Cows milk??? advice needed...

[MummyoftheMuffins]

i don't know if this is the right place to put this but i don't know where else to put it...

my dd is now 11 months old and i am just wondering when it is safe to give her cows milk... my step dad has two sons and said that at ten months he started his sons on cows milk... being 11 months old i was just wondering if it was close enough to 12 months to be able to start her on cows milk now... i already cook with cows milk for her... please help...???

[Mum&bubs]

My mum told me not to give my little one cows milk until she was 12months but i gave it to her at 11months ; i just introduced it slowly and she did fine :)

[HoopDeeDoo]

I think as long as she's a good eater it should be fine. I think you are supposed to wait until 12 months, but it can't matter too much. Think of the premmie bubs like my son, technically he was only 11 months when he started on cows milk (he was a ,onth early), so give it a go and see how she does. :yes:

[Shazbutt]

I think she'd be alright...like the others said, just take it slowly.....

[MummyoftheMuffins]

I think im more concerned that if i take away the formula will she still get what she needs.... she eats alot of different things each day though... yoghurt, fruit, sandwiches, juice, water etc etc etc... my friend said that when her son went from formula to cows milk she just diluted it with water and still added formula to it... ???

[Baby Girl]

Both of my DD's had dairy in their diet before 11 months and had no troubles . DD1 started on milk at 12 months and DD2 just started yesterday at 11 months. SHe has been fine and because she is already used to the taste of milk (I put it on her cereal and cook with it for her) she has had no trouble making the switch.

[Goosie22]

I think im more concerned that if i take away the formula will she still get what she needs....

Formula is powdered cows milk.........go for it. Like you said she eats well and the nurtients in a good balance of whole foods are way better for her than formula.

[Sarie]

We put cows milk on our boys' cereal from about 8-9 months but kept up formula bottles till they were 12 months.
Keep going with the formula, but go for it with the cows milk. Like everyone else said takw it slowly.

[MummyoftheMuffins]

thanks girls you've all helped me heaps... :hugs: to all!

[Rosa]

My little girl is also 11 months and have been thinking about the switch too. How many bottles a day do you think at this age? and should I do say 1 formula 1 cows milk?

[Sarie]

PJ was still having around 3-4 bottles at that age, but yeah I'd do one milk the rest formula.

[MummyoftheMuffins]

PJ was still having around 3-4 bottles at that age, but yeah I'd do one milk the rest formula.

uuuuhhhh..... 3-4 bottles??? my lil dd refuses that many bottles! she usually only has two a day... three if i can get one into her at lunch (most of the time not likely lol)

I always felt horrible cause everyone always said my girl was underweight for her age... she's 11 months and 9.5kg... but im not about to force her to eat! she's happy and healthy and she eats solids like they're running out! so... yeah. But with the whole cows milk thing, i think i'll say put 100ml of water and 100ml of cows milk, and then formula...(4 scoops to 200ml.) i think that would be ok wouldn't it?

[Sarie]

from your pic she looks fine. I know two women who have 'little' girls. Compared to my boofy boys they're tiny! But also perfectly healthy happy and in proportion for their size.
If she was missing out on something you would know about it!
I didn't water the milk down, I see that some do, so I'm not too sure about the ratio. But formula 4 scoops to 200mls sounds right.

[MummyoftheMuffins]

madison only ever have like 400mls in total a day... maybe 600mls...when they are supposed to have about 100mls to each kilo... that means that madi should be having at least 1Litre of milk a day! WOOOPS!:eek:

Does anyone else do this too? Does anyone have children who have at least 100ml of milk to every kg of their bodyweight each day?? I find it force feeding if i want madi to have that much, and she just refuses it...

[Sarie]

To be completely honest I don't really keep track of how much milk he takes in. When their this age they get so much out of the other food they eat I really don't think it's a huge problem.
Have doctors ever said anything to you about her weight?

[HoopDeeDoo]

I wouldn't worry too much. By that age they shoud be getting most of the nutrients from thier solids rather then the formula/milk, and thats mostly for diary content. You can count one bottle for a yogurt if she eats that.

Recently Noah wasn't eating because he was sick, and I told my GP that I'd bought some formula, because he was still drinking milk. He said not to bother with the formuls if he was drinking cows milk, because it's pretty much the same thing, and formula's is just a hassle to make up.

So if she will drink cows milk go for it, and I wouldn't worry about the formula. If she loves her solids she'll get all the vitamins and nutrients she needs from them.

[mumof03]

I have had 3 kids and all of them started on cows milk before they were 12 months. My first son wanted more breast milk than I could offer, but wouldn't drink any type of fomula, but would drink cows milk, so I put him onto that. He was 7 months old. My daughter was 7 1/2 months old, and bit me and drew blood, so I weaned her and put her on cows milk too, and my last son weaned himself from the breast at 9 months of age.

Although they were all on cows milk at an early age, I diluted it half milk, half water. I also brought "Pentavite" a vitamin liquid designed for infants, brought from the chemist, to give them the additional vitamins that cows milk lack.

My kids are now 13, 10, and 3 and are all very healthy, so starting them on cows milk before 12 months had no effect on them at all.

[jessgray]

i was told it was ok to intorduce cows milk into cooking and with ceral at 9 months. so my DS has had it with hsi ceral since then and he gradually started drinking it from 11 months but now he has trouble with it :(