Is it recommended to switch to cow's milk at 12 months?

Question

or is it just the 'earliest' age recommended? How long did you keep your child on formula/breastmilk for before switching entirely to cow's milk?

Answer 1

It is the earlist you should start not exactly the date you should. If your son is a year I would slowly intorduce and see how his tummy handles it, if he does well increase it until he is no longer on fomula and if he don't cut it back out until you feel like trying it again on him. My son was 14 mths when I started trying Whole milk on him.

He isn't going to get sick by wiating to introduce it past a year, he could get sick though by introducing before he is ready.

Answer 2

If you're breastfeeding, you don't ever need to switch to cow's milk. Your milk is exactly what your baby needs. It's fine to offer cow's milk sometimes, like on cereal, but it doesn't offer better nutrition than your milk and will fill your child up when other foods might offer more nutritionally. If your child has shown evidence of food allergies, it might be better to wait to introduce cow's milk at all. In the US, we're always told to drink lots of milk and offer it to children because it's an easy and relatively cheap source of calcium. But your child can get calcium from other sources, including your milk. Toddlers who aren't breastfeeding might benefit from the fats in whole cow's milk as well.

If you're not breastfeeding, the recommendation to switch to cow's milk at one year is mostly due to cost. Most formulas are cow's milk based, but the protein content has been modified to avoid overloading a human baby's intestines and kidneys (remember that a cow's growth pattern and protein needs are very different than a human baby's!). By about a year, your child can tolerate the protein content of whole cow's milk, so you don't need to spend the money on formula any more. You can gradually transition your baby to whole milk. Again, a well-balanced diet doesn't have to include cow's milk at all.

Answer 3

Depends what country you live in.


"Most babies eventually make the move from drinking breastmilk or formula to regular cow’s milk, but opinions vary on when this should happen. The Canadian Paediatric Society says it’s fine to introduce cow’s milk between nine and 12 months of age. However, in the US and some other countries, the official advice is to wait for at least a year. Why are the guidelines different from those in Canada?

“The main concern is about iron deficiency, and that problem starts in the early months of a baby’s life,” explains Robert Issenman, chief of paediatric gastroenterology and nutrition at McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton. “When babies under six months or so are fed regular cow’s milk, they have minute amounts of blood loss in the GI tract. This blood loss makes them likely to become anemic. By nine months, drinking regular cow’s milk no longer causes this bleeding.”

Anemia develops most often when parents who are not breastfeeding find formula too expensive, so they buy ordinary milk for their young baby.

“A recommendation that babies not drink cow’s milk until they are a year old won’t change what those families are doing, so it won’t solve the problem of anemia,” Issenman says. The advice will be followed by those families who are already breastfeeding or giving formula until their babies are nine months old — and for those babies, it will not make any difference in the rates of anemia.

This recommendation does help in the US, Issenman notes, because a government program provides subsidized formula for a year for babies who are not breastfed. This can be important because the subsidy isn’t enough to purchase all the formula a baby needs, and parents sometimes give regular cow’s milk when the formula runs out.

Why don’t we have a similar program in Canada? “We have a different philosophy here,” says Issenman. “The concern has been that if we offer free or subsidized formula, it might persuade women not to breastfeed, or to wean early.” A 2004 study in Pediatrics did find that program families were less likely to breastfeed than families with similar low incomes who didn’t sign up. More than half of the formula sold in the US is distributed through the program."

http://www.todaysparent.com/baby/foodnutrition/article.jsp?content=20051006_153604_6200

Answer 4

I've heard that if you're using formula, you should switch to cow's milk at 12 months. If you breastfeed, then you can keep doing with the breastmilk indefinitely, or start weaning around 12 months.

Answer 5

I plan on nursing for at least a year. A friend recently told me that I would think about stopping when my daughter, only seven weeks, gets teeth. I think that's a selfish reason to stop and that teeth and nursing will be an adjustment for the both of us. For that matter, when she is weaned, I'll probably give her soy milk, or organic milk from a source I know for sure. My mother (who still thinks I'm a bit wacko with this whole vegan thing) asked me if I plan on giving my daughter cow milk when she gets older. I gave a vague answer. Even my husband, who is not vegan or vegetarian, as cut back on meat and dairy, not only so we can eat meals together, but because he realizes it's healthier and he also knows my reasonings for going vegan. (He buys cheese and coffee creamer for home use, but only eats meat in restaurants.)

I don't get the whole thing about babies not supposed to have cow's milk before their first birthday as most formulas are made with cow's milk.

Answer 6

Yes, 12 mos is the general recommended age. Whole milk would be what you would transition to, nothing lower than that. Baby needs those high milk fats for development.

Answer 7

12 months is the recommended age because babies systems have a hard time breaking down milk. I waited the whole 12 months.

Answer 8

Every pediatrician will tell you to wait until 12 months.

They can stay on formula past 12 months, but the "toddler specific" formula costs a lot more than infant formula.

Talk to your doctor before you do anything.

Good luck!

Answer 9

Yes. At 6 months you may start to give your baby a sippy cup with breastmilk or formula in it with their meals, as you also start to introduce first foods at this time. So by the time your baby is a year old, you can take away the bottle and use a sippy only. Then they can have cow's milk. For breastfeeding mothers, they may continue to breast feed as long as they feel comfortable. but can do it in conjunction with the food and cow's milk in a sippy.


By the way, I might add in response to the person before me...The suggested daily serving of dairy is three a day....because dairy is very healthy for you and helps develop a healthy digestive system. That is according to WIC and public health and also the Food Pyramid from the National Department of Agriculture.

Answer 10

My son nursed till he was 2...he wouldn't take cow's milk before that....but it tastes much better than formula so if you are not nursing then go ahead and switch them....if you want start doing half and half at first