switching milk at 1 year old? how? how much?

[mamaesi]

I keep reading and hearing different advice. Exactly how much cows milk should a one year old drink?

Some of my friends carried on with formula before bed in a bottle....my daughter loves this nighttime bottle so why cant I keep giving it to her? I mean people breastfeed past one, so I don't understand why the formula in the bottle has to go??

And do I just swap formula for milk? And why are the bottles so bad? My daughter drinks water from a cup, but she also loves pouring it all over so i am reluctant to put milk in there.

Also how much milk after one? My baby currently has 12 to 18 oz per day...does that change?

You can keep giving her formula if you want, it's just you could switch to cow's milk - you don't have to.

It's also up to you if you keep giving her bottles or switch to cups - if you use a bottle before bed though, make sure you clean her teeth after the bottle.

12oz of milk a day is still right - that can include dairy in food too.

There is no reason not to carry on with bedtime milk, breast, formula or cow. You don't have to switch from formula to cow's milk at all, it's just that from 12 months full fat cow's milk is suitable as a main drink, and it's a whole lot cheaper than formula! It's up to you whether you switch or not.

Bottles are supposed to be phased out by 12 months because they are bad for a baby's teeth - the action of drinking from a bottle allows milk to pool at the front of the mouth and sit on the teeth - it's actually quite sweet so it can cause tooth decay. This is more of a problem if a baby has a bottle which they sip on all day, or one they actually take to bed with them - it's best to clean teeth after the last feed but if that doesn't fit in with the routine (i.e. you're already all snuggled up in her bedroom) then you can give her teeth a wipe with a clean cloth after she finishes her bottle.

Or you could try milk from a cup, it probably will be a bit messy but you'll have to do it some time...

How much? NHS reccommends 3 servings a day of dairy (which would include milk or formula) but I can't find anywhere where it says how much a serving is. I think I have seen 300ml or 350ml quoted (Seona will know!) - that's about 10-12 ounces, but cheese and yoghurt will count towards that too.

HTH

x-post with Rita, who is a lot more concise than me!!

I'm in the process of changing to cow's milk now (DD 12 mths in acouple of wks). So far I've changed any daytime milk (just offered with snacks) to cow's milk in a cup and she's been fine with that. Morning and bedtime milk is now 1/2 and 1/2 formula and cow's milk and still in a bottle, but I will try and change to a cup in the morning in the next few days. Not looking forward to changing the bedtime bottle to a cup though! For us I think I will have to accept a plummet in total milk content once the bottles go, but she does eat plenty of dairy so not too concerned.

Mamaesi I know where you're coming from with the "why no bottle after a year when breastfeeding is apparently still great!" question. No one's given me a satisfactory answer yet- my cynical side says the breastfeeding mafia has something to do with this

The bottle thing is about their teeth beetlebat - with a bottle milk pools in the mouth around the teeth. It isn't so much of an issue with breastfeeding as the nipple is pulled quite far back into the mouth so their isn't the same prolonged contact between milk and teeth. It's particularly a problem if children take a bottle to bed with them.

Breastfeeding to sleep is also not recommended after babies have teeth, for the same reason, that as the nipples slips out of their mouth milk can pool around the teeth.

There is no breastfeeding mafia. There would have to be money and power behind it for that to be true, and while there may be a certain amount of feminist power that comes with breasts, and a lot of money (normally not for the breasts' owners though), there is hardly any funding for promoting breastfeeding

thanks everyone. its been really helpful.

I am not worried about the bottle to bed thing as she takes her last milk and then (quite annoyingly) has decided to stay up a bit longer before falling asleep. I will clean her teeth...

I assume I will try to start adding cows milk gradually...thanks for tips on that.

As for getting it into a sippy cup instead of bottle....am not sure how I will do this as she loves spilling it everywhere.

can i jump in too? my lo will 1 in couple of weeks and is ff.
she is a bit of a nightmare when it comes to taking her milk she is more interested in eating than taking her milk even her last bottle is a bit of a struggle.
she will not take milk first thing in morning but will take weetabix and toast and diluted fruitjuice.
try and give her milk at snacktime
lunch soup and sandwich yughurt and fruit
drink and snack
dinnertime
then last bottle.
she always has been a petite baby and is walking talking away and has 2 teeth.