Any opinions on Cows milk at 10 months?

Hi,

I have been exclusively BF DD for 10 1/2 months.

The time has come (unfortunately) for me to return to work 2 days/wk at the end of Jan and I want to wean her lunchtime feed.

I know that I could potentially c/t fully BF and use EBM, however she has NEVER taken EBM from a bottle/cup whatever despite many attempts over her life .... in her eyes breastmilk comes from boobs (and who can argue with her!). I feel that she is ready for this little separation from me anyway; lunch feed is always very quick and distracted - there's too much to do and see to be facing mum's chest for too long!

I plan to continue BF for her other feeds (that will mean b'fast and just before bed +/- an overnight feed). I hope that weaning this 1 feed won't change this, but I hope she'll let me know when she's had enough.....

My question is mainly is it OK to switch her straight to cows milk for this lunch feed? And how much am I supposed to offer?

I'm not totally anti-formula, but just kinda figure why go there if I don't need to....

Thanks in advance.

Does she really need to have milk at the lunch time feed if she's just having a quick feed from you? Maybe she could have a little juice or water? Personally I think that she'd be ok with cows milk as she will almost be 12 months old anyway when you go back to work. If it were me I'd probably water it down a little to start with. Does she have it mixed in any or her food now?

Oh and what a lovely day to be born - your own little valentine :D

How about something like Rice Milk?? my DS would not drink any other form of milk except rice milk nor would he drink ebm. He is still breastfed now at 18 months but also has about 1 cup of rice milk a day which is handy because if for some reason he needs to take a drink from a family member at least i now he will drink the rice milk.

I would hold off on the cows' milk, but then my first DS was allergic to it at first so I am probably on the conservative side. I agree that no milk at lunch would be fine if EBM isn't an option, or an alternative like rice milk would be ok too. I wouldn't recommend soy milk under 12 months either, and juice, even watered down is bad for them and shouldn't be introduced until at least 18 months (Jack is nearly 3 and still doesn't have it yet). But water at lunch instead of milk should be just fine, she is getting plenty of milk from those feeds she is having, so that would be my first choice.

So DD will be nearly 12 months? I'd say try cows milk for her lunch time drink.
You have done an excellent job bf this long and its great you want to keep going!
I started weaning DD off some feeds in a similar situation at 9 months, but because of her age I went to formula.
She was having cows milk on her cereal at 8 months, and then started switching her drinks to cows milk at 11.5 months because I knew she hadnt had a problem with it.

So maybe (if you havent already) try her on a little with her breakie and see how she goes.

Hi,

I agree with the others. I think she would be fine just having food and a drink of water at lunchtime. "Milk" servings don't have to be liquid milk - A cheese sandwich is great, or yoghurt. Good on you for breastfeeding so well - it would be counterproductive to start with a bottle now, anyway.
Regards
Barb

I have waited a few days to respond to let you all know how we got on....

I had never really thought about the fact that I didn't need to replace the feed necessarily - it has made it soooo much less stressful for both of us!! THANKS!

For those who may just be reading for interests sake, I'll report what I did actually end up doing....

I did decide to offer DD some watered down cows milk (100ml milk + 25ml water) at lunchtime. However, as most of you predicted, she wasn't interested at all, I think mostly as she didn't like the taste! So, after 3 tries, we now just do exactly what most of you suggested - just food and water at lunch.

Interestingly, she has been drinking heaps more water (80-120ml per day), so I'm really glad she is recognising that she needs/wants the fluid, but it also makes me more happy that she obviously doesn't need the nutrition of that extra feed (in the day anyway....)

Also interestingly, she is now having 2 big feeds morning and night and she has seemed to "need" the o'night feed a little more. But I'm totally cool with that and am so glad this has been a stress-free process for both of us.

Without the advice I got here, I probably would have been totally stressed at the idea of her not having "milk" at lunch and panicked and wasted money on formula!!!

Many thanks again.

Leo, thanks for your response. For some unknown reason, this thread registered twice. I just thought I'd let you know I got on really well.... check out my response on the "other" one of these threads if you're interested.

All the best with bubba no. 2!!!

my son was over weight at 10 months old weighing11.8 kilo the dietitian said to put him on to cows milk as he was on formula. we were instructed to put him on skim milk so we did. I was highly concerned as you hear so much that under 1 year olds should advoid cows milk but my son was fine.

he lost the weight and is 2 and half now and weighs 12 kilo now :)

oh one thing if she is being Bf now is it possible to express for her some to drink from a cup? personally i would avoid cows milk to after one but as previously said dietitian told me to put my son on it and it did absolutely no harm at all :)

Hi KymH, I've merged your duplicate threads together. :)

happy to hear you worked it all out! i tried to offer Krystal cows milk, to try and replace a breastfeed at about 11 months, to this day she still wont drink it! but will happily eat weetbix & milk for brekkie!!

i wish i had a structured breastfeeding cycle with Krystal! some days she has 3 feeds, other days 6-7 small feeds, so i know she's fine to go all day without a bf, she loves her water!!

Kym that is great to hear!

Krystal, personally, I can't stand the taste of milk on it's own.... gross!! lol.