How to Switch from Formula to Whole Milk?

With my older kids, we just went straight to the milk and didn't have any problem. I know some people slowly add it to the formula so that you eventually work up to no formula. One hting though is that 30 ounces of milk in one day is too much. It can cause constipation. Give water or maybe give a juice instead. Maybe 4 or 6 oz with breakfdast, lunch and then dinner and another sometime in the day.

Hi N.,

I'm a mother of three. My youngest child is almost 9 months. One thing that I found about transitioning from formula to milk is that it isn't a difficult thing to accomplish. I simply started substituting one bottle at a time. My daughter is now drinking out of a nine ounce bottle. One bottle of formula in the morning, one bottle of Vitamin D milk in addition to baby food for lunch, one bottle of Vitamin D milk after naptime,and one bottle of formula at bedtime. She has adjusted to the milk very well. I give her the formula in the morning and at bedtime because it seems to be a little heavier and filling for her stomach. Throughout the day she is also fed baby food which curves her appetite. Eventually the transition to whole milk will come with all four bottles. Good Luck to you and your baby!!!

Hi, I went through this exact same thing 6 months ago. It was actually very easy, I started to mix the formula with milk (1/2 of each). After 2-3 weeks I went to straight milk. From there he weened himself down. Now he is 18 months and has a sippy cup of milk in morning, lunch, snack and before bed. Good luck!!!

Mom of 1 adorable little man!

What I did with both my daughters is gradually add milk to the formula. I started out week 1 with 1/4 milk and 3/4 formula, then week 2 half milk, half formula and week 3 3/4 milk and 1/4 formula then week 4 all milk. That way, her system had a chance to gradually get used to the milk and it worked really well with both of my kids.

I was in the same boat as you, my daughter was on soy formula tho. What I did was mix her formula half and half with the milk and just kept adding more milk till it was all milk. if your lil one was on regular formula then you should just be able to switch to the milk. Beware tho that some children will not drink cold milk if you were using room temp baby water and powder formula. My lil one will NOT drink cold milk to this day and she is 16 mo. old. I still have to warm it enough to take most of the chill of in a container of hot water not in the microwave. I just replaced all of her formula bottles with milk cuz she won't drink anything but milk or water. I hope this helps you.

When my twin boys were 12 months old, I made the switch from formula to milk gradually by mixing the milk in with their formula. I started by putting in just a little milk with their normal sippy-cup of formula and would increase the amount of milk each day until, after a couple of weeks, they were no longer drinking formula. This worked very well for us. At the recommendation of their pediatrician, we also started giving milk only at mealtime (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and gave them water in between and after meals. Good luck - with the high cost of formula, it's such a relief to switch to milk!

I worried about this a lot too, but we introduced the sippy cup about a month before the first birthday so our son would get the hang of the sippy. We planned on cutting out both bottles and formula cold turkey at age 1. I needlessly panicked about it, because we switched over and he didn't miss a thing.

I also panicked about cutting out the 'before bed' bottle, so what I did was put my son in his pajamas and clean diaper about 15 minutes before his actual bedtime. When I took him upstairs for night time, I turned on his music, put him in his crib, and off to sleep he went. This is the routine we used before his am and pm nap (take upstairs, turn on music, put down in crib), so I figured we'd just 'fake a nap routine' for night time. Again, no problems whatsoever.

As far as feeding, you can try to get into a 3 meals/2 snacks routine. Give your baby 6-8 ounces of milk with the meals and give your baby water with the snacks. You don't want to give much more than 24 ounces of milk daily, because like the other poster said it can lead to constipation. It can also 'falsely fill them up' where they load up on the milk but aren't hungry enough to eat the important nutritional variety in the actual 'food' from their meals.

Good luck - I found this transition to be a lot of fun, especially since it aligned more with a typical family eating schedule.

We introduced the sippy cup at 6mo with water at every meal and then at 1 yr replaced with milk. My first took a couple weeks to get the whole milk thing. My 2nd and 3rd had it at 11mo and loved it...bottles and nursing ceased at 1 yr.

We just switched to the next step formula for about a month and she only got 2 sippies of that per day, the rest was whole milk. But on the advice of our Ped, he told us to just go "cold turkey". I was a bit worried , but it worked out just fine. Good luck!

Yes, you can switch them right after their first b-day, there is a reason and they finally build their enzymes at 11m and 3wks. She may not like the taste and you can also try rice milk, easier to digest than cow's milk, same forified vitamins and minerals too (I've compared) if you find she gets too gassy or constipated after the switch to whole milk. Make sure it is free of antibiotics, rGBH, it will say it on the label.

Good luck and happy b-day!

I did the next step formula for a while, but then it just got too expensive...not that organic milk is cheap these days, but I found she didn't have a problem when I warmed the milk. Did it for a while and then less and less each time until she takes is cold. But she is turning two and still takes a bottle at nap,night, and early morning before we are ready to start the day to keep her in bed.