Cows milk from 12 months questions

[holliem91]

My LG turns 1 on Friday. So I know we need to make the transition onto cows milk. I'm a FTM so I just wanted to ask a few questions in the hopes someone could advise me.

1. Do I just give swap her straight onto cows milk and get rid of the formula completely? Or is it a gradual weaning process where I still offer her formula and then slowly introduce cows milk?

1. Do I just replace the amount of bottles of formula she would have with cows milk? So for example, at the moment she has a 7oz bottle in the morning, a 7oz bottle mid afternoon & a 7oz bottle for bed, so would I just do the exact same but with cows milk or would I give her more/less milk?

That's all I want to know really. I could ring my HV but getting ahold of her is a mission, so I figured peoples advice on here will be good

TIA.

I did it a feed at a time but my kids only had 2 bottles by 1 year. To start with I gave 1 feed cows milk and the other formula and once I knew they took it ok I changed the other over as well.

If they don't take well to the change you can do it gradually and mix a small amount of cows milk with formula and then gradually increase the proportion of cows milk.

I just gave the same amount of cows milk as formula although from 1 year they only need around 300/350mls so it would be ok if you reduced the amount you were offering. Maybe give the mid afternoon milk in a lidded cup with a snack instead.

I switched one bottle at a time, starting with the morning bottle. Dd1 wouldn’t take it at first (even though she had it fine with her cereal!), but she had always had warm formula so I warmed the cows milk and that worked.
I did the same with dd2 but she still didn’t drink it, so we did half formula and half cows milk in all the bottles and then over a few days gradually reduced the formula and the increased the cow’s milk.
As soon as they were downing the cows milk no problem, we made the switch to a cup.
When she starts drinking cow’s milk, it’s natural that the total volume of milk consumption will go down because the majority of calories will be coming from solid foods. Milk is now mainly just a drink and source of calcium and vitamin D. About 16 oz is a reasonable amount (especially if she has other dairy products).

Do whatever works best for you. I did a gradual switchover to use up the end of the formula and then realised I had miscalculated and went straight into milk about halfway through!

With both of mine I did one bottle at a time and did that for a couple of days then the next with the bedtime one being the last one I changed and yes the same amount of oz

Hi OP. My DS is maybe 3 weeks younger than your DD, so im (nearly) in the same boat. Hes also still on 3 bottles a day, exactly the same as your little girl. My plan is to drop the mid-afternoon bottle when he turns 1, and just replace the morning and evening bottle with cows milk. I think ill transition the morning bottle to a sippy cup with breakfast. Thats my plan anyway. Hope it helps!

Tbh you should offer it as an extra at 1st not all kids like cows milk initially.
It's a bit of trial and error.

With both of mine, I used up whatever formula I had left once they turned one and went straight to cows milk, as advised by HV, for the bottles they were still on which I think by then was one in the morning and one at night. Worked fine for us.

Thanks for all your replies.

This definitely helped.

On her 1st birthday, I'm going to give her cows milk with her breakfast first thing. Drop the mid afternoon bottle and then give her formula for bedtime for a few days and then switch that to cows milk too and fingers crossed that works.

I'm going to warm the cows milk up though as she hates cold milk! I have to warm her cereal milk up as she won't eat it cold straight out the fridge either. Hopefully she takes to it well.

Thank you all so much.

I have to give my son warm weetabix too! He wont eat it otherwise

Sounds like a good plan op.

I did similar for both my kids. First swapped the afternoon bottle for a sippy cup of cows milk. Then did the same for the morning bottle, changing it to a cup of milk with breakfast (depending on the routine. Sometimes it’s handy to give them a cup of milk at 6am and then do breakfast for us all at 7/7.30)

We kept the bedtime bottle til about 15m, although gradually transitioned it to cows milk. My kids didn’t do great with a straight swap, it seemed to give them some tummy issues, so I just did it gradually over a couple of weeks. Then around 15m we got rid of the bottle. They weren’t happy, but a couple of days and they were fine and they both still love milk before bed (teeth brushed after) and are 5 and 3 now

With both of mine, I swapped the mid-afternoon bottle for a cup of milk with a snack. I used the same kind of cup that they were used to having water from (munchkin 360) but a different colour/design so that they would learn that one was their milk cup.

Then we just ditched the morning bottle and had a cup of milk with breakfast.

The bedtime bottle was the last to go, and the only one I felt at all worried about - what if it affected sleep? But actually both times it was fine, we just had a cup of milk instead of a bottle at the same point in the bedtime routine. By then the kids recognised their special milk cup, and I knew if they needed the milk warm or would drink it cold.

My DD turned 1 a couple of weeks ago, and found her birthday very exciting. Balloons, presents, cake and video calls with the grandparents made for a tiring day, so I'd be wary of making any changes to routine on the day itself if you've got any celebrations planned. Maybe swap/drop one bottle tomorrow, give that change a few days to settle, and then change the next one after her birthday.