Giving breast milk instead of cows milk

[blushingmare]

I'm currently expressing regularly on one side to boost supply for feeding my DS, but I don't have access to a freezer at the moment. Can I give it to my toddler instead of her cow's milk? Is it nutritionally as good for them at that age or is cow's milk higher in calcium?

[fledermaus]

Cow's milk has a higher level of calcium but the calcium in human milk is better absorbed by humans.

[fledermaus]

But yes, you can give it to your toddler. Human milk is nutritionally better suited to human children and cow's milk is more suited to calves!

[nickelbabe]

yes. of course you can.

human milk is a lot better for humsn babies than cow's :)

[nickelbabe]

my toddler still

[blushingmare]

Great thanks. Thought it should be ok, but when my mum was round today she said she thought bm didn't meet their nutritional needs after 2 - don't know where she got that from!

Next question, if it's only for my toddler, do I still need to bother with sterilising the pump, or would a hot wash in the dishwasher be sufficient? I mean, obviously my toddler doesn't have her cutlery or anything else sterilised, or am I missing something?

[jamtoast12]

www.vegetarian.org.uk/campaigns/whitelies/wlreport05.shtml

The above link shows it contains much less volume of nutrients compared to cows milk though so toddler would need to drink much more of it

[nickelbabe]

my tpddler still has breast milk directly from the source

[nickelbabe]

nono, no need to sterilize - you can even put it in a normal cup if that's how she has cow's milk.

[NorahBone]

Dishwashers make things pretty sterile - personally I wouldn't bother with anything else.

[catkind]

I would sterilise the pump because I don't think it's that easy to clean out or wash off particles of milk that are hanging around in the workings. Depending on your pump design I guess if you think putting it in the dishwasher would reach all corners.
It doesn't meet their nutritional needs in that they shouldn't live off just human milk at 2, but it's still got loads of good stuff in it.
Another 2.5 yr old who has mostly human milk from source here

[fledermaus]

That's not entirely true jamtoast - human milk contains more of some things than cows milk and less of others, because they are designed for different animals. Human toddlers are a lot smaller than calves.