How to drop afternoon milk

[WobbleHead]

My 15mo DS has had patches of poor eating in recent months because of various bugs and viruses and we’ve never got round to transitioning off formula because often that would make sure he was getting nutrition and hydration.

He has about 120ml upon wake-up at 5am (goes back to sleep for a bit after), 150ml at 2:30 after nap, and about 120ml again at bedtime before tooth brush and bed.

He is eating solids well now - three meals and two snacks - milk doesn’t affect his solids appetite.

He tends to take sips of water with meals and throughout the day, rather than taking big draughts and finishing, say, half a cup of it at once.

But I will HAVE to transition him off bottles soon, right?

Can kind people on MN talk me through exactly how they switched from milk in a bottle to cows milk in a cup? What kind of cup? Did they like cows milk? Did they sit and drink a lot in one go or is just a few sips the norm?

When we dropped the mid morning feed we just went cold turkey and offered a snack, but I just don’t know how DS is going to react to the afternoon one. Also I’m worrying about his fluid intake going down.

Any advice and experiences would be much appreciated!

You could swap that afternoon formula for cows milk in a cup and a snack. So for example rice cake and milk.

My son wasn't keen on cows milk to start with so I would do a 50/50 mix of formula and cows milk. He would have it in one of those 360 cups. Gradually I'd reduce the amount of formula and it would be all cows milk. Took about a month to get it to all cows milk.

But try and make the afternoon snack more about the food and the milk is just alongside it.

Thanks @greenbirdsong - how much would you put in the 360 cup and would they finish it all?

Bumpety bump - any more experiences, guys?

You are over thinking this, just put some milk in a cup and try.

We just put cows milk in a supply cup and stopped bottles. That's all there was to it.

*skippy cup

Ffs sippy!

My first transitioned from bottles to cups with no problem. My 2nd was not happy about it and went on strike for a couple of days. I found what worked was waiting u til we were out and about one day and offering her a cup of milk then. She took it no problem so from then on at home we just got rid of all bottles. She is 15m now and takes a cup of cows milk with breakfast (150ml), milk in her cereal/porridge then a cup of milk (150ml) with snack in afternoon. I thi k 400ml a day is the guidance but this also includes cheese and yoghurt of your child doesn't like milk so much.