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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Wibu to start giving my 11 month old formula?

49 replies

BabyLlamaZen · 23/09/2020 21:26

Please not a ff versus bf thread.

My baby has been bf since birth! For various reasons we haven't tried formula before, but he has occasionally bottle fed with pumped breastmilk but not consistently. (I know I know, I should've invested in a really good pump early on, but didn't and don't want to now!)

Now he's 11 months and my inlaws would like to start taking him more, but he still needs his milk in the day. I am also getting to the point where I would like dp to feed him a bottle so I can occasionally get a break!! Expressing with a crappy pump doesn't really work may have lost it too and I have far less milk than I used to! The only reason we've waited this long is because we weren't sure about dairy allergy but he now seems fine. So I'd like to try formula!

The thing is he's only got a month until he stops needing that milk right?! And they aren't supposed to have bottles after 12 months?

But then I'm confused as what's follow on milk then for?

I'd like to still keep breastfeeding at night and on some occasions, but the odd bottle here and there would be great! But only for a month? Is that unreasonable and a waste of time?

OP posts:

AyDeeAitchDee · 23/09/2020 21:58

If you're still going to BF a couple of times a day then probably fine with cows milk.

Also I don't think the "no bottles after 12 month" thing is really necessary.

I was applauded for BF until DC were over 3. No one said that milk should be in a cup.

So as long as a milky bottle isn't in a toddlers mouth once asleep (as I believe teeth are the reason for the advice)

If they liked bottles I'd have just given them the milk how they wanted it.

I wasn't going to let a toddler suck on my boob all day, also wouldn't let them suck on a bottle all day. But for once or twice a day I don't see the harm.

tootiredtothinkofanewname · 23/09/2020 22:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Sweetmotherofallthatisholyabov · 23/09/2020 22:07

I agree with what most are saying, I wouldn't bother introducing something that you will phase out. I weaned my guy just before his first birthday and went to full fat milk and sippy cups. He was having the odd bottle of formula anyway but I figured no point increasing that when it was on the way out anyway. You can still do bedtime cuddles and stories with a sippy cup.

ChocolateChipMuffin2016 · 23/09/2020 22:07

I BF both mine, DS till he was 16 months, DD is 18 months and still going strong! I just gave them formula in a sippy cup occasionally before 12 months, DS drank it, DD refused. After 12 months, switched to cows milk, still in a sippy cup, neither child ever had a bottle (I tried, they refused!). Again DS took to it well (cows milk), DD has only really started drinking it.

I left both mine from 9 months with childminders for 10 hours a day despite the fact that both were BF and fed a lot when with me! Turns out if I’m not there and therefore no BM available they’ll drink what they’re given! Neither have starved or had any ill effects from not having me around 24/7, so don’t panic too much, they won’t starve! Though my DD always demands a feed as soon as she walks through the door on days when she’s been with her CM, so your little one might be the same!

DappledThings · 23/09/2020 22:09

I did this! DS was ebf for 6 months with the occasional bottle of expressed. Once I started weaning he started having an occasional bottle of formula. At 10 months I swapped the mid-morning bf for a snack and at 11 months he started nursery so I swapped the afternoon feed for a bottle of formula.

So he had had the odd bottle before but it was only regular at 11 months. At 12 months we stopped the bottles again, no problem and just moved to cow's milk in a cup.

Swapped the bedtime bf for cow's milk at 13 months and the first of the day for the same at 14 months.

Riv · 23/09/2020 22:12

Don't know if it helps, but I BF my two for two years each, even though I went back to work when they were 8 - 9 months old. Neither of them would take a bottle, and annoyingly neither would ever take milk in anything other than me!
They had water in a sippy cup without any problem during the day, along with tastes of things like baby rice, avocado and so on. during the day. When I got home around 5pm I'd feed them straight away (My DP would provide me with drinks and snacks and sometimes meals whilst I just fed) and they'd have another feed before bed and one when they woke up in the morning before I left.
I'd feed normally over the weekend when I wasn't at work. Weirdly I didn't get a let down reflex at all during the day. ( but when I turned into the road into our estate things got really interesting rather quickly!

Feelingconfused2020 · 23/09/2020 22:15

I would use a cup and cow's milk.

I was always told that follow on milk was a marketing ploy to enable them to advertise formula as they are not allowed to advertise it for babies under 6 months so they call it something different but really it's the same. If you want him to have formula instead of cow's milk that's fine but I would use a cup.

Couchbettato · 23/09/2020 22:17

I would just go to cow's milk for the time being.

Before 1 they only need first stage milk, and your baby is almost 1.

Before the last peak, people were struggling to get formula, so given that it's a bit hit and miss whether my super market looks like it's been raided or not if you can just get him onto cow's milk then I would.

OwlBasket · 23/09/2020 22:22

The rule used to be that it’s fine to give cows milk to under ones as a drink as long as it’s not the main drink. Has that changed?

dementedpixie · 23/09/2020 22:29

No its still the same advice. You can give small amounts as long as the main drink remains breast/formula. At 11 months I wouldn't be worrying too much about giving it if they were taking plenty of solid foods too

TheSmallAssassin · 23/09/2020 22:39

Neither of mine would take a bottle and both went to nursery at 11 months, I did try sending formula in to have in a cup, but my daughter at least wasn't bothered, sometimes had full fat milk in a cup, but would generally wait til she saw me again, maybe having a feed when we got home, but mainly just dropped down to a feed from me when she woke up and before bed.

Original poster

BabyLlamaZen · 24/09/2020 16:02

Thank you everyone

OP posts:

DriftGames · 24/09/2020 16:26

My daughter is 10 months, breastfed and won't take a bottle. I've tried giving her formula but she hates the stuff. She goes to my in laws 3 days a week for 4.5 hours whilst I work in office. I stopped giving formula and bottles and instead here come the milk police sent her with her weighted straw cup and a few oz of cows milk. My thinking being - she doesn't like formula, she won't take a bottle, so why try to get her to drink formula 1 feed a day for 8 weeks to then have to transition to cows milk? She barely touches it still and would rather snack, but I send it with her anyway.
I'd skip formula, use cows milk and a good multivitamin in a cup baby is already used to for water.

ComicePear · 24/09/2020 16:29

Personally I'd give him formula in a cup and then switch to cows milk in a cup. Pointless IMO to introduce bottles for a month and then have to wean him off them.

Pumpkinnose · 24/09/2020 16:30

They still have bottles after 12 months. Relax, give them formula and let them have time with the grandparents. It’s great they want to be involved

MaryShelley1818 · 24/09/2020 18:05

I definitely wouldn't give a bottle of anything. There is no need (SN aside) for a toddler to be using a baby's bottle and they're not recommended from 12mths.
Cows milk in a sippy cup.

MrsAvocet · 24/09/2020 18:14

I would probably go straight to cows milk in a cup. I don't believe anything magical happens on the dot of 12 months and you would still be breastfeeding alongside so its not as if cows milk is all you are giving.
If your baby was predominantly bottle fed I wouldn't be fixated on stopping them on the first birthday to the day, but would probably start trying to phase them out from around 12 months. However, by the sounds of things, your baby doesn't have regular bottles now so I wouldn't bother trying to introduce something at this stage that you will soon be wanting to stop.

Landlubber2019 · 24/09/2020 18:21

I'm confused as what's follow on milk then for

Follow on milk is absolutely a marketing tool used by formula manufacturers

I would wait a couple of weeks before using cows milk in a sippy cup

anorangeaday · 24/09/2020 18:23

If probably go straight to cows milk tbh

Original poster

BabyLlamaZen · 24/09/2020 19:22

@Landlubber2019

I'm confused as what's follow on milk then for

Follow on milk is absolutely a marketing tool used by formula manufacturers

I would wait a couple of weeks before using cows milk in a sippy cup

But what's the idea? Slightly different ingredients to transition off infant formula?

OP posts:

AyDeeAitchDee · 24/09/2020 19:25

@BabyLlamaZen

It's cheaper to make.

Can sell for the same. Make more profit. And advertise it.

dementedpixie · 24/09/2020 19:28

It was invented as you cant promote first milk but you can promote follow on milk. They market it as being higher in iron and other nutrients to go alongside weaning

Bramblecrumble · 24/09/2020 19:37

I wouldn't bother with formula. I conciderd it at about 10 months when my baby was refusing my expressed milk at childminders. she was mixed fed as a newborn then moved to breastfed. I asked the HV whether it was worth reintrodung formula and she said no. Water and food when you are not around then breast fed the rest of the time. If your lucky morning, 5/6pm then bedtime. And you can introduce cheese and yoghurt

Couchbettato · 28/09/2020 17:40

Follow on milk is not regulated to the same degree as first stage formula.

All first stage formula is the same. Whether it's cow and gate to aptamil to who ever bloody else. They HAVE to be. Some you pay more for, some you pay less for but that's marketing. It's manufactured to high standards to make sure children are safe.

For the first 12 months, babies only need first stage formula.

There's no need for follow on formula. However it is a product with which a company can legally market with changes here and there to get an edge over their competitors. It is less regulated, may have more or less of something's, some ingredients may be sourced less ethically etc. There's no real need to give your baby this, but without this product many companies wouldn't get the screen time needed to instil the cultural appreciation for formula.

It also creates an illusion that breastmilk is missing something, and has influenced women's choice to formula feed over breastfeeding, because it has things in it that breastmilk wouldn't.

That's the only reason follow on exists. It's an experimental formula with hundreds of thousands of test subjects.

After 12 months babies can have cow's milk, so if you're close to 12 months you're just better off switching to cow's milk.

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