Doctors generally suggest breast milk for infants as their digestive system is not efficient to digest cow’s milk before the age of one year. In case of lack of breast milk production mothers are advised to feed formula milk to their infants. Now you can think why can’t baby drink cow’s milk? Cow’s milk has high amount of protein and minerals that the digestive system of infants can’t digest just because of immature organs. However the protein and minerals are very important for growing body but it is useless until the digestive organs do not get developed enough to assimilate them. Feeding of cow’s milk to your baby before the age of one year may damage kidneys.
The amounts of iron, vitamin C and other essential nutrients that baby needs to consume are not found in cow’s milk. Sometimes baby suffers from iron-deficiency anemia because of the availability of protein in cow’s milk. It may stimulate the lining of the digestive organ, causing bleeding inside it. When bleeding continues it leads to anemia. Growing infants also need healthy fat that is not available in cow’s milk.
Once the digestive organ of your baby is set to digest cow’s milk, you can feed it to the baby. At this stage cow’s milk is one of the healthiest products for the baby as it carries high amount of calcium which is essential to improve bones and teeth. It also provides a small amount of vitamin D which enables the body to soak up calcium. The presence of calcium in our body also helps to control blood clotting and body muscle.
Cow’s milk provides not only protein, but also carbohydrates to your baby. Protein needs to grow body cell while carbohydrates provide energy that the body needs to function properly. Sufficient amounts of calcium reduce the possibility of several diseases such as stroke, high blood pressure, colon cancer and hip fractures. So cow’s milk can be healthy if is given after the age of one year.
Source: https://www.babycenter.com/0_cows-milk-when-and-how-to-introduce-it_1334703.bc