Introducing cows milk?

[kellym]

Hello!!

Just wondering if anyone has any advice on introducing cows milk? DS turned 1 a couple of weeks ago and still has 3 bottles a day (before each sleep). Last week I swapped his early afternoon bottle (formula before his afternoon nap) with cows milk. He drank half the bottle and seemed fine. Later that night (about 5 hours later) he did a massive vomit everywhere and I didn't think much of it at the time, coz he'd been a bit grizzly but now I'm wondering if it was the cows milk?? Surely he would of reacted earlier than that?

Any advice would be great as I'd really like to get him off formula but can't bring myself to try the cows milk again yet!!

Thanks.

Kelly xxx

[Beach Mama]

Hey hun! Can you believe our babies are one! I am going to introduce cows milk soon - shes not even 9kg and won't eat much alot of the time so I am going to use toddler formula for a while - anyway OT. Why don't you try 150mL formula with 50mL of cows milk for a week or so and then up it to 50/50 then 3/4 etc until you gradually replace it. It could be that it did sit funny in his little tum all arvo hun - you never know. I think most people recommend introducing it with formula so it is a gradual change over. Good luck with it all!!

[Ozziehoffy]

I actually introduced it before 1, but it was in his cereal. He tried it watered down in a bottle a few months back but didn't really care for it. He's only just in the past week tried it again, full strength and drank about 60 ml the other night. That may be because I was out with the girls from our mother's group for dinner and he didn't get boob?? Anyway, I think small amounts to introduce and preferably mixed with something.

[kellym]

Thanks guys - I didn't know you could mix it with formula and will definitely give that a go!! Its all so confusing but we'll see how we go. Might just buy one more tin of formula!!

Kelly xx

[krisp]

My DS had terrible trouble changing over to cows milk. It gave him the runs when we swapped. Our GP said most people make the change to cows milk too soon and that 12 months isn't a magical age, especially for FF bubs as they don't get the antibodies from Mum. We took it really slowly and mixed his formula with cows milk til he was just under 2. He's fine with it now. My advice would be go as slow as your little one needs you to, his poos or vomits will soon let you know if he's coping!

[MantaRay]

Introducing it slowly sounds like a good idea. Just a note that food allergies usually show up straight away, but intolerances can take hours or days. So IF the vomitting was related to the milk (and it might not have been), it is an indication of an intolerance. This is harder to diagnose, as it doesn't happen straight away, it's not so obvious what is causing the problem. But other signs you might want to watch out for are apparent belly pain, bloating, diarrhoea and/or constipation.