Re: Weaning and introducing cow's milk

Posted By Tracy Maurer on April 28, 1998 at 21:38:16:

In Reply to: Re: Weaning and introducing cow's milk posted by Tracy Trull on April 27, 1998 at 03:48:31:






I'm planning to wean my daughter at 1 year so we don't have to introduce formula.  I had always read/heard that at that point, you would wean directly to cow's milk.  My husband is wondering why we even need to give her any milk at that point.  There are all these studies showing that the hormones, etc in cow's milk are bad for everyone (babies especially).  And lots of folks, medical and otherwise, insist that cow's milk is not necessary.  My plan if we do use cow's milk is to find a source for organic milk.
Please help us understand what the best route to take is, and if milk is not necessary, please help us figure out what liquids we should be giving our daughter.

Water and  juices  should definitely be introduced,  as for the milk, start replacing  formula or breastmilk 1 ounce at a time  with cows milk (ex.  5 to 1, 4 to 2 etc.) until  there is no breast milk  or formula. This will help the baby's digestive system adjust gradually and hopefully illiminate any problems.
Tracy (mother of  2 girls!)  
Since I'm breastfeeding rather than bottle feeding breastmilk to my baby, I'm not sure how I would go about this.  And I'm also still wondering what the answer to the first part of the question is - is cow's milk even necessary, and if so, why?  That is more from my husband than me, but he's the kind who wants facts (or at least a site he can visit to get information from).