Milk in cereal for 8 mo supposedly fine but...

[winnybella]

...read that it can cause intestinal bleeding that can cause anemia?
DD is bf and I hate to buy those huge cans of formula just for breakfast because I never use them up in 4 weeks, after which time they are supposedly not good anymore.
Hmmmm...is it definitely ok? I suspect if I ask dd's doctor she'll says no way, as we're in France and they are all paranoid about everything.
Anyone heard anything about that bleeding thing? I read it in the 'What to expect.. book.

I fed some of mine on Readybrek with full fat cow's milk at that age.

Then I found out it's better to be gluten free until around 10m so used gluten free baby foods (still used the cow's milk though).

Then at 10m moved on to Readybrek and Weetabix with cow's milk.

Not had any problems with lack of iron. I did use the baby vitamin drops from the clinic and used those intermittently in the early days. They were recommended by the baby clinic. I'm not sure whether they were necessary or not.

I've never heard of the intestinal bleeding that you mention.

There are references to the intestinal bleeding e.g. here.

It doesn't look too worrying to me but maybe something to be aware of. Small amounts of cow's milk seem to be okay so in line with the normal advice not to give as a drink until after 12m.
If you are really worried maybe make up baby's food with water to avoid the cow's milk and as you are still bfing your dd will get enough milk that way.
Personally I think I'd continue with the cow's milk, just not as a drink.

I have actually read that it is best to introduce gluten after 4 months but before 7 months. The coeliac society recommends its intoduction from 6 months and that it be given regularly and in adequate amounts so that symptoms would show up quickly and a diagnosis can be made.

Both my lo's had wheat based cereals, bread,etc from 6 months.

p.s. even though breastmilk is relatively lower in iron it is more bioavailable so your lo will be able to extract more iron than they would from other sources - see kellymom

Seems advice has changed again then Seona. I was going off what I'd read at the time. I'll have to look for an updated version of the book I had.

Those 'What to Expect....' books are DIRE. Neurotic, joyless volumes with bizarre choices of things to focus on (viz a viz the chapter on getting your toddler's cholesterol levels checked). They're what Woody Allen would say if you asked him about childcare. Sanity lies in the NHS weaning guide, I would say.

We do get some odd advice about weaning here in the US - I recently was home in the UK and told my sister DD couldn't have home made carrots because they could have been grown in soil too rich in nitrates. My daughter's doctor told me only baby food carrots were ok, and all the books here say the same thing. Anyway, my sister looked at me as though I was nuts....and I realized how ridiculous it sounded. Baby doesn't like carrots as it turns out....advice as to what you can eat in pregnancy is very different here too.