Starting Almost 1Yr Old on Whole Milk

That's how I transitioned my son, because I tried to give them whole milk one day and he would not take a sip. So I gradually introduced it and it worked! The night bottle, I was told to give him water instead of milk, that way he would stop because he didn't like it. I hope it works for you.

My Dr. told me to go to straight milk so that we could find out if my daughter had allergies right away. That didn't work for her though. We had to add about an ounce of milk each day because she could taste it if there was more and wanted nothing to do with it. IT seemd to work well and by about a week she was all milk. I don't have any great suggestions about eliminating night time feeding other than give her a bottle right be fore bed.

I havent actually switched yet but I had e-mailed my Dr about switching my son to the "next step" formula this week and he told me that I could go ahead and go right to whole milk because there wasnt that much of a difference (my son is 10.5 months).

good luck

I have a 5 yr old and a one yr old. We weaned to a sippy cup with milk just before the first birthday. (Both boys)Our one year old actually seemed to prefer milk to formula. If you get rid of all the bottles, and do just a sippy cup, they lose their desire to feed at night because it is no longer a comfort to them. We substituted by putting a binky in his crib (he now needs three, one for the mouth, and one for each hand). He is now sleeping through the night five or six nights a week. When he does wake, he can have milk from a sippy cup and a very short cuddle, then back to bed.

I started giving my son whole milk much earlier before his first birthday because he had already had it in cooking, etc. Plus, he had no other reactions to anything else he had tried at that point. He didn't get it often but just now and then. He was exclusively breastfed so I can't speak to advice on bottles and formula. But if your baby is going to be one next week I don't think going a week early is going to hurt a thing. They mainly have that rule in place to encourage breastfeeding for the first year and/or formula of course.

Good Morning, I know this is a little late but my little boy turned 1 in Dec and I had the same question. I did half and half for a couple of weeks, like three, just to see how he would react. I also decreased the amout I was giving him per day from 32 oz to 24 oz (milk really fills them up). We ended up changing from milk to soy because he was spitting up, just like when he was a newborn. He tolerates regular soy just fine. And there's my two cents!
I'm sure she will be fine no matter what you do!
T.

Hi J.,

My son just turned 1 year too and we just switched to milk from formula. I was nervous at first and asked my ped. Since my boy was drinking a milk based formula it was a good indication of his not having allergies to dairy or being likely to have complications switching.

WIC sounds like they have good transitioning strategy. I just gave him 4 oz of milk and waited to see if he had any unusal reactions. He did not, so I continued with it watching closely.

If your child does, you can go back to formula and try it again in 6 months and so on till she seems like it is tolerable. Just relating what my ped shared with me.

Good Luck! J.

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My 12-mos old just had her first whole milk this week, and her dr recommended no weaning off of formula/onto milk. If she has shown no allergy to other dairy products, they said to go ahead and switch over. We did, and she loves milk! No adverse reactions to speak of. Check with your doctor, but they will prolly tell you the same.

I would go ahead and try the whole milk now. If she has had problems before with formulas upsetting her tummy then I would try the 50/50 milk and formula method. Otherwise just give her the milk straight.

Milk should be fine , I did the 50/50 with the last can of formula.
Bottle weaning, let me just start by saying I just broke my 3 year old of it on christmas, however my 11 month old (birthday sat)never did bottle only boob and she weaned at 11 mo. It is so much easier to break the cycle before they can try to reason with you. At 1 they should be eating enough not to really need it. We found that my daughter would awake at night and she couldnt soothe herself back to sleep she needed to suck. But it only took 1 night to wean her. I was shocked, and yes the first night is rough so maybe try it on a friday or when you know you dont need to be somewhere the next day. You can either offer the sippy cup in the middle of the night or go in rub her back mommy loves you and leave. However its up to you if you like the cry it out method.
Best of luck and Happy birthday

Most children have absolutely no problems with an almost immediate transition from formula to milk - as long as she has had other dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, etc and showed no signs of allergy, it is perfectly safe for you just to start putting milk in her sippy cup or in a bottle. The taking away of the bottle will be much MUCH for painful than switching her to milk.
In general, children take to whole milk without a fuss because it tastes so much better than formula. So next bottle or meal, forget the formula and just switch to the milk and see what happens. She will notice a difference, but its uncommon that a child will reject the new taste! Even the consistency of whole milk is better than formula. If she seems to have issues with the transition and doesnt take to the whole milk right away, mix the formula and milk like wic said and, over a couple of days, wean her down to just a cup or bottle of milk without formula.
There is no danger in just stopping formula cold turkey as her digestive system is perfectly capable of handling the milk now, as long as she has shown no sensitivity to dairy - trust me, it will be much less painful than you think.
As far as taking the bottle away - I would wait until she is used to the new milk before starting the bottle weaning. One new experience at a time, please!

Hi J.. The WIC suggestion is a very good one. I would wait until after she turns 1. Then follow the WIC suggestions. Start with the 3/4 formula 1/4 milk for about a week, then the 1/2 and 1/2 for a week etc...so that by the end of the month she will be used to the milk. We got my granddaughter a big girl sippee cup (she loves Dora) and she uses that most of the time. It's ok to let her still have the middle of the night bottle for a while. Some kids still need it for a while and it's ok. Each child is different. Some "wean" earlier than others. Do whatever feels right for her. K. San Leandro

Hi J.! Happy birthday to the little one. I started my boys on 1/2 whole milk and 1/2 formula for the first couple of weeks, to rule out any lactose intolerance. We never had any trouble with it. WIC gives good advice as well, gradually change out the formula for the whole milk (vitamin D works best for strong bones and teeth developement!). If you find that she is overly gassy, or has diarhea, consult your pediatrician. Usually the change from formula or breastmilk to whole milk is easy for babies. Try to buy a fun shaped sippy cup for dinnertime, she would like that.
About the middle of the night bottle, maybe if you offered her water instead, she would lose interest. Have a great day.

I would wait till she is 1 and when you do switch to whole milk transition slowly. do 3/4 formula 1/4 milk for 2 days, then 1/2 and 1/2 for 2 days then 1/4 formula and 3/4 milk, then just whole milk. in that time frame you will be able to tell if you daughter could have any milk issues. With the middle of the night bottle, don't offer it. She may get upset the first couple of nights, but she'll learn that she wont get it. If that doens't work you could only offer her water in the bottle...she most likely won't like that and choose not to have one all together. If your close with your neighbors maybe give them a heads up that you will be weaning your daughter from the bottle and she may be a little nosey during the night. Hopefully they are nice and understand. Good luck and hope this helps

I think the suggestion they gave you is what I actually did a little before my boys first birthday (I did it for a week before they turned 1)...then we switched to the sippy cup with the whole milk.
Breaking the middle of night bottle is going to be hard, but can be done. If you give her milk.....start diluting it with water. She will fuss at first and my throw the bottle, but milk sitting on the teeth at night isn't good...it will cause cavities (I use to be a pediatric dental assistant and saw this a lot!).
When my boys accepted the sippy cup I would leave a sippy cup of water in their crib so if they woke up in the middle of the night that's what they got. They rarely would wake up once they figured out that's what they were getting.
Good luck...anytime you switch stuff on them they aren't happy at first.

Hi J.,

Well when my daughter turned 1 i took her off the bottle and formula and she did just fine..I of course tested her first with just milk and she liked it..So maybe you can give your daughter a little bit of milk in a sippie cup and see how she likes it..Im sure she will do great..Good luck!

About a week before my daughter turned one, I gave her a couple of bottles of 1/2 milk, 1/2 formula thinking I would do the transition over the course of the week. I ran out of formula the next day and didn't want to buy anymore so I just started giving her full milk. She loved it! She never had any problems with dairy before and always eats cheese, yogurt, etc. My advice isn't to stress about it.

I'm not sure what to tell you about the middle of the night thing. Maybe try giving her water instead of milk? It worked for us.

My son is 16 months old, so we went through this recently. I transitioned formula to milk and bottle to sippy cup at the same time. Bottles were for formula, and I began phasing both of them out from 12-14 months. Sippy cups were for milk (or water or watered down juice); these were given at mealtimes.

My son liked the taste of milk immediately and really wanted to drink out of a sippy cup like his big sister, so he was happy to do away with the bottle and the formula pretty quickly.

Hi J.-

From my experience with my daughter, now 16 months, we switch "cold turkey" to milk around 11.5 months. (Actually, I think we may have alternated every other cup/bottle between formula and milk for a day or so, just so she could get used to the taste.) We also got rid of the bottles and went straight to sippy cups, putting two transitions into one. Oddly, she didn't seem to notice like I thought she would. At night, I still snuggle her while she's drinking a final cup of milk before bed so we wouldn't lose out on that one on one time.

Good luck! Sounds like your daughter will do just fine!

I recently experienced this w/ my 13 month old. You can start transitioning now especially if you know she's had dairy products like yogurt w/out problems.

My baby didn't like whole milk straight. I put it in a sippy cup - wouldn't take it! Then I put it in a bottle, nope!
So I decided to wean her off formula first, then wean her off bottle later. I mixed formula and whole milk in a bottle similar to WIC guidelines. Only took a couple of weeks to wean her off.

Still working on the sippy cup transition. She rejects milk from sippy cup because she has only gotten water/juice from it. So now during meal times/snacks, I only give milk in sippy cup so she can make an association. I give her juice/water in sippy cup during non-meal times.

I usually give her a bottle of milk before her naps/bed. So in a couple of weeks I will start using the sippy cup before the daytime nap. Once this is successful, I can work on transitioning her out of the night-time bottle.

I don't want to mess with her nighttime bottle yet because I really like the fact that she sleeps through the night (10 hours). To ensure sleeping through the night I make sure she eats a lot for dinner (around 5 PM then snacks again when the rest of family comes home around 6:30 - 7). AND has a bottle right before bed. If your baby cries at night resist the temptation to rush in. I always wait a minimum of 5-15 minutes before coming to her. She usually falls back to sleep! I would just explain to your neighbors that you are trying to get your baby to sleep through the night. They'll understand if you reach out to them. That's what I did to my (elderly) uncle who has the room next to my baby!

Good luck!

If you haven't already tried, you might put water in the bottle in the middle of the night. She won't like it but she may decide its not worth getting up for water. I was living with my parents when one of my children, who was a frequent night waker, was that age (I tried desperately to keep her quiet as not to wake my dad who still went to work early) and it worked after a period of time.

It's great that your baby wants to join the family at meal time. There are so many nutrients to be had from table food that aren't available or bio-available in milk. When my two older children were one, we used up that last can of formula and went straight to milk with no problem.

I would follow the WIC guidelines for transitioning over and doing it any time now would be fine. I would suggest waiting until you only have a couple days supply of formula left. Don't want to waste it. As for the middle of the night feeding, she doesn't need it. My son slept through the night at 4 months old. I found he could do it one night when I was exhausted enough to not get up with him right away. He soon fell back asleep. Maybe try waiting 5 minutes before going in to her, then 10 and so on. Does she put herself to sleep or are you there when she falls asleep? If she is used to you being there you may have to get up with her but don't feed her. Maybe warn your neighbors and appologize ahead of time that you are trying to get your daughter to sleep through the night. It has to be done sometime and the sooner the better. The older she gets the louder and longer she can cry.

I started giving My now 1yr and 1 day (she turned 1 yesterday)
a cup of whole milk at dinner. I did not do the 1/2 thing just the straight stuff. I started this about a month ago. I ran out of formula a week ago and put her on Whole milk then. She did fine. I also took the bottle away at the same time. She only got real milk in a sippy cup. She is now like I said 1 year and 1 day and is on whole milk and no bottle. Good luck I did this also with my other 2 children now 4 & 7 I hope you have the same luck I had.

N.