Transition from Formula to Milk - Glen Allen,VA

We have transitioning my son right now as well. I started to put the whole milk into his bottle. He took to it right away. We then started to put it into a sippy cup for the day and just the bottle for the morning and night. He had no issues.
I have heard of mixing them together if he will not take straight milk.
Good luck!!!

Hi S.,
I switched both my kids right at the age of one, per my Dr.'s advice. Both of my kids were on soy formula so I started mixing with cows milk, (whole milk btw, Dr.'s advice again). I started with 1/4 milk, 3/4 formula for a week, 1/2 the next week, 3/4 after that then to 100%. I had no issues at all with this approach. Good luck!!!!!

Ok, so I am sorry some women have made you feel bad for not breastfeeding. That is very wrong. Whatever your reasons for not breastfeeding they are your own and you owe no one any explanation. I am a breastfeeding mom. I nursed my older till 22 months and hope to nurse the baby for about that long. I believe that it is such a personal thing and that it's no one else's business. I believe every mother has the right to not want to breastfeed and shouldn't have to make apologies for it. And especially if your son is the one who refused to nurse but even if you just didn't want to nurse there's absolutely nothing wrong with that and it doesn't make you any less of a good mother than a breastfeeding mother. Now that we got that out of the way, I am also so very sorry for your loss of your daughter. I can't even imagine continuing to live after losing a child.

From what you are describing I highly recommend doing an allergy test for milk (skin rather than blood test). I am quite an expert unfortunately with child/baby food allergies. Even if he is not allergic, it sounds lik he might be sensitive to cow's milk like my older son so you might want to try goat's milk (there's goat's milk, goat's milk yogurtt, cheese etc). It is a lot easier to digest and my son does wonderful on it. My sister who is allergic to cow's milk can do goat's milk. My younger son is allergic to both though. It is a little more expensive but well worth it if your son has any digestive issues. If you do decide to stich with cow's milk, then definitely do organic which is well worth the slightly higher expense.
I would not to cold turkey, especially if your son is used to room temperature bottles. I also would not do it in a bottle, but rather in a cup. I would start with sometime during the day when he is happy and content and tell him you have a yummy drink for him called milk and that it is a big boy drink (he might not get the actual words, but would get he excited tone of your voice). I would also take some in a cup for yourslef and tell him that you are going to drink some of it too with him because it's so yummy. Obviously put a small amount and see how it goes. Try it like that for a couple of days and then increase the times per day and/or the amounts. If you do it gradually and very excitedly it will work out just fine.

And please stop apologizing for not breastfeeding your son!

Good luck!

I'm about to do the same thing. My daughter just turned 1 Thursday. I spoke with her pediatrician and my sister (who just weaned my 1 year old nephew) and they both said to do it gradual. 1/4 whole milk (they need the fat) and 3/4 formula for a few days and then 1/2 and 1/2 for a few days and so on until its completely just regular milk. Should take about a week or 2. I am about to start as soon as we go grocery shopping and and my daugter had stomach issues when she was little too so I'm wishing is both luck!

S.,
I will definitely not lecture you on not breastfeeding...I didn't either! Well, I did for the first 6 weeks, but I had such little milk flow, I always had to supplement with formula and none of the tricks (mother's milk tea, Fenugreek) worked to up the milk flow. After 6 weeks, I went strictly to formula.
Anyway, my son turned 1 on Aug 1st. His 1 year check-up was Aug. 5. The doctor said we could switch to milk. That night we gave him his first taste of milk and never turned back. He switched cold turkey. He used to have room temp formula, and had no problems switching to cold milk. I will give you a heads up though....the whole milk can cause constipation. We make sure he drinks a good amount of water (and eats veggies!) during the day to help soften the stool.
Now if I could only get him to drink the milk from a sippy cup....
Good Luck!

I have never mixed the two together. The thought of it grosses me out.. what if the flavors clash??? I could be 110% wrong though about that. What I did (I have four kiddies), was give them a little milk(just a couple ounces to start...) just once a day to get their taste used to it for a week or so. Then I got to the point where I alternated milk and formula... then just entirely went to milk. Room temp milk is fine. I actually heated it to be the same temperature my kids were used to their formula being. Then. I did the cold milk transition:)

I also breast fed all my kids in their first year, so they had also been through the breast-milk to formula transition. That went well. My milk supply was so low for ALL of my kids I just had to, so maybe they were just excited to get something without much effort on their part- haha.

Good Luck! hopefully his little tummy takes to milk well. Goat's milk is more gentle on the tummy (for a lot of people) if you wanted to try that (it tastes almost the same as cows... I like it better, actually), it also has the same if not better nutrition.

I'm so sorry to hear about your little girl. We just had our 1st and she is 11mths. At my drs suggestion, I would consider goat's milk, since it is less allergenic than cow's milk. It has a specific casein that is better tolerated by babies then cow's milk. We are weening from breastmilk to goats milk. Its available at Whole Foods. We are actually looking for unpausturized goats milk and have found it at a farm in Maryland. Check out http://www.westonaprice.org/splash_2.htm on milk in general. Warm regards, K. & baby Katharine

I understand completely, S.. You are great mom, I can tell (grandma many times over). However, I'm not sure why the hurry, dear. He is no too old to continue w formula. It takes time for the proper enzyme that's able to allow him to use the nutrients of cows milk. If it's expense of formula, I understand. But you may find that it's best to slowly (as you indicated w 1/2 & 1/2, or watered down (not w tap water), etc etc) switch him to goat's milk, rather than cows milk (even though that's my personal preference instead of goat). If you chat to many moms & ped-doctors, you'll find it's an easier to digest milk -- and closer to mom's & to formula milk -- causing less 'spit-up' and disturbance. Basically, yes if you are determined to switch him off formula, do it slowly as you indicated briefly.
May it go smoothly for him -- and you.
What a blessing to have this wee son and an older young man.
jeanne

I switched from formula to milk pretty cold turkey, but used about 1 or 2 weeks to lead up to it.(been a sec, my daughter's 5) I used organic full fat because I wanted to avoid antiboitics in the milk. After one year of that I swtiched her off of milk altogether and use rice milk from then on. Good luck.

Hi S.,

Try enriched rice milk or go oraganic for cow's milk (too many antibiotics and hormones in regular milk, let alone blood and pus from sick cows). Give him half formula/half milk for a few days then reduce the amount of formula until he doesn't notice it anymore. It took a few days to transition my daughter. She's allergic to cow's milk so she's on rice milk, and doing well.

My daugher, almost 3 was formula fed the whole time. She seemed to have issues, and so was on Enfamil Soy. Around 1 yr. I changed her over to the Enfamil NextStep Soy. Then a few months later introduced cows milk (15m). We started with whole milk, but to me (hubby says it was in my head) she seemed to have issues when she'd nap. So we changed her over to 2% milk and she does fine. We did the gradual mixing of 2% and NextStep. We took her off the NextStep at around 18m. Her bedtime bottle was mostly NextStep so that she would sleep well.
M.

My girl is almost one and I have been putting milk in a sippy with a straw for a week now. It has handles so she can drink herself. No milk in the bottle because I want no more bottles or formula. She drinks it fine. If she refuses, drink from a straw yourself for a bit. Jenn

normally id just say switch cold turkey but if you dont want to worry then gradually do it by halfing it slowly. one day do 3/4 formula 1/4 whole milk. the next day half and half the next 1/4 formula 3/4 whole milk. if he refuses to tak it one way go back to the way it was the day before with just slightly more whole milk. you could microwave or heat up the milk to room temp although while you are mixing you shouldnt have to as you will be adding water to it and that she take the chill off. good luck.

My suggestion would be to start out giving your son 1/4 milk (warmed) and 3/4 formula. Do this for a few days at a time and eventually move to all milk. You can keep warming it up but shorten the time you warm it up for. Then try to give it to him cold (maybe after a sweet treat so it would taste even better!). We do not buy organic so I have no advise on that. My daughter was breastfed/formula fed and transitioned to cold milk very easily so I think you will be fine!

Hi S.,
First, I want to say there is no reason for you to feel bad about not breastfeeding your son. It's not for everyone.
As for transitioning to milk, I would suggest doing half & half, gradually working up to only milk. That worked well for my daughter.
Good luck!

My daughter had reflux when she was born and she doesn't anymore so I'm glad that your little one is getting over it. We started to slowly add milk to her formula 1 oz milk and the rest water to see how her stomach reacted. And after a few days we increased it. And like yours, she was used to luke warm formula so we would warm the milk up a bit. She still likes a lukewarm bottle of milk at night. HTH.

lots of good advice here already, so i'll just add a quick shout out to those who have suggested slowly mixing the milk in with the formula (keeping a weather eye out for allergies). because he's a preemie i'd be slow to do it, though.
i'm so sorry you've been beaten up for formula feeding. you'd think moms would be more eager to support than savage each other, but sometimes you have to wonder.
khairete
S.

It seems you are saying your child was a preemie and as such you should especially not rush the introduction of whole milk. Late developing gut mucosa can develop tiny capillary leaks when the protein of whole milk is attempted too early, and the child will become anemic or seriously ill. Ask your pediatrician and review your child's history briefly. You can try at a FULL 12+ number of weeks premature. Perhaps just wait until 13-14 months of chronological age. Initially use 4%/whole milk warmed a little and mixed with your formula about 50:50. Within a day or so it is likely you will go to all whole milk if the taste has been accepted. Soon after you will not be warming it at all. 4% is usually recommended until 2-3 yrs of age and then 2%,1% or skim from thereon. I am sure your son will do fine. I echo another writer: no fanfare and serve in the same cup or bottle he has been taking his formula in now. BTW, our second son refused a sippy cup, so we bought sippy inserts to replace the nipple on his bottles for a few days and then made sure he was thirsty and only offerred a cup. He was furious and would hurl it to the floor IF we were in the room, but of interest, if we placed it on his highchair tray and hurried out of sight and spied on him, he drank it ravenously!! Just hated change and wanted us to know it <smile>

Both my girls were breastfed, formula fed, then transitioned to cold milk just fine, so don't worry too much about it.
For the first, we transitioned over the course of about ten days using the bottle. We started with room temp formula as well, then moved to 1/4 cold milk + 3/4 room temp formula, then changed the ratio every couple of days. We never warmed the milk up, and since each bottle was just a mite bit cooler than the ratio before it, it was a good gradual transition. By the time we were at 14 months, we had switched over to sippy cups entirely.

For my second (who is just turning two next month), we would give her a sippy cup of 100% milk at the table with her meal, then over a week, we did less and less formula in bottles and then just dropped the bottles entirely. She was wanting to be like big sis anyways, so switched to sippy cups easily.

Both ways worked fine.

We did switch to organic milk (not everything, just the milk) about 2 years ago. Mostly because we have two girls and we were hearing about possible links between the early onset of puberty (menarche) and growth hormones being given to cows coming through the milk. I don't know if it is true, the science on that is probably still several years away, but with two girls, we decided it can't hurt, and might help.

Not sure if I'd worry about anything similar with a boy, but talk to your pediatrician to see if it would be worth it.

Good luck!

My advice it to start by mixing an ounce of normal milk in his bottle (If he drinks 8oz. then 1 oz. milk/7oz. formula) After a day or so make it 2 oz. milk then 4 oz, then so on. Since he has a sensitive tummy you may not want to just give him straight milk. Give his tummy time to adjust to the change. Good Luck!

My grandson went thru the same thing. we had to switch his formula about 4 times and finally they put him on Nutramigen and gave him pepcid and after a few weeks his stomach got back on track and he was fine. when he was 10 months the doctor told us he could drink regular milk cause he was so big so we just went cold turkey. We came home and gave him a bottle of reg. milk and he drank it just fine. It was still cold outside so we did heat it up a little to take the chill off and when it started to get hot we just gave it to him cold. We never had any problems with the change. He loved it. I just want you to know that most babies do get constipated when they switch just because they have to get use to the milk. We did not have that problem but I was told most do so just be prepared in case that does happen.

I have two girls, 5 years and 18 months, but no digestive problems. Both transitioned easily at 12 months and just accepted milk (I kept breastfeeding too). They were BF with occasional formula, always cold bottles. I did mix 50-50% for the first time I tried milk but the second cup was always 100% milk since it went down so well the first time. One thing I did was introduce the sippy around 6-9 months with formula/BM or water. So when we went to cow's milk, I only put that in a sippy or an open cup, never a bottle, and just stopped giving a bottle.

A good rule of thumb is try it with no big fanfare - in this case just give cold milk. IF it goes poorly, don't force it wait 3-5 days, and try something new, like room temp milk or 50-50 mix. I say, don't do anything extrodinary unless you really need to.

I give whole milk for one year, than tranisiotn to 2% for 6 months and 1% for six months, so that my daughter was on skim by the time she turned three. I buy organic to avoid the chemicals and hormones that accumulatein the fat of milk. When I get to skim, I buy whatever fits my budget that week. I give soy occasionally to expose my daughter to the taste, but I worry about soy estrogens and don't make it a regular thing.

S.,

First, I am sorry to hear about your daughter. Also, I can understand that you might expect lectures about not breastfeeding. I was not able to with either of my kids, but I always felt like I had to explain myself to everyone else as if I was somehow a bad mom!

Anyway, for both of my kids, we switched from formula to milk right around 1. I use cow's milk, but that's a personal choice. Both of my kids drank warm formula, so I started by warming their milk (they didn't like it cold) in the microwave for a few seconds. Then I gradually warmed it for a little less time every couple of days until they got used to drinking straight from the fridge. Worked great with both kids.

Also, you may want to talk to your dr. about whole, lowfat or skim milk. Our dr's opinion is that you could give the kids whole milk or skim milk and a twinkie. All they get with whole milk is saturated fat, which they don't need. Please discuss this with your dr. and follow his/her instructions.

As far as allergy and digestion concerns, I think the other moms will have better advice for your since we have not had to deal with those in our family.

Good luck with the transition and an early happy birthday to your big boy! :-)
B.

Hi. My son was formula fed baby with reflux (grew out of it before age 2), so I know where you are coming from. When we transitioned him to milk, I started by using milk in his oatmeal cereal for a few weeks, and then gradually transitioned it into his bottle. He didn't seem to even notice it wasn't formula anymore. He was also a child who was very picky about the temperature of his formula, and once we switched to milk, it was no big deal for him to drink it cold out of the fridge. Maybe because he realized it was different than formula, the cold temp was okay. Good luck!