Cows milk has given dd a sore bum :(

[ellesabe]

We have just started giving 12mo dd a bottle of cows milk every day as she is still feeding during the night and I wonder if breastmilk is satisfying her enough. She has only had formula a few times with limited success but absolutely LOVES the cows milk! She guzzles down a whole bottle and is starting to sleep a bit better.

However we have noticed that the consistency of her nappy contents has changed quite drastically and this afternoon it was SO sore for her. There was even a bit of blood as I cleaned her up :(

I feel really awful for jumping onto cows milk so quickly and causing this discomfort for her and wondered if anyone else had the same experience? Do I just need to cut down on the cows milk until her system is more accustomed to digesting it?

It might be that she is slightly intolerant of it or that it was just too much to start with. Intestinal bleeding is one of the reasons cows' milk isn't suitable for babies under 12m as the cows' mil protein can get through the gut wall undigested which triggers the bleeding (as well as not enough nutrients and too much salt). This would not usually happen in a baby over 12m so it suggests that your DD would benefit from not having straight cows' milk at the moment.

If you want to stop bfing her, an infant formula (or seeing the GP for a specialist formula) would probably be better but as breastmilk contains factors that help to repair the gut it might be worthwhile continuing bfing for at least a bit longer.

On the bfing on satisfying her front - past 12m breast milk gets even fattier at around 11% fat so I really wouldn't worry about it not being filling enough!

Ahhh thank you! The intestinal bleeding info is completely new to me and it seems to make sense. I will cut back on the cows milk I'm giving her...maybe try half a bottle every few days to see if she will build up a tolerance.

I'm not desperate to stop bf, I'm just trying to cut down on the night-feeds!

I don't think is a case of building up a tolerance more of giving her gut time to heal and time to mature that bit more. Giving her cows' milk if it's causing bleeding can lead to anaemia (due to the blood loss and the low iron in cows' milk).

If you really want to cut night feeds, water is a suitable alternative (plus it has the added advantage of not going off overnight and the same beaker with water can be used if they wake at 12 or 5).

Having said that night feeds at 12m are quite normal but I do understand the need to sleep more!