Still having 2 bottles a day - Help!

[Ducky]

Hi all,

My DD who is 16 months old still has a bottle of formula (follow-on milk) when she wakes at 7am and at bedtime at 6.30pm.

Should I now be stopping these feeds?

How's best to do this?

I do worry that she won't be having sufficient milk volumes if I drop these feeds as she's not very keen on cow's milk.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks D xxx

[woopster]

Have you tried dropping an ounce of formula and replacing it with an ounce of cow's milk? Try that over a week and then do the same again so you have, for example, 5oz of formula and 2 of cow's. Then a week later 4oz formula and 3 of cow's.

What's her eating like? Cheese, yogurt?

[Ducky]

Thanks, never thought of mixing the cow's milk and formula, what a good idea.  I'll try that from tonight.

Her eating is good, she likes yogurt and cheese spread.  I do find she doesn't eat much breakfast, but I suppose because she's had 6-7 oz of bottle at 7am come 8.30am she's not that hungry.  She'll have some fruit and 1/2 slice of toast.

I know I should also look to try and get her to have her breakfast before the bottle as she'd probably reduce her bottle in take.  She seems content at the moment so I don't want to upset things.

Thanks for the advice.
D xxx

[woopster]

What about 1/2 a bottle before breakfast and the rest after? Or with in a sippy cup?

[Ducky]

Thanks so much, I'm going to give it ago and see how she gets on.

D xxx

[Diana1981]

Ducky, my ds also takes 2 bottles of milk a day. one at 6:30am and the other around 8pm. I still give him formula cuz he doesn`t eat cheese or yogurth that much, and he needs his calcium.
Try mixing both milks and see how it goes.

[We Three]

That's exactly how we did it....an ounce at a time.  Worked out great.  I added an ounce and did that for a whole week. Then added another for a whole week and so on.   Good luck!

[Charlene75]

If you're wanting to get her off of a bottle and to a cup, I started with some formula and then moved to the milk in a sippy cup. But when I transitioned to the cup, I still treated it like I was just introducing a bottle and would spend extra time with my son to hold him and feed with the cup. Within a week or two he was ready to run off with the cup and now has no problems... but when he sees a bottle he loves to play with it and wants a drink in it.... I just don't give it to him, and hide the bottles whenever he gets them out. Good luck!

[mommy2mason]

My LO wouldn't drink cow's milk out of a sippy until I dropped all of his bottles. It took a couple days for him to really start drinking his milk from the sippy but now he loves it!

[mia_angel]

My daughter is nearly 1 and has some milk in the morning and before bed.....should i stop giving her milk in the morning, and leave it as a bedtime drink?

[Noah's mum]

My son is 16 months old and also drinking two bottles of milk (cow's milk, not formula) twice a day - in the morning before breakfast and again before bed. The follow-on formula we had been using since he weaned off BF was essentially just powdered milk. I think a lot of toddler brands are. So I don't think it should be a big adjustment to go from the formula to the cow's milk. My DS didn't even seem to notice. Also, while I know a 16 month old should be weaning off a bottle I don't think it's a really big drama to just keep it going for a few more months. As long as it's not interferring with using a sippy cup at other times and with main meals. I've kept it up because I like knowing that he gets at least 500m of milk a day -and he still uses his sippy to drink water the rest of the day and eats plenty of food for breakfast etc.