Nervous about transitioning to cow’s milk

[flo7777]

My baby is about to turn 12 months. My current routine is to give him a bottle of milk in his bedroom as soon as he wakes in the morning. I then squeeze in a quick shower before taking him downstairs to do his breakfast.

In the evening he has a final bottle in his room before bed, which he seems to enjoy and find relaxing.

I’m worried that when I cut out bottle feeding at 12 months and move onto cow’s milk from a cup, it’s going to really disrupt our routine.

To anyone who has recently made this transition - what do your morning and nighttime routines look like? Do you do breakfast pretty much immediately in the morning and what do you do at night?

Hi OP I might be naive, but why would your routine change? My 15 month old still has a bottle first thing in the morning and last thing at night ? I started her on cows milk a little earlier too.

Not sure if that helps ? I didn’t even give it a think that the routine would change ? If you’re happy with a bottle stick to a bottle ?

@Ooopsi it's not great for their teeth so a cup is recommended after 12 months.

Try a 360 cup. They still have to suck a bit and it doesn't spill in bed so it's not hugely different to a bottle.

@Ooopsi My understanding is that the use of bottles past 12 months is not recommended because it interferes negatively with tooth and jaw development and the extra calories are linked to childhood obesity.

@flo7777 - does baby feed to sleep with the bedtime bottle or is it just a part of the wind down routine?

I continued a bedtime bottle with my son for probably another year after he turned 1 so don’t feel you have to do it overnight. I didn’t change it to cows milk fully until he was probably a year and a half. When I did I did it gradually by gradually replacing the formula with milk. So our routine didn’t really change in the evening. My other children were all breastfed to sleep at a similar age so I guess I didn’t really see it as any different in terms of calories. Maybe that’s not good advice based on the above but he’s a very healthy 4yo now 🤷🏻‍♀️

My second ds loved his milk and had a bottle of cow's milk in the evening until he was 19 months. The only thing I'd say is that you should be brushing teeth after milk. My ds used to have the bottle downstairs during story time /In the Night Garden time then we'd brush his teeth before heading to bed.

OP don't stress about cutting the bottle at 12 months. I work in dentistry and 2 bottles of milk a day is fine at that age. Just brush after.

In the day time introduce the 360 cup for water if you can.

My 21 month old has a 360 cup for water but will only have his milk in a bottle and tbh that isn't a battle I'm fighting over. He finds comfort in his bottle of milk before bed.

Soon he probably won't have the milk at all, he doesn't all the time now but when he is a little agitated and tired milk in a bottle is what he wants.

Don't stress about it.

@sylbunny Have I missed something how did we move to talking about extra calories and childhood obesity ?!

OP A year is still young, I’m sure you’ll adapt to a new routine if needed. They don’t need stop the bottle as soon as they drink cows milk, as above and myself who still use bottles past the age of 1 do what you think is best. Admittedly we use a tomme tippe water bottle for water during the day, not sure if that’s something to think about if you want to slowly remove the bottle.

My 2 year old has a bottle of cows milk from a baby bottle every day last thing at night; he drinks it in 2 min and I brush his teeth after so I can’t see the harm to his teeth and jaw from
A 2 min

I did the morning swap first so he got used to a different taste and a cup, and then did the evening swap when we'd used up the tub of formula. We'd already switched to teeth after bottle months beforehand so it wasn't too bad for us.

Thanks for the replies! So in the morning, do I take him downstairs and give him a cup of cow’s milk in his highchair instead of the bottle he currently has in his bedroom?

At night he doesn’t feed to sleep (he’s still awake when I put him down) but he does have a bottle as part of the wind down routine in his bedroom. So how do I factor cow’s milk into that?

I’m probably overthinking this but I’m so confused!

You can give cows milk in bottles if you like. If they haven't used a cup at all yet I would try water in a 360 cup, and once they're used to that also use it for milk.

Bottle feeding past one can cause tooth decay so the bottles should really go.

OP some parents find less milk in the morning means they eat more so they sleep better at night.

DS (20 months) only has milk before bed now but we give it to him in a bottle because he prefers drinking it that way. We then brush his teeth before bed so I can't get too worked up about it. He has water from normal sippy cups during the day.

When my son was 12months we first changed to cows milk but kept the bottles, so it wasn't too much change at once. Tbh he didn't seem to notice or care about the transition. After a week I bought him a new straw cup and he was really excited about it so we used that for his morning and afternoon milk. Then after another week we switched the evening bottle too. We had absolutely no problems so maybe your little one will adapt easier than you think. Now we have a few different cups that we use and DS will drink milk and water from any of them. I read that the 360 cups arent particularly recommended, the muscle movements your mouth has to make are different from the normal ones you use to drink from a normal cup so speech therapists suggest straw cups instead.

I read that the 360 cups arent particularly recommended, the muscle movements your mouth has to make are different from the normal ones you use to drink from a normal cup so speech therapists suggest straw cups instead.

That is interesting @Raggeo. I tried to get DS to use a 360, but he just wouldn’t take to it - he ended up biting the rim instead! He loves his free-flow sippy cup now, so I think I’m going to stick to that for the cow’s milk.

My sister gave me great advice when I switched DD to cow's milk. This is what I did over a period of about a week or 10 days. I don't remember now as it was nearly 20 years ago

75% formula and 25% cow's milk
50% formula and 50% cow's milk
25% formula and 75% cow's milk
100% cow's milk

Once DD was on cow's milk I switched to a sippy cup. There were no problems. I recognise that all babies are different, but this is what worked for us.

I think you're over thinking this - do whatever your routine is normally but instead of formula in a bottle you give cow's milk in a cup of some sort.

[quote Ooopsi]@sylbunny Have I missed something how did we move to talking about extra calories and childhood obesity ?!

OP A year is still young, I’m sure you’ll adapt to a new routine if needed. They don’t need stop the bottle as soon as they drink cows milk, as above and myself who still use bottles past the age of 1 do what you think is best. Admittedly we use a tomme tippe water bottle for water during the day, not sure if that’s something to think about if you want to slowly remove the bottle.[/quote]
What? I didn't mention that at all? Did you reply to the wrong person?

Now we have a few different cups that we use and DS will drink milk and water from any of them. I read that the 360 cups arent particularly recommended, the muscle movements your mouth has to make are different from the normal ones you use to drink from a normal cup so speech therapists suggest straw cups instead.

Drinking through a straw isn't a natural movement either though

@Tirathisyou My understanding is that how a child drinks from a straw and how an adult drinks from a straw is the same, so the child learns one motor pattern and once they can drink from one straw cup they can drink from any. However, with the 360 Cup, the child learns a specific motor pattern just for this type of cup that is not the same as how they would drink from any other type of cup. So it doesn't help them move on to an open cup in the future.
Open cups seem the best option for teeth and facial muscle development but not the most practical when out and about or when DS loves to drop all his food into the cup or shake the cup around so from what I read a straw cup was the 2nd best option.