Switching from formula to regular milk?

[amyboo]

Looking for a bit of advice, as our paediatrician has gone on holidays... We are thinking of switching DS (now 15 months) from formula to regular milk. The paediatrician reackoned this was fine from around 15 months. I just wondered if anyone can offer any advice on how to do this - should we do half and half to get him used to the taste of normal milk first?

I was also wondering if we should switch him from a bottle to a cup now, or carry on with the bottle. He'll happily take water in a sippy cup which he holds himself, but won't hold his bottle of milk, so still has to be "fed". We've tried a couple of times giving him milk in a cup, but he's a bit suspicious of it and pushes it away when he realises it's not water... How did other people make the switch and at what age?

Also, how long should we continue giving him milk in the morning and evening? At the moment he has about 8oz first thing before breakfast, and before bed.

Thanks for the advice!

From 12 months they need around 12oz milk a day (this can include cheese and yoghurt). I would switch to cups too as bottles are bad for their teeth. I've started switching my ds and have had to do a straight swap as he is breastfed and I can't express milk, so I've just been offering a cup of cow's milk with his snack every morning. It took about 3 weeks before he drank any though! Now he's drinking some, only a couple of oz though.

You could try offering formula in a cup first at breakfast, and then when he's used to drinking from the cup switch to cow's milk? If you're giving him a bottle at bedtime make sure you are brushing his teeth afterwards.

As for how long they need milk as a drink - I guess they probably don't need it much after the age of 2 if they're getting plenty of dairy from their diet, but it's up to you.

We just switched at 12 months. I think we had a week or so of doing a bit of both to eek out his formula for nursery! He loves cows milk we never had any problem with this. We changed from bottle to sippy cup at about 10 months, then to open cup at about 15 months. Few false starts with the open cup.

Blimey! I'm well behind then! (shameful face) I think we'll maybe maybe the cow's milk switch at breakfast first and see how it goes. He's a good milk drinker at the moment, so I don't want to wreck that. The other problem we have is that we're in Belgium where fresh milk isn't really available, so it's cartons which does taste a bit different... I guess like many things, the advice varies from country to country, as our paediatrician reackoned formula till 15 months (which is why we're only just dealing with it now). I hope it's not too late to get him switched onto normal milk!

He eats well and likes cheese and yogurt, so I'm not too worried about his dairy intake, but would like him to carry on drinking milk if possible...