12 mo milk feeds - confused!

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Was wondering if anyone could advise. Ds is 10 months but had 1 year HV check up visit last week (ridiculous, I know). She mentioned needing to change milk feeds once he is 12 months but was very vague and now I'm confused.

Atm ds is having 4 milk feeds totalling about 600ml a day - two decent bottles first thing in morn and at bedtime, with two mini ones mid morn and mid aft. HV says this should decrease to max 500ml/day so I was planning to cut the two mini daytime bottles. Does this sound right? Ds eats proper food very well and is on 3 good meals a day, so if he gets peckish without day bottles I should easily be able to satisfy him with a snack I think. Just wanted to check I'm not missing something by not cutting the morn or bedtime bottle.

HV also said to change to cow's milk - is this 'should' rather than 'could'? Not sure if she's saying this to make things more convenient or whether nutritionally cow's milk is better for them from this age.

Finally, she mentioned switching from bottle to beaker. Is this important? Ds already uses beaker for water drinking at mealtimes so he is practising this skill.

Basically I don't want to change too many things for the sheer sake of it.

Sorry for so many questions! All HVs I've come across have been so vague to any qs I've asked that I really don't feel there's any point asking them about this and I'd like to get a feel of the things that will be changing over the coming months so I can integrate them slowly into the routine.

Thank you! x

DD2 is 11 months so I am about to cut out some milk feeds in the next few weeks. I remember being very confused about this with DD1 but at least this time around I have some idea what to do!

it is a very good idea to cut out the mid-morning and mid-afternoon bottles. That is exactly what I will do. I'll also see about swapping for a snack or maybe just having lunch a bit earlier - whatever works best for the naps.

I also intend to start weaning her off the bottles and getting used to drinking milk for a beaker. Although she has water in an sippy cup with meals I will buy a non-drip non-leak beaker for milk because otherwise it is very messy. I will start by giving her cows milk with afternoon snack in a beaker and then when she is used to that I will swap the breakfast bottle for a beaker of milk. Some time way into the future I will swap the bedtime milk for cows milk in a beaker (but that won't probably happen until about 18 month - 2 years). Instead of thinking of things as suddenly needing to change at 12 months then think of it as a gradual process just like you did when weaning onto solid food.

Moving from formula to cows milk is a bit tricker to advise as I think it depends on the baby. DD1 preferred cows milk to formula so it was no problem at all. I think DD2 may be a bit more attached to her formula. I am noy going to use follow on milk because she eats a very balanced diet and I do not consider it necessary. However I know some friends who started subsituting an oz of cows milk with 6 ozes of formula to get them used to it am then gradually upping the ratio of cows milk to formula until it was all cows milk. I don't really want to do that as it seems like a bit of a faff but it is an option if she outright refuses it.

Hope that all makes sense!

I would stick to roughly what you are already doing, your DS will adjust consumption himself.

Use Stage1 milk until he has had 1st Birthday. Then try cows milk to see of there is any adverse reaction. Use up remaining Stage1 milk. Do not use HungryBaby type milks.

Bottle first thing and at bedtime I feel is normal. Beaker at other times if you can. Do not let them go to sleep with a bottle as it can rot teeth.

I would give breakfast with a bottle. So eating solids then topping up with the milk. So this will be bottle 1 of the day.

Morning snack, with a beaker. I would give both water and milk choice.

Lunchtime food, with beaker.

Afternoon nap, do whatever works to get them to sleep!

After a while he may decide to have more water than milk, thus self reducing milk consumption.

Keep an eye on weight. Though they do tend to podge up a bit before they get active.

What is HV concerned about, not eating enough food? Not enough water? He's not one yet, so most liquid is in milk form.

You don't have to drop the milk feeds at all if you don't want as long as they're having decent meals. My 2 year old has just started to drop milk in the day time.

It is important to move to beakers though as bottles can affect teeth. I've always started with the soft spout beakers to get them used to a different shape and then given the plastic spout beakers.

You can also carry on with formula after 1 year its just cheaper to use cows milk not to mention less faff.