cows milk

[Bongaloo]

Starting weaning very soon.
Can DD have full fat cows milk?
I assume she can in things like cauliflower cheese but what about weetabix / porridge etc
should I be using ebm / formula if there's quite a lot of milk in a days meals?

How old is your dd?

Cows milk.over one.

Full fat cow's milk is fine in cooking and on cereals etc. She will still needs breast milk or infant first formula as a main drink until she is a year at which point she can move onto full fat cows milk, should you wish her to.

She will also need vitamins. If she is a breastfed baby she will need them from when you introduce solid food (at around 6 months), as she will be taking less breastmilk. If she is a formula fed baby she will need vitamins once she is having less than 500ml of formula per day.

Hope this is clear

We used full fat cows milk from about 6mo in cooking and cereals. DS got cows milk to drink after he was 1.

Your DD will still be getting lots of breast or formula milk from milk feeds and solids will only be a small proportion of her intake for a while so I wouldn't worry too much.

You can use cows milk in cereal and cooking from starting weaning, but shouldn't give it as a drink until aged 1. If you don't think she is getting at least 20 oz of formula /breast milk in a day you can use in food to make the quantities up

I take it that guidance is only if you start weaning 6mo plus, ceevee? Or is cows milk okay before then?

Oh sorry, yes I meant 6 mo, I always just assume everyone waits until then to start weaning!

Yes she'll be 6 mths next week.
That's good then, cows milk will be more convenient.
DD1 is 8 so it's been a while - I think for her, I bought formula for baby rice etc
I'll look into that about the vitamins as I didn't know that - I sort of assumed she'd get vitamins from food and if not getting much food would still get plenty of milk.

Healthy Start Vitamins

Not just for people on benefits/low incomes, who can get them free via voucher exchange. These government issue vitamins can be bought (a lot cheaper than the branded ones) from lots of children's centres and health centres depending on what your local NHS trust and council have organised.

"She will also need vitamins"

Thanks for the info, I had absolutely no idea that babies should have vitamin supplements. HV or doctors have never mentioned that or is it primarily a concern for families more likely to have a poor diet due to low income?

It's vitamin D that is the main one, I understand, so it's a concern for those ar risk of rickets - which could include pretty much anyone it seems. (Babies who are black, bf, far north, not exposed to sunlight..)

The old advice was if you are giving them a healthy, balanced diet and getting out in the sun a bit everyday then you should be fine.

However, there is a worrying resurgance of rickets and not just in children who require more vitamin D like black/asian children. It seems we're all deficient in vitamin D and vitamin D is essential for calcium absorption. You need calcium for healthy bones and you never do as much growing as you do in when you're in your first 5 years of life, which is what the guidance says: from 6 months - 5 years children should be supplemented (as should pregnant and breastfeeding women).

But really all of us could do with a vitamin D supplement. Here in the UK, in fact in all Northern hemisphere countries, we only get sunlight for about 3-4 months of the year from which we can absorb vitamin D, the rest of the time it's simply not strong enough and when there is strong sunshine the recommendation is to cover up, stay in the shade and put sunblock on with the result that we never absorb the vitamin D we need so we're all deficient. There was a lot of press coverage a few months after a very worrying study was released. The chief medical officer wrote a letter to all HCPs urging us to raise the profile of the need for supplementing.

I see that now that you've said about it and I've done some googling.
No-one's mentioned it though - although I do rarely see anyone(just the occasional weigh-in).

Yes,I remember reading something about this now you mention it. But blimey, everyone would have rickets in Scandinavia if it is as common as they say .

Maybe they are all dosed up on vitamin D. Or there is something in their vodka.