Switching to whole milk

[mommy2mason]

DS is almost 12 months and I would like to have him weaned from his bottles soon. He has been on 2 formula bottles (morning/night) for a couple weeks now. I'm just a little confused on how to do this. Dr. said I could introduce whole milk the other day as I called to inquire about DS formula intake being low. I do not want to offer whole milk in a bottle as I would like to go right to the sippy. He's been drinking water out of a sippy since about 7 months and has no problem. I have tried whole milk in the sippy but he won't drink it, which I've read some posts about and that seems pretty common. He will drink a little out of a straw cup but not enough to be able to cut out a formula bottle. What should my next step be? Do I just continue to offer whole milk and once he finally starts drinking a fair amount then I can drop a bottle?

Thanks!
Amy

[Aly Mac]

Hi Amy,

you can continue to offer milk in the sippy, while still giving the bottle of formula.  Then when his intake has increased you can then get rid of the formula OR you don't have to worry about the milk.  Toddlers need around 3serves of dairy a day - so as long as you offer other dairy, like cheese, youghurt etc, then you don't need to worry about the milk intake.  It is good to start with as a transition to go to whole milk, then it's not such a big change iykwim, but you don't have to.

hth!

[nancypants]

Two points:

We started putting milk and formula together in the bottles, gradually phasing out the formula and putting more whole milk in so as to "gently ease him into the taste."   We started with 3/4 formula 1/4 milk and then as he tolerated it, we upped the amount of milk gradually and decreased the formula until it was only milk (over several days). He never knew the wiser -- particularly if we warmed the bottle just like we did with formula, etc.

Prior to that we also just tried to give him milk from his sippy cup, which, like you, he took water from no problem. We did this after every meal consistently for a while.  He wouldn't take it for several tries.  But we consistently offered it to him at the end of each meal and when he actually took a sip we cheered like crazy! "Good job!"  He often put it away, and we quietly just took it away and tried the next dinner time, not making a big deal about it.  It didn't take long before he was taking it no problem.  I always think positive reinforcement works.   Once he took milk from the sippy cup, we started giving him his sippy cup of milk to hold just before bedtime (in a rocking chair in my arms just like he did when he had a bottle).  We did that for a while and then gradually just gave him a sippy cup of milk while he was still awake, as part of a bedtime snack -- and then got him ready for bed.

Good luck! 
 

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