12mo... normal milk? Bottle or cup?

[SaraMamma]

Hello everyone...

My DS has just turned (today) 12mo, and I'm wondering how to get rid of his formula...

I know I can move to normal milk now, I'm just wondering a few things:

1- is normal milk going to be or will he be hungrier? (already now he's quite a hungry baby, and he has 5 meals a day, like us - breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner - + 2x 200ml bottles)


2- is there a way to transition from formula to normal milk or do I just swap them?

3- I'd like to get rid of the bottle... is it a good idea at 12months? What would I give him milk into? A cup?! And again, how would I transition him to that? (he has no porblem drinking water in a cup, but probably associates milk and bottle)

Any suggestions would be very welcome!

Thank you!

[creations]

I doubt your LO will be more hungry with the milk changing.

You can just switch the milk and see how it goes - if he rejects it you can gradually change by mixing formula with one part milk then next day two parts milk etc so that he gets used to the taste but not all LOs need this gradual change. Mine just took his cows milk and didn't bat an eye at the change.

The switch to a cup and away from bottles can be trickier. Often the milk amount vastly reduces when you switch so that can make a difference to how hungry he is.
I switched my DS's BT milk to a solids supper/snack with a cup of milk (small amount) after dinner and before bath time.  Gradual, no crying, no upset to routine. It took about 1 week at 12 months old. (I can give you further info if that's something you decide to do). His E routine was then WU milk, breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, supper with cup of milk - then bath and BT routine.

It took longer to switch the morning bottle.  I needed that one to stay as a good amount of milk so that he got his dairy needs so I couldn't switch to a cup. I switched instead to a straw in a bottle. This was over a number of weeks and finished at 13 months. He continued to have a straw in a drinks bottle (or straw cup) sat on my knee in the morning for a long time.

The thing with dropping bottles at 12 months is that it is not good for LOs to be having a bottle all day leaving their teeth covered in milk or juice, it's to stop LOs walking around with a bottle drip feeding them all day which is not what your LO is doing. Two quickly drunk bottles at WU and BT are not going to cause damage. The BT one should really be 30 mins prior to brushing teeth so you might want to focus on moving the bottle rather than dropping it.

[Lindsay27]

The thing with dropping bottles at 12 months is that it is not good for LOs to be having a bottle all day leaving their teeth covered in milk or juice, it's to stop LOs walking around with a bottle drip feeding them all day which is not what your LO is doing. Two quickly drunk bottles at WU and BT are not going to cause damage. The BT one should really be 30 mins prior to brushing teeth so you might want to focus on moving the bottle rather than dropping it.

^^This.  My DD is 19 months and still takes a WU bottle (hit and miss) and BT bottle of formula.  She's on the smaller side so I like the extra calories she gets.  Throughout the day she drinks whole milk (or water) from a sippy.  The 2 bottles she still gets are quick feeds and when she's done the bottle is taken away/teeth are brushed at bedtime.

[Lana]

Both of mine transitioned at 12 months from bottle to cup and formula to milk.  I only ever put formula in bottles and I did not every mix milk and formula. 

With ds 1 we just switched straight over.  I would not recommend this method . It was a rough few days and he was not a happy camper.

With ds 2 I started a bit before 12 months and cut out the day bottle first.  It was pretty easy to just drop them and give him a cup with milk at meals and whenever he wanted it. He did better with a straw than a sippy.  With the BT bottle I just gradually made it smaller over the course of two weeks and that was it.  By 13 months he was on milk and no bottles.  We didn't notice that he was any hungrier but it was a gradual change so I am sure that he just adjusted gradually as well.