STM+ question from a STM

Re: STM+ question from a STM

• lwhrmomma member

  March 2017

  Are you planning to use whole milk?  I started the transition at around 11 months.  DS used to get 6oz bottles, and each week I decreased the amount of each bottle by an ounce. For every ounce I took away, I gave him that ounce in whole milk in a sippy cup.  He was getting 3 meals a day since about 9 months old already, so that transition wasn't too new.  His schedule was roughly as follows:
  7:00am: Wake, breakfast, milk
  9:30am: Small snacks (puffs, cheerios, etc)
  10am: Nap
  12pm: Lunch, milk
  2:30pm: Small snack
  3pm: Nap
  6pm: Dinner, milk
  7:45pm: Bed
  
  He dropped to one nap a day at around 14/15 months.  He also has a sippy cup of water throughout the day that he can drink at his leisure.
  
  The most important thing is to remember that all kids are different, and do what works best for you and your LO.  Mine thrives with schedule and routine, but others don't....Follow his lead and see what happens.

  
  
  
  
  
  

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• ColoradoHiker member

  March 2017

  We did something similar to @kristenk727 for formula to milk.  I started with a 7 oz bottle, and 6 oz formula: 1 oz whole milk.  I don't think we waited a whole week, but at least 3-4 days before adding another oz of WM/ decreasing formula.  Your LO can have an upset stomach if you do it too fast, but you will probably still see some loose stools and gas anyway.  Are you looking to transition off of bottles to sippy cups as well?  I found that when DS switched over from bottles to sippy cups, his appetite for solids increased a lot.  I think it was partly due to not having the last bottle at night and the first one in the morning.  Once we stopped the one in the morning, breakfast became a lot more important.
  
  Are you a SAHM, or is DD in daycare?  My in-laws watch DS during the day, so I can give you what his general day looks like, but it may be different if your LO is in daycare, as they usually have set schedules.  DS just turned 16m, but this is the schedule he's had food-wise since we stopped with bottles around 12-13m.  
  
  5:30-6am: Wake up time, and milk sippy cup.
  6:30-7:30ish- Breakfast.  The time is a little up in the air, bc he tends to eat some of whatever we're having in the morning for breakfast, but usually eats the bulk of it once with the in-laws after 7am.
  9am- cheerios/ gold fish/ pretzels/ whatever snack
  9:30- Nap time!
  12pm- Lunch
  3pm- Snack
  6pm- Dinner
  7:30pm- Bed
  
  @jaclyngoldman Having a toddler is challenging, pregnant or not!  DS had a lot of problems with food texture and gagging up until 12m, so his food selection was pretty limited for a long time.  We tend to stick with some core staples that we know DS will eat no matter what- cheese, cut up grapes, meatballs, mashed potatoes, chicken nuggets, tater tots, etc.  I will try new foods, or just give him what we're eating as well, but we'll always have the others on hand if he doesn't eat the new stuff.  I read somewhere recently that baby gums are just as hard as teeth, and Rhys has been very sucessfully chewing a lot of these foods without molars (although they did just all come in, allllll at once.  That was fun). Even with only two lower teeth, I think your DD should be able to eat most of the softer foods pretty easily, as front teeth are generally for tearing food off, like biting into a piece of bread.
  
  I hope that helps, feel free to PM or tag me here if you have more questions!

  DS1: Born 11.18.15
  DS2: EDD- 09.08.17
  
  

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• pbandjyummies member

  March 2017

  great question! currently have a 9 month old and I'm starting to think about the inevitable transition to cow's milk as well as more solids so I'll def be interested in responses... thanks for those who provided input, it's helpful
  

  
  

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• jaclynnn89 member

  March 2017

  Thank you so much @kristenk727 & @ColoradoHiker !
  
  I'm lucky enough to be a SAHM right now so I can be pretty flexible with her schedule. We've tried a few times to phase out her late bottle but she is a creature of habit and would still wake up when we didn't, even if she wasnt hungry, or the very few times she did sleep through she woke up at 4/4:30am. She thrives so much on routine so we generally don't veer off of it by much unless it's unavoidable so I'm slowly trying to change to a new one that will work better for solids.
  
  Shes luckily not a picky eater at all, she wants to try everything we have and has never even spit anything out (other than when she was 6 months and learning). She also has embraced her sippy cups which is good. I think it's more me feeling overwhelmed by the transition than her honestly! We currently use an organic formula and here in Australia at 12 months they have you switch to a toddler milk drink so I'm tossing up between that and whole milk. I also have been heavily relying on store bought organic purée/baby food options as we didn't have a food processor or blender that worked with the voltage here for ages so I think that transitioning to making her food is just daunting. I just want to make she has a healthy balanced diet because I'd say we've been relying on the formula for a lot of her nutrients until now.
  
  @pbandjyummies good luck!! It's so exciting to see them grow but I also don't want my baby growing up! Haha

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• middy411 member

  March 2017

  I was breastfeeding instead of using formula but I feel like the process is similar. I would check with your pediatrician to see what they say as well. My pediatrician told me DD should be getting 3 meals and 2 snacks a day at 9 months old. I was still nursing about 5 times a day so I started by giving her just 3 solid meals a day and let her wean off the majority of the nursing sessions. He also said at this point she should be eating what we eat so I started that and it went much smoother than I imagined. Once I got her down to 3 nursing a day around 10 months, I cut out the afternoon nursing so she was just doing morning and night, replacing with a snack when needed. During 11 months, I cut out the morning nursing and started to introduce cows milk. She wanted nothing to do with it. After passing her first birthday in February, I continued to nurse at night since she would not drink cows milk. Then one night we magically tried to give her milk instead of me and she took it!! (She was in a very silly/sleepy mood at bedtime). She hasn't put up a fuss ever since and every day she seems to drink more and more cows milk. I thought she would never drink the cows milk so I'm very grateful that she has adjusted and likes it now. Nursing was very painful while pregnant so I'm glad to finally be done (as of March 10) even though I miss that closeness sometimes. Good luck and just take it slow. DH got mad at me the first time we tried to wean because I knew she just wasn't ready. She was crying and fussing and refusing the cows milk so I just nursed her and he thought I was never going to "push" her to wean. But I've learned that with DD she does stuff in her own time and it wasn't even that much longer (not even two weeks) before we got the Weaning accomplished. Try to make it as easy on yourself and baby as possible
  

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• pbandjyummies member

  March 2017 edited March 2017

  @middy411 thank you for the information, my pediatrician told us something similar. I was only giving her 2 meals a day with snacks in between but I have since increased to the 3 big meals. She still gets 5 bottles a day but will try to remove one from the day.
  
  question for you, I've seen online articles that when giving cow's milk it should be in a sippy cup, do you do that? or do you give it to her in a bottle? also, how many many oz of cow's milk do you give her a day?
  
  Edited because it cut me off

  
  

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• middy411 member

  March 2017

  @pbandjyummies DD would never take bottles and she didn't really like sippy cups either but she loves straws. So she's always had milk/water out of the munchkin weighted straw cups. It does make them work a little harder than a regular straw to get the liquid out. DD has no problem drinking from the munchkin straw cups, regular straws, or drinking from a cup regularly but we use the munchkin cups mainly so there's less mess lol. I typically hold her and read her a book or something while she sips it which I think is comforting the way nursing was before.

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• pbandjyummies member

  March 2017

  @middy411 I've tried using a straw with DD but she doesn't understand the concept of sucking on it lol but didn't even think about that as an option for providing milk so thanks for the input

  
  

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• SouthernMama15 member

  March 2017

  DS weaned really easily from bottles. By about 10.5 months he had cut to 2 bottles a day on his own. 2 days before he turned one we just stopped giving them to him. He had already been drinking a couple ounces of water a day from sippy cups with milk and was used to sippy cups. We started cows milk and he loved it. Our pediatrician gold us no more than 16 oz of milk a day because it coats their stomachs and can cause them to not absorb the nutrients they need.  
  

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