Please tell me NO health visitor in the land would advise/recommend this ?

[FoghornLeghorn]

My BIL & his ex have a baby girl together - she is 2 weeks older than my DD2 which makes her 7 months old this week.
She has been weaned from as early as I can remember on baby rice - infact, I think my DD was little over a week old when this started. My DN is now and has been for some while eating foods that I personally wouldn't give to my children at such a young age - each to their own - they believe they know best.......

HOWEVER

........ I am now seriously concerned - BIL was here yesterday and he gave DN a bottle of milk, not formula, full fat cows milk. I asked him about this and he said she was no longer on formula, hasn't been for about 2 weeks, purely on full fat cows milk and food.
She isn't even 7 months old .
I think the look on my face sort of expressed how I felt as BIL asked what was wrong. It is their first child so I tried really hard not to do the whole I've got 2 children, I know best things but tried to explaint he reasons why babies aren't supposed to have full fat milk at that age, let alone have it solely, with no formula. I explained how much salt was in it and that too much salt can kill babies and has done so in the past.
He just brushed it aside - think I annoyed him - saying that his ex has okayed it with HV and she actualy recommended it.

I really don't want to but in but I don't think they realise the implications of this

mine had cows mile fom abotu then

Whilst it is not best or recommended practice for children between 6 and 12 months to have cows milk as their main drink, it is still relatively common. Tbh I think that her main risk will be iron deficiency, and it is unlikely that babies have died from salt overdose just from cows milk - though am definitely interested to be proven wrong on that. You've also got to remember that these are just guidelines - there isn't any scientific fact behind why it would be safe at 52 weeks but not 51 weeks etc - typcially such guidance goes for the highest age knowing that most families will still introduce earlier anyway. That said I agree that just having cows milk at 6 months is not recommended.

Ultimately you have to but out I'm afraid. It isn't even worth having a similar discussion with your hv because you don't know the full context of the discussion that your niece's mother had.

or maybe 8 months

I really know it is nothing to do with me and I shouldn't say anything.
Put in her shoes I wouldn't take too kindly to someone telling me I shouldn't do something whether they were right or wrong, least of all someone I don't like.

I remember mixing cows milk with other food at around 7/8mths with both of my boys.

no
wind yer beak in imfo

Yeah i def mixed cows milk with the food I gave dd at that age, so that surely argues against the salt risk?

I am sure its the iron and low nutrient risk.

I think giving our dc juice, quavers etc is far more dangerous

btw wannabe, judging by the amount of emails i get at teh blog address from HVs there is an increasing number only too happy to recommend BLW.

i think a bit of extra iron could be an issue but then again just remembered breast milk stores crap by then....

I do think there is cause for concern, but it can be a grey area. My HV did say to put cows milk in food from this age, eg give yoghurt, mix philadephia in with mushed veg, make baby porridge with cow's milk. Not to give it as a drink, but they could have got confused. Is your MIL in touch with the ex's mum? Perhaps that's a route to try?

i think that's very likely where the cnfusion has come from, it's very unlikely that even the dimmest HV would recommend cow's milk at that age. and bm iron stores don't switch off, they deplete over time so are supplemented by food from 6 months or so onwards. but it's not relevant as presumably the alternative in this case is formula, which has iron by the bucketload.
neverhteless, it's not your place to say any more than you already have. tbh it sounds like this will not be the last clash on parenting approaches that you'll have, so best to start biting your lip now...

you can use cows milk in food from 6 months, but not as a main drink for the reasons stated earlier

but if the HV has recommneded it and they have started weaning early anyway , it is unlikely they will listen , isn't it?

FL did they really start weaning at 3 weeks

I was on cow's milk from about 7 months (with A and D drops) as I refused to take formula, apparently. I don't think it's the worst, worst thing they could be doing

I don't think you should say anything to her - there are far worse things she could be giving the baby

it's just weaning, fio, but if you wait til the 6 months mark you can skip the spoon feeding and go straight to self-feeding, so long as you're demand feeding milk. i write a blog about it, as it happens and have done for a year. although since dd's been weaned for yonks it's turned into more of an information website. babyledweaning.com

Is there really too much salt in cows milk? I'd never heard this. There is certainly less iron, though. I do know well educated people (although not in the past 5 years)who have given their DC's cows milk from 6 months. I may be really out of touch with weaning recommendations (my youngest is 22 months), but I thought it was OK to use cows milk in cooking from 6 months?

is she the gorgeous one with big blue eyes? in that case, yes. or it could be her wee pal. i started doing it with a friend of mine but she rather fell away when her daughter was actually weaned. i just keep it up as a resource for other people, really. this enormously long link is the most recent pic of her on there i think...

aieeeeeee. no profile. tut.

thanks, fio. i do rather agree. so come on then, show's yours. i showed you mine...