Cow's milk vs formula

[barbwong_130]

I agree with Bekyboo. If you are in a household that drinks a lot of cow’s milk then you are likely to always have it around and so it is natural to give the baby this milk as he reaches 12 months. If, however, you are in a household that rarely buys cow’s milk you are much more likely to continue giving formula. Cow’s milk tends to go off quickly so unless the whole family is using it there could be a lot of wastage.

 

[skittles5510]

bekyboo is correct also. Formula beyone 1 year old is very common in Asian countries, whereas it is less common in Western places. Maybe it also has to do with Asian's dislike of cow's milk and dairy products??

 

[Query]

I'm Chinese and I don't drink milk except when I'm pregnant or with my coffee / tea which I only drink at home at weekends. My husband (also Chinese) doesn't drink milk at all. Therefore, sometimes the 1L carton of milk we buy gets thrown out before it's finished as it's already turned sour. Most Chinese I know hardly drink any milk or even coffee/tea at home. So it's not really that pravalent in our diets, hence that's probably why formula is more popular with the toddlers.

 

[barbwong_130]

We had the problem of milk going off at home too. So I changed to buying six packets of small cartons (only 250 mls each). This costs more than buying the large cartoons (1 litre) but I decided as the small carton doesn?t go off as much I was in fact winning.

 

[shuchisingh]

it depends on what you mean by "asia". atleast in southeast asia milk is an important part of diet for all ages and consumed in good quantities.

 

[AussieMum]

To throw another side to the argument, I recently took my daughter to the Peadiatrician who asked me if my daughter was on formula or cows milk (she is now 16 months). When I advised cows milk she said this was good as formula was not great for their teeth. Not sure if this is true or not.
Another thing to consider is how much travel you do. We switched to cows milk once my daughter was 12 months old. We have done a lot of travel and often been caught out in flight and in hotels who are unable to provide adequate cows milk. We would not have had this problem if we could take formula and just mix with water in flight or in a hotel room.
In saying this though, we do prefer cows milk, it is easy, convenient to obtain (when at home), no measuring or mixing and not fussed when there is wasteage (it is cheaper than forumla). Good luck, but if you are not fussed about the other factors, I would stick with cows milk as opposed to doing two transitions.

 

[carang]

cow's milk cheaper than formula? not for us!
a litre of cow's milk is $20+ it would last us less than a day.... that would be $600+ per month. we spend $250-300/month on formula, but my daughter drinks A LOT of "milk"

 

[slamdunk]

later stages of formula taste sweet so must have added sugar in. my daughter didn't like it either and liked fresh milk. guess that's why some paeds say it's bad for teeth...