Introducing cow's milk at 11 months

[goteam]

I need to stop BF-ing in 3 weeks (tricky as LO still waking to feed in the night...) Has anyone replaced a BF with cow's milk as early as 11 months to begin weaning off? I find formula a faff. LO will still be getting 3 or 4 BFs and eats lots.

Most formula is made of cows milk, and your lo should be using milk as a drink not food at this point - so can u give water in the day? Baby should be sleeping through by now if fed enough in the day. Maybe BF morning after breakfast and a topup before bed? Other thought was what did people do before formula .... survived on cows milk!

I gave cows milk at 12 months. DS was most put out, so I blended it with some pureed fruit to make it more of a very liquid smoothie. Then I kept diluting it more and more each day until it was just cow's milk by the end of the first week.

I probably did everything a bit wrong as I gave birth when living overseas and didn't have much of a support network! However, DS (now 15) is a 6 footer, and has suffered no noticeable side effects.......

Yes, go for it, nothing magical happens at 12 months to mean it's an definitive cut off, the biggest concern moving to cow's milk is that LO may not be getting enough vit D (formula is enriched with it) but you can get whole milk with added vits if by you're worried or use a supplement and you're still BFing so less of a concern.

I moved my DS to cow's milk at about 11.5 months with absolutely no problem - not sure he even really noticed! And so nice the supermarket bills reduced!!!

Thanks all, I think I will go for it this week. LO absolutely not sleeping through the night! He seems to eat loads during the day so it might just be habit. Those who moved to cow's milk straight after BF, did you warm it or use straight from fridge? Want to make it as seamless as possible!

There is NO "should" re sleeping through at 12 months. It's very very common for babies not to.

www.isisonline.org.uk/how_babies_sleep/normal_sleep_development/

Also "sleeping through" is FIVE HOURS! So my 8 month old who feeds at 7pm, then midnight, then 5am and wakes for the day at 7am "sleeps through" though in practical terms does not.
And even given that, many don't at 1 year.

Annoying but not a medical problem.

I moved my twins to cows milk at 11.5 months. Cold from the fridge and in a sippy cup. But I am a mean mummy and cba to add anything more to my life! Took about a week for anything meaningful to go in and another month or two before DTD in particular actually enjoyed it.