1 Year Old Milk Intake

[fariasam]

Hi There,

Not sure if this is posted somewhere else, but I'm hoping to get some suggestions/experiences as I am a clueless first time mom...he he....

My son is just about 1 (in a week). He's been exclusively breastfed until 10 months at which time I also introduced cows milk (3%) with cereal and a couple of oz in a sippy with snacks (more as a novelty and to check for reactions). He's a fabulous eater (3 meals/day and 2 snacks and eats EVERYTHING..meats, veg, fruits) and up until this week he's been nursing every 4 hours. I'm starting to wean him because I am returning to work so I've been replacing bf's with Milk feeds. It seems to be going really well, but I'm worried about the quantity of milk I am giving him and the fact that I've just introduced a bottle. He's NEVER taken a bottle before- just hated it..we'd try every month or so but didn't want to push it. Eventually we just went straight to sippy. He loves his sippy but he wont actually sit and drink it...it's more of a play thing with snack. I tried the bottle this week and he took to it right away (?!?!)- he'll actually sit and drink 3-4 oz's and I find it helpful as it seems to calm him down during wind down.

My questions are....

1/ Am I giving him too much milk? I've read that if he's receiving dairy from other sources (yogurt, cheese, etc..) that milk isn't required...he just seems to love it- I'm sure he'd ingest double that if I allowed him.

2/ Am I at risk of accidental parenting here. I'm worried about having introduced a bottle this late in the game- that I am creating an unecesarry dependency. The flip side is that I am worried without the bottle he'll be a lot less apt to forgo the boob. So far, he doesn't seem to mind at all that he is only nursing 2x's per day...and it's been a sorta cold turkey approach

3/ Is it ok to offer milk during wind down? He's been a TERRIBLE sleeper and just recently started doing better with naps and sleeping through the night (thanks to amazing advice I've received on this site). So I definitely don't want to mess with a good thing. It just seems that this is the first time that other people can put him down...the bottle + story really calms him and gets him ready for crib time. Previously I'd read to him for quite a while then put him in his crib and engage in an hour long pu/pd fest (this lasted for 2 months).

Here is our current sched...

5:45 - Wake and BF
7:00- Breakfast
 -2 hours "A" time-
9:30 4oz in Milk with story time (wind down)
10:00- Nap (1hour)
11:00- Wake and Snack
-45 mins "A" time-
12:00- Lunch
-3 hours "A" time-
3:00- 4 oz Milk with story time (wind down)
3:30- Nap (1 hour)
4:30- Wake and Snack
5:30- Dinner
7:00- BF
7:30- 4 oz Milk with story time (wind down)
8/8:30ish- Bed

Any advice/personal experiences would be so greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks,

Manda

[Pens Fan]

Hi Manda,

When my DD was one we were still giving 2 milk feeds a day.  First thing in the morning - around 7oz and just before bedtime again around 7oz.  We gave her the milk in a sippy cup that has a straw.  We also ensured that in the day she had cheese and yoghurt.  Over the next 6 months she took less and less at morning and bedtime.  She dropped the nightime milk just after she was 2 and the morning one when she was around 2ys 9 months.  Over a period of time she just drank less and less and then one day she didn't drink it.

If your LO still wants it then I would continue to offer it and he will drop it when it suits.

Cheers
Eliz

[fariasam]

Thanks so much for the response! That's good to know. He drinks milk throughout the day in his sippy (probably a total of 3 oz) but at windown for naptimes and bedtime I started giving it to him in a bottle. I'm worried this is going to create a baaaad habit- but not sure how else to try and calm him before bed!?!