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Baby not drinking milk
Hi all... maybe some of you remember me. I had a question from a friend and knew that if I turned to my nesties someone would have a great suggestion.
Her daughter Hannah just turned 1. She has never drank milk. She has been breastfed since she was born and the doctors have (a couple of times throughout her life) told her that baby needs more nutrition, particularly milk. She tried to get her on formula for a little bit, but Hannah was just not having it.
So now Hannah went for her 1 year vaccines and the doctor slammed my friend again saying Hannah needs to have WAY more milk and needs more nutrition.
So far all she can sneak into Hannah is table cream with blueberries and I told her that I thought the table cream had way too much fat in it..or maybe I'm wrong (I don't have a kid so I don't know).
Any suggestions?
Re: Baby not drinking milk
This, totally, especially the part I bolded. I find it very strange that he would encourage her to give formula or cow's milk over breastmilk before Hannah was a year old. People do generally introduce cow's milk around a year, but I don't think it's anything to stress over if she still prefers breastmilk. She should slowly be getting more and more nutrition from solids anyway.
And as an aside, about the table cream: if she was drinking bottles full of the stuff, fat content might be a concern, but a little bit with blueberries is fine. Babies actually benefit from a higher fat content. When her baby does eventually drink milk, she should have homo (3.25%) for at least the first year.
I don't agree with her doctor's assessment at all. Humans aren't meant to drink milk- milk is designed for baby cows. It is not a required part of a baby's diet.
That being said, my husband and my son drink milk like it's oxygen, but I've never liked it.
If your friend is concerned, will her daughter eat cheese or yogurt? Is she getting a vitamin D supplement?
Breastmilk has all the nutrition that baby needs.
ETA: like the above person said, don't worry about the table cream. Babies need lots of fat and when they do drink milk, it's supposed to be homo milk. A bit of table cream with blueberries is not too fatty for an infant/toddler. Guzzling it by the gallon is another story, but that doesn't sound like an issue here.
Thanks ladies! I've passed on the info to my friend. Very interesting insights you gave me. I always thought babies needed milk. Everyone makes it seem like it's the end of the world if a baby doesn't have milk. Good to know that's not really the case.
Baby does eat cheese.
I've told my friend to set herself up with a nutritionist to make sure she's giving her daughter the right foods and stuff and the right quantities. I feel that since she's a single mom and strapped for money, she may be lessening the amounts the baby really should be eating. But that's my paranoia.
Thanks again!!
Most of the time when you hear people referring to 'babies need milk' they are meaning breastmilk or formula.
How much breastmilk is her daughter getting each day? Have her check out www.kellymom.com for some great information on the amount they should be getting. I know at 9 months (when our last pedi appt was) I was told B should be getting around 24oz of breastmilk per day.
We are coming up on his 1st birthday and I have no plans to transition him to cows milk any time soon. There is way more nutritional value in breastmilk (and hey - its free!).
Have her introduce baby yogurt and some cottage cheese. If she doesnt like the cottage cheese mix it with avocado or peaches. yum yum yum. B loves it!
At 1 year old, she should be starting to eat more table foods to up her nutrition content. With just BM or FF, her DD will most likely start to lose weight b/c she is becoming much more active and burning off lots of calories. she can try giving her yogurt, cheese, puddings, calcium enriched diluted OJ and also foods like Macaroni and cheese where the sauce has milk in it. If she feels that her DD looks and feels healthy then I won't worry about what the Dr or nurses say.
My DD is in the 5th percentile for height and weight and she eats /drinks everything. Our Pedi and health nurses also give us a hard time about it but Lexi seems perfectly healthy to us ( she's just petite like my DH's side of the family), so we stopped worrying about it.