Should I Give My 1 Year Old Regular Milk?

i was told by my pediatrician to start vit d milk at one and to do both sippie cup and bottle at 6 mos so that at one yr they are able to do just a sippie cup. and at one then again i am on wic so they told me at one stop formula and do reg milk. and i get the 7 and 10oz sippies and he gets pleanty of milk an juice. i usually do juice throughout the day and milk at night. but once he falls asleep put water in the cup so if he gets thirsty at nite he can drink water cuz they shouldnt go to bed with a milk bottle cuz it will ruin their teeth...hope this helps

S.

Take the bottles that are around meal times and replace those first. Use sippy cups then. Make sure he is getting better at drinking before you try to replace any other bottles. He will get the hang of it.

At a year old you can give your son whole milk. Give him whole milk for a year. When he turns 2 then you can give him 2% or whatever you drink. You can start him on a sipper cup now as well. It is time to bottle break him. It might be a struggle but he'll get used to it over time. You may have a lot of crying but you can't give in. He shouldn't have anything at bed time because the sugars in milk will stick on his teeth and cause cavities. He will get plenty of milk even though he spills. Just give him 4 oz. at a time until he gets used to a sipper cup then you can give him 6-8 oz. Give him one cup in the morning with his breakfast one at lunch and give him juice later on and then give him some milk for supper and then before he goes to bed. He is too old for the formula now. He is also going to have to learn to go to bed without the bottle not only because of the sugars in the milk like I mentioned but because the longer he is on the bottle he is more likely to end up having trouble with his teeth. Some kids end up with buck teeth because the parents wait too long to take the bottle away from them. As he gets older he doesn't need as much milk as what he did when he was on formula.
D.

I am 31 and have been married for almost 12 yrs. My husband and I have 3 boys ages 10,7 and 4. I live in South Bend as well.

Hi K.,

Nice to see a neighbor here. I teach in Elkhart. We adopted our daughter one year ago just before her first birthday. Because she'd been in an orphanage with inferior formula, we kept her on formula for a few more months. The doctor did say she normally liked to see her patients go to milk around one. We did the gradual thing until her bottles were all milk.

Transitioning to sippy cups was easy. LIke a previous suggestion, we switched at meals first. She loved them because the handles were so much easier than a bottle to hold. She had really tiny hands back then. The last bottle I gave up was her night time bottle and that was more for me. Even so, she was off the bottle by 18 months.

She just turned two, and we switched to 2% with no fuss at all.

Good luck!

Hi K.,

I had the same confusion when my now 20 month old was about to turn one. I soon realized after talking with many parents and the pediatrician that the switch does not have to be such a big deal. What I did was I mixed half formula/water mixture with half whole milk in a bottle to get my son used to the taste and help his stomach adjust to the milk. I started weaning off the bottle by gradually replacing one bottle during meal time with a sippy cup. My son still takes a bottle at night before bedtime and it's not a big deal. Even his pediatrician agrees that is ok. Eventually we got to the point of giving full cows milk most of the time, but I still gave my son a sippy or bottle of the toddler formula once a day until just recently to boost his nutritional intake because he is such a picky eater. It's best to use the books as guidlines, but realize you will not mess your child up if you don't follow those rules exclusively.
Good luck.

K.

With my oldest son, I went by the books and threw away all the bottles on the first birthday. Few more babies later, I realize that every baby/child matures at his or her own pace. My Thomas is 17 months old and still takes a few bottles. All of my kids were able to switch from formula or breast mild to milk on their 1st birthday... I didn't have to "wean" off of the formula, I just switched and they were fine. My advice would be to continue to give him his bottles, but give him the sippy cup in the highchair with meals and snacks. When he starts mastering the sippy cup, you can worry about weaning the bottles when YOU feel that he is ready. Even my pediatrician did not say one negative thing about Thomas still getting a few bottles. Don't let people scare you by making you think you're hurting him by continuing to give him bottles, if that's what you want to do. =)

Best of luck and enjoy that little guy ~ they grow up SO incredibly fast!!

~S.