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Giving cow's milk early
Hi ladies,
I am going back to work when DS is 11.5mnths old, and as I am still BFing he will miss his afternoon feed for the 3 days I am working. He currently only has 3 feeds (plus sometimes one at night if he wakes with teething pains etc.) & I will still be able to give him his wake-up/bedtime feeds. I really don't want to start expressing this feed & am reluctant to give him formula, so my question is, would it be OK to give him cow's milk from around 10.5mnths old for his afternoon feed? Also, he currently will only take water from a doidy cup, which is fine for the few mouthfuls that he has, but I am worried that he won't get enough milk from a doidy cup??
Thank you
I am going back to work when DS is 11.5mnths old, and as I am still BFing he will miss his afternoon feed for the 3 days I am working. He currently only has 3 feeds (plus sometimes one at night if he wakes with teething pains etc.) & I will still be able to give him his wake-up/bedtime feeds. I really don't want to start expressing this feed & am reluctant to give him formula, so my question is, would it be OK to give him cow's milk from around 10.5mnths old for his afternoon feed? Also, he currently will only take water from a doidy cup, which is fine for the few mouthfuls that he has, but I am worried that he won't get enough milk from a doidy cup??
Thank you
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Replies
As it will only be for a few feeds a week I really don't see that there'd be any problem with your DS having some cows milk.
Maybe start experimenting with a few different beakers for his milk feed? The simple Tommee Timmee tippy-up cups with a hard spout were a winner with DD. DS is another story, still not found one he'll drink from!
Maenad, Benjamin can't work out the sucking of a TT cup - we take one out with us everywhere & I invariably end up taking the lid off so he can have a sup
It might be a pain now but longer term it's brilliant if Benjamin can drink from an open cup already!
You've got to love HV's - we've just come in from B's 32-week check (at 42 weeks) & got told that, despite the fact that it would be only 3 feeds a week, that he is on vitamin drops, eats like a horse & he would be 11 months, that he definitely can't have cow's milk till 12 months... Doh!!
The way I see it, cows milk before 12 months in itself is not harmful, its fine to give it in food etc - but you shouldn't replace breast or formula milk with it until '12 months' (nothing magic happens on their birthday) - but a lot of babies will be down to two milk feeds a day before this age anyway, with no problems (or complaints from the HV), so if you're still giving breastfeeds morning and night, you're not replacing the breastmilk with cows milk, just giving the cows milk as a extra - does that make any sense? I really do think it's pointless introducing formula at this stage if he has a balanced diet.