Hi all, LO is 12mo and is BF and I supplement with formula. He only nurses at night now. Trying to introduce whole milk and it’s not going well. It’s been three days but I am worried! He drinks water from his sippy cup but throws it at times. Still takes the bottle. I tried mixing formula with whole milk but he won’t take it. It was cold. I dont know if I should try warming it but I dont want to start that since he won’t have it like that most of the time. Thoughts please?! Thank you!
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Is the formula he drinks warmed? If so I would warm the milk for now while he’s getting used to it and then worry about transitioning to cold milk later. You could also try a toddler formula for a little while instead of going straight to whole milk.
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The formula is at room temperature. Breastmilk is warmed up when he has it in a bottle. I was thinking about trying that.
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@cake2017: I chose to never mix milk with formula or breast milk or use anything associated with it. I was worried about a fight if I did.
Instead we took it super slow and bottle weaned at the same time. Took about 3 months. The first to go was first bottle of the morning and I offered milk in a sippy cup with his breakfast. Then 2 weeks later took away another bottle and offered sippy cup for lunch with milk. So on and so forth. The last and hardest was the nighttime bottle. I just kept him on regular formula during the transition. Good luck!
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@cake2017: could you try shelf stable WCM? It would be room temperature like the formula.
When we transitioned my LO he was only getting formula and typically cold from the fridge since his bottles took forever to warm. Over a period of week or so I mixed the WCM and formula together or gave him a bottle of milk then a bottle of formula until we ran out of the formula.
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How's he doing with solids? Why not just skip cow's milk, if he's not into it?
We also had a separate (straw) bottle for water and milk when we were dropping the bottle. My daughter knew that the blue bottle had water and the green was just for milk, which seemed to help her (she didn't seem to like taking a sip and not knowing what she was going to get).
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I was told to do it gradually and only change one variable at a time. If you change all variables at once you wont know what he’s refusing - temp, vessel, or actual milk) So for example:
Day 1: warm in bottle, 75% formula 25% WCM
Day 4: warm in bottle 50% formula 50% WCM
Day 7: warm in bottle 25% formula 75% WCM
Day 10: warm in bottle 100% WCMOnce your completely warmed WCM in bottle you can work on making it colder and colder till it’s cold in bottle.
Then you can replace with a straw cup.And one important thing to note is that at that point my doc was completely not worried about him drinking the same number of oz of WCM as he had been formula. She said it’s also not necessary to be the main source of calcium. By 1yo they should be having plenty of other calcium options like cheese and yogurt. Plus water for hydration. And they know that it’s a transition/process to switch them to milk in a cup so that is all expected (that perhaps liquid consumption goes down for s couple of weeks).
But once you switch to a sippy DO NOT go back to the bottle. That will make your life wayyy harder. Be firm and consistent (just like sleep training
) and he will figure out that a straw cup is his only option! Good luck! I have a huge email on this topic that I sent a good friend. PM me your email if you’d like it. Its very detailed (long) but I’ve been told very helpful.
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Eh. I had one kid that went from EBF to formula to cow's milk, 100% transition each time, no issues at all.
Then my 2nd LO was EBF and just never really wanted anything besides bottle/boob. Just at almost 18 months she's started to drink a lot of cow's milk.
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No help, just commiseration. My 12mo old DD does NOT like cow's milk. We've been adding it to formula gradually to get her used to it, because she's also not great on eating solids. It seems like everyone I have talked to had kids that just LOVED cow's milk and had NO PROBLEM transitioning, and it's been frustrating. You are not alone!
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@lady baltimore: He’s doing okay. He still has purees but eats a variety.
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@Tanjowen: Yeah he doesn’t like the mixing anyway.@nutmeg36: thank you! @SweetiePie: Thank you! It’s been just a couple of days so we are definitely taking baby steps! He has 2 sippy cups too! Trying to wean from the bottle slowly as well. So we are going to put his beverages in them rather the bottles. It’s the WCM he hates at the moment. He doesn’t like it mixed either- he throws the cup
.
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@cake2017: What is the ratio you were doing right now? And yes you definitely do need to wean away from the bottles, obviously, but what I was saying was get him comfortable with milk first in the bottle and then you can get rid of the bottle. Conversely you could get rid of the bottle and put formula in the straw cup until he’s comfortable with the straw cup and then slowly transition that to milk. If you did 75% formula and 25% milk I strongly doubt that he would be able to even tell. And then you could even just change the ratio by an ounce at a time. It doesn’t have to be quarters are halves or anything.
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My son would not (and still doesn't) drink milk. I asked the ped about it, and he said as long as he's getting cheese and yogurt into his diet then don't even worry about it. So... I haven't. He's 20 months and thriving. He nursed until 18 months, and in the 6 months leading up to weaning I tried goat's milk, different fat contents of milk, and nothing. He simply hates the taste. Instead, I make sure he has cheese daily, and yogurt as often as he'll eat it.
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@cake2017: for both my kids introducing milk took a long time. So I think 3 days is still very early. You can also try a almond milk since it has a different flavor. I think it just takes singe time to get used to
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@SweetiePie: I see! I’ve given more formula but I guess too much milk if that makes sense?He still has bottles but we are slowly moving away from that. I’m starting to put the formula and breastmilk in his cups.
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My kids were getting a well balanced diet at a year old and still nursing morning and night, so I just went cold turkey with switching to cow's milk. I've never worried about how many ounces of milk they took in after the switch. They got a cup of milk at meals and had a sippy with water at all other times. Sometimes they'd drink it all, sometimes none of it. As long as their growth is consistent and they are eating well, I wouldn't even stress about it.
) and he will figure out that a straw cup is his only option! Reply
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