https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Fri, 24 Jul 2026 15:34:02 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-and-formulamilk-weaning#post-2218506 Thu, 25 Jun 2015 13:57:46 +0000 Mamasig 2218506@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We did cold turkey with DS1 and switched to whole milk at the same time. He defintely decreased his milk intake the 1st few days but was back to normal by the second week. I did right at 12 months. </p> <p>With DS2, he only has his nighttime bottle. He's more attached and I'm a pushover. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-and-formulamilk-weaning#post-2218499 Thu, 25 Jun 2015 13:54:15 +0000 Bubbles 2218499@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We did the milk transition first, shortly after turning 12mo. We just slowly upped the ratio of wcm to formula as others have mentioned, and he didn't even notice. At this point he was having 2 8oz bottles a day, morning and bedtime. I decided to tackle the morning one first as I didn't want him waking up hungry in the night - so one day I just gave it to him in a straw cup instead (this was about 13 months). He flipped out and refused to touch it, but I didn't give in and we just went on with our day. I think I posted a thread on here panicking about it, but the very next morning he happily drank most of his milk from the straw cup. We held onto the bedtime bottle for quite a while longer til about 17mo - partly because I just loved feeding him a bottle and didn't want to give it up! By this point he had very good receptive language so one day I told him that this was going to be his last bottle and tomorrow we would be having bedtime milk in a cup. I kept reminding him throughout the following day and he didn't even skip a beat when I produced the cup at bedtime. I thought it was going to be terrible but he really surprised me. </p> <p>He does drink less milk from cups, and the amount he drinks can really vary (whereas with a bottle he would just glug down the whole lot each time) - but I don't worry as his weight is fine and he's happy! I started giving him a baby multivitamin when we moved off formula as I did worry that his solids diet wasn't wide enough to provide all the vitamins he needed, but I don't use it anymore at 18mo. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-and-formulamilk-weaning#post-2218426 Thu, 25 Jun 2015 13:15:26 +0000 Madison43 2218426@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My LO would never take formula from a cup either. So we just dropped one bottle at a time and replaced it with almond milk (dairy intolerance). I do get stressed about the calorie deficient but we have no growth issues and I just figured that getting more calories from whole foods, as opposed to liquids, of just part of growing up. Sniff. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-and-formulamilk-weaning#post-2218421 Thu, 25 Jun 2015 13:12:47 +0000 MamaG 2218421@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We did both at one time. Sort of the band-aid approach. Just rip it off. Our LO was in daycare (not sure if yours is). She switched daycares at a year and no one else was on bottles. Peer pressure took care of those daytime bottles within 2 days. And once they were gone, we removed the night time bottle too. And for us, milk never went in the bottle - only formula. Milk was only for cups (and likewise, formula didn't go in cups). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-and-formulamilk-weaning#post-2218410 Thu, 25 Jun 2015 13:07:08 +0000 twodoghouse 2218410@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We transitioned to whole milk in bottles because they hardly take anything but sips out of sippies, straw cups, etc. I was too afraid to go cold turkey over to cups of milk because I couldn't fathom them going from ten million calories from formula to negligible calories from little sips of milk. (You know our deal with solids already!) They wouldn't touch wcm out of sippies but with bottles they had no issues and the transition was effortless. I still give them sippies of milk from time to time and they are more receptive to it now, but they still get 3-4 bottles per day. I'm not sure when we'll take the plunge to sippie cups. I'm still nervous about the drop off in calories that will surely result from no bottles since A is still iffy on large meals. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-and-formulamilk-weaning#post-2218406 Thu, 25 Jun 2015 13:06:17 +0000 Chillybear 2218406@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We transitioned from pumped breastmilk/formula to WCM at about 11-12 months and by 15 she was completely weaned from the breast. At that time she got 5 bottles a day Wake up, 3 at daycare, bedtime. </p> <p>At 15-18 months we tried no bottles during the day, but she wouldnt drink the milk from the sippy cup. At 18m appt spoke with her DR and he said its ok just offer other calcium rich foods and lots of water. She still got her morning &amp; night time bottles</p> <p>At 19 months she switched daycare rooms and they dont do bottles or sippy cups. At breakfast and lunch they get little milk cartons and straws and open cups of water - she sucks those milks down.... She still gets a bottle in the AM and PM. </p> <p>Next week we're going on vacation to the family beach house and I'm going to "forget" to bring the bottles and hope that she'll be so distracted that by the time we get back we can be completely done with bottles at 21 months. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-and-formulamilk-weaning#post-2218371 Thu, 25 Jun 2015 12:52:07 +0000 CakeLady 2218371@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Following!<br /> We recently transitioned from BM/formula to WCM, but haven't tackled the bottle to sippy yet. Also need to figure out how to get him to take cold milk or even room temperature milk. DS loves his milk nice and warm...</p> <p>For the milk transition, we just gradually increased proportion of cow milk to breastmilk. He didn't seem to mind or have any issues, so we got to 100% WCM in about a week. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-and-formulamilk-weaning#post-2218358 Thu, 25 Jun 2015 12:45:52 +0000 JoJoGirl 2218358@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>A also wouldn't deal without the bottle. We switched to WCM first with the method I already told you about (3oz/1oz -2oz/2oz etc) then once she was switched over, waited a couple of months to deal with the bottle issue. Honestly she has never drank as much out of a cup as she used to out of a bottle, but it becomes less important once they're eating solids. Our daycare said to definitely ditch the bottles by 18 months or it would be WAY WAY harder. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-and-formulamilk-weaning#post-2218339 Thu, 25 Jun 2015 12:39:21 +0000 MamaCate 2218339@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our situation was a little different because LO only took two bottles a day at daycare and nursed the rest of the time. She was never super attached to the bottles either.</p> <p>But we just switched out bottles for sippy cups cold turkey around 11 mos. She did ok. We kept doing breast milk until 13 months and then gradually did 26/75, 50/50, then 75/25 to transition to cows milk. </p> <p>It sounds like she may not take the cups until she knows the bottle is really gone. I have heard of others being able to get rid of bottles by offering a sippy of milk or bottle of water and LO eventually learns to choose the milk so that might be worth investigating? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-and-formulamilk-weaning#post-2218336 Thu, 25 Jun 2015 12:37:05 +0000 Adira 2218336@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mae: Nope, didn't wait. So normally he'd have three bottles during the day (and one nursing session). I removed one bottle a week (starting with the middle one, then did the morning one, then removed the evening one last). I felt a week was enough time for him to get used to not getting a bottle and getting a cup during that time instead. He still wasn't drinking a ton from the cup by the time we removed the next bottle, but we just kept going. I was cutting out pumping at the time too and removing nursing sessions on the weekend, so we were consistent. Once he was fully on all cups, no bottles and no day-nursing, it still took him a couple weeks to start drinking more. But the daycare teachers told me all the kids go through the same thing when they transition - they don't drink much during the transition and then once they are used to it a couple weeks later, they are drinking a normal amount again.</p> <p>Your know your LO best, so you could certainly try cutting bottles cold turkey. I think either way, it'll take her a couple weeks to get used to it, but just offer her plenty of solids, and especially watery things (like fruit or pouches) so she stays hydrated, but don't give in. Once you start the transition, commit to it! She'll realize eventually that holding out won't get her her bottles back and then she'll deal with what she's been given.</p> <p>Good luck! :goodluck: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-and-formulamilk-weaning#post-2218323 Thu, 25 Jun 2015 12:24:13 +0000 Mae 2218323@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Adira: So doing one bottle at a time... did you wait until he was taking that cup okay before replacing the next bottle? The times I've tried to give her formula in a cup she drinks literally nothing from it. On one hand that makes me want to just do one at a time so she isn't losing more than 5 oz/day from normal, but on the other I think she is pretty stubborn and might be okay waiting for her next bottle rather than drink her formula in a way she doesn't like haha. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-and-formulamilk-weaning#post-2218316 Thu, 25 Jun 2015 12:21:41 +0000 Adira 2218316@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think you already know what I did, but just in case...</p> <p>We transitioned from bottles to sippy cups (Zoli straw cup actually) first. Then transitioned from breast milk to hemp milk once he was fully on cups.</p> <p>For the bottle to cup transition, we just took away one bottle and replaced it with a cup each week. If he didn't drink much, then he didn't drink much. We didn't ever offer the bottle back after removing it. During the transition, he drank a lot less than normal (like 2 oz from a cup instead of his normal 6 from a bottle), but after a couple weeks, he started drinking more and more.</p> <p>Once he was fully on cups, we started transitioning to hemp milk. His cups started at 6 oz of breast milk, and every week, I lowered the amount of breast milk by an ounce or two and increased the amount of hemp milk until he was fully on hemp milk. I could've done this transition faster or slower - it was really based on how much breast milk I had left in the freezer. So the transition ended up taking ~3 months because in the end, I was giving him a little breast milk every day until I was out. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-and-formulamilk-weaning#post-2218303 Thu, 25 Jun 2015 12:12:40 +0000 Mae 2218303@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>LO is 13 mo and still takes 4 bottles per day of formula -- 20oz. We've had some food issues with her so our ped was not pushing us to rush her off of formula or the bottle, but we are obviously starting to think about how we're going to do this. I don't know what she'll be moving to after formula-- possibly WCM but possibly hemp milk or some sort of toddler formula. (We are still doing dairy trials and once we get that sorted we'll figure out what comes next). </p> <p>As for bottle weaning... LO is not interested. She has used a straw cup since 6 mo but she doesn't drink much from it still (a great day would be 6 oz water, most day its like 2-4oz). I've tried just putting her formula in the straw cup at bottle time and giving her that but she won't drink it at all. She sucks it up, then spits it out immediately. Does that a few times, throws the cup, then tantrums until I pour the formula into a bottle. </p> <p>Not sure if we should tackle both transitions at once (just take away bottles and offer milk/milk substitute in a straw cup and hope after a few days she gets on board... even though she'd have to drink WAY more from the straw cup than she ever has before)? </p> <p>Or if we should do one and then the other? Like maybe if we keep trying to transition her formula into the straw cup at some point she'll give in? Then we could switch out to the substitute slowly and hope she doesn't notice? </p> <p>How did others handle the two transitions? How did your kids do? (And when did you do it, just for fun). </p>