How and when to start cutting down formula bottles for 11m old?

[emeraldgirl1]

Am assuming I need to make a start on this project in around a month's time, when she is 1 year?

How do I begin?! Do I start by just reducing the amount at each feed, do I cut out a whole feed one by one (she currently has 7oz morning and evening, and a small 4 or 5 oz bottle mid-morning and another after lunch.)

And am confused by the cow's milk/formula thing - I know I CAN switch her to cow's milk at 12m but SHOULD I? And if so, when should I offer it? And in a bottle or cup...?

Help!

She is able to drink (water) out of a regular cup (no spout) though she doens't have huge amounts. So obviously I don't want to risk her getting dehydrated/constipated by cutting out formula when she isn't yet capable of drinking that much from a cup (tried her with spouty cups, she HATES them, so am sticking to open cups)

Her appetite for food is v good and she eats well.

But am just aware that sooner rather than later something should start to shift with the quantity of formula and perhaps with the way she drinks it?

My 2.5yo niece still drinks (cow's) milk from a bottle morning and evening, is this normal or something I want to try and avoid in the long run?

Thank you and sorry for being hopeless!!

I would start just now by offering one of the daytime feeds from a cup e.g. the mid morning one. When I did it I put ds in his highchair and gave him the milk in the cup and a snack to go with it. You could even put cows milk in the cup rather than formula as his main drink would still be formula. Once he is ok with that you could offer the other daytime feed from the cup too.

From 1 year they only need around 300mls of milk so they dont need as much. Giving it in a cup helps to cut the intake a bit. There is no need for formula after 1 year and full fat cows milk is fine.

It is advised to phase out bottles around 1 year old so dd was off hers by 15 months and ds was off his by 11 months - they still had milk but it was from a cup.

Can't answer all of your questions but as for switching her over to cows milk, why would you want to keep her on formula? As long as she gets her minimum of 300ml of full fat cows milk a day she will be fine

As for bottles and cutting down. Could you try swapping the mid morning one for a cup of water and a snack? Then nearer 12 months swap her morning bottle for a cup of milk and breakfast? Unless of course it buys you an extra hour in bed

With most families the bedtime bottle is the last to go, but that's not true for everyone.

As for your niece, bottles aren't recommended after 12 months.

X posted with power

Thanks everyone!
Will start offering real milk instead of formula for her mid-morning drink tomorrow... Good place to start!

It was a gradual natural progression for us. The first bottle our twins dropped was the 10am bottle then the 2pm one so that left the morning and bedtime bottle. We gave them cows milk from 12 months and introduced it a couple of ounces at a time. They now have 5oz of cows milk in the morning and 5oz night from a bottle, I decided not to worry about forcing sippy cups onto them, they will drop the bottles when they are ready. They drink water from sippy cups during the day.

Don't forget that dairy counts towards the daily calcium intake so if she has cheese, yoghurt etc that means you can be more relaxed about volume. And eg spinach and green veg is a great source of calcium too.

I got my twins used to milk in a cup after their lunch time nap - they had already pretty much dropped that feed but it was a good time to introduce milk in a (sippy) cup along with a snack. I was really unsure they would go for it instead of a 'real' feed but yesterday gave them cows milk when they woke instead of a BF and they were totally fine with it! and drank tons. So now I don't have to do the morning BF - yay!

Thank you!
Do you think it makes more sense to try introducing formula in cup first (ie changing the vessel not the contents) for, say, the mid morning snack, and then try real milk in it once she's used to the idea of the cup? Or is it better not to confuse the issue and just do real milk in the up straight away?
She's a yogurt and cheese monster so I don't think I'll need to worry too much about the calcium, it's more a liquid quantity I worry about but I guess she'll drink when she is thirsty!

Yes, change the vessel, not the contents first. Then once she is taking a bit (by which I mean an ounce or so), you can move on to replacing the bottle for the next feed and then later again, either try cows milk or dilute the formula with cows milk gradually (so 3/4 formula, 1/4 cows milk, increasing the cows milk every few days). I found that they were more receptive to replacing the morning wake up feed with a cup of milk. Haven't dared to try bedtime yet!

I leave a straw sports bottle type thing lying around all day for my twins filled with water. They are really good at drinking from them and they don't leak. Mine is from a co called vital Baby. But am sure there are loads of different ones around.

We dropped the daytime bottles first and gradually progressed to the bedtime bottle over the course of nearly a year with all of ours, in fact DD2 is the only one of our brood to get to 2 yo without any bottles at all, DS was nearly 3 .
Cows milk will be fine, we dropped formula all at once, but tbh it's only really by good luck that none of them had any issues with the change.
Try a doidy cup, they're angled so there's less chance of spillage.