Which milk for ebf baby from 6months to a year?

[barbamama]

I am about to start weaning my nearly 6 month old. So far he is exclusively breastfed. i am trying to decide whether to keep it that way or introduce formula - maybe one evening bottle or just for cup and food. My question is what do other ebf people use for milk in food like porridge, cheese sauce etc. I don't think I could keep up the expressing for every breakfast.

Also, why can't we give then full fat cows milk until they are one when that is what is in a lot of the ready prepared baby cereals eg organic bananna porridge which say suitable from 4 months?

Can I use cows milk in food from 6 months? If so why can't I use it in bottles at 6 months?

Or have I misunderstood the guidelines?

I started off using expressed milk in my ds' food, but found it a load of hassle, so I now use whole (full-fat) milk in his food. He was also exclusively breast-fed until he was 9 months old, but I've started introducing formula for his daytime feeds as he's going to nursery soon and again, I don't want to express every day. He's still bf at bedtime and at night.

You can use cows milk in food from 6 months, but not in bottles. It is to do with the levels of iron. Babies own supplies of iron that they're born with start to run down at 6 months and formula milk is fortified with it. If they only drank cows milk, they wouldn't get enough. I'm not quite sure what happens with breast milk, except that my HV said that if you bf past 6 months, your lo should be given vitamin drops, but as these don't contain iron, I'm not sure why.

Thanks for the clarification. So presumably if dairy is ok in cooking from 6m I can give him soggy toast with butter on now?

Just for info, the vitamin drops aren't to do with iron, they're for Vitamin D. Formula contains added Vit D, but your BF baby can get plenty of it if you make sure s/he gets 15 minutes in the sunshine every day. There's more on www.kellymom.com about this.

(I found out about it because I couldn't believe it when a HV told me drops would be necessary if EBF after 6 months. Misguided...)