Just curious to what healthy alternatives there are to cows milk?

Want to do some research and plan ahead of what type of milk I will start my child on. She is only 8 months old now, but I want to be well informed. Nutrition is very important to me. I have heard that the hormones in cows milk are not healthy for us let alone children. What are my options ? I have a friend who I noticed mixed rice milk in with her little ones baby cereal... Also- what age did you stop breastfeeding or formula feeding? If my child is ten or 11 months old and is getting enough nutrition from solids must I continue on breastfeeding/formula feeding?? She is not very interested in nursing already- wants real food! and Im sure but then she will be nursing much less- =) She loves steamed veggies, soft fruit, cheese, avocado etc. Her first birthday is going to creep up on me! Growing TOO FAST!!

Accept for breastmilk.. organic milk in place of regular milk is the next best thing. Soy milk is also another option, but it was recommended to me by my doctor that too much soy milk isn't good for you either. ;-)

You can get hormone free milk from places like "Whole Foods"...organic milk.

Or do soy or rice milk.

my baby is 8 months and Loves real food.....she went to straight to table food at 6 months and loves to eat

but she also loves to nurse....and i will allow her to self wean

my oldest weaned herself from the breast at 3.5 years

if you are not breastfeeding anymore then goat milk is a better alternative to cow

if you do go cow then make sure it is organic and preferably raw

but honestly....as mammals we don't the milk of any other mammal at all after weaning from the breast

You can buy organic milk if you are worried about the hormones injected into cows. (Vanilla) soy milk has the best flavor of all the non-cow milks, at least in my opinion.

You should be offering formula or breast milk at least until your child is one. There is no harm in continuing further. If your child isn't interested in a bottle or nursing, use a sippy cup.

I started giving my daughter milk at one year. That's what the thing I had read and her dr. said to do. She was wanting solid foods at 8 months, so we started giving her amix of baby foods and formula then.

You can give soy milk, there's also organic milk you can buy.

You can buy hormone and antibiotic free cow's milk. You can also by organic free range cow milk.

organic milk is the way to go, no scary hormones or antibiotics. its mose expensive but worth it.
Most pediatricians recommend you wait until your baby is about 1 year old before slowly getting them used to cows milk. you need to do it gradually.
Let her wein on her own. If shes loosing interest in the breast then thats ok at her age. The longest I nursed was 14 months.

I nursed all 3 of my kids to various ages. My daughter, 8, went from nursing to a sippy cup with soy milk at about 1 year old. She enjoyed soy milk for a few years, she called it mika. I'm not a huge believer in giving kids cow milk as it was intended for baby cows not humans. We use cows milk in my house for cereal and sometimes my kids like it with brownies. I try to get my kids, 14,11,8, to eat veggies but that is hard as their taste is tainted with too much sugar. They do like the calcium fortified OJ, cheese, a few veggies and we supplement their diets with vitamins. In hindsight, I would have not let my kids have fruit very young and I would have brought every veggie to their developing taste buds. My friend is vegan and her kids eat the most amazing array of veggies that I could only wish for my kids to eat. This is how her kids get their calcium intake. Good luck with your little one. Time does go by fast...

Mine just turned one and he's still nursing. He nurses quite a bit less now than he did six months ago, but he's eating a lot more solid food. You don't have to stop breastfeeding until your daughter and you are both ready.

Once you do wean and put her on something different, you have a lot of options... Goat's milk is probably the best option, but it's fairly expensive and a bit difficult to find at least around here.

Soy milk is also great, but it doesn't have the fat content that whole milk has. You'd have to make sure that she gets enough fat from other sources.

You can also buy organic milk in the organic section of your Kroger or other grocery, or at any health food store.

Good luck on your decision-making and know that you'll make the right choice for you and your daughter, whatever that may be.

Also, just an aside... They do grow up too fast and that first birthday really does sneak up on you. (I cried at his first birthday.) Cherish every precious moment of her babyhood because all too soon, she'll be a toddler and watch out! They're a handful.

There is no difference between milk from cows treated with synthetic hormone and from cows that have not. The hormone doesn't transfer into the milk. There is no way to tell the difference.
All milk contains hormones as do many many foods. Soy is especially high in hormones.