Need some clear guidelines, PLEASE!!! For one yr old.

[mamafridi]

How much milk should my DD be drinking? She has approx 400ml (18oz) sometimes more and sometimes less. I feed her (milk) 3 or 4 times a day - morning, late morning, 4ish and then before bed, but she only has small amounts.
She's not got a huge appetite, but eats around 2 small proper meals a day and then fruit or bread sticks as snacks. So how many bottles should she be on, and how much? Plus should I take her off formula and start with cows milk? I'm worried tho' in case she doesn't get enough nutrients from her tiny meals maybe it's better to keep her on formula with all its added vits etc...
I really am so confused, esp as she's now 1yr and should be eating food more and not wanting her milk so much.
Any suggestions VERY welcome.

my 2 both had 2 milk feeds at that age -one at breakfast and one before bed. A minimum of 350mls (approx 12oz) is recommended from 1 year. Not all of that needs to be in drink form as milk with cereal, in foods and other dairy products count towards that total too. I switched both of mine to full fat cows milk from 1 year too. If you are worried give her vitamin drops along with the cows milk.

There is some info here. Like Seona says though, this can be added to food like having porridge with fruit for breakfast.

Personally I'd change her over to cow's milk too. Its much cheaper and she should be fine with a varied diet.

I'd also drop her down to 2 milk feeds a day, one on waking, an hour before breakfast and one before bed.

So it could look like this:

7am Milk
8am Breakfast like Ready Brek with banana
10.30 am Snack say Nectarine or blueberries
12 am Proper dinner, whatever you are having should be fine.
3ish Snack say something like hummus or Philidelphia and carrot sticks or a flapjack.
5 tea (that's dinner or supper if you are in the south )
7 milk and snack if required.

Does that sound ok?

Thanks for the clear advice.

If only it was so simple...
DD doesn't seem to like cereal, so I give her toast and peanut butter. She doesn't like any kind of cheese, except parmesan hidden in the stuff I make, yoghurt is also sneered at . And the times I've tried cows milk haven't been a success either. The only milk she likes is her beloved Aptamil! (I wonder if they put something addictive in it??)

But if I were to keep Aptamil for her morning and evening feed (for now anyway). Should I then just stop the other 2 bottles immediately, or do it gradually? ie stop the late morning one for a week then cut out the 4 o'clock one the following week?
Hope you're both still around seona and Jilted....

My 13 month old has 4 milk feeds a day still - I give them to him in a non-spill cup though.

His day goes:

6am - breastfeed
7am - breakfast
9.30am - cow's milk, 3-5oz
12pm - lunch
1.30pm - cow's milk 3-5oz
4pm - snack
6pm - dinner
7pm - cow's milk 3oz

He's a big eater too and has milk on cereal, cheese and yoghurt at some point in the day, so he is definitely getting more than 12oz. But, he is happy and healthy and not overweight so I am not concerned.

Aptimal is very sweet, that might be why she likes it? You could try mixing it with cow's milk and gradually increasing the amount of cow's milk if you wanted.

Good idea - Rita. Aptimal is sweet and I noticed that the weaning one is even sweeter than the first and second. I'd really like her to come off it, esp as it's quite expensive.

I'm just going to suck it up and go full throttle with this milk business. My poor DD won't know what's hit her!

In that case then, I'd stick with the atipmil for a coupld of weeks at least but cut out one daytime feed this week and one the following week as you suggested. That should give her time to adjust.

I wouldn't worry too much about the quantity of milk anyway. You may find that when she is on 2 milk feeds a day she takes more at each feed but if she doesn't I don't think its too much of a worry. My DD refused all milk and dairy for a while and we just gave her foods rich in calcium, after all there are plenty of cultures that never drink milk after weaning and just each well.

eat not each.

x-posted with Rita, think that mixing the aptimil with cows milk is a good idea.

My HV said equiv of pint of milk a day. But can substitute some milk with yoghurts, cheese etc.

I'm on my phone so can't search but if you search old posts for calcium I'm sure someone has previously posted some good stuff on calcium values of various foods.

Sorry, saw your sneering at yoghurt comment after I posted. She may change her mind though once weaned off the formula

Agree with Barbara that she will probably like yoghurts and cows milk more when she's stopped having the formula. Both of mine had a clear gap between stopping bfing and liking cow's milk and dairy.

Thought you might like this link as it has a table of common foods and their calcium content and according to this thread she needs 350 mcg of calcium per day.

Goats milk nice alternative to cows milk - dd used to itch her back but stopped when we switched from cow (she calls it sweet milk) to goats.

I think you might find dc will eat more if she drinks less milk. Milk is really like a meal and fills them up.

My DS is on 2 bottles a day so approx 400 ml plus milk in cereal, White sauce, cheese sauce and yogs. We swapped from aptamil to cows milk by mixing it eg 6 oz formula 1 oz cows milk over the course of a couple of weeks to 100% cows milk. I had read to aim at a pint a day but this includes cheese, milk, yogs etc. If your DS doesn't like cheese sauce have you tried White sauce eg in a fish pie, something like that?