babies and cows milk

[Jenvenza]

We started mixing a little in with her formula at 11 months and by 12 months, we went straight to whole milk. By 13 months, she was switched to soy milk because she was showing signs of being lactose intolerant. And she has been great on the soy milk ever since - she is going on 16 months now. I never realized how much trouble she would have with whole milk. I am very glad we are done with the milk for now - it was a nightmare for us.

 

[jockey]

Thanks everyone, I will hold on as long as possible

 

[ChrisandDon'sMommy]

There's no need to rush cow's milk until after one years of age (if that). While I still breastfeed my son, he will sometimes drink cow's milk (maybe once or twice a week).

 

[crisi]

There's no need to rush cow's milk until after one years of age (if that). While I still breastfeed my son, he will sometimes drink cow's milk (maybe once or twice a week).

Actually there is a big reason in a lot of families - formula is expensive and if a family is under a very tight budget - formula can be one of the things that gets cut or cut back. If breastfeeding wasn't successful for you, and you have to buy formula at $15 a can (or whatever it is now, mine are past formula age) you might need to choose between the mortgage and milk/solids or formula.

 

[disneybridetobe]

You can actually start cows milk in cooking and on cereal from 6 months. I think I went over to dd drinking whole milk at just over 11 months as I had finished a can of formula and wasn't going to buy another one for just 4 weeks. Their digestive system doesn't suddenly mature at the magical 12 months so as long as they are a good size baby then 10 - 11 months should be OK. I wouldn't personally do it much earlier than that.

I agree, I started doing 1/2 formula and 1/2 milk around 10 mos. No problems
I'll be doing the same with the new one

 

[Juliet25]

Actually there is a big reason in a lot of families - formula is expensive and if a family is under a very tight budget - formula can be one of the things that gets cut or cut back. If breastfeeding wasn't successful for you, and you have to buy formula at $15 a can (or whatever it is now, mine are past formula age) you might need to choose between the mortgage and milk/solids or formula.

If a family can't afford formula, they are probably eligible for WIC. I cannot accept $$$ being a reason to skimp on nutrition. Formula contains the building blocks that an infant *needs*. Cows milk does not. There is no excuse not to follow the recommendations of leading health authorities (ie, formula or (preferably) breastmilk for a year*) to save a few bucks. If money is an issue, then the cable bill, Internet and cell phone need to go first. Not food for a vulnerable infant. We're talking $15 a can here. Babysit a neighbor's kid; have dad get a part time job at McD's; find a paper route for goodness sake ... don't let a baby not get the nourishment he or she deserves!

*ETA: I'm not sure what the recommendation is for formula. Breastmilk is recommended for the first year, but I'm finding conflicting info on how long formula is recommended. OP, I would check with your ped for the current recommendation on formula feeding.

 

[Zoesmama03]

I started about 2 weeks to 12 months with 1/4 cows milk with her soy formula then 1/2 however she has lactose issues and symptoms popped up by 1/2 point so went to soy over the last two weeks slowly adding more until it was all soy milk.

To me cows milk is really rough on tummies and I can see why they want you to wait but really no one age can really be set all babies are different. Its not like a switch turns on in their little bodies. The big worry is lack of iron. I didn't worry about that once I realized her lactose intolerance was still an issue(reason she was supplementing breastmilk with soy formula to begin with) and switched to adding soy milk it has iron though with calcium probably not a lot gets absorbed.

We also lost the bottle at that point. Not a big deal since she had only started on bottles full time a few weeks prior when she refused nursing and/or my supply dried up(pumped never got anything). It was easy to pull the day time and night time bottles but she held onto the morning one a couple weeks before giving up to a sippy. Thankfully never had the paci she refused those along with bottles for most of her first year.

 

[Zoesmama03]

We waited until 12 months. We then introduced it slowly- 3/4 formula, then 1/2, 1/4, until it was all cow's milk.

They drink only Soy Milk now. Turns out they are both intolerant of cow's milk. The eldest much more severely. He becomes chronically/severely constipated. Took us until he was nearly 3 before we were able to figure out what the problem was. *Sigh*

Most people are intolerant they ignore symptoms. Human bodies stop producing the lactase to digest those proteins at 2. My guess is this is why they recommend lower fat after 2 since it seems to help with lactose issues(I know for me it does 2% causes much problems when skim doesn't bother me much at all) Just something I learned researching with my dd having intolerance found at 2 weeks when her very helpful father gave her the formula we brought home from hospital to let me sleep.

 

[johndevid12]

according ayurved remedies technique of india which is purely depends on natural resources to cure your body and mind says that new baby should be dependent on mother's milk for 3 years. then baby should be transfered to cow milk.

 

[PrincessGrace]

We waited until our son was 12 months old. He was only drinking 15 oz of soy formula a day (if that) Broken into two bottles. I mixed the formula and milk for a couple weeks or so. Started with 1/4 milk 3/4 formula then went to 1/2 milk 1/2 formula then 3/4 milk 1/4 formula and finally all milk. It took a couple weeks. I was slow with him because he had problems with milk-based formula. I had forgotten about needing to mix his formula with the milk to begin with; he hated the plain milk to begin with, but after mixing it, he was okay.

 

[borntoshop96]

We started on whole milk at 10 months.
My son wouldn't take a bottle at all, and would literally spit the formula at me. (he was breastfed until that point) My doctor was the one who suggested it. But, he was a healthy and big and she said it was fine.
I wish I'd switched to organic milk though. With DD we're going to do organic.

 

[SGMCO]

I nursed until 18 months.
After that cows milk cause all kinds of allergies
so we went to soy and he has drank that ever since.
He is now going on 13 years old and is very healthy.

 

[atksn]

Both of my boys were breastfed until 12 months, but I did start letting them have some cow's milk in addition to nursing @ 10 months--- with pediatrician reccommendation. But, both were good eaters of solid foods, and we have no family history of any food allergies. However, my youngest does show signs of a milk "intolerance". He is not full on "allergic", and does well with cheese/yogurt, but if he has straight up milk he spits up the rest of the day (do you still call it spitting up at 17 months??? It isn't vomiting- so I don't know what else I would call it), gets very gassy, and develops sores on his rear end. We have switched to Soy milk for him, and he is problem free. I try every so often to reintroduce cow's milk, but so far, it is a no go......

 

[barnaby1]

You can actually start cows milk in cooking and on cereal from 6 months. I think I went over to dd drinking whole milk at just over 11 months as I had finished a can of formula and wasn't going to buy another one for just 4 weeks. Their digestive system doesn't suddenly mature at the magical 12 months so as long as they are a good size baby then 10 - 11 months should be OK. I wouldn't personally do it much earlier than that.

I'm not sure where you got this info from, but Canadian and US Pediatrics do not recommend this at all. It's recommended at 12 months for various reasons: intestinal and kidney issues being the most important ones. Our bodies are not meant to digest cow's milk, so introducing it a very young ages such as 6 months is not good at all and in fact, can be very serious for the infant.

I would do some research, talk to pediatrician and health unit nurse and base it on the minimum recommendations which are 12 months and up.

Tiger

I live in the UK and it was my health visitor (we don't traditionally use pediatricians but nurses for advice and monitoring) who said it was safe to commence cows milk at this stage and in this format. It is also supported in Gina Ford's Contented baby book. I think this is a case of different practices across the pond.

 

[star sweeper]

Most U.S. peds recommend whole milk at 12 months. I have two kids that are 10 weeks apart, so we switched when the youngest was 12 months old, the oldest was almost 15 months. My two were on Similac Go & Grow until they switched. Most peds also want you to switch off whole milk to 2%, 1%, or skim at 2 years, but my two are still on whole milk. I saw a segment about milk and learned that whole milk is only 3% fat, so it's a ridiculously insignificant amount of fat to be worried about in the scheme of things, and I didn't have to deal with them learning to like a different taste.

 

[TravelinMommy]

The week before his 1st birthday we introduced it...and never went back to formula....he loved it and took to it very well.