When to Try Milk and Juice

You can try juice at any point now. My daughter started when she was about 4-6 mos. However, her pediatrician recommended whole milk no sooner than 1 year. Hope this helps!

I have a 10 month old son that we already give juice to (pasturized baby juice). Our pediatrician said that a baby should not have more than 4-6 ounces of juice each day because of the nutritional value (or lack thereof). I can't remember when we started our other two kids on juice. I can however remember that we did not transition our kids to whole cow milk before they turned 12 months. I think it's because of how hard it is for infants to digest cow's milk. But I'm no doctor, I would ask your peditrician for his/her recommendation.

Hi J.,

I would wait until at least 12 months before introducing milk & juice due to a higher risk of allergies if you expose your baby too soon.

K.

HI THERE J.,
I TRIED TO START MY OLDEST DAUGHTER ON MILK/ JUICE EARLY (9-10months old) BECAUSE I COULD NOT AFFORD FORMULA...IT SEEMED FINE AT FIRST BUT SHE GOT REALLY, REALLY, BAD DIARRHEA,AND HER STOMACH STARTED TO GET A RED RASH ON IT. COME TO FIND OUT THE JUICE, EVEN THOUGH DILUTED, WAS TO STRONG AND HER STOMACH COULD NOT DIGEST THE MILK. I WAS YOUNG AND INEXPERIENCED AND THE DOCTOR GAVE ME AN EAR FULL!! BUT EVERY CHILD IS DIFFERENT. I HOPE THIS HELPS. GOOD LUCK.

Hi J....I agree with everyone else about milk at 1 but speaking from experience...when you start juice - REALLY water it down and have her drink water a lot too. My daughter LOVED juice and now she is almost 3 and that is all she wants to drink. She does not like water or milk...only choc milk with ovaltine. Making her drink water is like a punishment in her mind. So I still try to give her 1/4 juice and 3/4 water to make up for all the juice she "thinks" she's drinking! Good luck!!

Hi J. I have a 19 month old daughter who is also a great eater always has been. We started with small amounts of juice around 9 months old and our pediatrition let us put Adena on regular milk at 10 months and shes had no problems she absoulutly loves milk. I would probably talk to your dr and see what she or he feels is best. Best wishes to you and yours.
Lisa

Most doctors recommend waiting until 1 year for milk and it is usually an easy transition. You can do juice now, but I recommend not giving her juice. It is not nutritionally necessary and she would benefit more from fruits and vegetables. The nutritionists I work with recommend sticking with milk and water. Once you introduce juice, they will often prefer it to water or milk. I have 3 kids and they rarely get juice, but drink alot of milk and water and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables.

Good luck!

I gave both my kids milk at 12mos some start earlier along with formula but they need formual for 12mos and milk it needs to be whole milk till about 2. Now I start giving juice about 9mos but watered down. Neither of my kids really liked it at first and if she likes water thats wonderful cause thats better! Sounds like you have a good eater on your hands!

Hi there. Most people (moms & doctors alike) will tell you to wait to give milk unitl at least 12 months. And they also say that for babies 12-24 months whole milk is needed, not skim or something. As for the juice, my daughter was also a great eater so I started giving her juice at about six months. Gerber makes these great little juice bottles that you can screw Gerber nipples right onto. I loved them becuase they were easy to take anywhere and becuase we tried to skip the sippy cup stage and go right from bottles to cups. It didn't exactly work that way but I tried! However, my ped. did tell me not more than one of them a day! Good luck!

I have a 9 1/2 month old and my ped has let me give him juice since he was 6 months old. They don't want you to give him more than 6 oz a day because they want their calories to come from milk/formula. My ped says no cows milk until they are 12 months because the protein is hard to digest and it could cause milk etc allergies.
Hope this helps.
Good luck

Your daughter should stay on formula until a year old or 12 mos. because her digestive system is most likely mature enough to handle the protein and fat in whole milk by 12 months and will also lessen the chance of iron deficiency anemia. You can try juice at this time---diluted with water 1:1.

You could start giving her juice now. Try and stay away from OJ too much acid but the little gerber juices in a sippy cup. They have alot of flavors. My daughters has only ate table food, never baby food. Whole milk is good for them start by giving her a little at a time to get her tummy use to it because when they first start drinking it they need the juice to balance there BM's because it makes them alittle constipated..but juice is good for her now.!! I never gave Antoinette anything"Baby". I use to buy gatorade and dilute it. Or if you want something different just till a couple months ago and it is good because it is so hot in AZ try flavor water. No sugar..better than juice or koolaide and they love it. My daughter will not drink too much of anything with alot of sugar. She will be 2 and a half and has never tasted soda.

Hi J.,
I spoke with my doc about this and he really is opposed to juice in that there is no nutrional value and is chock full of sugar. Milk can be introduced after 12 months. I have already begun to introduce milk products to my 10 month old through yobaby and the little soft cheeses. I plan on sticking to plain H2O and milk. Hope this helps! Good Luck!

Hi J.,
The doctor's all recommend waiting unitl at least a year. Also the whole juice thing. I would wait a year and then really diluting the juice. They will be happy for a little sweetness and flavor. But do try to wait with the milk thing. Not good for digestion for the little tummy.

She can have juice now as long as its not substituting for a bottle feeding. If you are using regular juice instead of the baby brands then I would recommend cutting it with water. Also, you shouldn't give cow's milk until she is at least a year old :)

I gave my kids whole milk when they were your daughter's age and I gave all of them juice when they were around 6 months old. It is perfectly ok to give her whole milk and juice at her age.

No milk until after 12 months. Their bodies aren't ready to digest the proteins in straight cow’s milk yet and it can cause internal bleeding in their intestines. It is minute bleeding, not visible in the stool, so stay away. I did start giving my kids sips of milk around 10/11 months old to prep them for the change.

Juices are good for them, but look for 100% juice items and low sugar helps. Variety is good now, because around 18 months kids like to become picky so a decent base of variety gives them more to work with.

As long as the food is soft and she has the teeth to handle whatever you give her, feed away. Whatever she wants provided it's not on the "no-no" list (like peanut butter) because of allergies. Watch out for hotdogs they are the #1 reason kids choke, cut all meat tiny.

If you're worried about allergies, the rule is to try one new thing at a time, and to give it to the child for a few days. No reactions mean they are fine. Things that could indicate an allergy are rashes, changes in BM and unusually cranky or crying a lot (gas).

My kids were fine with everything. We never ran into allergies and I was very vigilant about the size of items they ate to prevent choking. Other than that they ate what I ate. Have fun!

you can start your baby on goats milk at any time. Its perfectly safe and has no allergy tendencies, unlike whole milk. Some doctors don't even suggest whole milk until a child turns 2! But, I started mine on whole milk at 11 months, and switched to goats milk later on, because she became really congested with the regular milk, and her ears have been a whole different story. But, juice can be started pretty early on. So, I'd say both are safe, as long as Riley isn't sensitive with allergies. Strawberries are also an allergine and wheat can be hard on thier digestive track because it isn't fully developed yet.... good luck!

Wow she's a good eater. I wish my kid was like that.

You can give her whole milk when she turns 1 years old. If you give earlier, it could upset her stomach. Most docs recommend not to give baby food until at least 6 months to prevent allergies and intestinal issues. But, you could ask your doc if you could start her earlier if she can tolerate everything else.

My son is 3. He drank Enfamil Lipil for 4 months then we switched him to Enfamil Lactofree Lipil. After he turned 1, he was on Whole Milk, after 2 months, we switched him to 2% milk because of the excess phlegm. Then when he turned 2 we switched him to 1% milk and he's been fine ever since.

When he started drinking juice (after the gerber baby juices) at one years old and up, he drank 2 oz of apple juice with 6 oz of water. Now we upped it to 4 oz of apple juice with 4oz of water. But orange juice which the last 6 months, he's starting to really enjoy it. We give it to him straight up. Donald Duck Frozen OJ Concentrate mixed with water is pretty good. It's better than Minute Maid, less acidic, no citric acid added which causes the bitterness and stomach pains. Of course anything with some to all pulp is better, but they can't tolerate it yet and it doesn't strain thru sippy cup either.

Food-wise:
He was allergic to The Berries Group, Eggs, Corn, Nuts, Soy Milk and Soy Formula. Now he's fine with the Berries group, most nuts except Peanut Butter and Soy Milk. Soy Milk and Soy Formula gives him blow outs, cooked eggs and corn (anything made from corn..not counting corn syrup or cornstarch), gives him rash, sometimes diarrhea, and he does have eczema. One of my friends believe her daughter got eggs allergy from flu shot. But I don't know for sure. My son's had flu shot since he was 10 months old. And his allergist said that is okay. He's not allergic to eggs in baked goods, Eggo Waffles, etc. Peanut Butter gives him hives on his face. And he's allergic to cats and dogs too. Dogs give him hives from head to toe. So, everytime we go to someone's house, I don't give him benadryl or Claritin anymore, but I do get him bathed as soon as we get home. After that he seems fine.

My doctor and the baby books said whole milk at 1. (My daughter had no reaction to the change. When she turned one, for that month, I gave her 1/2 formula 1/2 milk. Then right into whole. She loves her milk!) Start getting her use to cold milk if you haven't already. The transition will be hard & she might not drink as much milk as she needs if she will only drink warm milk.

At 2 you can go to 2% and at 3 they can drink skim. I think it has more to do with the fat content of what they need than just the nutritional value. Milk & water are just plain better than soda, tea or juice. The calcium is I believe greater in skim than whole.

And FYI- Milk in this country is fortified with vitamins A and D and is the major dietary source of both. It's also one of the major contributors of riboflavin, a B-vitamin involved in the breakdown of food. It's also a good source of vitamin B-12. Together, these B-vitamins play a role in cardiovascular health.

I think it was a bad idea to start table food at 4 months just because breast milk is all she needs at such a young age and you don't want her to become overweight. As far as milk, it needs to be given when she turns 1 and it has to be vitamin D for that whole year. Juice can be given starting now and can be served mixed with a little bit of water so there is not so much sugar for her to drink. I always think water is a great drink to get children accustomed to. Hope you have a great day.

We've been giving our 11 month old watered-down juice (about a half and half combination) since she's been 6 months and we plan on introducing whole milk at 1 year. Both were advised by our pediatrician. Hope this helps!

You can give juices now I would water them down. Thats what I learned from WIC. But like the other mothers say no milk till 12 months!

You should keep her on formula until she is a year and after that you can put her on whole milk. You can give her juice though, you should try the small juice bottles from gerber my kids always loved those. I wouldn't try anything that could be too hard on her tummy like oj or something that really acidic.

Hi J. - I have a 18 month old who was taken off formula by my doctor at 9 months because of the same reason. He was getting all the stuff he needed from the table food and the doctor said there was no need to give him formula. I mixed half formula and half whole milk to start because he would not do the milk at first it was different and kept reducing the amount of formula until he was taking the whole milk. You can always ask your doctor their is a test they can do to tell if she will still need the additional nutrients in the formula. Good luck.

Hi, J.:

As I remember...my kids are teenagers now...You should wait until after she is a year old to give her whole milk. Juice, I believe, is ok now. I tended to buy the baby juices though, as I've heard they're easier on their digestion. OR, you can water down regular juices.

Hope this helps!
Kat

Hi Jodi,
You can give her juice now....she has to be on formula till shes a year old, then you can start giving her milk.