Advise Re 10 Month Old Diet- Switching to Whole Milk

I am a mom of two. A 4 year old and a 19 month old. Both swiched over to whole milk around 10 - 11 months old. I started with strait whole milk and neither one rejected it. I put it into a leak proof sippy cup. I started weaning them off of a bottle around 6 months old and put the formula into a sippy cup. I would increase the dinner one and stop the one before bedtime. I hope this was helpful.

Read a book called "The China Study" regarding milk... I can guarantee you if you read that your questions will be answered, it's a fascinating book

Hi J.---Have fun eating with your baby. I think your baby will tell you what and how much he needs to eat. I work with Dr. Bill and Dr. Jim (The Doctors) Sears and they have a great website, www.askdrsears.com. I'm sure they have some suggestions as to what and how much your son should be eating.

I agree with another poster about drinking cows milk. My family and I used to be HUGE milk drinkers until we started being more proactive with our health. Cows milk has a nutrient composition designed for baby cows. We are the only species that drinks the milk of another animal. But you should do your own research on the subject. You can start at www.strongbones.org. Cows milk is highly allergenic, causing problems from Type 1 diabetes to symptoms that can't be explained and not usually associated with cows milk. We don't need milk for calcium. In fact, it is not well absorbed from milk at all. You get much more calcium from green leafy veggies, legumes and sesame seeds than from milk.

I am taking a series of Wellness Classes taught by a Naturopath who has her PhD in Nutrition. I would be happy to share her analysis with you, if you'd like. Just give me a call at your convenience and we can talk. I also have charts of serving sizes for differents age kids and other resources such as that.

Good luck! In health, D. ###-###-####

you may want to try a bedtime bottle but don't leave the bed time bottle with him he needs to drink before falling asleep. I would try to give more formula after dinner. I think he should have a 6 to 8 oz bottle after every meal. You will have to decrease formula and add milk at 12 months until its all milk. Most kids won't take a milk bottle they have to be couched into it. I would give him more if he can take it during the day and less at night at 10 months being on formula he shouldn't need more than one bottle if any during the night he should be able to sleep all night. Are you sure hes waking to eat and not just haveing something in his dreams or something? Good luck

Hmmmm~ I don't think I switched my son until much, much later. My son was nursed until almost a year and had supplemental formula, and foods... but I don't think we did the milk until later. Have you spoken with your pediatrician regarding this?

Know that the more food that you give him he will be more satisfied. All my kids had bottles until they were 1 year, one til 14 months, let them decide but nothing over 15 months. I use to feed them a lot at dinner stick to your bones kind of food (mashed potatoes, rice, small pieces of meat) along with the vegetables, then give them the bottle at night and they all slept through the night. At dinner I wouldn't give them formula I would give them juice or water, only other time they had a bottle was at nap. At one year I did the first week of bottles mixed 1/2 formula 1/2 whole milk and watched for allergy reactions, when I didn't have any they were changed to full milk, none of them noticed the difference at all.

This website is really helpful for the "solids" and what to feed and when.

As for bottles, every kid is different on that. My daughter used to want a huge bottle before bed (6-8 oz). Both my kids would drink 6 oz. bottles at each bottle time.

Switching to whole milk- our dr. recommends switching about a week before the child's 1 year check up so we can discuss any issues that may arise. As for the 1/2 and 1/2, that will depend on your child's taste buds. My daughter went straight to milk and never looked back. We put it in a sippy cup (to get rid of bottles at the same time). My son is only 10 months so we have a little time before changing over there.

I actually just ran into this problem. I strictly breastfed my son until at 11 mos, I just stopped producing as much as I was. This is what I do. When he is at Gram's- she mixes 1/2 breastmilk with 1/2 organic whole milk (so my frozen stuff will get us till he is 12mos). Then we will just switch to whold milk. At home I still breastfeed him, but I also offer formula after. He only feeds 2-3 times per day. It sucks giving him formula, but after putting him to bed fussy for about 3 weeks, we realized he was hungry. We felt horrible and now he is back to his old self. Never had any changes with poops even though he is now getting formula, whold milk and breastmilk. He's been a real trooper. Good luck!

I always just started giving my kids straight whole milk shortly after their 1st birthday.

One trick I used with all of mine is that Formula is the only thing that ever GOES IN A BOTTLE. Once we started juices or milk they went into the sippy cups. Then as soon as you wean off formula your done with the bottles and don't have 2 yr olds running around with bottles...

Your munchkin lets you know if they need more food or less. So feed the baby till he is full and go with it. No kids eat exactly the same amounts or schedules... Our 2 yr old is a small meal snacker all morning and not really a dinner eater. Our 8 and 5 yr olds eat more on a normal schedule...
Figure out YOUR childs schedule and go with it.

I always found that when you feed the baby right before bed they let you sleep longer. I nursed our older two until a year old and our younger ended up on bottles at 6 months... I would always "top them off" right before bed and they all slept thru the night from really young.
Once we would switch to sippy cups then we would decrease the amount right before bed and let them drink to their bellies were content at dinner...

And FYI (off the topic of feeding baby)... People have been drinking cows milk for many long millenia... Its the homoginization and pasturization that is now "manditory " that changes the nutrients in the milk into something that SOME people can not digest and handle. The upswing in "diabeties" and other symptoms has only happened in the last 30 yrs... hmmm... but so has the proliferation of fast food, candy, sodas, and other junk food in our daily lives...Can't blame it all on milk and not look at ALL other possible factors.

Your son won't be able to properly digest the enzymes in whole milk until he is twelve months old; then he needs to stay on whole milk until he's two; his body needs the fat proteins in whole milk to digest other vitamins and nutrients.