Got milk?

I've been doing lots of reading lately on milk. Wesley is quickly approaching 12 months; I won't be returning to work fulltime so I plan to continue breastfeeding for a while... but, that said, I would like to perhaps drop one nursing session or at least be able to leave a cup of milk for him if I go out. I've been trying to decide whether we want to go straight to cow's milk once he reaches a year, or start him on goat's milk first. Cow's milk is hard to digest, which is why it's not recommended for babies under a year. And apparently the longer you wait to introduce it, the less likely children are to develop sensitivities/allergies to it. My family has a history of lactose intolerance - myself, my brother and my sister have all suffered from it - so I would like to do whatever I can to help Wesley avoid this.

I've never given goat's milk much thought before - North America is definitely a "cow culture" - but I've been finding out lots of interesting things!

Did you know...

• more people consume goat's milk worldwide than cow's milk
• goat's milk contains 13% more calcium and 134% more potassium than cow's milk
• goat's milk protein contains a softer curd which makes it more easily and rapidly digestible
• goat's milk contains only slightly lower amounts of lactose than cow's milk (4.1% vs 4.7%) but this still might be advantageous for those with a lactose intolerance

• goat's milk contains less than 10% of the folic acid found in cow's milk so it must be supplemented with folic acid for babies/toddlers (or some brands of goat's milk offer folic acid fortified varieties)

You can read the full article here.

I checked out the price of a 4L bag of goat's milk at my local grocery store and it is more pricey than cow's milk which is something to consider. However, I have heard that you can get fresh goat's milk at the farmer's market which is reasonably priced.  

For Wesley, with the family history of lactose intolerance, I think goat's milk might be a good choice for us. He already eats yogurt and cheese made from cow's milk and hasn't experienced any problem, but once he moves to actually drinking milk a few times a day, it may become an issue.

So... we may be putting the poor cow out to pasture for awhile!