Anyone still on bottles and formula

JessAnnJ · January 2014

We are actually nowhere near transitioning from bottles and LO is still on formula. She was getting about 80% BM until a couple weeks before her birthday when we increased her soy formula to the point that she is now only on soy formula. She has been sick and we didn't want to try milk right away because she had problems with lactose formula when she was younger so we just stuck with what she was getting.

We tried giving her some milk for the first time last night 2 oz milk to 6 oz soy formula. Oh I forgot to mention that she is still drinking a ton (about 28 oz formula per day). Anyway within 30 min she threw up everything. Unfortunately it seems she did not outgrow her lactose sensitivity. So we are a little lost as to what to do next because we would prefer her not to be on soy long term. So now our to do list includes decreasing the amount she is drinking, getting rid of bottles, and transitioning from formula.

Most people I've talked to have said their LOs naturally started drinking less and eating more but it seems DD is holding out for the formula. Pedi says we just need to start giving her less and she will learn to eat more but that is not as easy as it sounds.

Re the bottle she mostly spits what she drinks out or plays with the cup (though she did somewhat better yesterday).

Just wondering if anyone else Is in the same boat and for those that have made successful transitions do you have any tips? DD goes to daycare and pretty much all of the other kids in her class use sippys so the peer pressure isn't working.

jac409 · January 2014

We are still on bottles, and 75/25 breastmilk/WCM. She will drink water from a sippy, but she spits the milk everywhere. She has been sick, and we are moving this weekend, so I don't want to throw one more thing in the mix. Next week, after we have moved, I plan to start pushing the sippy a bit more.

kescalera · January 2014

We still use bottles for whole milk (no BM or formula anymore) but juice & water are in sippy/straw cups. He usually drinks about 4oz milk with meals but also downs 6-8oz of water/juice throughout the day. I'm not ready to give up the bottles yet since that's about the only time he will snuggle but since he's drinking other fluids out of "big boy" cups just fine as well as eating a ridiculous amount of solid food, I figure we'll get there when we get there.

LittleFish1 · January 2014

No whole milk yet; only BM or formula but it gets mixed in with her oatmeal at day care (because she refused the bottle around 9 months). Otherwise is nursing or water out of a small spouted sippy type cup, or drinking water (aka sliming/back washing) into her Dad's water cup or his fizzy water bottle.

MrsBigTime · January 2014

We still do bottles when I'm not with LO to nurse. I would estimate that she gets about 12 - 16 ounces of milk during the day, and usually only gets a bottle before and after her naps. She still gets breastmilk, with 1/2 - 3/4 other milk. I originally used almond, then introduced coconut milk and am now using whole cow's milk to mix into my milk.

I've started being more diligent about offering LO a drink with her meals. She can't figure out an actual sippy cup, but she does well with straws, so I've got some straw cups I'm trying. I've noticed that every day she is getting more proficient with actually drinking (versus just playing with) her drink, but I'm not yet confident in her skills yet to trust her with anything other than water for anywhere other than her high chair. I also haven't yet felt like packing away the bottles and letting her rely on her straw cups for milk, since she is still getting milk as her primary source of nutrition.

Litgirl77 · January 2014

We still do a morning and bedtime bottle, with a 50/50 low lactose formula and goat milk mix. He takes water with a sippy during the day, but doesn't like milk when it's in those. I'm also concerned about the milk sensitivity from earlier, so that's why we're doing goat milk. I'm starting to offer WCM in the sippy to see if he'll take to that - so far, no luck.

I will say, this kid LOVES his bottles. The 2 he gets now are almost traumatic when he's done - he gets SO upset. Thinking we just need to ditch them for good so he gets over it. Like a band aid, right? Rip that sucker off? Hmmm...

JessAnnJ · January 2014

carlydrozd said:

a friend of mine has a daughter with a milk allergy and she seems to like the almond milk and rice milk over soy, perhaps you can try those? would the pedi approve you trying lactaid instead of whole milk?

Pediatrician said we could try almond milk, but with that she would have to drink a lot because there are much less calories per serving so I'm not sure about that for long term. She also said we could try a lactose free milk. I think I'm struggling with what the best choice is so I'm stuck in the status quo. It's really weird that she can eat all other dairy products with no problem at all but vomited within 30 minutes after only getting two oz of WCM that was mixed with formula. We will be seeing a GI doctor soon.

JessAnnJ · January 2014

bloomraiser said:
My LO loves his bottles and formula! He's finally getting used to different types of cups and drinking things other than formula. Before bed and MOTN it has to be formula in a bottle tho or he will freak.

I feel you. LO has this special scream that us reserved for MOTN hunger. It will not stop unless she gets what she wants.

nanabanana06 · January 2014

We do almond milk as Cade has not completely outgrown his MPI. We're upping his diet though to compensate. So, more things with good fats and proteins. Things like avocado, coconut oils, beans, meats, ect. He can tolerate cheese and yogurt though, so we do those as well. Alternative milks are completely fine as long as you compensate for what they are lacking. I chose almond milk for the calcium it has, as well as the moderate fat and protein. It also tastes the best from what I've drank. We do unsweetened vanilla and Cade loves it.

Addy1227 · January 2014

We went straight to wcm a few days before his 1st birthday because quite frankly we didn't want to buy any more formula! He's never had a milk sensitivity so the transition went pretty smoothly except when it came to the bottles. He would only drink the milk from a bottle and he naturally started drinking less.

I asked my pedi at his 12 month about the sippy cup and she said to just slowly wean him from it that it wasn't that big of a deal if he still used a bottle. What we then did was offer him his milk in a sippy with lunch and then breakfast and dinner in a bottle. He would only drink an ounce for a few days and then one day he just downed it. I plan on eliminating the morning bottle next; I'll probably keep the night time one around for a bit longer just for cuddling purposes. Looking back it was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be but when actually trying to get him to use the cup it felt like he'd be on a bottle forever. They just need time to adjust.

Seeing that you said your LO is drinking a ton, almond milk might not be a bad choice to switch to because she can continue to drink a lot and it won't be too drastic of a change. But like I said we don't have a sensitivity so I really don't know what would work best.

SingleMom31 · January 2014

We're in the same boat.

We switched to soy formula after weaning her because she'd get sick with the dairy-based formula. When we talked about it with her dr., he said that we could do almond, soy, or coconut milk or that we could stay on the soy toddler formula for a while yet. I'm not excited to keep buying it, but it's actually not much more than buying special milk for her (she's on Enfamil's Enfagrow Soy). We've been mixing that 50/50 with either almond or coconut milk though to get her used to the taste. His only caution is that there's less calories in either of those than WCM (per cup, WCM has 148 calories with 8 g of fat, coconut is 45 calories with 4.5 g of fat, and almond is 30 with 2.5 g of fat) and that we'd need to keep her calories up in other ways. That's part of why we've stayed with the 50/50 with formula (since that's 160 calories and 7 grams).

As for bottles, we haven't tried since we're also struggling with getting her to eat food (she'll eat packets of purees, but isn't convinced about real food yet). She only gets 3/day anyway though, so I'm not too concerned about it.

jaimevogt · January 2014

I'll just say that just when it seemed like we would be moving away from bottles, baby G got very good at expressing his want of a bottle, so how can you not oblige when they are first starting to communicate clearly what they want.

jaimevogt · January 2014

No idea why, but LO will drink milk best out of a shot glass....

SebsMum · January 2014

We are the same as many PPs. DS will drink water from a sippy, but he'll be damned if he'll drink his milk from it! :P His first clear word has been for milk (not for Mommy or Daddy, sigh...) and he refuses to drink it from anything but a bottle right now.

He's on some formula and some WCM until the formula runs out and he doesn't seem bothered by the transition. One trick I might start trying soon is to switch his current nipples out for a smaller size so that drinking from a bottle is a lot more work and less satisfying. I'm not holding out a lot of hope for that one, but it seems less painful than cold turkey.

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