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We tackled gradually together!

We started giving pumped milk in straw cups (to ease the bottle weaning). We started mixing in (almond) milk with his milk intake throughout the day.

We did all of this starting at 11 months (and also weaning from nursing sessions).

By 12 months, he was on 3 meals, 2 snacks (ish), 3-4 full straw cups of milk a day.... and then slowly phased that out 'til now at 17 months, he is on 3 meals, 2-3 snacks, a straw cup of milk at bfast and dinner. And water the rest of the day.

EEEEK C's going to be one?! HOWWWWWWWW

Following!

I was SO scared of this - transitioning off of formula and having to feed a kid on food alone... so scary!!

But really, it was great.

As soon as her formula ran out I went straight to WCM, no half and half nonsense. She did great. She still did bottles, and we slowly worked on weaning to cups. I wasn't too worried about that part - her Ped said as long as she's on cups by 15 months. 3 months to work on that part wasn't scary.

I was scared about food, because she was drinking 40+ oz of formula a day, and eating 3+ meals. Now I'm supposed to limit her to 16 oz of WCM and a ton more food??!! I don't know how, but it just worked. She had already slowly started eating more at meals by 12 months, so we kept offering her more and more, and giving her healthy snacks throughout the day. I can't even believe she's been off formula for only 3 months now, seems like SO much longer!

Luckily, she was so easy-going at that age that the transition was seamless. She just accepted my lead. Now, at 15 months though, there is no way I could try to change that all up - she would fight me with everything she had. Glad we got that out of the way already!

@Mrs Green Grass: agreed! That's how I felt about beginning solids and now it's totally fine!

@Pepper: We give milk at nap and milk for bed. The rest of the day we just offer water in cups. That's actually how we introduced cups at first, by starting with daytime water. Like @Mrs. Lion: it was closer to 14 months that I finally packed up the bottles. I would say only in the last month or so has she really taken to water. I just made sure she was eating water-dense foods too, since her liquid intake was pretty slim for a month or so.

@swurlygurl: they like to throw curveballs like that...i have no doubt if i have learned anything about parenting, it is that i know nothing. Haha

at 12 months, we moved her to milk in a bottle. then at her 12 month appt, the ped said she likes babies to be off bottles at 15 months and the longer you let it go, the harder it is. So we transitioned to zoli straw cups within two weeks of her appt. We packed the bottles away and it's been out of sight and out of mind. And that's been that! She stopped eating pouches about a week ago and is more interested in food. So she seems to have picked up on that food is what she's going to get

She throws a lot of it. Oh well. I just pick it up and give it back to her. She eats until she's hungry and she figures it out.

@mrs. lion, she was only eating like half a one and then wasting them and just naturally became more interested in what we were eating. She still does applesauce and banana-apple pouches, but i meant like, the chicken/veggies pouches. She's just not into them anymore. I won't even do the yogurt pouches because they go to waste. Again, she eats half of it and then wants something she can chew on. She wasn't really eating them at daycare so no point in keeping them around

@blackbird: I can't stop pouches, how else is R going to eat veggies?

@blackbird: oh that makes sense! We never used any of those. I actually got some reusable ones....we can fill them with whatever we want and there is much less waste because i only put a couple spoonfulls in at a time

@smurfette, i have to sneak them into her food! She'll do diced carrots and peas so far, broccoli bites....spinach mixed in w/ eggs. I just keep offering over and over and over and eventually she realizes it's good haha!

@mrs. lion, i looked at those but didn't think i could keep them clean enough

@Mrs. Lion: oh yeah she throws those on the floor. If I try and sneak them in, she spits them out. Stinker ate peas at day care yesterday, dipping in yogurt. So I guess I need to try something like that.
@blackbird: I have tried that, so fast red pasta sauce is the only thing that works. But that seems to irritate her bum when she poops so we have stopped doing it.

@mrsjyw: Did A take to straw cups immediately? I've introduced a straw cup to C and he mainly likes to chew on the straw then actually drink from it. He does try initially, but doesn't suck hard enough to get anything out of it so he ends up just chewing on the straw instead. Fail.

@Alivoo01: yea... we started him with a sippy cup of water when we really got into solids, but he wasn't having it... I switched to a straw cup and we started giving water that way. it wasn't until 11 months that we started swapping out bottles to straw cup for milk...

@Pepper: Yes We use all the different cups. She liked playing with the straw cup the most at first, but wouldn't actually drink from it - just suck for a sip and smile at me, more as a game. She took to the kind that are a lot like bottles first (plastic mouthpiece that you have to bite/suck to get liquid out, super popular). Only just recently has she been able to use the hard top ones that you truly have to suck. She only gets an open cup if she's sitting in my lap and I hold and tip the cup. Maybe I'll give her some open cups this summer outside to play with... But after getting used to all the cups, her favorites now are the straw cups.