formula to cow's milk at 1 yr old - how did the swap go for you?

[theborrower]

My DD is 11 and a half months and on formula. She currently has 4 milk feeds a day - she drinks around 4-5 ounces on waking, maybe 3ozs at 11am (at nursery she tends to refuse it altogether), another 3-ish around 3pm, and 4-5 at 6.30pm for her last feed. She has 3 meals a day, and often snacks too (especially at nursery) and is eating well. She also takes all her milk feeds from a cup. We use first stage formula as we know that follow-on milk is a big fat marketing con is neither needed or recommended by the NHS.

I can't wait to get shot of formula We're hoping to switch to cow's milk when she turns one, but I just wondered how other people have gone with this? Do you just make the switch as straight as that, or do you replace a feed a day? If she's eating well, do we need to worry about vitamins/iron or would you recommend using vitamin drops for peace of mind?

Oh, and what do you do when you're out and about? Do you take a vacuum flask of milk to keep it cool during the day, or can you buy small cartons (like lunch box size) anywhere? I didn't see any in Tesco, but they would be so handy if available.

Thanks in advance.

Hi. My nephew is nearly 2 and has had cows milk since he was 1. He does have a nice insulated beaker which keeps the cows milk cold for quite a long time, so it can be left out on the coffee table etc for him to keep going back to. I'm sure not essential, but handy I would imagine in hot weather (and also because my nephew likes to eat and drink to his own schedule rather than anyone elses!).

I switched a feed at a time but both mine were down to just 2 milk feeds by 11 months (am and pm) which meant I didnt have to worry about taking milk out during the day.

most babies that i have looked after didnt even notice being given cows instead

one family they did it 1 oz per feed per day (and she was having 7oz bottles) so day one 6oz formular, 1 oz cows, day 2, 5oz formular 2oz cows etc...
TBH she didnt notice either, and im sure she would have not noticed cows milk if done all at once, but it made mummy and daddy happy

Id suggest doing a straight to cows swap, and only doing it gradually if child actually seems to notice or care!!!!

thanks for the advice - might just go for a straight swap then and see what happens! She has cow's milk in her porridge and cereal, and she obviously doesn't mind the taste. Also, recently, we've been giving her not as warm formula - getting it down to more chilled (she used to take it any way as long as wet, but got fussy for a bit) so we'll keep doing that too so she doesn't mind cool milk. I'll try the flask for out and about during the day and will continue to look for small cartons of milk for day trips (mind you, I'll have to keep that cool...). Perhaps it's not going to be hard as I was first thinking! Fingers crossed.