MIL has said start 11 month old on cows milk

[Shannon9955]

Just as the title says!

We were talking the other day about formula and how it keeps going up in price. Just a general conversation among talking about prices rising. My MIL then said stop formula and start cows milk. Which I replied "but we only have a month left on it till she turns one"

I've been thinking about it, not even starting my little girl on it because 4 weeks on formula till we do the cows milk isn't a huge amount of time. And it's not money either, we can more than afford it.

But I was curious, did anyone start their little ones early on cows milk? I was more concerned at the affects it could have before one year of age

You’re meant to be giving them smooth peanut butter now.. seemingly!

I started giving cow's milk in cups in the day at snack time at that age. Then made the morning bottle a cup of milk with breakfast.

I switched early with my youngest as we were going on holiday and didn’t want the faff of formula for a sake of a very arbitrary 3 weeks! He was only on a bedtime bottle though and very used to the taste of it on cereal so no issue. My eldest was a bit fussier about the switch (never liked cereal) so we would mix 6oz formula with 1oz cows milk and then over time up the ratio until it was all cows milk. Again it was only the one bottle before bed though. Interestingly the guidance used to be 6 months, but now we wean later, so that’s probably in part why it changed.

Try giving her cow's milk and see if she likes it. Try hot and cold.

If it doesn't work, reduce her formula by an oz and put in an oz of cow's milk.

After a few days, reduce formula by an oz again and add 2 oz cow's milk and keep going until it's all cow's milk

I did I started giving my DD cows milk after she was fully on solids, but this was a long time ago.

I did. Mine was breastfed and completely refused formula. They would however drink the last bit of cows milk in a bowl of cereal, so DH tried some in a cup at around 11 months, when I went back to work.

Fine and normal OP.

Were you hoping for a bitchy attack against your MIL?

I cant remember either but no way was I using formula for a year, probably like your MIl i had no idea that was what happened now

Sticking to rigid date defined rules isn't critical imo, did you not have cows milk until age 1?

My child was breast fed, but definitely drank some cow's milk by that age (and actually, wasn't feeding much at that point so could well have had more cow's milk than breast milk). I'd probably take a middle road of giving her an increasing proportion of cow's milk but still some formula until she's one. I'd be surprised if a month made much difference. A year is just a nice round number to choose for the guidance to change really.

At that point our ds was point blank refusing to drink milk at all formula or cows so we just upped dairy in his diet. Thankfully he was an amazing eater from 6 months so I am guessing he didn’t see the need for it. There is no magic line he needs to get over a a few weeks before 12 months will be absolutely fine. Just add a little bit of cows milk to his formula each day and keep upping the % of cows milk until he on on 100% cows milk so he gets used to the taste.

I think at that age we were using cows milk in cooking but toddler milk for drinking - mainly because they preferred that (Aptamil). But that was years ago!

Yes, I ran out of formula so I switched.

Don't forget the recommendation to supplement with vitamins AC and D.

Absolutely nothing will change in her body inside those four weeks that suddenly makes it ok to give her cow’s milk. Just do it now and bin off all the formula faff. Full fat and then semi-skimmed at two. Easy. Chuck the multivitamin liquid in the morning one so it’s done.

Sorry sent too soon. Cows milk is fine but formula is fortified with these vitamins meaning supplements aren't needed while it is their main source of milk.

Formula is made from cow's milk anyway (unless it's special soya etc)?

I thought those 'follow on' milks for 6months plus were just a marketing con to get round the ban on formula advertising. Unless guidelines have changed, I didn't think there was an issue switching to normal milk after 6 months.

Like someone else said, I don't think we actually saved any money from switching (i thought we would save loads) but did make life less complicated, I guess. Mine wouldn't drink blue milk either, so went straight onto green.

Mine were on cows milk as soon as they were fully weaned. About 8 months. I couldn't afford to keep buying formula. All 6 foot strapping lads with no health issues

We just switched both daughters took it straight away. We got rid of bottles at the same time. Cows Milk in a 360 cup. Worked both times but maybe we were lucky

if you wanted to start weaning off bottles, consider putting the milk in a Tommy tippy cup, then you don’t have to try and stop bottles later either. Just give it at snack times morning and afternoon

So, we didn’t use formula, but from around 9 months I added cows milk into their diets, but I was still breastfeeding. I don’t see that it’s that different tbh. I probably wouldn’t go cold turkey, but at the same time, if she’s eating well I don’t think all milk needs to be cows milk.

I can't remember when we switched and have a feeling, like a PP, it was simply when we ran out of formula and she was about the right age. But, we definitely didn't save money. DD was a milk fiend and we used to get through an absolute shit-ton of cows' milk until she was two. Since she was very tiny/thin we were advised that full-fat milk could only be a good thing, but she definitely drank more of it than she ever wanted to drink of formula (and I can't blame her - the smell of formula makes me feel a bit sick!).

I remember asking a similar question when my now nearly 11yo was turning 1yo. At that stage (things have changed a lot since!) he was eating an excellent balanced diet and I was asking whether to move him into toddler milk or cows milk. He’d already had lots of dairy in cooking - cheese sauces, fish poached in milk etc so I wasn’t concerned about allergies, just nutrition/him feeling full enough to be content and also to sleep well.

Someone very amusingly said that I was a marketing dream and that of course he didn’t need toddler formula. Of course she was right and I switched overnight to cows milk. So much easier as that’s what the rest of us drank.

I started the transition process around 10/11 months. They were both good eaters though. Probably completely done with formula by just after 12 months (or whenever it ran out) and then weaned off the bedtime bottle by 15 months

My DD is still obsessed with milk and she’s 5. DS is less bothered.

i did because we were fully off bottles just after her 1st birthday & from about 10 months we did cups of water or milk during the day to start to wean off of it but my kids had good diets by then and were eating good amounts of food and plenty of veg etc and meals we had but a few weeks in your case won’t make much difference