changing from formala to cows milk age 1 - how to go about it?

[fairycakes]

hi
i dont get to see the HV as its when im at work so dp goes instead - he says the HV told him that when dd is 1 (on tues) that we should make full fat cows milk her main drink. but, as my man is useless, he didnt ask how you go about making the change - and im clueless.

im guessing i dont just suddenly stop formula and give cows milk instead for every feed? at the moment she has 4 bottles a day (and still in bottles, i cant get her to drink milk form a beaker, although she does drink jiuce from a beaker) should i just subsititute 1 a day for a while and gradually introduce it? should i give it to her in abottle like formula or from beaker, and should i give it her cold or warm??!! and what should i do if she doesn like it (i cant stand cows milk) can she get it from other sources eg cheese fromage frias etc? and how much cows milk is she meant to have a day?

sorry for all the questions, but even if dp asked HV i would only get half the story when he repeats it to me!!

hope you can help, thanks!!

[Hattie05]

Hi,
Yes do it gradually to start. does she have cows milk on cereal? If not start with that. And then as i was breastfeeding, i started dropping a breastfeed and offering a cup of milk instead. Gradually dropped all daytime feeds and gave milk or water in cups.
The recommendation is to have a pint of milk a day so a lot can come from food and i really wouldn't worry too much if she doesn't drink much, many children don't. DD took a while, but now she loves fresh cold milk.
I carried on giving dd a night time for feed until she was two as she relied on it to get to sleep. If this is the case for your dd i would aim to start giving cows milk in her bedtime bottle. But if she doesn't 'need' it to sleep all the better, and she could just have a cup of milk before she goes up.

HTH!

[staceym11]

My dd is not 11months yet, but as she almost blankly refuses to drink formula, its either switch her over or she has very little, i started today by giving her her lunchtime bottle of cows milk, so she wasn't sleepy or grumpy and put out by the change, and she drank it without even batting an eyelid. I know its prob not gunna be that easy with all babies, dd is pretty much happy to eat/drink most things (except formlua, or breast milk when she was really little and i was trying, she hated it!!!) but i think one bottle at a time for a few days/weeks, whatever makes you feel better then introduce a second, third etc.

I will just say if you dont think that she is ready for cows milk dont put her onto it, follow your instincts, formula will not hurt them after a year, but a year is considered the earliest that they can be put onto cows milk (obv my dd is only 10mth but if refusing formula the health visitor said cows milk is better than nothing!) do whatever you feel comfortable with!

And as for fromage frais and cheese yes, my health visitor told me that they should have 3 protions of milk a day, 1 being a 7 oz bottle of formula/cows milk or 2 formage frais or a portion of cheese (not sure what they call a portion tho!) so if she doesnt like milk you could make it up other ways but getting at least some milk into her would be best, even if its formula (or there are follow on milks avaliable from supermarkets which are about halfway between formula and cows milk.).

Hope iv helped

oh and i dont see the problem with still giving her milk in a bottle if shes drinking juice from a beaker, or you could give it in a beaker if she'll drink it, or you could give her a glass with a straw, my dd is very independant and other than a bottle everything has to be out of a cup and straw (and it helps with remembering the sucking action, my mum said i stopped having bottles before they introduced a straw to me and i forgot how to suck and it was a nightmare teaching me! lol)

[staceym11]

Sorry didnt mean to waffle so much, if you got any other questions im only too hapy to help!

[Rowlers]

We just swapped in one day - she gulped down the cow's milk. No problem.

[LIZS]

Give her one bottle at the same temperature as you normally do formula. If she takes it and has no reactions switch. If she makes a fuss do half and half for a day or two and then increase ratio of cow's milk. Once she is used to it you could try a beaker and cold.

[fairycakes]

thanks for the replies - the other question (which i think has been answered by LIZS but just want to check) was can you put half formula and half cows milk in the same bottle to try to introduce or will this make it go funny??!!

[Carlk]

Wot Lizs said, except DD took months to fully switch over. Every time she refused an increase in the cows milk we went back to the last accepted ratio until finally she is on cows milk.
It was bizzare tho she initially took cows milk and loved it but then totally refused it two days later
maybe she had some on the turn????

[LadyTophamHatt]

Just changed over one day, no problems at all.

[Seona1973]

I did it by giving one bottle of cows milk in the morning and then formula at night (she was only on 2 bottles by then - 1 year). After a few days I switched the bedtime one to cows milk as well. TBH she never seemed to notice the difference

[kath4kids]

with my 4 i have mixed formula with cows milk and slowly reduced amount of formula. It only takes a week or two. youngest though was sick after every bottle of cows milk and i was advised to boil and then cool as it's something to do with the protien, lukily i didn't have to do it as he stomached it on his own.

sorry waffle

[staceym11]

Yes cows milk and formula can be put in the same bottle, but id wait until the formula had cooled down or it would curdle (and anyone would refuse it if it did that!) try just on cows milk first, as a lot of people have said, she might not even notice!