Indian Baby Juice....er Cow's Milk!

Has any Mom heard anything about cow's milk and your baby. I'll bet you have! The problem is that what we've all heard is different. My darling daughter (one week to one year) is a lively, curious well basically normal child. My only concern is that she is as skinny as a rake. Doctor told me not to worry if she is weighing enough on the growth chart, which she is (Born at 2.68 kgs and now weighing 9.2 kgs). Plus she is quite tall. But you don't understand....I am from India where babies are meant to be fat. Where the only duty of motherhood is to run after them 24/7 trying to get them to eat. So that their cheeks must hang till their shoulders. Now I'm not generalising but this is mostly the case and I have nothing against fat babies. I was however tired of being asked if she wasn't eating, accusatory glances from other Indian Moms who knew me...etc etc. So I tried to look at her from their point of view and then I started panicking about how she might not be growing normally etc.etc. So I tried to feed her more and she immediately picked up on my tension around food and went off it altogether, to the point where she would scream even to sit in her high chair. This wasn't going how I had planned, so to make matters worse I took the suggestion of a well meaning Indian friend who asked me to give her cow's milk mixed with something. I was sure that I had read that children under 2 years should not be given cow's milk. "Nonsense" she said. "I've given my children cow's milk from 8 months". So I gave it a try (I know...I know .. I couldn't help it). Coincidentially she got diarheaa and had to be taken to the doctor to whom I sheepishly admitted about the cow's milk and he promptly said,"No cow's milk before the age of 2. And it does not help them put on weight, you have a normal child". (Sigh) I was only being a worried neurotic Mom of course. So no more cow's milk and dd is still adorable and skinny looking.
But seriously, coming back to the cow's milk got me thinking about all the Indian Moms I know who give it to their children. I remember my grandmother telling me about bringing goat's milk for her babies. And I'm sure where I come from there was no formula milk until maybe 25 years ago. So what option did people have before that? I stopped breastfeeding at 4 months as my milk supply stopped. 50 years ago what would I have done? Started solids? I think cow's milk would have been the most affordable and easy option. And I'm sure that is what everyone did. And I refure to believe that generations of people suffered extensive damage to their systems because of that. So what is the real deal with cow's milk then?
Let me known if you have any thoughts. I'm not dedicating any more brain cells to that matter. I am just practising being comfortable with my baby's weight and letting all the snide comments pass me by.

Love and Peace,