How do I move my 1 year old from breast to cows milk?

[louli]

DD will be 1 in a couple of weeks and I want to move her onto cows milk but not sure which feed to introduce it to first.

does she have it in cereal?

give her a bottle in the morning and see.

She has been having it in her cereal for months and in cooking but has never taken formula as a drink and has not been too keen on expressed milk so not sure how she will react.

You don't have to change her normal feeds from breast to cow's, if you wanted you could continue with breast. Then you could just introduce cow's milk as an addition perhaps when giving her a snack.

However, if you want to stop feeding her breast, when I changed my DD onto cow's, I introduced it during the day. Then there was no fraction between us from morning onwards, nor replacing the evening feed was there a fraction when she was due to go to bed shortly.

After that I changed the morning & then the evening.

I moved DD across at about a year, she was down to 2 BFs a day by then anyway so I replaced the night BF with a beaker of milk (I wouldn't bother with bottles at this age just another thing to wean her off) my DD was used to drinking water and diluted fruit juice out a beaker anyway.

First few nights she didn't really bother with the milk few sips and that was her. Did this for about 2 weeks then one morning she slept through the time of her morning feed (6am) so when she woke at 8 I gave her a beaker of milk and that was it.

She's only 13mo now and has a beaker to a beaker and a half of milk in the morning and a half at night, I hid my boobs for a few weeks now she just points at them, I think she's forgotten that she used to drink from them.

Good luck I felt sad when she finished but was quite happy too as I was pregnant again.

My ds finished b/feeding at 11 months and has never had cows' milk (apart fromon cereal and in cheese and yoghurt.) They don't need it tbh. Same applied to my dd.
Come to think of it,noone in my family of 4 has ever actually drunk cows'milk.

I would suggest don't switch boob for bottle, you only then cause two occasions of weaning off instead of one, once from the boob and then from the bottle eventually.
Just offer drinks of milk in a cup during the day and gradually try and wean off the breastfeeds.

Thanks. So when you made the change over how many milk feeds were you giving DD? At the moment I feed her main feeds morning and evening a litle feeds mid-morning and sometimes after lunch.

I would try and cut the lunch one down first, just offer milk or water then. Then go for the morning feed, leaving night feed to last as this will be the hardest.

It is recommended children drink a pint of milk a day, but don't forget all the milk they get in food. Many children dislike drinking cows milk and survive. It is really not essential now.

louli - I was giving DD 3, morning, lunch & evening (that was when she wasn't at nursery) otherwise it was morning and evening.

I picked a day when she was with me to change the lunch feed, then over the next week or so changed all feeds to cow's milk. Not long after introducing cow's milk, did I start just offering her a drink of what she wanted at lunch time & kept those special cuddle feeds in the morning & evening to cow's milk.

She's 3 now & has a cup of milk in the morning with whatever she has for breakfast & then half a cup in the evening just before she goes to bed.

Thanks everyone for your ideas

Although of course it is perfectly possible to survive without milk, there is no doubt that it is an excellent and easy source of calcium, which for girls is particularly important.

Yes but many children dislike drinking it, so it is reassuring that a pint can come easily from three meals a day for those children.