There are few mothers left today who don't know that babies can't drink cow's milk. Personally, I have met some, who for economic reasons, or for not knowing, was giving cow's milk to their babies.
As I say, most of us know that babies can't drink cow's milk. However, we don't all know why they can't take it. Does it cause allergy? Is it too strong for them? Do you have few vitamins? Too many? Will it make you fat more than necessary? Can you feel bad? Next we will explain why babies can't drink cow's milk.
If you already digest the formula milk badly, imagine the cow's milk
The reasons why a baby cannot drink cow's milk are several. The first is that babies are not able to fully digest cow's milk, and the part that they digest do so with problems.
The milk that best digest, as is logical, is breast milk, which in 90 minutes has already digested it completely. Come on, as they say, if you get your child to fill his stomach with breast milk, an hour and a half he has nothing left. From that moment, he asks you to eat or, if he sleeps, he is giving you time.
In Babies and more Up to twelve months or custard, or "petit suisses", or yogurts or "actimeles"Instead, formula milk, artificial milk is digested worse, taking a child between two and three hours to fully assimilate. That is why it is usually said that the bottle must be given every three hours, which is a mistake, because the child is not to have to eat every three hours, it is usually they themselves who ask according to that schedule, because that is when They have finally digested the previous shot.
Well, if, as you can see, formula milk, which is cow's milk adapted for babies, digest it worse than breast milk, imagine how bad they can get to digest cow's milk.
Loading and overloading your kidneys
Another reason is the amount of protein and minerals cow's milk has. Breast milk has about 1 gram of protein per 100 ml, while cow's milk has 3.3 grams. This difference responds to something very logical: breast milk is created to feed a baby weighing 3 kilos and cow's milk is created to feed a calf of 32 kilos.
The kidneys of newborns are very immature at birth, but this is not a problem if you drink breast milk, because it is a milk that will not make them work beyond their means. Now, if instead of breast milk we give them cow's milk, their kidneys will overload and babies may suffer serious alterations (Your kidneys are not able to filter and excrete all the excess nutrients you are taking.)
Cow's milk can cause anemia
Another factor why babies can't drink cow's milk is because it is possible that with her they suffered anemia. Breast milk contains 0.1 mg of iron per 100 grams, while cow's milk contains 0.1 mg per 100 grams.
That said, the claim that cow's milk can cause anemia seems absurd, because they contain the same iron. However, it is not. Breast milk iron is present in a very bioavailable way, so much so that 70% of what the baby receives is absorbed by the body. The one that comes from cow's milk is absorbed worse, and a baby just gets 30% of who ingests, which is less than half.
That is why artificial milk has more iron than breast milk and cow's milk, because to replace the fact that it is absorbed worse, they must increase the amount present (according to the brands, the amount of iron is close to 1 mg for each 100 ml of milk)
But the problem is not only in the amount of iron that cow's milk carries, or in its low bioavailability, it is also that since the proteins are so different from what a baby expects, the intestines and stomach of babies irritates in such a way that they can occur blood losses Through the poops. Come on, microhemorrhages that cause the baby to lose blood. This is obviously not recommended.
In Babies and more Supplementary feed: milk and its derivativesWhen can you start drinking cow's milk?
As we have commented on other occasions, the moment in which the consumption of cow's milk is safe for a baby is from 12 months. Must be whole milk, since babies need fats to better absorb vitamins A and D, and in general to continue to bathe their brain neurons and continue to gain weight properly and the recommended milk consumption is half a liter daily.
Obviously, if a 12-month-old child is drinking breast milk, the consumption of cow's milk or dairy products such as yogurts or cheese is secondary. They are one more food and nothing happens if you take them, but you don't have to comply with half a liter of cow's milk, because he's already drinking his mother's milk.
It goes without saying that under no circumstances, and despite the fact that there are those who recommend it, the mother must substitute her milk for cow's milk. If he does, let it be because he has decided to stop breastfeeding his baby, but never for reasons of the baby's health or because "now that he is older, he has to drink cow's milk", which is an absurd argument as he cannot.
