Advice Needed for Transition from Formula to Milk

Well, the cool thing is that she will now be getting her nutrition from food, so if she doesn;t drink her milk it's not the end of the world. If I were you, I would throw the formula out and just give her a sippy cup(not a bottle) with milk in it and only when she is eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Out of sight, out of mind is the best thing about one year olds, so it might take some time, but she will soon forget about her bottles and formula.

The nurse at my pediatrician's office gave me some advice that worked out really well for us. She prefaced this by saying that if you ask ten different nurses, you will get ten different answers, but like I said we took this advice and it was helpful to us . . .

She said at this point, you don't want to do anything to make the bottle more appealing, so don't put milk in the bottle. Only give milk in a sippy cup. Make a big deal of it and offer it after a meal like a dessert (because milk can be an appetite suppressant). At the same time, start diluting the regular formula bottles, so your daughter will become less and less interested in them. We did this over a period of about a month- six weeks (3/4 strength bottle, 1/2 strength, etc.)

Another important thing to remember is that your daughter won't be drinking nearly as much milk as she did formula. She will be starting to get more and more of her nutrients from her solids, so don't be worried if she isn't taking the same number of ounces of milk that she did formula. Also, some kids just don't like milk and never become big milk drinkers. That's okay, too, if they can get their dairy from yogurt, cheese, etc.

Our son started out slowly with milk, but now he guzzles it. Using this method, he was off of a bottle completely within six weeks (at 13 1/2 months). I hope that helps. Good luck with the transition!

We give our 10 1/2 month old, almond milk. He still gets breast milk, but he loves almond milk too. It is in the condensed milk/ evaporated milk isle. It is suppose to be the closest thing to breast milk. It is also a whole lot better for them than cow's milk. It is a little on the expensive side, but it is so good for them and they don't have the allergies you get from cow's milk.

A., I can remember going through that. I gave my daughter like 1/3 milk (whole) and mixed the rest formula. After a few days, I just kept tappering off...It worked out great and the baby didn't mind a bit. You can also add some karo syrup in there...like maybe a 1/4 tsp. It makes it sweeter when they switch completely over to milk.

Hey A. its Trish...

Avery just switched from Formula to milk last month. I was a little scared to do so at first since she has been on lactose free formula. Needless to say it didnt go well...we tried Regular milk. Turns out she needed Lactose free milk.

She wouldnt drink the milk at first...so we slowly introduced the milk little by little mixing it with her formula until it was all milk. We also swiched her from bottle to sippie cup at the same time. Turns out Nubby is the best kind for her to transition with.

Took only a few days and now she drinks only Milk...lactose free that is.

Good luck...

BTW - we need to get the girls together for a playdate.

Try switching more gradually; perhaps making bottles with half milk half formula or 2/3 formula 1/3 milk so that she can get used to the taste more gradually. Formula is all she has known; she probably does not understand why suddenly she is supposed to drink something else. Gradually add more and more milk as she becomes comfortable drinking the mix. eventually you can take it down to all milk.

I had a very difficult time getting my daughter to switch from breastmilk to formula. A friend of mine told me to start by mixing 2 oz. of formula with 4 or 5 oz. of breastmilk. Every couple of days I would add a little more formula to the breastmilk until all she was drinking was formula. I don't see why you could not do the same with whole milk and formula. Start by just adding 1 oz of whole milk to her bottles and gradually increase it until she is just drinking nothing but whole milk. It might take a little while but it should work. Don't try and rush it give her a couple of days with each increase. Good luck.

HI,
Mix the formula and milk in increments. Start with 3/4 formula and 1/4 milk. Then go from there, gradually increasing milk and decreasing formula. Works like a charm. We did that with our son and it didn't take more than 2 weeks...if that!!! Good Luck

The Nuby sippy cups are the best to transition over from a bottole. Try warming the milk just a tad. My daughter didn't like milk at first but I soon realized it wasn't the milk but the cold temerature. Good luck!

try combining the two starting with equal amounts and slow reduce the amount of forumla and increase the amount of milk. Or you could drop a little chocolate in it. :)

I didn't want to have milk in a bottle and then have to wean off bottles, so I only put milk in the sippy cup, and formula in the bottle. It took me several cups to find one she likes (we use straw sippy cups- Gerber I think?) and started offering her the sippy with milk at meals, and sippy with water during the day. It took a couple weeks of continually offering, but eventually she figured it out and started drinking more and more milk out of the sippy, and I cut out the bottles in between as she didn't need them anymore. In about a month she was down to only a night time bottle of formula, and we are still working on getting rid of that :-)

My daughter is 12 months and have been working on the same issue. We have been gradually switching her over to milk. We started by doing 4 ounces formula 2 ounces milk, then we went to 3 and 3, and now we are at 4 ounces of milk and 2 ounces of formula. Hopefully we can go to all milk next week. Maybe this will work with your child.