Nursery World - Link between feeding infants with cow's milk and weight gain

Babies who are mainly fed cow’s milk from eight months are more likely to become overweight as children, new research finds.

The Children of the 90s project study compared the weights of babies fed cow’s milk with those who were fed breast and formula milk.

Both the type of milk and the amount were found to produce significant differences in weight.

Those children who were fed 600ml (just over a pint) or more of cow’s milk each day at eight months put on weight faster on average and had a higher BMI than breastfed children, right up to the age of ten.

Similarly, babies fed 600ml or more of formula milk each day were on average heavier than breastfed babies up until two- and-a half years old.

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