Baby hates cow’s milk - what do I do?

[cannotcope677]

My baby boy is 13 months old. I know I should’ve dropped the formula and bottles and moved him onto cow’s milk and cups at 12 months, but I couldn’t face disrupting his routine.

So today I finally took the plunge and gave him a bottle (still not a cup) of cow’s milk instead of formula this morning. He drank about 20mls then refused any more, just kept pushing the bottle away. It was the same story after lunch, at which point I gave up and let him have the formula instead.

I know bottles aren’t recommended beyond 12 months and that he should be dropping the formula and moving onto cow’s milk.

The NHS website says babies should have at least 350mls of cow’s milk a day OR “2 servings of foods made from milk, such as cheese, yoghurt or fromage frais.”

But how much is a “serving” of cheese/yogurt? I have no idea how much that is and how much I need to give him to ensure he’s getting enough calcium.

Just when you feel you’ve got a good routine down, everything changes again. So stressful!

I don't think there is anything wrong with continuing with formula, it's just more expensive. Could you try gradually mixing the two? Or having it in porridge etc. I've no idea what they count as a serving in food though!

Don't worry about staying on formula just move to the next appropriate stage.

Maybe start by giving milk in cereal.

We use cravendale for my DS and it looks more creamier. Not sure if it actually is I just preferred it to normal cows milk.

By serving I'd say the size of a toddler appropriate size! That's how I've always taken it.

There's no rush to change both milk and bottle at once - I would keep his bottle for now and mix a small amount of cows milk with the more familiar formula. Over a few days you can increase the cows milk and decrease the formula until he's just taking cows milk. Once he's happy with cows milk, you can then start transitioning to a cup.

By serving I'd say the size of a toddler appropriate size! That's how I've always taken it.

@SeaTurtles92 which is what though? Like how much cheese is a toddler appropriate size?

I'd mix cows milk with formula and make the mix gradually more cows milk

Forgot to say I did try a bottle with half formula, half cow’s. He wasn’t having any of it!

Do they have cows milk in cereal?

Start with 1oz cows milk, the rest formula and work your way up

Toddler Serving Sizes

Agree with sticking with the bottle for milk, and slowly adding more cows milk and less formula.
Cup for water.

I’d try changing to a cup first and just swap to a follow on or toddler milk.
You might have more luck with cows milk if you buy jersey milk or another premium milk. Standard supermarket stuff is rather white water and I swear some of them water it down because it’s a lot better fresh from the cow.

Are you giving him it warm or cold?
Mine refused cold so had to warm it up, but some prefer it cold.
No problem with sticking to formula for abit as pp it’s just the expense.
For servings I just went off toddler sized portions so they say the size of their fist.

I second pp and the way I did it was mix formula with milk ie a quarter milk and 3/4 formula then half and half etc until it was just milk

I thought that follow on formula was unnecessary and that it was fine to stick with the newborn formula... is that not correct?

I’m also giving cow’s milk straight from the fridge, would it be better to warm it up?

Dont stress, my older 2 still had a bottle of warm milk before bed until they were almost 3. Their teeth are lovely and there has been no ill effects of extended bottle use. They drink out of cups now just like all other children! I remember mixing formula and cows milk around 12 months with gradually more milk and less formula over a few weeks until it was 100% cows milk.

@cannotcope677

I thought that follow on formula was unnecessary and that it was fine to stick with the newborn formula... is that not correct?

I’m also giving cow’s milk straight from the fridge, would it be better to warm it up?

Yes it is okay. I believe there are more nutrients in first stage and by 12 months they should be getting those extra nutrients from food. Could be wrong. I do know it's okay to stick on stage 1 formula.

If giving cows milk you would need to give them vitamins though. We use abidec vitamins.

I'd give it at the same temp as you give his formula.

If the baby continues to refuse cow's milk, why don't you try another milk like oat milk? It's much gentler for transitioning and then you could add in a bit of cow's milk in gradually.

Is your baby absolutely ok on formula or does it get rashes/reflux/dodgy stomachs? One of mine refused cow's milk and it turned out that she was allergic but didn't react as much to formula. Full blown cow's milk was just too much and made her feel ill.

Yeah warm it up for him, my cried his eyes out when I first offered him it cold, absolutely loves it warm

It’s actually a really small amount of calcium they need, you can get away with feeding him lots of cheese, yoghurt, white bread, spinach etc and that would be fine

What I find is confusing is that in some places it’s listed as 1 year olds needing 350mgs and others it’s 700mgs, really conflicting info

My son refuses cold milk. Even on his cereal!

DS has never liked drinking milk. We went from BF to cheese (one serving is however much you put in a toddler sandwich, in my book), or a petit filous, or one of those Rachel’s divine rice puddings, which are creamy and very sweet, and I realised probably taste pretty similar to breast milk in that regard. Milk in cereal as well.

My friend’s daughter had CMPA, and she lived sweetened soy milk (which tastes like melted vanilla ice cream). So I kind of seea pattern here, that they like super-sweet milk products.

Could child have follow on Milk? My dd had that until about 20 months.

First stage formula is grand - follow on milk was really created so they could advertise it but it's not needed. We never used follow on milk.
I'm pretty sure we had to heat ds cows milk to begin with for a good while and I wouldn't worry about using the odd bit of formula.. I used to carry some of those ready to use cartons after the 12 months for a few months especially when we travelled as they could be kept and served at room temp as opposed to cows milk that had to be kept cold.
We also continued with a bottle for a while longer.. We changed drinks with meals to cups but bottles before bed/ nap for a while

Is your baby absolutely ok on formula or does it get rashes/reflux/dodgy stomachs?

He’s always been absolutely fine on formula - he loves it.

@ShirleyPhallus the NHS says at least 350mls so am happy to go with that.