swapping to cows milk

[trixie123]

DS is turning one and am looking to swap onto cows milk for his two daily bottles. I thought it might make sense to introduce it gradually, mixing it with formula in increasing proportions over a few weeks until its 100% cows milk. Any thoughts?

No need to do it gradually. We ran out of formula a week before DS's first birthday. Just gave him full fat cows milk and it was fine.

i agree just go straight over to it, should be fine
has he had cows milk in cereal or anything? if he did and was fine with it then i wouldn't worry.

Tried going cold-turkey with dd1 and she would not take it; then mixed formula with FF cows milk in gradually decreasing ratios and she was fine with it. I probably swapped ratios every 2 weeks.

Yes, go straight over. And ditch the bottles!

We tried swapping ds over at one year and did it quite quickly over about 3 days or so as he had had cows milk in cereal before then. However it really upset his tummy, he was really unsettled/windy unhappy with quite offensive yellow/beige loose poo (sorry)
We went back to formula and then tried again at around 14 months, this time doing it more gradually over a week or so. He was absolutely fine that time and we've never looked back.

Sorry to hijack but was wondering, do you warm the milk or give it straight from the fridge? DD still takes a quite an amount of formula at night (she's 12mo takes @9oz) & it's the only bottle feed she has now which I'd like to get rid of. Cannot imagine she'd take this much cows milk especially from a cup (or is that the point?...)

I am of course worried she'll wake up In the night hungry!

My son had had cows milk in various things before a year, but the switch over had constipated him quite badly on some days. GP says it can happen, just keep giving it to him and his body will adapt. And he's right, it gets a bit better every day, now nearly a month later.

mcflumpy we zap a full bottle in the micro for about 30 seconds. Doesn't really heat it, but takes the chill off it and he guzzles it down!

Ocataviapink what is the MN obsession with dumping bottles at 12 months? He's still a baby, for goodness sake! He does take a sippy cup for water and has a doidy that he's not sure he likes, but will sip water from. But for milk? We like the snuggle and bottle feed, thank you very much!

Sorry Tee if I've offended you, but they're perfectly capable of getting all their fluids from cups at a year - bottles allow liquid to 'pool' in the mouth which over the longer term rots their teeth. Even milk. They have to give up bottles sooner or later and sooner is a lot easier on them and on you! DD stopped her bottle when she was weaned at 6m.

Also there's no need to warm the milk.

DD went onto cows milk at about 11 months as we'd run out of formula. She had it straight from the fridge because she didn't like warm milk. She won't touch milk now except in ice cream.

thanks so much - some completely opposite experiences but all good to hear. He drinks water from a cup happily (though a lot of it ends up on the floor) so will maybe start his morning milk in a cup soon.

Offended, Octaviapink? Hardly, I just don't agree with you. And, BTW, neither does my dentist. He would prefer my son used something other than a bottle, but agrees it is not worth the battle at this stage to change him completely to a sippy cup.

Of course, he may be an unusual dentist as he approved completely of pacifiers as well.

Trixie that's what we've just done. Stopped morning bf and she has cows milk in a sippy cup, takes a while but she has a few oz, then cow's milk in her breakfast (usually porridge). I also give her a little mid afternoon in a cup with some fruit for a snack. We've switched to non spill cups since cow's milk was introduced as DD likes to walk around with it in the morning.

So now we're just left with the night time feed which is formula via bottle since I returned to work. Think this will be the hardest to change for us.

Best of luck!