Cows milk from 12 months old

[Mumtobe202310]

Dear all,

My LO is 11 months old. He only took formula milk few months and then stopped suddenly. Tried Mam bottles and then did work so he had formula again a month or 2 maybe then stopped again.

I have PND and I found it hard a lot to make up a bottle in nights, so I would nurse LO to sleep. I think this is the reason for him stopping formula.

Now, my LO is approaching 12 months old and I wanted to introduce cows milk as a bottle feed but am so clueless as to how I would do it. How do I warm up the milk? how many ounces do I give? How many feeds a day? Also, would this make LO not want to breastfeed anymore because I think that would upset me, I don't think my hormones are ready for him stopping just yet.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Once your baby is a year old, drinking from a bottle should be discouraged. So introduce a beaker/sippy cup with some cow's milk in. You can serve it cold, from the fridge, same as you might drink it. You will be weaning by now anyhow, so offer him as much cow's milk as he wants, with meals.

Your LO won’t need bottle feeds after 12 months, you can give cow’s milk in a cup. Or not at all, since you’re still breastfeeding.

It’s advised, if possible, to drop bottle feeding after 12 months. It’s not ideal for teeth and jaw development. So I wouldn’t worry about introducing it! And carry on breastfeeding as long as you and baby wish.

At 12 months his main drinks can be breastfeeding and sippy cups with water. You can put cows milk in the sippy cup too but I always found that really messy as milk would go everywhere.

Put cows milk and cheese into his food (say, porridge for breakfast, mashed potato with cheese etc).

People talk about giving open cups at this age, and I think it's a good idea to introduce open cups at 12mo but in the real world, a 12 month baby can't use one tidily and realistically you don't want 90% of the milk going anywhere but his mouth.

Introduce sippy cups and open cups with water first until he gets the hang of it

I don't understand how 5 mins of bottle drinking impacts teeth and jaw development??

It was the dummy that skewed DCs teeth, (but corrected itself after stopping at 3yrs) not the bottle which he still has. It might not be ideal but doesn't seem too bad either

I think it's because it works out the "wrong" muscles.

It's like physio exercises. 5 mins several times a day really makes a difference to the balance of different muscles

Don't get me wrong, I'm not militant against bottles after 12mo. But that's the reason, I believe

I think it's so harsh not to give bottle feeds at 1 year old and just think it's nonsense that it interferes with their teeth. Having a dummy constantly is quite a different thing.

@Mumof2namechange ah ok that's interesting. Sigh I'm trying to balance that with the comfort it brings, it's not easy!

Back to the original question, microwave in glass bottle for 45s per 150ml (or trial and error) and ping! Quick shake gives perfect temperature milk

I wouldn’t be rushing to cut the bedtime bottle from a just turned 1YO that’s been formula/mix fed for ages but you are supposed to be moving away from bottles at that age, even if it’s gradually rather than binning them all the night of their first birthday, so I’d think you’d mad to try to introduce one to a 12MO.

They need about 350ml a day of (full fat) cows milk and I would offer in a sippy cup without warming because unnecessary faff and if they’re not keen then no matter as it can come from food too and 2 servings of (again full fat) yoghurt or cheese, or milk on cereal are fine instead. Don’t overthink it.

They only need 350ml of cows milk a day if they're no longer breastfed. Op is still breastfeeding which is fab and way better for human babies than milk from the breast of a cow.

If you're breastfeeding a lot, then just the occasional addition of cows milk to food is enough, because you're giving around the ballpark of 350ml of breastmilk instead.

They give the cows milk advice in this country (assuming we're all in the UK) because only around 1% of mums are still breastfeeding by 12mo.

I started giving my EBF baby a bit of cows milk in one of those munchkin no spill cups (make sure you clean them properly) at 12 months, straight from the fridge, with meals.

When we stopped BF at about 2, she’d have some before bed but only cold. She never had warmed milk in a bottle.

At aged 5, she still loves cold milk.

thank you so much all for your responses! I tried giving me son cows milk but he just flat out refused😂 I do try incorporate milk into his porridge though and I just hope that his weight is fine, that's my concern. But I will try and get him weighed soon. Thanks again everyone

This isn't the case for BF babies. You're giving formula fed advice which is not what the OP is after.

If he's happy with breast milk then don't change anything! They don't need cows milk if they're perfectly happy with human milk as long as you're happy to give it. I think sippy cups are ridiculous at this age - they hardly drink anything!

I agree, especially if it's only once or twice a day.

I tried to transition my baby to free flow sippy cups and she barely drank any milk for a few days. She'll drink plenty of water this way, but she's not interested in milk from one of these cups, and if she throws it we end up with milk everywhere. She's small and has never been big on milk or food, so I feel it's important to get it into her somehow and if it's a bottle for now so be it.