Ok so this formula to milk transition...

jenhum

I'm guessing it's going to be one of those things that just gets clearer as we do it? I think we're going to start next week and replace one bottle a week with milk in a sippy, but I have a lot of questions.

Do you give milk with meals, or water with meals and milk as a snack? How much milk are they supposed to drink each day- less than formula, right? Moms of toddlers, what does your feeding schedule look like each day?

I think her morning bottle will probably be the last one we drop...I don't think she'll have any problems going to sleep without one, but she is so hungry when she wakes up and that seems to be her favorite bottle.

akspriss

I can't answer the when and schedule thing..but my Doctor told me the other day at Jack's appt we could start around 11.5 months or so to transition from bm to cow's milk so thats what we plan to do...she said to estimate that he will take around 16oz. a day of cow's milk give or take a little. I'll prolly give him a sippy of milk at each of his meals and we too will be dropping the morning bottle last.

Evans

Everyone does it different, but this is what we do.

?Do you give milk with meals, or water with meals and milk as a snack? We give water with meals and milk a little while after the meals, so I guess you could call it a snack. ?DD LOVES her milk and if I gave it to her at meal time, she would drink it all first and not eat as much food.

How much milk are they supposed to drink each day- less than formula, right? They should get 16-20oz. a day once the full transition is made.

Moms of toddlers, what does your feeding schedule look like each day??

Breakfast - when she wakes up (usually about 7:00 - 7:30)

AM Milk - Between 10 and 11

Nap 11:30 - ?1:00

Lunch - 1:00

Snack - 3:30

Dinner - 6:00

PM Milk - 6:30

Bedtime - 7:30

Up until about 18 months though, she also got a third cup of milk between snack and dinner.?

flamencogal

Lots of people do just what you are talking about--replace one bottle a week or so with a sippy of milk.  That approach didn't work for us b/c Scott hardly drank any of it at all and we needed to get the calories in him!  So we just offered a sippy of milk with every meal and every snack and he finally got the hang of it.  We were careful though not to offer a bottle right after refusal of the sippy.  If he didn't drink much from the sippy, an hour or so later we'd offer the bottle.  He's down to 2 bottles a day now--3 oz of EBM in the morning (about an hour after breakfast) and 4-6oz about 30min after dinner.  He's probably ready to drop the am one but I'm wanting to use up all the EBM I have in the freezer--I don't have the heart to dump it!

I think the general rule is milk with meals and water with snacks but we do all milk b/c Scott still is probably only drinking about 6-8 oz of cow's milk per day (plus usually about 7 or 8 oz of EBM from bottles).

 

jenn&tim05

Right now, AT is getting his formula in a sippy at bfast.

At lunch he gets juice in a sippy, and his milk at his 2pm normal feeding. I plan to move it up to lunch in the coming weeks when I move up the night time milk. I plan on moving up the milk an hr each week to make it at meal time.

I will prob replace the 2pm milk with a snack....yogurt etc.

He seems to like the milk more in the sippy than juice. Last night we tried milk in a sippy at dinner, he had a little but then drank the rest bf bed. Like I said I want to try over the next few weeks to move that up to meal time. Hes usually eating dinner at 5/5:30 then it will take at least a few weeks to get him to drink it all at dinner. He may never do that though. I dont mind offiering a small snack of milk etc at the 7pm hr. Heck sometimes Im hungry then if I eat an early dinner, so as long as the milk gets in Im okay.

We go to the doc next week for his 10m appt so I plan to ask the milk ratio that he needs for the day. Its tricky isnt it! GL!

 

crescentmoon99

We started a few weeks before Liam's birthday.  I did what you are suggesting - replaced one feeding at a time with a sippy of milk (Liam never had bottles during the day but after he self-weaned I had started giving him a sippy of formula at each meal).

He now gets a sippy of milk at breakfast and lunch, and one right before bed.  I'm hoping to move the bedtime one up a bit, but for now, it is our replacement to the bedtime bottle.  He drinks about 16 oz of milk a day.  I've read no more than 16-20 oz a day because too much calcium can block the absorption of iron and make them anemic.  He has a sippy of water on hand all through the day, and drinks about 8oz of water also with his dinner.

Our feeding schedule is kind of like this:

6am Liam wakes up

Breakfast around 6:30 + sippy of milk

10:00 or so - morning snack

12:00 - lunch + sippy of milk

3:30 or so - afternoon snack

5:45 - dinner

7:15 - sippy of milk

7:30 in bed

raceyrae

Natalie was nursing 4 times a day.  I replaced a sippy of milk for each nursing sessions (one a week).  As Evans mentioned, ideally they should get in 16-20 oz of cows milk once totally off of formula/BM.  But someone toddlers don't drink a lot of cow's milk -- Natalie is one of them.  At most we can get 8-10 oz in her a day.  The main thing with milk is the calcium so she gets yogurt and cheese throughout the day to supplement.  She gets plenty of fluids from drinking wtaer.

Her schedule:

6:15 a.m. wake and breakfast (milk, oatmeal (which we mix with milk because she doesn't drink much), banana).

10 a.m. snack with milk

12:30 p.m. lunch with milk

3 p.m. snack with milk

6 p.m. dinner with milk

7 p.m. sippy of milk while reading books for bed

Sippy of water available at all times throughout the day while she plays.  We offer milk with each meal and snack because she hardly drinks any.

jenhum

Thanks y'all, this helps a lot! Maddie drinks a lot of water from her sippy everyday, so I'm hoping she'll like milk and drink plenty of that too.

She loves to eat, but she never eats a lot at a time, so I think we might start out offering water at meal times and milk with snacks, b/c I don't want her to fill up on milk and eat even less.

rjbear21

I first got DD off bottles.  at about 10 months i dropped all bottle during the day and she got everything in a sippy cup.  she had no problems at all.  she just got the one bottle at bedtime for about a month.  then at 11 months i replaced the bedtime bottle with a sippy cold turkey and she had zero problems since she was used to getting it all the time anyway.  I had a lot of formula to use up so i only started giving her whole milk until this week.  her pedi suggested doing half formula and half milk in her sippy so she gets used to the taste. 

She gets the half and half mixture at breakfast, lunch and dinner.  for snacks i give her a half water/half juice sippy or just water.  as of right now she is still getting just formula for her bedtime sippy.  once i'm almost out of formula i will start putting milk in that one too and try to wean her down on the amount a little.

as far as how much milk a day,  i believe it is no more than 20-25 oz a day.  anymore and they can start to have issues.  

hth!

tarheelbaby08

We were a little late starting on this since we waited until her 12 month appointment - which was a few days after her birthday.  The Dr. said to start out trying half formula and half milk until she became accustomed to it.  She goes to daycare 5 days a week so after she tried milk for a few days and did ok with it, they stopped giving her bottles and gave milk with her breakfast and lunch (in a sippy cup).  Probably about a week later we dropped her morning bottle and started giving her a sippy cup (still half formula/half milk because we are trying to use up the huge can of formula from B.J.'s!).

so this is schedule now:

•  sippy cup of milk when she wakes up - around 7am (6 oz)

•  sippy cup milk with breakfast at school  - usually at 9:30am

•  sippy cup wuth lunch at school - 11:30am

• Snack around 2:30p at school (with milk or water but she usually doesn't drink it all)
  

*Water in between

• Some milk with dinner - 5pm 
• Milk Bottle before bed around 8pm - this is going to be the hardest to get rid of...

Good luck with Maddie!  It will most likely just be trial and error.