cows milk

heather38

yes, she was bf till she was 7 months and she got teeth! she took to formula really well with no problems, but at 12 months they no longer need 'special' milk as they get most of their nutrition from food rather than milk.
and formula is made from cows milk with added vits/fat etc, the problem is it's sweet and cows milk isn't

Carmina_Piranha_3

ScaryGreen wrote: »

OK i'm completly clueless with baby's and stuff but i've always wondered.... and i know it may be a silly question but isnt cow's milk for baby cow's and formula milk for baby people?

human breastmilk is for baby people (that's not an anti-bottle post by the way, i bottle fed mine). formula is made from cows milk but they change it a bit to make it more suitable for babies. once they reach 12 months or so they don't need the extra nutrients in formula and ordinary cows milk is better. apparently formula is quite nutritious so if they have too much it might dull the appetite and they won't eat enough food, missing out on tasting a variety of food. chewing helps to develop the muscles for talking too. so i'm told. we were talking about this at toddler group last week.

this may not be a popular view but does she need milk? fromage frais, milk on cereal, cheese etc. in the diet and a diet including calcium rich foods might mean she gets what she needs without having to drink milk. is this just for bedtime? i know people who have stopped drinking milk but their babies are more like 18 months than 12 i suppose. the health visitor could give you advice about what she needs and maybe look at her diet to see if she'd be deficient if she gave up drinking milk.

DKLS

Rather ominously, There is a large herd of cows in America, that scientists have been working on, so that they produce milk with human proteins and growth hormones in, ie they are trying to get human breast milk out of a cow, So in the future the powdered milk companies can say, breast is best, and even better is our powdered breat milk.
Scary really.

heather38

she wont go to bed with out milk, i have stopped her morning bottle last week as she wasn't eating her breakfast, but she has tea at 4:30 and bed at 7, so not sure if she would get through the night on food alone.

Carmina_Piranha_3

my BIL had the same thing when his daughter was 12 months. she hated cows milk and screamed for hours when they mixed one ounce into her formula. that was 3 months ago and for the moment they are sticking to formula at bedtime still. my boy is 28 months old and he still has bedtime milk, some children carry on having bedtime milk for a while.

mine has lactose free milk though, that's sweet anyway. the cows milk available in supermarkets is semi skimmed so obviously i'm not recommending that you try it. i don't think there was much taste difference between his lactose free formula and his lactose free fresh cows milk so the changeover was pretty easy for us.

which formula is she on? my health visitor said the first type was fine, that babies don't need richer stage 3 milk etc. but then somebody else's health visitor said she should buy stage 3 for the extra iron.

heather38

aptamil step 3

ScaryGreen

Ahhh i see - now i understand.

Thank you all for enlightning me.

adea

Maybe you could try her with milkshake?
I've searched around and there is nothing to say that a 12 month old can't have milkshake,as long as the milk is full fat.

heather38

hmmm not sure about that, she normally only has water or milk. i don't like her having sugar,but if i blend fruit and mix it with milk that might work, although i don't like the idea of fruit sugar after shes brushed her teeth

Carmina_Piranha_3

if she just has the step 3 at bedtime i suppose that's different to having it as drinks during the day, on cereal etc.

oooh i don't know, i'm one of those soft mums. if mine hadn't liked the fresh milk i probably would have carried on buying formula for a while. i know some mums who give milk shake or hot choc at bedtime to babies who don't like cows milk on its own. that might be unhealthy, i don't know what ovaltine etc. is like in terms of sugar.

cows milk is certainly easier to make than formula!

have you tried different temperatures? mine has cold milk on his cereal but his bedtime milk has to be the same temp he used to have his formula at (lukewarm - yuck!).

he won't have cold milk before bed, but recently we've been changing his routine slightly so he has the milk before he goes upstairs. he used to have it in bed but that means we're not brushing his teeth after the milk. so he's starting to break the association with milk and bed, and having his milk downstairs. if she doesn't drink her milk if you did a downstairs routine with it then perhaps she could also have a bit of cereal or toast etc. just to help keep her tummy full during the night?

BIL was told about mixing the fresh milk in with the formula gradually but his baby hated it. you might not be as soft as he is though, and persevere anyhow. if you started with just an ounce and increased it over a few weeks then she would gradually get used to the change in sweetness - but of course that would mean you'd have to buy another tin of formula!