changing to cows milk

[butterfly86]

Dd was 1 at the weekend so need to move her on to cows milk, we have half a tin of formula so might as well use it up first but just wondering what do you do about feeding cows milk out and about? Dd has a morning and bedtime bottle plus one at 3pm ish so if we were out I'd use a ready made carton. Also we are hopefully going abroad in september so wondered if we should just put her on growing up milk until after our holiday or am I being silly?

[Furball]

I think growing up milk is just a marketing ploy. As they are not allowed to advertised baby milk, but they are the next stage milk.

Cows milk is fine.

With the holiday, where are you going? they will sell milk in the supermarkets

[Furball]

you will find that the milk feeds lessen as the meals get more

[boopdoop]

When you move over, Id suggest doing it gradually, switch one bottle, then a couple of days later another etc as if you move everything in one go they can end up a bit constipated...

[Orangeisthenewbanana]

We changed her lunchtime formula to cows milk for a week or two and then changed the bedtime one. I was still breastfeeding in the mornings so just kept that in. Other posters are right in that she probably won't need 3 bottles of milk a day if she is eating 3 meals well. You could try gradually cutting out the 3pm one or exchanging it for a snack of some kind, which will be much easier for when you're out and about?

[Mumbledore]

Could you take a yogurt in a little cool bag? I think once they get to this age any dairy counts, not just milk, but I wouldn't worry too much if she doesn't have any mid afternoon. HV suggested cutting out the afternoon milk for my DD last time I saw her but DD likes it!

[ODog]

You can just continue using the cartons of formula for the 3pm feed until that feed gets dropped. Also I have just switched my DS and I started out by mixing his bottles 1/4 cows to 3/4 formula and increasing the amounts of cows milk over a week or so rather than one bottle at a time. If you have a bit of formula left then this approach would use it up while introducing cows milk. We had no issues with the swap.

[butterfly86]

Thank you for all your advice, yes maybe I should do it more gradually I forgot about that and she already gets constipated easily. She is a really good eater but still likes that 3pm bottle so I'm not really in a rush to get rid of it just yet, some days she only takes a bit and others the full bottle, if I was going to use a carton when out and about would it be better to use the first milk still or growing up milk? When we go away on holiday it will be portugal or spain I was just unsure as sometimes their fresh milk isn't as fresh as ours.

[ODog]

I don't think it really matters what milk to use at this stage. Growing up milk tends to be cheaper so I'd go with that. Im planning to use local supermarket cows milk when I go away, as long as it's pasturised in sure it will be ok.

[butterfly86]

We'll just have to buy fresh each day incase it doesn't last, saying that I think a lot of babies go off milk in the heat I'm probably just over thinking it.