Transitioning from Formula to Milk - Conroe,TX

Step 1, get your child on whole milk in the bottle. You can do this by mixing half whole milk with half orange juice (it worked for our child - although it sounds and looks awful.. we could not get her to take milk any other way)slowly decrease the amount of orange juice until you are on straight whole milk. Once she is accustomed to the whole milk and drinks it well, then move to step2. Step 2 is gradually get rid of the bottles, to do this, give her a sippy cup (mine would not take anything but a straw sippy cup)in place of one of her bottles. Gradually replace a 2nd bottle with the sippy cup, and make the night time bottle the last to go - as this is usually the most difficult bottle to give up. Stick to your guns. The older the child is when you wean off the bottle, the harder it is on them because their memory is better and they can picture the bottle in their mind even when it isn't there, so stick to your guns and she will transition. It takes time, but it will happen. Hope this helps

We transitioned to milk at 11 months.
Week 1 - 6oz formula, 2oz whole milk
Week 2 - 4oz formula, 4oz milk
Week 3 - 2oz formula, 6oz milk
Week 4 - 8oz milk

Now, getting rid of bottles took a bit longer. It took until about 18 months and we had to just put them away completely to make the final switch.

If you feel she is not taking in enough milk and offer her a bottle, she will continue not drinking from a cup. She wins the battle. Find a cup (Nuby brand) that has a spout that still enables child to suck a bit - sometimes it takes time to learn to drink and swallow.

it took us about a month to get totally on the sippy. once he was use to just drinking milk we switched it to a sippy only. at his daycare they only gave him a sippy which he drank out of fine...but at home was a different story. it takes time. Good luck.

I can't speak about the formula to milk situation (we aren't there yet), but I can speak about the sippy cup. My daughter wouldn't take anything but water either, so every day I put formula in it and then I increased it to several times a day. FINALLY, she is taking her formula like a champ! She was a breast only baby, so formula was something new for her, but so is milk for your little one! Good luck and keep at it!

Hey K.,
To get my son on whole milk I just started with 1/4 milk 3/4 formula then 1/2 and 1/2 and so on. I would say in about a month or so he was on whole milk, around 13 months or so. I didn't worry about getting him off a bottle at that time because I wanted him to transition to milk first and just handle one change at a time. Around 17 months or so I transitioned him to a sippy cup of milk. Actually we were out one day and I didn't have a bottle and he was supper thirsty. I bought him some milk and put it in a sippy I did have with me and he sucked it down. From that day on, the bottles ended. So maybe try to get him adjusted to milk and and in a few months just try him on a sippy and see how it goes. Good luck!