12 month baby - formula or cow's milk

[mrs]

my son is now 12 months and I am wondering if most mums switched their bubs to cow's milk or continued on formula. If you continued on formula did you switch to the 12 mth and up version? what's the difference or is it basically a marketing thing? what were your reasons for sticking to formula or switching to cows milk?

 

[genkimom]

I switched to soy milk (son has dairy allergy) at 12 mos. By then, he had been introduced to all major food groups and he could get all the nutrients he needed from real food.

But he was not a picky eater, and ate a wide variety of foods, so if your bub refuses to eat a variety of foods, you might want to stick to a toddler formula just to be sure he's getting all his nutrients. but it's entirely your call I think.

 

[charade]

I am also wondering about this...The reason I have delayed switching is that I'm not sure my son would get all the nutrients he needs from solids and cow's milk, if I replaced the formula with cow's milk. We are now trying to cut down formula and build up solids but will probably introduce one cow's milk feed this week. My son has been eating yogurt and cheese without problems so I'm not anticipating allergic reactions.

 

[southside852]

we switched both of our sons to cow's milk at 13 months without any problems. by 12 months, children should be getting all of their nutrients through their diet. my sons had been eating yogurt, cheese since 6 months so i knew they were getting their calcium and the worry of allergies was not really an issue. my american pediatrician advised me to just switch to cow's milk while my HK pediatrician told me to slowly wean it out (i.e. 80% formula, 20% milk until it's 100% milk). we decided to just give 100% cow's milk as per my US pediatrician. If they didn't like it, then we would mix it. Needless to say, it was not a problem and our kids just drank it up.

I am thrilled to be a formula free household now .

 

[TNT]

It is purely a marketing thing- formula is mostly cows milk after all. As Southside852 says, after 12 months a balanced diet should provide all nutrients to your baby. Breastfeeding after 12 months is a different story, because it continues to provide your antibodies to your baby as well as offering comfort and nuturing through nursing. HK has obviously really bought the formula marketing (maybe due to a lack of availability of cows milk in the past or concerns about its safety- but formula isnt immune to that issue either!) but if you research there is no evidence to support that formula after 12 months provides anything nutriently that couldn't be obtained by a normal balanced diet.

I was concerned as neither of my children liked cows milk but was reassured by my Australian paeditrician that they would obtain sufficient calcium from the cheese and yoghurt they had in their diet.

 

[charade]

It is purely a marketing thing- formula is mostly cows milk after all. As Southside852 says, after 12 months a balanced diet should provide all nutrients to your baby.

Agree, but what if one is unsure one is providing the balanced diet or that one's kid is consuming it? At least with formula, you're kind of assured the nutrients are there. Like a vitamin supplement. So it's kind of an easy way out, though not sure how long it's advisable to continue.

Also, agree there's an overlap but does formula=cow's milk? As in, does cow's milk have exactly the same nutrients as formula. Apart from calcium, which my baby is getting from other sources anyway, does cow's milk have other nutrients like iron, zinc etc. in the same proportion as formula? If not, not sure what the point of replacing formula with cow's milk is... except that babies seem to like to drink something.

Genuinely asking as I'm a bit confused about this issue.

 

[thanka2]

I didn't even switch over to cow's milk--we went with powdered goat's milk--so much easier for my son to digest and he stopped having constipation from there on out. Then we've given him soy milk as well and then sometimes cow's milk but we started with goat's milk when he was about 10 months-old (still gave him formula until he was about 13-months-old as well). Worked well for us.

 

[pixelelf]

For both our kids, we switched over to cow's milk at 12mths. They are both breastfed. The added vitamins and minerals in formula were not deciding factors for us. Instead it was more of a choice to feed them fresh produce, unprocessed food as much as possible. We make sure the kids are offered variety of food and dairy products. In fact, because we don't have any "backup supplementary plan" should they have poor diets, we try harder to make mealtimes happy and encourage the kids to eat. Im happy it has worked out for us.

Sent from my GT-I9000 using GeoClicks Mobile

 

[bonita]

My daughter was breastfed up till 18 months old. She started having cow's milk at 12 months as a drink but not as a main source of nutrient as, by that time, she's having a balanced solid meals and a snack each day.

Formula is made from cow's milk but has been engineered to be closer to breastmilk.
http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/milk/milk-supplements.html

 

[miran]

my son went from BF to ows milk at about 11.5 months. He never took to formula and instantly loved cows milk - so the decision was his. our bub doesnt love food either - he eats normal regular food but is not very open to variety. he's also not interested in food per se (which i suspect he gets from me).

formula / bf / cows milk - in any scenario post first birthday milk intake should ideally come down to twice a day. nutrients and balanced diet would need to be tackled sooner or later. sooner is better because the rigidity increases as babies get older. it's much better to introduce them to wider pallette or get them used to eating good amounts earlier. i know it's easier said than done but nonetheless.