. Some sloppy. But sometimes she's crying when she's pushing it out. She's just had a poo and it was carrot colour and sloppy. She use to sleep 7pm-7am, but now she's waking up in the night, or won't sleep at all. This has all started since the milk so I'm worrying that I've done the wrong thing putting her on it

It is very early to fully switch to cow's milk and goes against the advice. It's harder for their bodies to process and is missing some nutrition which you might be hard-pressed to replace with diet at this stage.

A quick Google as to why babies should be formula fed/breastfed until 12 months throws up a few reasons:

Until about 1 year of age, infants' kidneys simply aren't strong enough to tackle the load cow's milk throws at them. “Cow's milk contains high amounts of protein and minerals, such as sodium, which are difficult for an immature baby's kidneys to handle

And from the NHS website:

Cows' milk can be used in cooking or mixed with food from around 6 months but should not be given as a drink to babies until they're 12 months old. This is because cows' milk does not contain enough iron to meet your baby's needs.

I'd switch back to formula for 2–3 months.

@ReallyShouldBeDoingSomethingElse she's 12 months in a weeks time...

Just stop the milk.

Try again in another month and try to get your baby to eat more solids, perhaps.

My baby's poo (she's 17 months) differs in consistency depending on how much solids she deigns to eat - if quite little, the poo is literally quite milk-tinged (as in significantly pale brown) and what types of food she eats (the first poo after she ate a lot of beetroot came as a shock!).

They aren’t on a timer. If she’s not ready for it she’s not ready for it. She is crying, in pain, not sleeping, and her gut is telling you all you need to know.

I changed to cows milk at 11 months as I thought it would be difficult to do. Same as you, my baby took the milk straight away and loved it.
Does she drink a lot of water? She might take all of her fluid from only the milk, which can be a problem. Is she eating enough solid on the side? I found that my baby loved milk so much she refused to have a solid dinner, which made her hungry during the night. Maybe you can drop the milk before bed/dinnertime and offer more solid?

@Tina8800 she drinks about 3/5oz of water through the day. She has 3 meals a day as well as snacks. I also give her a multivit with breakfast. She has porridge for breakfast, I tend to give her an Ella's kitchen pouch for lunch and she'll sometimes have what we have for dinner but she doesn't eat it most of the time, so again I make her food like the pouches as that what she prefers

@Shannon9955 did this get any better? My nearly 1 year old is going through exactly the same thing

She's nearly 3 now and only in the last 6 months has her constipation stopped and she seems to have a pattern now. It was hard for a long time. So many courses of lactulose which didn't help. I just had to let her find her way and now and I mean only just now has she got better. But she is still scared of going for a poo and telling me so potty training is difficult currently