by Mary Jessica Hammes
September 01, 2010

It’s a common milestone we all assume happens when your child turns 1: Happy first birthday, have some milk with your cake. Non-human milk replaces human milk, and the weaning journey continues apace.

After all, the prevailing wisdom is to let cow’s milk replace breast milk (or formula) after your child reaches his first birthday. While it is true cow’s milk should not be introduced into a baby’s diet before the age of 1, the question is, does it really need to be introduced at all—ever?

Cow’s milk is safely used as a substitute for human milk (and a replacement to formula) because it is readily available and an easy vehicle for providing much-needed nutrients after a child turns 1 year old. But, perhaps because of the dairy industry’s powerful advertising presence, the common line of thinking is that cow’s milk isn’t just a healthy option, but a necessary one.

Not true.

Many people in different parts of the world do not drink cow’s milk and easily meet their calcium and protein requirements; in fact, around 75 percent of the global adult population—especially those living in large parts of Africa, Asia, aboriginal Australia, and the Pacific Islands—is lactose intolerant, making milk an unacceptable and undesirable food. (In the U.S., around 75 percent of African-Americans are lactose intolerant.)

“It seems that milk drinking is shown in the media as the healthy state of adults and children, while the fact is that the majority of humans are healthy individuals who cannot digest milk, and this shouldn’t be conceived as a problem,” Yuval Itan, a University Central London researcher who studies lactase persistence (the ability to digest the milk sugar, lactose), said recently. A 2002 study found cow’s milk to be the most common allergy in early childhood, although it is often outgrown in toddlerhood.

History of introduction of cow’s milk
Let’s consider for a moment that our most ancient ancestors didn’t drink milk—they lacked the gene that produces an enzyme called lactase, which breaks down lactose. A few years ago, University College London scientists studied Neolithic remains and theorized that dairy farming led to the development of lactose tolerance, not the other way around.

Currently, the LECHE research project is studying the origins of milk consumption in Europe, looking at ancient pottery remains and bone tissues as well as certain isotopes that will show whether the person was breastfed.

It’s believed that cows became domesticated first to provide meat, though milk byproducts have been found in pottery from 4,500 BC, even though that was before humans had developed the ability to digest unprocessed milk. Large-scale dairy farms emerged only in the last century, but infants have ingested non-human milk long before that—in the 15^th and 16^th centuries, babies drank cow’s or goat’s milk from horns, cloth nipples, bottles, and spoons.

But weaning to cow’s milk at a certain time—or to wean soon after the first birthday—was a foreign concept for a long time. Ancient records reveal that in Babylonia, babies often breastfed for 2-3 years, according to Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives, edited by Patricia Stuart-Macadam and Katherine A. Dettwyler. In medieval and Renaissance Europe, children generally nursed (either from wet nurses or their own mothers) anywhere from 1-3 years. It wasn’t until the early 19^th century that European children weaned closer to 12 (sometimes less) months.

In the age of the postindustrial revolution, working women were often unable to breastfeed due the type of jobs held, the proximity to the jobs, whether relatives lived nearby and could help with child care. (My, how things don’t change.) According to Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives, some mothers breastfed in the morning and evening, before and after work, and left daytime feeding options—often “dry nursing” (flour, bread or cereal cooked in broth or water)—to the young girls and old women who cared for the babies. The food was also usually dosed with opiates like Godfrey’s Cordial or Dalby’s Carminative, commonly recommended medicines used to treat colic and other symptoms, which made nighttime nursing difficult.

Even though our ancestors breastfed longer, they introduced solids earlier, even prescribing foods like boiled honey and clarified butter in place of colostrum, or even the first month’s worth of milk.  In 1^st and 2^nd century Rome, the physician Soranus recommended exclusive breastfeeding for six months, though it was not a common practice. After a few months, eggs and non-human milk were often introduced; Soranus himself suggested wine- or milk-soaked bread crumbs.

Infant feeding has remained spotty since; I’ve heard plenty of old-timers talk about homemade infant formula made from evaporated milk and Karo syrup. Much more recently, my siblings (born in the 1960s and 70s) consumed not only infant formula (sometimes augmented with prune juice to cure constipation), but rice cereal at one month, mashed vegetables at two months, meat by three or four months, and cow’s milk not long after. (It’s recommended to introduce solid foods at around six months.)

Inevitably, adults who share stories of surviving Karo syrup formula or bottles fortified with rice cereal or early introduction of cow’s milk always say, “Well, I turned out okay.” We know that babies are resilient (thank goodness). But is it okay if you choose not to introduce cow’s milk—at all? With some nutritional research and planning, the answer is yes.

Is introducing cow’s milk right for you?
When you choose to wean and whether you add cow’s milk into your child’s diet is an individual decision that is yours to make. Once you have made a decision, talk with your baby’s health care provider about what foods you would like to introduce and when. If you choose to avoid cow’s milk altogether, you can rest assured that your baby can still meet her nutritional needs.

Here’s when I tell you that I’ve never given my 3-year-old son cow’s milk. I’ve been a vegan for 10 years, and have spent a lot of time learning how to meet the nutritional needs of both children and adults through a vegan diet. Of course, we expect Tommy to make his own food choices as he grows, and he’s certainly had non-vegan goodies at birthday parties and the like. But when I weaned him when he was 3, it was simply by eliminating my breast milk and making sure he kept eating foods full of calcium, protein, and healthy fats.

Luckily, Tommy is not a picky eater—which means he gets his calcium from leafy green vegetables (like collards, kale, and broccoli), quinoa (a cup of cooked quinoa has as much calcium as a quart of milk and it’s also a complete protein), whole grains, blackstrap molasses, figs, nuts, seeds, tofu (in small amounts), fortified juice, and the occasional sea vegetable. Tommy also enjoys a good cup of fortified almond, rice, or even hemp milk.

I have to admit ensuring Tommy was getting enough healthy fats in his diet was not a huge concern for me until now, since he was breastfeeding all along and human breast milk has a higher fat content than cow’s milk. Now, I’ll be making sure he gets plenty of the good fats readily available in nuts, seeds, avocado, and olive oil.

For the lactose intolerant, yogurt and cheese are both often digestible in moderate amounts. Additionally, there is a wide range of plant-based calcium sources, some of which might surprise you if you’re used to relying on dairy, all of which contribute to a healthy diet.

Best of all, I’ve noticed over the past decade that it has become increasingly easy to find these aforementioned items in any chain grocery store, often under the generic, store-brand (read: inexpensive) name. Not only are the diary substitutes convenient and accessible but the cost is comparable and therefore, often not a factor.

So, a sippy cup of cow’s milk on your child’s first birthday? That’s up to you, but you have other options. In the end, there are many healthy choices—including the option to continue to breastfeed.

Mary Jessica Hammes is an Athens, Georgia-based writer, trapeze instructor, knitter, gardener, comic book enthusiast, and hula hooper. She is mom to Tommy.