Why babies who drink breast milk do not need to eat yogurts or drink cow's milk

I had Jon, my first child, nine months, when we discovered that some babies around us, with a similar age, they were already eating yogurts. We had started complementary feeding and it wasn't that we could say that he ate too well. It was more like eating a little of several things, but little in general.

So we came to think that, because of what he ate something else, we could give him yogurt. In fact, it is a question that many people have asked me in recent years and a frequent question in forums and social networks: Do I have to give my son yogurt? And once the year turns, cow's milk?

Also, "people ask me"

In addition to the doubt, there are the questions of the surrounding people: "Do you not eat yogurt? Well, mine eats them that you do not see", or "And how is it that yours does not eat yogurt? If it is very healthy! ". And from the year: "How do you not yet drink cow's milk?".

This, of course, makes parents doubt even more, that from hearing so much to others they end up thinking that they are really doing it wrong, and that they will cause some lack or deficit for not giving it to them.

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But they don't need to eat yogurt

But the reality is that no, a breastfed baby does not need to eat yogurts. In fact, although from 9 months on they can eat some yogurt from time to time (and I talk about normal plain yogurt, and not baby yogurts that cost much more and that also have sugar), there is no reason to Decrease the amount of breast milk the baby takes to replace it with a derivative of cow's milk.

Read this sentence and tell me if you see any meaning: "I'm going to take some breast milk, the most nutritious food in the world, to give it a cow's milk yogurt". There is nowhere to catch it.

But you have to eat other things

Exact. A baby of more than six months has to eat other things, such as vegetables, vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, legumes, bread, rice, pasta, egg, etc.

This does make more sense, because you decrease the milk intake a little to gradually increase the intake of foods that contribute different things to milk.

But removing breast milk to give a worse quality milk makes no sense, unless mother and baby barely see each other all day and make few shots in the total of the day.

The same goes for cow's milk

From the year Babies can start drinking whole cow's milk. The exact same thing happens here. If you can receive breast milk, a breastfeeding is always better than replacing it with a less adapted dairy. If you are going to stop drinking breast milk, that is because you are going to eat other foods instead, or because occasionally you feel like some milk or yogurt (nothing happens if such replacement is carried out promptly ).

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What if he takes too few shots?

This does not need other dairy is while the child does about 4-5 breastfeeding shots per day (in 24 hours). If you do less, then you should consider giving milk, yogurts and other calcium-rich foods such as legumes or spinach, chard and leek, among others.

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In Babies and more | Why can babies not drink cow's milk? Advice for the child who does not want to drink milk From when does it stop making sense to give breast milk because it is already like giving water?