If you mixed milk (breastmilk or formula) with other milk (almond, hemp, goat, cow, etc.) as a 'transition' ....
Can you share how you did it?
50/50?
How long did you continue mixing and why?
You might also enjoy...
-
following, because I'm interested!
-
With DS I started with a splash of coconut milk (he couldn't have dairy) with mostly BM - then after a few days I went to 50/50 and then when my BM was gone - maybe 2 weeks later? I went to straight coconut milk.
With DD I think I did 50/50 BM and CM for a few days and then went straight to CM -
Why did I do this? Because I guess I thought you had too?
But as you can tell with my 2nd child once she took the CM fine I stopped mixing
-
@Mamaof2: bonus question: did you do the mixing in bottles or sippy cups?
-
@cmomma17: sippy cups!
-
Depending on my stash, I was planning on doing a slowish transition with 75% BM with 25% hemp milk for a week, then 50/50 for a week, then 25% BM with 75% hemp until I'm out of BM!
But I haven't done it yet, so I can't say for sure how well it'll go over! I can tell you the couple times I've given 100% hemp milk, Xander wasn't a fan, so I'm aiming for a slow transition!
ETA: I'll be mixing in sippy cups. I'm slowly weaning Xander off bottles at the moment and once he's fully weaned (next week!!!!), I'll start the transition to hemp milk!
-
I did the same as @Adira: suggested above when we made the transition from breast milk to whole milk.
-
@Mamaof2: thanks!
@Adira: keep me posted!
@MrsJazz: thanks! What would I do without hellobee??
-
@cmomma17: Have you tried giving him the alternative milk (CM, Hemp, almond, etc.) just straight? Like @Mamaof2 said, I kind of thought I had to to transition E from BM to CM... but my pediatrician suggested just trying CM straight, he took it just fine and never looked back.
-
@kiddosc: I haven't yet, but I will try that! If mixing can be avoiding that will make things easier!
-
For you momma's that mixed milk, did you warm up the breastmilk and CM? Or did you just give it to them cold?
Also, if you sent them to daycare with mixed milks, did you mix it in the bottle/cup before sending to daycare or had daycare mix the two?
-
Our situation is a little bit different because our ped gave us the green light to start introducing WCM at 9 mo when I was really stressing about my supply.
I was leaving DD 3 bottles of BM per day + nursing when we were together. At 9.5 mo, I started offering WCM in a straw cup with meals. Most of the time she wouldn't drink much, but it was more for exposure/to get her used to it. Around that same time, I started "topping off" her bottles with WCM because I was seriously worried about my supply. I wanted to leave 9 oz (3 bottles x 3 oz), but some days I would only pump 7-8 oz... so I would make up the rest with WCM. She never noticed/had a problem with it.
That was the only mixing I did - when I started to wean just before 1 yo, I just replaced one bottle with one straw cup of WCM... the next week, I replaced two bottles with two cups, and so on. It took 2-3 weeks for DD to really take to the cup/WCM, but she did eventually. By doing it that way we also avoided having to bottle wean down the road - she never got WCM from a bottles except for a few times when we were working to drop the bedtime feed.
I think if you expose you LO to WCM a bit earlier than you want to make the full switch, you can get away with not mixing, but it depends on your LO.
-
LO started drinking cold cow's milk out of straw cups cold turkey (no mixing). i had a freezer stash, but i did not want to use breastmilk in the straw cups because large portions of them were going to waste since he wasn't quite sure what to do with the straw cup. after he got the hang of it, i wanted to use up my freezer stash, but at that point he was used to cow milk and i didn't want to switch completely back and have him become "dependent" on the taste of breast milk, so i mixed cow and breast milk. kind of backwards and not totally logical but it's worked fine.
@Alivoo01: when i mix breast milk and cow milk, i give it to him cold.
-
I stopped pumping around 11.5 months and started mixing in cows milk to extend the freezer stash. I started with 25% cows milk to 75% BM. After a couple weeks I went to 50/50 and kept it at that until we burned through the freezer stash. It worked well and DD didn't reject any bottles.
-
@cmomma17: Yeah, I tried straight and she didn't like it. I also used a straw cup, LO stopped drinking from bottles pretty early.
@Alivoo01: Cold. I never warmed up breast milk--she only got it warm from the source, any time it's in a bottle or cup it was cold.
-
@edelweiss: @mrsjazz: Good to know! But when it's served cold (the breastmilk), does the fatty portion get mixed well into the WCM? Or is it not a concern since WCM has its own nutrients?
I ask because if it sits in my fridge now, my breastmilk will separate (fatty stuff on top and water below it), and the fatty stuff sticks to the walls of the bottle with a death grip unless the bottle is warmed or I swirl like crazy if it's cold.
Also, DS doesn't seem to like cold breastmilk, room temp sure, but not cold. Anyway to get him to like it more?
-
@Alivoo01: i didn't notice the separation, guess i wasn't paying enough attention! at the most i swirled. for the temperature question, maybe you could gradually serve it warmer each time? gosh, there's a weaning step for everything with these little ones!
-
I would go 75, 50, 25 and just see how it's tolerated at each phase before moving to more WCM. I always gave all milk cold so I didn't have to change anything. I think it's a perfect time to switch to sippys...but it's not critical. It seems to me that most babies adjust very well.
-
We mixed in an ounce at a time (breast and cow) for about three days for each ounce. Worked beautifully!
-
@Alivoo01: The couple times I've mixed for Xander (just to experiment), I warmed it up! But the past couple days, he's been drinking BM cold (well, cool... as in sitting on the counter for 15 minutes from the fridge) and hasn't seemed to mind, so I might not warm it up in the end. And my plan for daycare is to send it premixed and let them serve him that way.
Also, sitting in my fridge, I have the same issue as you as far as separation, and shaking it up doesn't seem to mix it back in very well. I just end up with fatty chunks floating about, which is sooooo gross (in my opinion). But I think when it gets to room temperature, it mixes back in better. I've never tried to serve Xander BM just straight cold from the fridge because of the separation problem!
-
@edelweiss: I know right!!
@Adira: Yea, C doesn't mind room temp milk, just not cold cold. He rejects the bottle if the milk is cold, unless he's starving then he doesn't mind. lol Guess I'll see how mixing WCM and cold BM goes when I get there!
-
I started mixing 80%BM/20%WCM. She spat it out.
I tried straight BM. She spat it out.
This went on for a week. I had a small freezer stash and she burned through it that week. I refused to pump and just hoped she started swallowing the WCM.
On her birthday I gave her cake. She drank 6oz. of cold 100% WCM and never looked back. -
@oliviaoblivia: I think Xander is probably going to be the same way! The other day as a test, I gave him 75% BM with 25% hemp and he spat it out! But I'm just going to follow my transition plan, regardless of what he does, and hope that he EVENTUALLY drinks! Glad to hear it worked out in the end for you!
Reply
Subscribe to our newsletter
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite1
22 comments