Cows Milk - Why only from 1 year old? What changes between 11.5 month and 12 months?

[CHANGEDMYLIFE]

I am giving my dd milk in yoghurts etc and wondered what the eveidence is regarding drinking cows milk. What happens ih the time from 11.5 months to 12 months that makes them ready? Is it just a myth?

It not meant to be given as the main drink before 12 months. Fine in other things.

It is due to the nutritional content. Cows milk has less iron.

OK so if you gave stuff with more iron such as brocolli, egg, liver etc would this outweigh the iron in the powder milk? i just cant see that 2 or 3 weeks can make any difference.

the change isn't between 11.5 and 12m
it is between 6 and 12m
but no-one knows exactly when

so you wait till 12m when you can be sure it's happened.

ok thank you mrsbadger thst was what i was wondering! thank you everyone you have answered my question!

I stopped BFing at 11 months and 1 week - didn't think it worth DS going on formula for 3 weeks only to change to cow's milk so he had cow's milk at 11 months & 1 week. He was eating large amounts of solids anyway at that point so I didn't think there was any harm.

Um, not sure if you should give children liver, double check that before you serve it up. I could be completely wrong though.

You shouldn't gives cows milk as the main drink between 6-12 months as it will not fulfill a childs nutritional needs like breastmilk and formula will. It's not that it's bad for them, more that they could potentially fill up on it and not consume the required amount of vitamins and minerals.

it's fine to give children liver

the mix-up comes because you're advised not to eat too much liver when you're pregnant

Liver is in the Annabel Karmel book, so I'm guessing she checked it was ok. I thought it was really recommended actually?

Ah, I must be getting mixed up with being pregnant

And if AK says it's ok, then it must be

No, if AK says so then it's compulsory!!

I have also always been wandering what is wrong with cow's milk and I eventually found out an answer reading some other stuff. Infants fed whole cow's milk don't get enough vitamin E,iron, and essential fatty acids. They also get too much protein, sodium, and potassium. Apparently these levels may be too high for the infant's kidneys to handle. Also, whole cow's milk protein and fat are more difficult for an infant to digest and absorb.Fair enough for me...

The key word is "fed/feed".

Cow's milk is not poisonous.

It is OK on cereal. It is ok to drink a small cupful if it's a drink. The volume takne in over a 24 hour period would be small.

But it's not Ok to replace an 8oz feed 3 times a day at 9 months for example.

So callmmemamma is IMO quite correct to say infants FED on whole cow's milk don't get a good enough diet.

But cereal and small drink at "milk & fruit time" is just fine.

And I aslo think the 1 year deadline is just an arbitary number - 11.5 months is fine as is 13 months!

Nothing magic happens to babies at 1 year that suddenly means they can withstand the dangers of cows milk....

thanks! i got my liver receipe from the annabel karmel book! anyway i gave some milk today!

One of the main problems with cows milk is it is higher in natural salt content than baby formula (which has this removed). The additional salt can cause intestinal bleeding which can cause anaemia (compounded for the fact that there is no added iron in milk and there is in baby formula). They used to give babies cows milk as a drink at 6 months but then that doesn't make it OK, since they also used to wean babies at 6 weeks too!