when to swap formula milk for cow's milk?

[GateGipsy]

My DS is 24 months old. He still has a bottle in the morning when he gets up, and another at night before he goes to bed. This is on top of all his usual meals - breakfast, lunch, tea and supper.
We've been giving him SMA follow-on milk. Is it OK to keep doing this once they've got past 2 years?
Is anyone else still giving formula past 2 years old? Should we stop and start giving him cow's milk instead?
I'm not worried about giving him a bottle - I haven't moved him to a beaker or tippy cup yet for these drinks, because it is quite hard for him to drink from these (he is tongue tied - literally, not a metaphor for not being able to talk! The little bit of skin under his tongue holds it to the bottom of his mouth more than it does on most people, giving his tongue a slightly forked look. This makes eating a bit more difficult for him than for other people).

It's common from from 1yr upwards to change to cow's milk from formula.

my dd is 22 months and about the same, 'cept she has a bottle in the day also, im not wanting to wean her off it just yet, i may drop the morning feed though as she often doesnt want breakfast. When you are ready is what i say, i still enjoy the closeness of the bedtime bottle.

12 months is the accepted norm for going onto cows milk. And it will save you a fortune!

There is no difference in cost between cow's milk and Formula, they both work out to about 26p per 200ml. My ds is 17 months and he doesn't like cow's milk as a drink, he takes formula and as far as I'm concerned he gets far more nutrition from Formula than cow's milk.

At 17mo most of his nutrition should be coming from a healthy balanced diet anyway so the added nutrients in formula aren't actually neccesary, but if you're happier with formula than cows' milk fair enough.

how much formula or indeed cowsmilk, should a 22m old have?

the equivalent of 12-20 ounces which can be in the form of drinks, mixed with foods, in cereals, dairy products, etc (the minimum recommended from 1 year is around 350mls/approx 12 ounces)

hmmm two bottles a day is probably a bit more than 350mls.

How do people give the cow's milk? Is it straight out the fridge or does it have to be warmed up first? We give formula at room temperature.

To lucyellensmum - thanks for your reply. I was worried I was the only one giving formula past 1. I really dislike cows milk myself and find it reacts badly with me. DS doesn't seem to have any problem with dairy like yoghurt, but even so, I'm just not that sure about giving him cows milk.

I have just started ti give my DD cow's milk. She woke up in the night starving after being a fantastic sleeper.Is this common?

But formula is made from cow's milk so how would he react differently unless he is on goats or soya formula??

I never had problems with sleep when ds switched to cows milk but he only had 2 milk feeds and his solids were the main part of his diet. I dont think there is much calorie difference between the two.

i was really grateful to be able to slosh a bit of cows milk into a bottle instead of making up formula.
both my children moved on at 12 months and there were no adverse affects.

personally i thought of formula like 'food'. theres always milk in the fridge