What milk for that little gap between 11 months and one year?

[Backinthebox]

I'm going back to work in 2 months. DS will be 10 and a half months old. I'll be expressing for the first 3 weeks or so, as I will only be out of the house for about 6 or 7 hrs max during this time. Once he is a year old I will be happy to give him a mix of cows milk during the day and BFing at night, but what to do for that little gap in the middle? Express or formula? My job takes me away for up to 5 days at a time, so expressing enough for the next day isn't possible.

Taking the musings further, what would you wean him onto when I do stop BFing? We had real bother getting DD to take a bottle when I went back to work with her, and then once we got her onto formula in a bottle we had a nightmare of a job to get her off them. DS has been found occasionally sucking happily away on DD's 'princess cup' - her cow's milk cup with a soft spout, and is generally a much easier baby to get to try new things. Can I really just switch him onto cow's milk for all of his milk from 12 months?

at that age ds might be happier with a zippy cup than with a bottle.
you can switch him to cows milk at that age, but would do it carefully, he might get constipated as he is not used to it.
dd started nursery at 9 months, I didn't express so she was given formula during the day and switched to cows milk around 14 m when the formula tin ran out. no probs so far.

I put Ds2 onto cows milk at 11 months - will a few weeks make that much difference? I'm pretty sure it won't and if you're still BFing at night.
I would go for a Tommee tippee type cup with spout

Personally, I agree with Tommy - particularly if you're still BFing at night, start the cow's milk. I also second the Tommee Tippee cup - the cheap 'first cup' one. This is exactly what we did with DS and it worked a treat - which cannot be said of most of the things we did/tried with him when it came to any sort of feeding!!!

I never managed to get my DS to take a bottle (long and really rather dull story) but he took to this cup well and graduated to a normal cup without any fuss at all. I then stopped BFing a couple of weeks after his first birthday (by this time we were down to one feed last thing at night) and the little sod didn't blink an eyelid. I was more distressed than him!!! From that point on, his milk intake was all cow's milk. HTH.

Thanks! Glad to hear I won't have to battle to get him onto formula, only to battle to get him off it again more or less straight away.

I agree, give cows milk, I doubt there is a magic switch at 12m exactly and cup rather than bottle.

If you have concerns about digestion issues with the switch, why not start using cow's milk in porridge now?

Same as above advice. I have a 10 month old and we do a mixture of cows milk from sippy cups in day as well as BF at morning/ night and usually still one daytime BF (which slowly dropping). My HV recommended cows milk is fine and suggested vitamin drops from 6 months too particularly if no formula is introduced. I just find using cows milk easier (plus I don't know what to do with formula).