Cows Milk For One Year Old

[halfhead]

My baby has turned one and I would like her start drinking cows milk,at the moment shes on S26

any advice on which brands to try,from what I have read uht milk seems to be fine for the her too,but Im not sure

about the brands etc,

thanks in advance

[Sheryl]

S-26 is a fortified formula. A switch to cow's milk will maintain the calcium and protein aspect but will not have the same iron content etc, so it is imperative that the child be eating enough other foods to make up for this. If intake of a wide variety of foods, including meat and vegetables, is good this may be alright but otherwise may might want to consider either continuing the S-26 in reduced amounts along with cow's milk until the baby is a bit older, or adding a liquid iron/vitamin supplement as insurance. There is a different s26 formula specifically for toddlers.

Another issue to be aware of is that some children -- a minority -- have an allergy to cow's milk. So introduce it gradually.

Many children, especially those of Asian ancestry, become lactose intolerant as they get older. At one year old usually not a problem and by making cow's milk/products made with cow's milk a regular part of the diet you may be able to forestall that, which is a plus. But another reason for introducing gradually.

As to brands of cow's milk to use:

- avoid the favored/sweetened ones. In this day and age it's ultimately a losing battle, but the longer you can delay your child's exposure to large quantities of processed sugar the better

- if you have a refigerator and reliable electricity, fresh is better than the UHT treated. There is a small reduction of some B vitamin content in the course of UHT treatment and, more importantly, a change in the proteins that renders them less easily digested. However if fresh is not feasible, it is still worth giving UHT milkk as opposed to none.

- whole milk not low fat or skim, at this age the fats are a useful source of energy for growth and helpful to the absorption of fat soluble vitamins.

Among the various brands of fresh and UHT treated whole milk, no difference nutritionally.

Hope this helps. For more info on the nutritional effect of UHT treatment of milk see http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/hsingh2/articles/milk.research.pdf

[halfhead]

Sheryl

thanks a lot for such a detailed reply

many thanks