Weaning from Bottle & Formula

I started at breakfast lunch and dinner. I took away those three bottles and used sippy's. I did this at the same time as transitioning from formula also. I did a mixture of formula/milk so that she would take to the milk. I started with 4 ounces of formula and then 2 ounces of milk. At this time she was also getting a night time bottle. I didn't end up taking that away that bottle until she was fully transitioned over to milk. Then when that time was right I took away that bottle and offered a sippy instead. Good luck! If anything your dr will give advice at your 1 year check up.

I agree with the other response. I found that I was wasting a lot of formula by using the sippy cup. My son drinks a lot less out of the sippy. And if your child has not used a sippy cup, you may need to experiment with different sippy cups.

With our first daughter we put milk in the bottle for a couple weeks. Then it moved to a sippy cup. Our youngest daughter had severe reflux and she got what was called a formula shake (formula with lots of baby cereal) plus two meds. So, with our doctors input, we introduced milk in the sippy cup, while still giving her a bottle with her formula shake in it. Once we were able to determine that she could handle and hold down the milk while still taking her meds, we slowly took her off the formula. We never put formula in the sippy cups tough.

I put the milk in the bottle first so that he could get used to the taste of it first. Then, at one year old I put all the bottles in a bag and let him kiss them good bye. We went on a shopping trip to buy "big boy sippy cups" and he never missed his bottles or asked for them again. Good luck! :)

I starting putting whole milk in with the other milk a month before. As far as bottle to sippy I did cold turkey. I just put the bottles away one day. You really dont have to get rid of bottles until around 15 to 18 months if you don't want to.

D.,
Babies hate the taste of cow's milk. The best way to switch him over is by increasing the amount of cow's milk and decreasing the amount of formula 1 ounce at a time until you have a full bottle of cow's milk with no formula. I would also do one thing at a time. Wean him to cow's milk first and then start to wean the bottle. One thing you can do is give him a sippy cup at meals with watered down apple juice to teach him how to use the sippy cup first and then in time switch him over to milk in the sippy cup. I hope this helps. J.

Ugh...had this same dilemma...and with the cereal in the formula, as well. I really didnt know what else to do except switch over to milk in a sippy without cereal in it. I figured changing it all at once was the easiest way. At 13 months my son gave up the bottle all on his own (well, at least never objected to not having it) and was on to the milk in the sippy. At nearly 2, I still notice some spitting (rarely) and did my own little experiment with Silk...no spitting...which only confirmed my suspicions that it was lactose, not a true allergy.

Hope some of the info helps...it's just what I learned during that same stage.
~L.

Hello I also live in shelby township. I am a mother of 4. You need to wean him from the cereal a little at a time cut it a half a teaspoon at a time. Than as you cut the cereal add milk. If he is taking 8 oz. add 4 oz formula 4 oz milk. If he notices and won't drink do 6 oz. formula 2 milk than after a week add half and half than after another week. Add another once more of milk minus formula. Don't do the sippy. My first two where advanced to a sippie at one. My last two wouldn't take a sippy till amonth after they where one. So you could try it with water first see how he does. You have to actually suck on it and show him what to do. I recomand Gerber sippies.Have fun and enjoy they are so awesome!!!

Hi D.---It's been a long time since I've weaned my babies, but this thought occured to me as I read the different posts. I would think you could do both at the same time. I would make the bottle then pour out a very small qty in a cup and let him try it before you give him the bottle. Then gradually increase the amount in the cup and then eventually he is just using the cup. But, as I said, it's been a long time for me and lots of things have changed in 18 years.

I would caution you strongly about giving cows milk to your son until he is much older, if at all. Please explore www.strongbones.org for more information. Cows milk is strongly implicated in type 1, or childrens onset diabetes, even without family history, and undigested cows milk proteins look exactly like the insulin creating pancreas cells. Our immune system can sometimes mistake the two. I have more information on the subject if you would like. In fact, a group that I work with is sponsoring a health education lecture on Nov 14, 7 pm in Troy and Nov 15 at 11 am in Dundee. Dr. Valerie Miles, a pediatrician from Florida will be talking about how to make your family healthy. She practices complementary medicine along with conventional allopathic medicine. I would be honored to have you join me. Call me or email me directly for the flyer. In health, D. McCall ###-###-#### ____@____.com

my little guy just turned 14 months. there are probably a tons of ways you can go about doing this but here is how we did it. We had him drinking out of sippy cup already. water, breastmilk and then at 11 months we added an ounce of whole cow milk to the breast milk and then every few days increased it a little so he was ready for whole cow milk at 12 months. our nanny substituted a sippy cup with every meal instead of a bottle. the last bottles to go were in the daytime before nap then they became sippy cup too. It was an easy transition which I fould very odd because usually it is hard so be prepared babys do not like usually to get rid of bottle! we do use binky so that helps plus I still breast feed at night.

good luck!!!

Definitely wean from the bottle first. It is better to get rid of it sooner than later. You can continue giving formula as long as you need to. Doesn't really matter what the delivery of it is though.

I'm Not Sure With The Formula To Milk But With My Daughter I Broke Her Of The Bottle At 6months Old And Plan to Do the Same With My Son.. With The Formula To Milk I Had No Problem With My Daughter... So I Would Say I Would Work On Breaking From The Bottle First... I Feel It Really Helps...

For transitioning formula to milk, we did it slowly, just to make sure there wasn't any problems.

It took 8 weeks total. Week 1 was 7 ounces of formula with 1 ounce of Whole Milk. Week 2 was 6 ounces of formula with 2 ounces of whole milk. Week 3 was 5 ounces of formula and 3 ounces was whole milk. Etc, etc. until you have a whole bottle of milk, and no formula. (This would also be a good way to reduce the amount of cereal in the bottle too, unless the spitting up the milk continues)

For transitioning to the sippy cup, I let my son lead me on that one. He was about 14 months old and one day I gave him his milk in a bottle. I left him home with his father, went to a dental appointment, and returned a few hours later to find he'd barely drank an ounce. So I thought "Hmmmm" and I took the milk that had been available the whole time, and put it in a sippy cup with a soft spout (Nuby cups). He drank 6 ounces immediately!!!

I gave him milk again in the soft spout sippy later on that night and before I knew it, it had been 3 days since he had a bottle.

We packed up the bottles and never had a problem at all.

Good luck!

Our doctor suggested doing both at the same time by only giving milk in the sippy cup and keeping formula in the bottle. She told us to gradually increase the amount of milk in the sippy cup and reduce the amount of formula in the bottle to wean the bottle. In order to keep the additional nutrition of the formula for a while we continued to use it as the "mixer" for her cereal/oatmeal each day.

Our daughter took right to the sippy cup to the point that a week later she wouldn't even take the bottle at all. She realized that the milk/formula would come out of the cup faster than the bottle. LOL We did still give SOME warmed formula in the cup on occasion in the evening about a half hour before bedtime, to get her to sit and wind down before going to bed.

With all 3 of mine, I just gave them a sippy cup of milk with their breakfast, lunch, and dinner, in the high chair, and with their snacks. As they nursed (because they were full on food) it just naturally went down to bed time and early morning and then just stopped.

I would jsut not give a bottle when they are having food. Give cereal with a spoon. I would only change one thing at a time, give it a chance to become a habit, and accepted and then change the next thing that you want to stop.

Good luck.

When we transitioned to milk at one year, we went right to the sippy cup with no problems at all. I was also breastfeeding at naptime and night time.