First Time Moms

My son just turned a year old on Saturday (Yes he is my little Halloween baby) :) and my husband and I decided that it's now time to start switching things around.  He got the new "big boy" car seat, his teeth are FINALLY starting to come in so we are going to slowly wean him off the binky and lastly the money saver... wean him off of formula and introduce cow's milk into his diet which also means weaning off the bottle.  Problem is I have no idea how to do this. 

I have read a few articles online about it.  Some say to just give it to him in a sippy cup and just reduce the bottles of formula throughout the day until the one before bed is the last one and eventually wean him off of that one too.   Some other's say to introduce it slowly by mixing it with his formula (i.e. 2 oz milk with 4-6 oz formula and increase the milk until it is all milk).  I like the idea of that approach since my son has had some belly troubles in the past (acid reflux but he has grown out of it now), but it doesn't help me wean from the bottle.

So I was wondering what other mothers did to get their child off the bottle and formula and on to whole milk. 

Thanks all!

V 

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Well, I still feed Ruby at home, and she gets whole milk at school....and formula while we're out (because I am tired of carrying a cooler pack in the diaper bag!) but how whole milk was introduced was that a few weeks before her birthday, she was out of backup formula at school and I really had no desire to go and take them some, it would have taken up the rest of my workday and I couldn't afford to do that, so much to do! so they asked if they could try the milk and it was a hit. it was straight milk, no cutting it with formula or Breast Milk....and that's all she wrote. I do buy it at home and she'll get it a few times a day, but one thing to remember is that if they get too much, it's not so great. I think 16-20oz is max, but since they're eating solids so much more, that should be about the amount they'd take anyway!

As for sippy cups...ahhh, haven't mastered that one yet. We've been trying to get her to take white liquids in them for a few months, knowing today would come. You see, today, she moved up into the new class at school where they use ONLY sippy cups. They've been working on it in the infant room, but she's still addicted to the bottle. I won't be at all sad if she takes to the sippy cup immediately while at school and refuses bottles....I cannot WAIT to reclaim my counterspace! LOL but yeah, if he's the type that will take what he gets, then go cold turkey, but if he's like Ruby, it'll be a transition. I would personally recommend, since you're doing both at once (whole milk and sippy cup) is to give him the whole milk IN the sippy cup and never in anything else. and do the replacement thing once a day for a few days, then upping it and dropping a bottle every few days until he's off the bottles.

It's never as easy as other moms tell you and it's never the same experience twice. So good luck and keep us posted :)

i mixed in 2oz milk and the rest formula then i watched for any reaction. the next day i did 1/2 and 1/2 and watched for any reaction. then the next day full milk. i figured she would have reacted on the 1/2 and 1/2 and she didn't so she was ok and it was bye-bye formula!

wrt bottles, kayla is 16mos and she still gets 3 bottles/day. i never really knew when to wean her off the bottles but it seems to work for us so she gets one right when she wakes for the day, one mid-afternoon and one before bedtime. she knows how to use a sippy cup but i only put water in there and she drinks it with meals and also after heavy activity because i want to keep her hydrated. i never thought to put milk in a sippy cup. i put it in bottles because i want her to get the full nutritional value of whole milk and until the 2nd bottle begins to interfere with dinner then i'll cut that out otherwise i still give it to her.

so really, it depends on what you're comfortable with - if you want to keep giving her milk in bottles then do it but if you want to transition her to sippy cups then you can do that too.

btw, the bedtime bottle is traditionally the last bottle to be phased out because most people use it as part of their night routine but really, you can cut it out anytime - it's whatever you're comfortable with.