The move to cow's milk

[Jemimah]

Hello,
My LO is almost 12 mths, and I planning for the switch to cow's milk.  Can someone fill me in on how this all works?

I have already been giving him cow's milk at snack time mid-morning and mid afternoon and water at meals, and it seems to be fine.    He also has 6 oz formula before breakfast, and then 8-9 oz at bedtime.  Does the morning and bedtime formula feeds get replaced with cow's milk?  Do I stick with the same amount?  Or do these get dropped??  I read that they should be getting 500ml of milk, is that right?  How much milk at snack time??

All new to me...any advice would be great:)

[~*Nicole*~]

We did switch our morning/night formula to cow's milk at first....and actually then eventually moved all milks to coincide with meals rather than be separate as we had been doing. So first, we held off the morning milk until breakfast. Then we offered the evening milk downstairs before going up to bed and eventually offered it with dinner. This way DD got her drinks with meals. She also had some diluted juice and was offered those with snacks, etc.

You can pretty much offer it whenever you want so long as you don't give too much milk which can lead to them not taking in as many solids. Plus if they are eating cheese, yogurt, etc. they are already getting a lot of the dairy requirements that way.

HTH.

[kiansmam]

Hi my son has had his morning formula and evening formuls switched to cows milk. He use to have 7oz of formula, but now takes full 9oz bottles each time.

He doesn't have cows milk as main drinks throughout day though. He generally has water or juice.

I did this gradually by mixing the two, eg 5oz formula 2oz cows milk for a few days then 4oz formua 3oz cows milk for a few days and so on. x

[Jemimah]

Thanks for the quick responses!  Did either of you notice a change in STTN after the switch?  Why do I hear and read of toddlers having bedtime bottles - is it a comfort thing?
Nicole-Ava's mom - what age was your LO when you offered milk with meals and no longer in bottle in morning and bedtime?

[~*Nicole*~]

Oh, we also did the mixing of formula with milk until it was all milk.

I think we were able to slowly move towards having milk with meals a bit after she turned one. Maybe over a couple of months. I don't remember exactly.

[genyaf]

We just did the switch to cow's milk.  I started by mixing it with expressed breast milk and then gradually upped the ratio.  Right now we're at about 1 1/2 ounces breast milk and the rest cow's milk.  I've been giving 6 ounce bottles which are the same size as they were when it was all breast milk.  He doesn't seems to have noticed a change.

I'm not sure about how to drop some of the bottles and move them to meal times though.  I'm still giving him 4 bottles a day.  One when he wakes up in the morning, one when he wakes from each nap, and one before bed.  He won't drink from a cup for me yet and he REALLY likes his wake-up bottles so I'm not sure how to do that.

I haven't noticed any change in his sleeping or eating habits since switching to cow's milk though.  Seemed to be a pretty smooth transition.  I was pleasantly surprised.

[Roseii]

We managed an instant switch to cow's milk, she didn't bat an eyelid! Moved off the bottles at 15mo, onto a sippy, and before that she started having her bedtime milk downstairs rather than in her darkened bedroom.
Nicole that's great that Ava has hers with meals, DD1 still has "morning" and "bedtime" milk Although it doesn't interfer with her solids intake...
xxx

[~*Nicole*~]

We managed an instant switch to cow's milk, she didn't bat an eyelid!

That's awesome! It reminds me, I forgot to mention that I had to zap the cow's milk in the micro. for about 10 secs. or so when she first had FULL cups of just cow's milk and no formula mixed in b/c she wasn't used to drinking such cold milk! Only for a short while though. Then she took it straight from the fridge no problem after that.

Nicole that's great that Ava has hers with meals, DD1 still has "morning" and "bedtime" milk Roll Eyes Although it doesn't interfer with her solids intake...

So long as it doesn't interfere....then *shrug* I say leave it! If it ain't "broke" don't "fix it". And outside of meals Ava knows how to request (quite loudly) beverages as she feels thirsty!

[Lemonthyme]

Anyone know how much milk, cheese etc a 12 month old needs?  We're trying to switch from BF to cow's milk without success (put on hold due to teething) but I worry he'll get enough as he doesn't drink much from a cup in one go (1 ounce is typical, 2 ounces is very rare).  He has water in the day and he gets offered it in sips throughout the day as otherwise he hardly drinks any liquid.