I have twins that are almost 9 months old and I plan on switching them to whole milk shortly after their first birthday. My mom suggested that instead of just switching them all at once to do it slowly. She suggested that for now to give them 1 bottle of whole milk and their other 3 do the normal formula. I started that a few days ago and they seem to really love the milk, they chug it down quick. I figured i would do it like this for a month then go to 2 milk/2formula bottles a day for a month and so on until they are totally drinking whole milk. With our 2 1/2 year old we just switched him cold turkey and he did just fine.
So, how did you do it? did you do it slowly or did you do it all at once. any suggestions are welcome.
I would love to switch them now, but they arent super interested in table or baby foods so I want to make sure they are getting all of their nutrition. I am waiting until just after their first birthday because 4 days after they turn 1 is their palate repair surgeries so for 1 week they can only have liquids from a regular cup, then after that it is soft foods for 1 to 2 weeks, so basically smooshy smooth not to thick foods. then after that they can eat normal other than nothing like crackers or anything with a sharp or pointy edges.....it takes a while for them to be able to eat like normal. so i'll keep them on formula and pediasure until they can eat normal. thanks for the answers for far and keep them coming please!!!
my oldest I started mixing whole milk into the formula. He drank 8 oz bottles, so I would do 6 oz formula, 2 oz milk. Every 2 days I added milk & decreased formula until after about a wk it was all milk in the bottle.
The other suggestions are great about mixing the milk and formula together in the bottle. I did this over the course of a couple of weeks and it worked fine. Definitely ask their pediatrician though because 9 months seems too young to me. They supposedly can't digest cows' milk protein that young very well, and the formula has more nutrients. I would wait until they are actually 12 months to start. :)
if they're not even 9 months old yet, i'd back of off giving them milk right now - that's a little on the young side - they get a LOT more nutrition from formula than milk, even if you're just doing 1 out of 4 bottles... with mine, i started a little past 11 months, did 75% formula, 25% milk for several days, then 50/50, then 25% formula, 75% milk, then straight milk. shortly after that - i began placing a small sippy or regular cup of milk on the high chair tray during meals - bottles and formula were gone at 12 months.
I started transitioning my son around 11 mo. I would do 1/4 milk 3/4 formula for a week...then did 1/3 formula 2/3 milk for a week...and so on, until it was all milk! :)
with my daughter at 11 months i switched her to whole milk i did it within a 3 days. I did 2oz milk and 4 oz formula on the first day then the second was 4oz milk and 2oz formula and the last day was all milk
I just switched my twins in the last few weeks. I tried doing half formula & half cows milk and they wouldnt drink it. So I just gave them a bottle of cows milk and they took right to it. They have been drinking nothing but milk for the last 2 weeks and they havent had any issues and they dont seem to miss formula -I know I dont! My twins are 1 as of yesterday
With my daycare kiddos, we have done the mixing of formula with milk as they are getting closer to one. With my twins, who are now almost 9 years old, their doctor said that there was no need to ease them in to it, that when they/we were ready to switch then we could just go straight to whole milk, which we did just before they turned one (about 11 1/2 months) because we didn't want to buy another whole can of formula. We were told that the biggest difference for them was going to be getting used to drinking it cold instead of warmed up so we started giving them there bottles at cooler temps.
I just started at 10 or 11 months putting milk in a sippy at meal times then the formula for bottles. I have had no issues. We still give formula at night (yes my 13 month old STILL gets up at night). Otherwise she gets milk in a sippy. Good luck!
I had mixed milk with pumped breastmilk (as I was nursing full-time) for my twins when they turned one. I did this only because my SIL told me her daughter had gotten constipation so bad when they switched cold turkey that she cried whenever she had to poop for a whole week. I didn't want my boys to experience that at all! When I started the switch and weaning them from nursing, I went straight to a sippy cup and so we were able to get rid of any bottles. I believe I finished the mixing in two weeks and then they were on whole milk completely.
