Cow's milk

All mammals drink milk from other mammals, and given the choice would also drink from bottles and cartons. Milk is milk, as long as it is digestible, doesn't matter.

Here is a giraffe drinking goats milk from a bottle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GGD4YcKn20

Here is a tiger drinking what I assume is cows milk from a carton: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9btOLl9lgs

Here are some piglets and tiger cubs drinking milk from a pig: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh69TFGpQB8

Here is a dog drinking milk from a cow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBn89okOpWc

Here is a goat drinking milk from a cow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77xs4KBTeW0

Here are some bats drinking goats milk from a paintbrush: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnlJOGUUKIY

I could go on.

People who drink lots of milk may develop lactose intolerance, we have developed peanut allergies through over exposure to peanut products.

Do you have any evidence to back that up? It is my understanding that there is a theory that stopping consumption of milk may cause lactose intolerance. It is commonly understood that the reason those of Western European descent can digest lactose in the first place is because we are descended from those that consumed dairy products because they farmed cattle and eventually evolution gave them the lactase enzyme.

As for peanut allergies, could it be that less people are dying from anaphylactic shock and therefore are making it into their teenage and adult years since the EpiPen was invented in 1980? I will be honest: I haven't looked at the NHS-IC and ONS figures to see if my theory has any merit, so might have as much of a basis in science as your theory or the one that the more immunisations we are given the more likely we are to have allergies (not so dissimilar to the theory that allergies are caused by houses being too clean). I fail to see how I can develop an allergy to chocolate just by eating a lot of it. If things worked that way humans would have died out by becoming allergic to water.

If you're asking for opinions, I'd opt for milk. I put my kids on it at about 10 months.

You are the parent, and many times, the parent knows best. There will be oodles of scare-mongers out there all your childs life. The bogey man is NOT milk.

Milk (whether cow, sheep, or goat ... or other animal) is perfectly fine ... unless you have an allergy or intolerance (and even an intolerance is usually remedied by having cultured dairy, or trying dairy from other animal, like goat instead of cow ... Casein allergy is really they only reason to shun milk products altogether, you know, anaphylactic shock is never fun) ...

Simple Answer. YAY MILK!!!

Not a problem with cow's milk, but make sure that it is organic. Stay away from Soy milk at all cost, especially for someone so young. In fact soy milk should not be given to children.

Why should soy milk not be given to children? Honestly curious, not trying to say you are wrong.

I don't know if this is what the poster was getting at, but soy is one of the largest produces GMO products in the US. If you're someone who knows what GMOs are and think they aren't a good thing, then that would be a good enough reason why.

I did a quick search and came up with this article that does discuss soy milk and infants, and this is what it said (note: I just looked quickly, so there may be a better article that describes it, or falsifies it):

A whopping 35 percent of bottle-fed babies in the United States receive at least some of their protein from soy. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is taking steps to change this: It recommends that all infants who cannot be breastfed be given cow's-milk formulas as the first preferred alternative. Healthy full-term infants should be given soy formula only when medically necessary, the AAP's 2008 report states. Babies with an extreme form of lactose intolerance fall into this category, but many others who suffer from colic and excessive crying are switched to soy formula despite a lack of proven benefits.

Paul Cooke, Ph.D., a reproductive biologist at the University of Illinois, has studied mice raised on enough genistein to make their blood levels comparable to those of human infants fed soy formula. Among other worrisome findings, he discovered significant shrinkage of the thymus gland, a key part of the immune system. "The thymus," says Cooke, "is like a finishing school for white blood cells—it's where they go to mature."

Whether the same effect occurs in human infants is difficult to say, but a 2001 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association surveyed over 800 adults, ages 20 to 34, who were fed either soy-based or cow's-milk formulas during their infancy. One of the few differences to emerge was that the group raised on soy formula regularly used more asthma and allergy medications in adulthood. Was this just a quirk of the sampling—or could it represent a subtle impairment of immune function?

http://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/soys-negative-effects/page/1

Soy milk is rarely, if ever, made from GMO soy (I've never been able to find a brand that is). While it is true that Americans eat a high amount of GMO soy, it is from processed food additives, NOT from soy milk.

Kids get soy mostly from chicken nuggets and pizza and other preprepared foods.

I would say it is perfectly fine to give her cows milk. Look for signs of lactose intolerance though because a lot of people are. I would get the organic milk (been drinking it for years and won't go back to non organic) My favorite is the Organic Valley brand if you have that in your area. Coscto also has organic milk. If you do get soy milk ever make sure its organic because they put a lot of weird stuff in non organic soy. IF the doctor says its fine, and she's not allergic, its safe

& About the issues that its "not natural" well neither is making a hamburger, making a pizza, or even processing wheat into bread... but those are other debates for another day :P

Last paragraph for my opinion, But first, some clarification of "lactose intolerance".

1.) All mammals (animals with mammaries) produce the enzyme lactase in their intestine. Without it, the lactose sugar gets digested by bacrteria instead by the animal that drank the dairy (don't give milk to a grown cat!!!!!!) the bacterial digestion produces huge amounts of gas and diarrhea, probably leading to dehydration and death.

2.) Most mammals quit making the lactase enzyme soon after the time that they quit drinking their mother's milk. This saves the calories and stock chemicals from being wasted in the child'd body producing an enzyme that won't get used.

3.) Some sub-populations of humans (e.g. Europeans and 4 different sub-populations of Africans) have changed in that they don't loose the lactase making ability until later life (e.g. 1 in 10 Europeans become lactose intolerant before death). Most of the world, is lactose intolerant after early childhood like most animals. Thus, for most humans in the world, consuming diary products (cow or otherwise) past early childhood if VERY problematic. This may be why you will hear a lot of people from those sub-populations say drinking milk is bad for you. IT IS, for them, but that doesn't mean people who retain the ability to synthesize lactase shouldn't drink milk (e.g. Europeans).

4.) I do not know of any other animals that consume milk (their own species or otherwise) beyond early childhood. While I have a degree in Zoology, there might be and I just don't know that. I also don't know of any other specie besides man, that has domesticated another mammalian specie. I do know of non-mammalian domestication of another non-mammalian specie (e.g. dome ants farm fungus on leaves the collect from above the ground). Thus, I don't see an argument that other animals don't drink milk beyond early childhood as a valid argument for humans to not drink milk beyond early childhood (i.e. have you ever tried to milk a willd animal? I suspect you would get hurt by that mammalian mother.....thus, domestication seems to be a pre-requisite to milking which is a pre-requisite to drinking milk beyond your own mother's milk.

Finally, besides my degree in zoology (which include studies in biochemistry and genetics), I am of European decent and I became lactose intolerant around the age of 55. I drank milk profusely throughout my life. I still do, with the help of lactase pills to replace the lactase my body used to make.

So...given the above...my opinion is, depending on your ethnic heritage with regards to the ability to digest lactose past early childhood, give it a try (e.g. if you're primarily of European decent). Milk is great nutrition for a growing body: protein, sugar, fats, etc.

Like others have said, go with your pediatrician. Keep in mind that on average, human breast milk has a higher lactose content than cow's milk, so from the that standpoint, toddlers generally have no issues with lactose intolerance. That's an issue that starts in the post weaning years, only in certain individuals.

If the child does not get cows milk it MIGHT develop an allergy to it and any other dairy as a result. My sister in law stopped milk and now can't drink it or eat cheese, She could before she stopped drinking it.

Cow's milk is fine unless they have an allergy..... some people take things to extremes.,...... Everybody wants to raise their kids "by the books" these days and not use common sense ..... I drank cow's milk, my kids drank cow's milk..... generations before us drank cows milk and they were fine. Lighten up people.