What milk to use for porridge etc?

[expectingno2]

Soon going to embark on weaning my DS. Hoping to do a mix of finger foods and spoon feeding from the start. For cereal would you use cows milk or formula? He is currently EBF but I really don't have the time to express in preparation. Cow's milk would be easier as my DD still has whole milk.

I was going to say breastmilk but if that's not what you want to do, then I'd say formula because babies under 12 months aren't supposed to drink cows milk.

I think.

(It's been such a long time since mine were that age)

you can use whole milk in cooking from 6 months

Use whole milk - fine from 6mo in cooking but not as a main drink.

can you? Gawd, it's a good job I'm not planning on having any more! I'd break 'em!

I started weaning DS at 26 weeks, 5 weeks ago. He has porridge with whole milk most mornings. I checked with HV and she said that it is fine if cooked.

The milk thing is nothing to do with whether it's cooked or not - it's not a safety thing. It's that cows milk should not replace BM or formula as a drink. So you can use it on cereal, in cooking etc, but not to be given as a drink from cup or bottle.

Full fat milk is fine in foods just not as a drink under 12 months as it does not have enough nutrients to replace BF/formula

We use rice milk as I didn't want to overdo the cows milk (possible intolerance for DC2). rice milk is the least allergenic of the milks (bar breast milk and I oculdn't be bothered expressing). It is slightly sweet and tastes a lot better than formula which I have not tried but have been told is not so nice. You can get it in the "free from" section of all the supermarkets

thanks for that - could only ever express about 2oz at a time and haven't built up a stash as DS would never have a bottle so couldn't use expressed milk. Looks like cow's milk is the way to go.