Going from breast milk to whole milk...Help!

hillarycd · March 2014

My son is almost 13 months old. I still breastfeed him in the morning and at night. He drinks out of a sippy cup and a cup with a straw. At the moment the only thing he will drink from it is water. I haven't given him juice yet. I am trying to transition him to whole milk. Every time I give it to him, he gags and won't drink it. I have tried mixing the milk with breastmilk and he still wants nothing to do with it. I said I would breastfeed for a year and I have made it. I am ready to wean, but I just can't seem to manage it. Any help would be appreciated!

vvvvvfee · March 2014

will your LO drink cow's milk out of a regular bottle? or an open cup?

when my DS was getting to be a year old, we tried to transition him drinking BM out of a straw cup instead of a bottle. it took him a loooong time to accept the idea, even though he had been drinking water out of a straw cup for months at that point. i think he just had to get used to the sensation of something coming out of the straw that wasn't water.

if you think the problem is that he just doesn't like the taste, maybe just mix in the WCM more gradually? like start with 90% BM and 10% WCM and up it the WCM by 10% each day until you're switched over to WCM?

also, if your LO is a good eater with a relatively balanced diet, you don't *have* to give him WCM. you could just give him water.

barista411 · March 2014

We found that DD preferred almond milk because it had a similar flavor to BM. She drank that for a while to get used to drinking out of a cup then we introduced WCM.

pb_bride · March 2014

first of all, congrats on making this far.

One option is to give your DS a "special" dedicated cup (be it sippy or straw) for WCM, if you haven't tried that already. When we first started, we've always have a dedicated cup for water, and a different cup for milk.

If that doesn't work, will your DS eat yogurt? Or cheese? I think if he eats a good amt of those, he doesn't really need WCM. Also, you can consider making fruit smoothie?

My son drinks WCM fine, but he started refusing yogurt when he was around 13m (he had been eating yogurt daily since 6m). When he refused yogurt, I used yogurt + milk + fresh/frozen fruits to make smoothie. He loves it. I also used the smoothie as an alternative to BFing (was weaning him down then).

hillarycd · March 2014

Thanks for the help! My son has refused to drink breastmilk out of a bottle going on around 4 months. He just wants it straight from the source. I've tried a few different cups and it's the same reaction every time. I tried yogurt the other day and he almost puked on it. It's like it barely gets in his mouth and he's gagging. I didn't think to try a smoothie. That may work. He's really into fruits. What smoothie recipes do you use?

TheBorg7of9 · March 2014

My pedi said wcm wasn't even necessary as long as he gets dairy from other sources.

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Going from breast milk to whole milk...Help!

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