self weaning under 12 months and introducing cows milk

[heles7]

Yikes that was a mouthful!

Since we started weaning at six months, james has gone from having lots and lots of very short boob feeds to barely any at all. We are mainly doing blw and he has a great appetite and doesn't seem interested in boob feeds.

He takes the most at his early morning feed and even that is probably only a couple of minutes long. In the last week or so his mid morning and bed time feeds are probably less than a minute, he latches on, couple of sucks and then pulls off again. He maybe repeats that a couple of times but he just doesn't seem bothered. I'm sure if I didn't offer boob he wouldnt be bothered.

I spoke to the hv about it and she didn't seem concerned. I asked if i should introduce cows milk early as he surely isn't getting much from me. she said i could introduce some formular - ffs why are they so obsessed with this? I don't have any desire to introduce formular but i want to be certain that he has enough fat in his diet. So, why exactly is cows milk not recommended as a drink until 12 months?

James does have whole milk with his cereal, plus cheese and fromage frais and yoghurt etc in his diet currently.

Any advice folks?

 

[Squiglet]

There is no reason why they can't have cows milk before 12 months. Its just that its not a nutritionally complete replacement for formula or breastmilk. Until a year old, a baby's main source of nutrition is from milk, and while you can feed them healthy food its not so much what food they get but whether their digestive tract can effectively break down the food and absorb the nutrition from it. 30 years ago mothers were told to introduce cows milk at 6 months as a replacement to formula and bm.

Formula IS cows milk. Its just a highly processed, additive enriched form of cows milk, made suitable for babies to drink as a main source of nutrition. But take all that away, its still just cows milk

Find out when your LO feeds most from you and keep those feeds. Then introduce milk during the day for example in a cup. But be warned cows milk is completely different from bm and he may just refuse that too

 

[lisa&alex]

to drink... its formular or breastmilk untill 1 years old.. if you dont want to give formula then could you express and give in a bottle? alternitivly.. you could increase yogarts and cheese if you are worried about calcium there are many veggies that are calcium rich to..fat wise... im sure that adding olive oil ( or another healthy alternitive) to mash etc would help xx

 

[beanie]

I personally wouldn't bother introducing cows milk as a drink if you are happy to breastfeed. If you are worried about the amount of fat he is getting give plenty of "fatty" foods such as yoghurts etc. Cows milk is less nutricious then breastmilk and a little breastmilk would be better for him then a lot of cows milk IMO.

Have you tried feeding him when he is sleepy etc, I find Cally feeds better when she is sleepy and is less likely to be distracted otherwise she is just like your LO

 

[fothers]

cows milk has a lot less iron and a lot more salt than formula/breast milk.

M has not been a great feeder since about 3m- I agree with what Beanie says about feeding before/after a nap- it was the only way I have been able to get M to feed since 3 months