Cow's milk

[Limonada]

Hi there, ladies! :)

Sorry I haven't been on much lately - baby G is now a crawling DYNAMO and he's keeping me on my toes - literally!  He's into everything....

Anyway, I was just wondering something.  At what age did you start giving your little one cow's milk to drink rather than breastmilk or formula?  I understand the reasons why it's recommended that you don't offer it to them as their main drink much earlier than 12 months of age (too much protein, not enough iron, allergies, etc.) and I'm going to be asking my doctor about it when I take G in for his 9 month baby well appointment next week (it's a little late - he's actually going to be 10 months old next week), but I just wanted to see others' experiences.

As some of you will know due to previous posts of mine,  G has been steadfastly refusing to drink any formula or breastmilk in a sippy cup or bottle which has made weaning him from breastfeeding an impossibility so far...I've actually gotten him to drink an ounce of formula around lunchtime in the last week (yay!), though, but otherwise we feed him his bedtime formula via medicine dropper.

The thing is....we've tried giving him a TINY bit of cow's milk just to see if he'd drink that out of a cup....and he LOVED it!!  Of course I'm not going to just start doing that without getting proper advice from the doctor but, man, would it ever be AWESOME if G would be able to transition to cow's milk in the next couple of months!  Just in time for me to go back to work, and not have the worry of weaning over my head.  

We transitioned our older son to cow's milk when he was 11 months old, I think, and didn't have any issues or problems at that point.

[chantal21]

My one son was strictly breastfed and I introduced cow's milk around 10 1/2 months. He would only drink 2oz at a time, but eventually started drinking more. My doc didn't have a problem with it because he was already eating baby food 3x a day and  still BFing maybe 2-3x a day, so it was time to transition and he did just fine. He is 2 1/2, very tall and 41 pounds. He has always been bigger than average.

[30something13]

yeah I would not give it before a year either actually probable not before 2. I know I am weird some say:) But I BF full time too. I am doing baby lead weaning.

I hope you ahve success with a sippy! My second nursed to two weeks pst her second birthday and would NOT drink enough out of one till then. She just decided to stop all on her own and drank like she had always been doing it. before that she would only sip here and there not enough to sustain anytihng. Even when I had my third and was in the hospital aith a c-section for 3 days she would not. She nursed whenever she can to the hostpial then picked back up when I came home. She was basically there the whole day nut not at night and she owuld eat alomst all night long so I was worried about her to death. I sang her to sleep like always but over the phone and she jstu fell asleep poor thing.

best of luck to you! I always think it is sad to wean

[Limonada]

Thanks to you both for your comments, smjmekg and tiredbuthappy!!

tiredbuthappy - That's a great idea :)  I just might try that tomorrow and see if that helps and then, like you said, gradually back off on the cow's milk until he's drinking mostly formula (I think I've pretty much given up on trying to put BM in a sippy since I want to have him weaned in the next couple of months, God willing!!)

[tiredbuthappy]

I firmly believe in giving formula or breastmilk as primary nutrition until 12 months. The elements in breast milk and formula are essential for brain development and I would never want to deny my baby even a month of that (1/10th of the baby's lifespan, depending on age of introduction on milk!). Even if a baby is a healthy weight and thriving, we cannot see what is developing inside and I firmly believe in providing the recommended nutrition.

However, you are presented with an interesting problem. Have you considered trying to mix milk and formula or breastmilk to ease him to the cup since he does love milk? You can start with mostly milk and a little of other, and then gradually up the breastmilk or formula. Even if you never make it to full breastmilk or formula, even 50/50 for the next few months is better than none.

[smjmekg]

I started mixing formula and cow's milk at 11 months, never asked the dr, just did it on my own...and at 1 year I had Elijah on milk only. If you're breast feeding still *I* don't see a problem with you mixing breast milk and cow's milk to see if he'll take a bottle or sippy that way. I also put the cow's milk in a sippy only, and at 11 months when I started mixing I started using the sippy, Elijah was off the bottle completely at a year old, drinking milk from a sippy cup.