Hellobee Boards

I think 11 months is totally fine to start giving a bottle or two of cow milk (or whatever your plan is.) I am pretty sure we started giving cow milk around then without any issues! LO never even batted at eye at the different tastes.

I had the same problem but asked the lactation consultant and she strongly advised against starting milk before 12 months. She said even at 12 months it's a guess if they'll be able to digest it (which is why you wait). I just tried to feed as much as I could on my days off to stimulate production and LO was eating more and more solids so we made it through.

I asked my doctor about starting before 12 months, and she was adamant that we wait because whole milk is not as nutritious. I'm in your boat bc it's so hard as it gets close, and I really don't want to transition to formula then to milk within a month.

Friends have started whole milk as early as 11 months, and their kids are obviously fine, so like anything else, you do what you can and don't let yourself feel guilty for it.

I started I think around 13 months with my youngest son. He was formula fed, so I wanted to use up all our formula first.

My oldest son was breastfed, but he never transitioned to milk. I breastfed him until he was about 18 months old, and he refused milk after that. Doctor said it was fine, as long as he got calcium from other sources.

I'm in the exact same boat. A is EBF, turns 1 in February, drinks 12 oz a day, and I'm pumping 7-8/day. My saving grace is that she isn't super interested in bottles and I get a few oz back some days. I'll just transition when I can't keep up and see how it goes. If she reacts poorly, then I'll consider other options. My best friend transitioned at 11m because she was out of formula and didn't want to buy more. Maybe start a vitamin when you transition.

I waited until after she turned 1, but I think you should be fine to go ahead.

I'm basically in the same boat over here at 10.5 months, and did some googling and found this very interesting...
http://kellymom.com/nutrition/milk/milk-supplements/

I think it depends on how you plan to transition. One of my children was eating enough solids by 11 months, and drinking enough water, that the milk was just a good place to get the required amounts of fat in the diet so swapping nursing for cow's milk would have been fine. My other child still got the bulk of nutrition from nursing at 11 months, so swapping that for cow's milk would have been insufficient. Does that make sense?

We started supplementing around 11 months. Mixed WCM with frozen breast milk because I developed thrush in one breast. We ended up transitioning to goats milk after 1 because he couldn't do all cows milk.

I'm a rule follower, so when my first LO was that age I probably would have done formula for the last month before his birthday.

However, the recommendation in Canada is that you can start small amounts (I think it's under 500 ml) of whole milk at nine months. Knowing that, I would probably go straight to whole milk for my next baby if I was in your situation.

Around 11 months I started mixing formula with WCM, starting with about 1/4 WCM to 3/4 formula. I gradually increased the WCM and by 12-13 months it was all WCM.

I think starting at 11 months is totally fine. I would skip the formula.

Ds1 loved nursing strikes and at 10 months started another one so I just switched then. He didn't have a bad reaction though and was already eating a lot of food.

@littlebug: we supplemented with formula and then introduced almond milk once she turned 1. cows milk or any equivalent isnt a substitute for formula/breastmilk.

@mrsog: I did the same- started slightly before 1 year and mixed breast milk and WCM. I also increased DD's solids so she was meeting her calorie needs. My daughter took the WCM just fine but I also know some kids who were sensitive to it at first.